I probably should have made this clearer, but I think with The Simpsons that was more working out the initial kinks in characterization, which is pretty common, than a really concerted effort to shift characterization several seasons in. You can maybe argue Tina's growth happened early enough that it's the former, but…

Yeah, I was going to get into the Moffat side of things before deciding to keep my comment brief — the fact Raynor came up as a script editor also makes you assume she was a last-minute fill-in. The Sontaran two-parter isn't a world-beater or anything, but it's a far fairer reflection of her work as a writer on the…

Ugh, I guess it'd be churlish not to spoiler tag after all that, eh?

I don't care if he was a DJ on Necros, the only landlord I recognize is Alexei Sayle.

Good points all. This *feels* like it ought to be the best episode of the series, and it looks like it is at first glance… but then it just feels like it falls apart the more you consider it. It's weird.

Going to go out on a limb and say David Suchet is about to bring the freaking malice!

Nah, this is a stone-cold classic. Maybe this means I have to parse my absurd self-created system *again*, but, nah.

I'll never understand why those titles weren't flipped, yeah.

Right you are, thanks for the correction. Long day!

For better or worse, 9 only works with Rose. I literally can't imagine him with anyone else.

This is definitely an example of Doctor Who firing on all cylinders without necessarily doing anything revelatory. I can see why that's more an A- to some people, to the extent any of this matters, which it doesn't, but I can see holding back the A strictly for episodes that do something that elevates the show that…

We're in Peak Big Finish at the moment, it's damn hard to keep up.

For a moment, I thought 12 had gone back to vegetarianism, but seems like that's out the window as of the frost fair.

As great as Sarah Jane was, and she might well be the best classic series companion, I feel pretty good arguing she's not the best companion for either of her Doctors. Jo was the perfect 3rd Doctor companion, and Leela was the best 4th Doctor companion. Fit matters, I guess.

I also hope they consider bringing Alex MacQueen over from the audios over one of these days. He's excellent, too.

Catherine Tregenna's work on "The Woman Who Lived" was also fan-bloody-tastic. And say what you will about the Daleks two-parter, Helen Raynor did some nice work with the Sontaran two-parter.

Three Masters? Seriously, if they let the Simm return get out just to hide a Derek Jacobi cameo, man…

There's some wiggle room with the Master messing with the Doctor's ability to regenerate or whatever, which I think you can (and have to, given the observed aging of other Doctors) read as an indication that a low-level aspect of regeneration is keeping an incarnation the same apparent age for centuries.

Mathieson also has the advantage of writing four episodes (or 3.5, since he shared the credit for "The Girl Who Died" with Moffat). I'm excited to see what he does with "Oxygen" in a couple weeks.

Some might argue Lord Dickhead was a bit of a shit villain, and I'd respond that's kind of exactly the point of characters like Lord Dickhead. And boy did I ever enjoy that comeuppance.