It's the opposite of Eleven's sunny "I've never met anyone who wasn't important" line. I'd be okay if they drew a line from the often expressed "The Doctor gets jaded and needs the companion to see things" through fresh eyes," through this notion of "one person in 7 billion is worth putting up with" all the way to…

Well, you see, the Monks ran a complete simulation of Earth's history so sophisticated that they apparently guessed that the Doctor had gone blind while off-planet. In the course of this simulation, they learned that humans aren't big fans of the frontal assault. It's just not a tactic that shows up in history ever.…

I liked Extremis, but this arc lost the handle early and never got it back. If there was some deeper philosophy behind it, the point was lost on me, and if it was just a thrill ride, the pacing was terrible.

It was always an odd line. "Yes, I'm the last of my kind, but in five thousand years, over by that star there, an older version of me and a Time Lady will emerge from a box and meet a third Time Lord who's doing HVAC repair for a supervillain. Once that's sorted out though, they go their separate ways, and then I'll…

The Winter Garden room, for sure could be a contemporaneous interior.

Considering that the Secretary-General and the armed forces all mutinied right to his face, one wonders how far his Presidential authority actually extends.

I've been thinking about it and I'm less and less happy with the missed opportunities here. The consent thing is handled strangely, in ways everyone else has already discussed. But what if it had been handled well? What if the Doctor faced a genuine dilemma - that the aliens were offering to actually save humanity…

I think it worked well for Troughton, but post-Pertwee, the Doctor is always someone who takes center-stage and I never thought Davison was able to really take charge of the show, having to share screen time with a three-person crew AND at least one pseudo-companion every time.

I have to admit, this one didn't really knock me out. I like the concept of functionally omniscient aliens who know exactly when to show up so that all they have to do is hold out their hands and the Earth falls into it like a ripe piece of fruit. But the consent thing and the army stuff just muddies it up for me.

I prefer to think McGann was having a psychic flash-forward to the Meta-Crisis Doctor.

Kari the Space Pirate in Terminus (Liza Goddard). I'm sure the reason was as simple as trying to juice the ratings with guest stars, but the Fifth Doctor's tenure was marked by this bizarre idea that the handsome, charming leading man had to be prevented at all costs from getting too much attention. The one time they…

I was looking for some kind of visual clue, the sort we've seen before that would connect the vault with theory 2 and I'm not really seeing it. There a jack-o-lantern face- quality to the lights at the end of Thin Ice, but I think there are also those little Gallifreyan glyphs written on it.

I like Mackie and Capaldi together. She brings out something very relaxed and charming in him.

Perhaps you've forgotten Sylvester McCoy doing Moby Dick on the spoons?!

Dressed in his Saboo the shaman outfit from Mighty Boosh.

IIRC, yes. River said they were at the last Frost Fair and that was the only one with an elephant.

I'm gonna say that it's Bill, based on nothing.

I always liked what they did with Martha. She was a perfect apostle, she would literally walk the face of the planet spreading his gospel, but ultimately she was flawed as a companion because she worshipped the Doctor and wouldn't call him on his shit the way Donna would.

I liked the idea of having villagers with pitchforks confront Frankenstein at the end; but surely they knew the entire city was made of Vardies and running out with guns was suicidal?

Is anyone's story actually complete while Moffat can still indulge himself in another victory lap?