I've heard it rumoured that it was originally intended to be Nine in the War Doctor's place, but the role was rewritten after Eccleston declined to take part. If true then that feels like it'd make a lot of sense, considering Nine's status as the PTSD Doctor haunted by his actions in the Time War. Given what we see of…

But then we would have missed out on the great John Hurt's wonderful guest performance. I rather liked having him as a grouchy Hartnell stand-in to contrast against the younger, more energetic modern Doctors, something which wouldn't have been possible with McGann in the War Doctor's place. Plus I'm not so sure having…

I think the main reason the infatuation subplot puts a bad taste in my mouth is because it comes immediately after series 2's attempt at a love story between Ten and Rose, and it essentially means that Martha ends up in Rose's shadow for the whole season. While it does factor into Martha's arc, since I wasn't a big…

Series 7 is probably Smith's weakest, but I think "Asylum of the Daleks", "The Angels Take Manhattan" and "The Name of the Doctor" (which doesn't seem to be very popular but I really loved) are all pretty great, and there are others that I think are at least very good if not complete successes (like "Dinosaurs on a…

I actually think series 3's ratio of good episodes to bad ones might be even *worse* than series 2's, but it's brought up a bit because of Martha and because its good episodes are generally better than the previous series. There are probably about 5 or 6 genuinely worthwhile episodes this series, though some of those…

As far as I remember (and I rewatched this season quite recently) there are only a couple of episodes this season where they don't bring up Martha's crush on the Doctor at least once. At that point I'd say it very much does start to have an impact on the show, as after a while it starts to feel like it defines her…

Amy is my favourite. While there are definitely stumbling points during her time on the show, she has arguably the best defined character arc of the New Who companions (which would have been Donna if her departure hadn't been fudged so spectacularly), I consistently love Karen Gillan's performance, and she has great…

Honestly, I find the idea that Moffat's Who is more interested in building mystery than character or emotion to be massively overstated. It only really becomes a problem, at least for me, during series 7b with the misjudged "impossible girl" arc. It's certainly less mawkishly melodramatic, but it's still very much a…

This finale is mostly pretty solid, but it's one I find it really hard to get excited about one way or the other. It's got Daleks vs. Cybermen and the big, emotional departure of Rose, but whenever I watch it I can never muster up anything more then "eh, it was pretty okay, I guess."

I know it's a bit of an unreasonable expectation, but I was a little bit disappointed there wasn't really anything Who related in the opening ceremony, especially since it touched upon a number of other elements of Brit pop culture. They played the TARDIS engine noise briefly at one point but that was it I think.

To me that it was under urgent duress made it feel more dramatically satisfying. Making the decision permanent makes it hit home harder than if the possibility were open that she could just change her mind at any time. It works much better as a tragic ending than "Doomsday" or "Journey's End" because it feels like a…

What I loved about "The Angels Take Manhattan" is that Amy, unlike Rose or Donna, actually makes a choice to leave the Doctor, symbolically choosing to "grow up" and lead a more normal life by choosing Rory over him. It's very similar to the decision she was faced with in "Amy's Choice", only this time with very real…

It's a pretty good episode overall, but the overly miraculous nature of "Bad Wolf Rose" threatens to sink it at the end.

The season finales are especially bad about that. Not one RTD finale has a wholly satisfying conclusion. It really hurts a great episode like "Utopia" knowing where that story is eventually going to end up.

Martha is unfortunate, in that she's a pretty good character whose character arc is bungled almost every step of the way.

This two-parter is really very good, but it falls just short of greatness for me. I love the slow burn tension and subtle horror established in "The Impossible Planet", but it's "The Satan Pit" where I feel it stumbles. The scene with the possessed Toby standing out on the surface of the planet while the ominous…

The Doctor acknowledges that he destroyed his own people as well as the Daleks as far back as "Dalek", as far as I'm aware.

LAM comes very close to working, but I can't think of anything good to say about "Fear Her". It's easily the very worst episode of New Who, without question.

No. 1 for me: the Master's resurrection being due to "potions of life", by a cult worshiping the former prime minister. Seriously, that was the only thing RTD could come up with? Ugh.

"It felt like the worst version of an RTD ending"