Honestly, I may be a self-described whinging lefty socialist trade unionist type, but I'm not sure I'd ever trust anyone whom Alexei Sayle doesn't feel betrayed their politics. And I say that as someone who loves Alexei Sayle.

Maybe, but that's not really how the Doctor thinks. He does very few things that could be described as "what could possibly hurt?" He's a lot more likely to think in terms of how this is the era where Ashildr has the best chance of reconnecting with humanity, as opposed to giving up on her ever finding that again.

If it's setting up some sort of proper return in "Hell Bent," then yes, that seems plausible. BUT STILL, ASHILDR AND RIGSY, LET'S KEEP THE DREAM ALIVE.

"Fun" is probably better. But they also had a bit of a culture to them that made them marginally more interesting than Leandro, who is just sort of generic evil alien character. But neither is all-time great or anything.

Wait, does this mean Ashildr is going to hang out with Rigsy, who is also confirmed to return?

I mean, I don't think your reaction is wrong or anything. I just would suggest it's indicative of a closer reading of the show that is only really possible with a good degree of familiarity with it. If it's your first time watching the show, and the story is good, I think you're much more likely to key in on the good…

I could even see Big Finish doing a 10/Jack series one of these days, assuming the rumors about Tennant joining the fold are true. But whether there's space for it is immaterial — in terms of things we've actually seen, it's hard to see how the Doctor's statement is really illustrative of his larger point about why he…

I guess, maybe? Honestly, I tend to give Rik Mayall a pass for anything after his quad bike accident in 1998, given that it definitely sounds like it's a miracle he lived another 16 days after that, let alone 16 years.

I just forgot it! Though this one was even more directly joking about the size of Sam Swift's dick, rather than hiding it behind a thin layer of metaphor or whatever. So it still feels like a progression, as dick jokes go.

But this is the thing: I think new viewers tend to look at the show much more holistically than longtime/hardcore fans do, who tend to be much more focused on the specific logic of the Doctor's actions. I'm guessing most viewers would get swept up in all the many, many things about that story that are incredible,…

I sure as hell wasn't going to!

"I'll tell him you said that. And I think he'll be very hurt."

I don't know if this would be the two-parter to introduce this to an outsider. I guess I might choose something like "The Eleventh Hour," "Blink," "The Girl In The Fireplace," or "Human Nature"/"Family Of Blood," which perhaps not coincidentally all feature really well-designed alien elements. (Well, the Atraxi aren't…

#MacForNewCompanion

I think the same argument would apply though, that to take her far into the future as opposed to having her live through the changes as they occurred gradually would alienate her from what keeps her human. But yeah, it's fair to say the episode could have addressed this concretely.

My only, very minor issues with Goes Forth are that (a) Edmund isn't as much of a bastard as I prefer him to be and (b) they were kind of starting to repeat episode plots and derive jokes from the facts that they were repeating plots, which worked fine but also felt a bit like a signal of creative exhaustion.

So, honest, non-combative question: Would you consider yourself a fan of the show? And if you don't like this era — which is fine! — is there an era of the show that you feels balances these elements more successfully? Because, independent of this episode's quality, this does feel like a pretty good representation of…

I really thought he was going to reference Romana! Particularly because you can actually go back and look at those Doctor/Romana adventures in the Douglas Adams season and say, "Yep, the Doctor does need to travel with mortals, otherwise he goes completely batty."

It was odd in the sense that the episode could have deleted the line and it wouldn't really have affected anything, so it's natural to wonder why it was actively included. (If anything, the Doctor slightly mischaracterizes his relationship with Jack when he says he "traveled with an immortal," which isn't quite an…

So, I do think the episode addresses the core issue here, and indeed does so in a way that makes clear why the Doctor was kind of reticent about spelling out why: He and Ashildr need to keep their distance from each other, because they couldn't help but become detached from mortals in each other's presence.