Were they really season-long arcs though that RTD produced? It always felt like you'd get the clue word in the first episode, it might pop up again somewhere in the middle and then the last three episodes wrapped it all up.

The back-half of S7 is stronger than the front-half on the whole, because you can tell that's where Moffat's interests were. I'm certain the BBC enforced more stand-alones, but he basically shoved them all into the front half of S7 and it caused the whole thing to suffer because of it.

What's crazy is, the budget was reduced when Moffat took over and it still looks a thousand times better than the Davies-run episodes.

That good-bye sequence was fine for me, and certainly stirring in parts…but the story that preceded it…ick.

For me it comes down to this…I remember specific stand-out episodes in the Davies run, but his arcs do not hold up well at all. On the other hand, I prefer Moffat's overall arcs and season-long mysteries, but there's maybe only an episode or two that work as good stand-alones (The Doctor's Wife, A Christmas Carol).

The Donald Blake-Thor Captain Marvel-esque relationship is something I really miss in those Thor movies. But I also think they're the weakest of Marvel's film output so far.

Watch/Listen to all the anniversary specials if you have access to them. Three Doctors, Five Doctors, Remembrance of the Daleks, etc…none are particularly great, but it definitely will get you amped up for all things Doctor Who.

I did pick up The Holy Terror once on a whim, haven't made it all the way through though, limited long car trips!

That's a huge help! Thanks so much!
I've got about 12-14 hours to fill here, so I'll try to nab quite a few since they're so cheap on the Big Finish site right now. The Natural History of Fear, Terror Firma and Seasons of Fear especially sound great.

Hey, any Big Finish fans in here? I'm looking to download some Eighth Doctor Audios for a long car ride or two this coming weekend. I already have The Chimes of Midnight and Shada, any standouts that I could stand to grab?

me too, the trouble with that is the BBC has to be pretty transparent about their dealings being a public entity. Davies writes about it at some length in his book.

But that's a definite criminal act that you would report to the police vs. something with a much grayer area.

But it wasn't more than a failed pass if those events didn't occur.

Generally agreed, I'm glad they've only sporadically appeared during the Moffat run, but they've become a pretty non-convincing threat at this point.

She and 11 are a little too similar on the quirky scale, I'm hoping Capaldi's Doctor will give her more of a father figure to work with,

So was I though, for example Hide and The Doctor's Wife as I mentioned.

Very, very astute.

So, I'm guessing Doctors 10 and 11 are going to teach The War Doctor the value of becoming The Doctor again and we'll end up seeing him regenerate and wind up in 2005 by the special's end right? Just maybe without actually seeing Eccleston's face…having Billie Piper on-hand doesn't hurt. And thus the series would go…

Fair point, Midnight is indeed the best thing Davies did on the series. I wish we could have gotten more of that, Waters of Mars comes kinda close, sorta.

I guess it depends on what you consider to be RTD's best episodes…which funny enough, might be episodes written by Moffat. I feel like The Eleventh Hour, The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang, The Doctor's Wife, The Name of the Doctor, Hide, and A Christmas Carol (my gosh what a wonderful episode), all stand pretty high on…