Right, but I think most people's criticisms of Clara — mine, certainly — was that she really only seemed to be of interest as an avatar for all those things you mention, which means she's essentially presented as an object of the Doctor's interest rather than a subject of the story in her own right. I dunno if that's…

Capaldi's opening story, "Deep Breath," is far from perfect and feels the most 11-ish of his run, *but* it's got a terrific sequence of Clara standing up to the villain and a closing sequence in which the Doctor apologizes for how he treated her in his past life. So season 8 is also worth checking out, though I…

Maybe, but Name/Day/Time featured Clara at her most underwritten, and typically at her most narratively subordinated to the Doctor. Which, at least for the 50th anniversary and the regeneration special, I can understand why you prioritize the Doctor, but it was really hard to come away from those feeling the show put…

In fairness, it's not like Doctor Who isn't following in the path of literally every superhero story ever by having a bad guy fire bullets ineffectually at a clearly invulnerable superhero.

Yeah, I think "revolutionary" may just connote somewhat different things for you than it does for me. No biggie.

Broadly speaking, I would say the last season had more of a focus on women than any other season previous — there were two episodes written by women (which is scandalously low, but still a record for the revived series), multiple major female guest characters (including one episode that I'm pretty sure failed the…

I less mean revolutionary in the sense of "The Happiness Patrol" as I do something like last year's Ashildr two-parter or "Heaven Sent" or even Munro's own "Survival" — television that's interested in taking big creative risks and taking its choices seriously, even if there's some silliness along the way. I suppose…

I spent a lot of the Tarkin scenes silently yelling, "You had Wayne Pygram RIGHT THERE!!"

I actually think that works — there's really no other duel that has the same kind of long-simmering weight behind it, and it makes sense that it's more a conversation with lightsabers than a straight-up fight to the death.

They lean in pretty hard to the idea that Wild Dog is just a well-meaning dumbass in a hockey mask and jersey who has no idea what he's doing. Come to think of it, that makes Curtis' role as the kinda incompetent guy even more pointless than it already is.

Whatever the actual explanation, I do hope they go demand answers from Barry, who profusely denies any involvement, then shrugs and admits it's totally possible at this point, he's not even keeping track.

His mistake was not commenting on which things are and are not mobbed up to their eyeballs. Rookie mistake.

I would love it if something, anything gave Ollie that kind of unfettered joy.

Christopher Chance became the Gene Parmesan of the Arrowverse so slowly, I barely noticed.

Not even January! The next episode airs February 1!

It's the same logic that saw Superman get beat up all the time on the first season of Justice League. The need to establish the seriousness of a given threat can end up making your theoretically best fighter look bad.

This is a total guess, but I'd bet the answer to the Oliver vs. Sara debate is something like this: Sara is the most fearsome pure fighter in the Arrowverse, but Oliver is the best total package, adding in next-level tactics and strategy to go along with fighting prowess.

I mean, to say the grades aren't scientific is an insult to actually non-scientific things.

That Earthshock pic is just the default grade photo for classic Who reviews. I could have updated it, but I do love me some Davison.

Right, I know there are telesnaps and the like, but — and I didn't want to get too in the weeds in what's meant to be a pre-air review — I'm guessing the majority of fans who watch this haven't seen all that stuff. I think my hardcore Who fan bona fides are pretty good at this point, and I don't know if I've ever…