Well, because of all of us with whom they neither engage nor connect.  Sure, it's amazingly well-directed, but to me, at least, that doesn't make up for cliched dialogue, weak characterization, or a tired plot.

You know, I agree, but you have to figure that the Daleks loom so large as a part of Doctor Who that they *had* to bring them back more than that.  But not as often as they did.

Yeah, I can't agree.  He's been improving people's lives and defending them and beating back the night all up and down the timeline, and it's not surprising people take notice.

Gotta agree with all of this.  My personal problem with the third season finale wasn't that it was a Care Bears ending, but just that it was the same kind of solution yet again.

@avclub-64ad8f3af92ef8d9a1c7dfd7265e577d:disqus That, definitely that.  Liked a dozen times.

I can't really agree that the old-series Doctor "wasn't anyone that special".  I mean, aside from the fact that being a Time Lord makes you automatically special, he was one of their rare renegades, he influenced society, heck, he was Lord President at one point!  And he certainly acts special, like someone separate…

I honestly wouldn't call either era an unsatisfying mess, though RTD's does tip into "mess" territory at the end of his run.  They both have their annoying quirks, but I'd say that these quirks (mostly) don't make the seasons as a whole Not Good.

ICE to see you're giving that move an appropriately COLD shoulder, but I think you should CHILL OUT and have a martini ON THE ROCKS.

The Time War was definitely a good idea, both in the "set up the new series status quo" sense and in the "storytelling engine" sense, and linking the Daleks into it made sense.  But yeah, they should really have held off from going to that well so much - I mean, once a season would've been okay…

@avclub-64ad8f3af92ef8d9a1c7dfd7265e577d:disqus Very true, very true.  I have to think that Tennant exacerbated RTD's tendencies towards speechifying, just because he was so *good* at it.

Honestly… if they'd managed to convey some sense of bone-deep cosmic wrongness with the universe, then I might've bought it.  But what I saw was someone making a big speech about how what the Doctor was doing was just not natural… for some reason, and then going off and immediately sacrificing her life two minutes…

Am I the only one for whom the end of Waters of Mars really, *really* didn't work?  What, you're really going to commit suicide just to teach somebody that they're not as godlike as they think?

Honestly, part of the thing is that greedy capitalists tend to *be* stupid capitalists.  Most of the moves that giant corporations make to screw the public over end up screwing *them* over too.

Really?  I tend to enjoy fanfic for shows that aren't showing more - you get less flavor-of-the-month and more people who have something to say about the work.

Well, that may be a good reason why, as an example of good story elements being badly reused - a perennial Doctor Who thing, to be sure.

If you're going to fill your brain up with something, it may as well be Tamers. Excellent philosophy-for-kids.

Communion for some… tiny American flags for others!

If Wishes Were Morses?

Honestly, I can see how you can be pro-death penalty and anti-abortion, or anti-death penalty and pro-choice.  Neither one is inconsistent in and of itself… unless you label one of these positions as "pro-life".

Obviously, there's evidence that's plausible enough to convince those who do believe.  If it's not plausible enough to convince you, that's okay, but it's not like people are just going "believe in this because I said so" and they do.