Not sure how the mention of Hugh Laurie got turned into a pro-USA production slant. Whenever I think of the guy, I come up with Blackadder long before I get to House.

You're forgetting the show where they establish that the ENTIRE RACE of Time Lords were in hiding for a while.

In classic Who, Time Lord is *explicitly* the name of the race of people on Gallifrey. That said, Susan is called granddaughter, but there's never been a canonical generation between the Doctor and Susan, so it's possible that a) it's an affectionate term; b) she's adopted; or c) she's only 1/4th TimeLordian.

There are character bits with Clara that I think prove that she's not the Perfect Instant Companion that other people here are accusing her of being (i.e., that her character is weak in that capacity).

Weren't Martha and Mickey both left on the other side of the dimensional rift along with Rose?

I read it as setting Clara as more of the Doctor's equal. He tests her to see if she's worthy of being a companion—and she tests him as well, which is a new twist. We didn't see that aspect the first two times, because both of those characters were in trouble—but I think Oswin has a line similar to, "you're my only…

You think she has no personality? I've seriously considered adding "a word for screaming genius that's just a tiny bit sexy" under the "what I'm looking for" section of my online dating profile.

Not to ground this discussion is real-world dynamics or anything, but considering the massive negative response from the "fanbase hates Skyler" contingent on another show, I don't think the world is ready for a female Doctor, even if the narrative is.

I doubt I'm the only person who, IRL, would take up an offer to travel on the TARDIS.

I'm recalling that Troughton had some fairly dark and scary moments.

Saying this as a guy who's slowly watching his way through all of Classic Who (and is halfway through Jon Pertwee): still very fuzzy on who the Rani is, and I'm generally a geek. I'd be very surprised if a major plot point reverberates solely around Classic Who—the reintroduction of the Master wasn't purely a…

At that point in the storyline, he's *not* bullshitting. Once he figures out that the Old God eats people's stories, then the plan is that the Doctor's history would overload him like a computer on 1960s Star Trek.

You don't necessarily use your real name for professional writing; I use a pseudonym that's a portmanteau of my parents' names. Makes sense to me that "Amelia Williams" is a better "authorial" name in the mid-1900s, and "Amelia" is just as much of a name change as "Williams" is.

The style of the prop book cover was certainly meant to imply publication in the 1930s or so, as it's an homage to the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys stories—or whatever was similar in the UK at the time.

Call me a bit confused: why does a show have to *necessarily* use an FX house in the same city? Makes sense to me when the show is being produced on a tight schedule, but I'd have thought that with enough lead time, you could use an FX house anywhere in the world thanks to high-speed data networks and/or couriers on…

Superintelligent shade of the color blue, right?

IIRC, in one of the early drafts of Star Trek V, before it sucked as badly as what ended up on screen, the godlike entity *was* God—i.e., the script set it up as the creature that meddle with Earth and was believed to be the One God of the monotheistic religions. This was spiked by Paramount approximately 6…

Or House, MD, because it would seriously rock to see Hugh Laurie flying a TARDIS.

Well, except that the Beast Below turned out to be the opposite of a bad guy, while the bad guy reveal here was saved for the end, and it really *was* going to wipe out N billion people.

Considering how late in Matt Smith's run Coleman is showing up, unless he breaks the records for modern Doctors, I think it's quite possible she might bridge into the next Doctor—at which point you get your contrast.