Oh god, I'd (happily) forgotten about the `96 disaster. If I'm forced to acknowledge its existence, I'd rank it between #8 and #9.

I just don't think it's fair or realistic to rate Power against the other stories based on the surviving material. Execution matters, rather a lot (which is why I rank Castrovalva so poorly), and we just don't have enough material to make that judgement.

Yeah, for whatever my qualms about where RTD went with the series and the characters, the impact of "Rose" when it aired in 2005 basically cannot be overstated.

Okay, it's time. First stories of a new doctor, ranked:

Apparently all the backstory to the Ponds nearly breaking up was delivered in a few of the "webisodes" they did during the inter-series break. Please note that I do not consider this exculpatory: delivering key plot points in the margin notes is barely acceptable if you're David Foster Wallace and is absolutely…

I swear to god, after the long-delayed nuclear apocalypse, the only thing that's gonna be living in the bombed-out remains will be three billion cockroaches and Suge Knight.

Okay, it's time. First stories of a new doctor, ranked:

There was the germ of a few interesting ideas in there, but they were all buried beneath a script that was crappy even by the standards of 80s Who (Chris Bidmead returned to his natural home of computer journalism soon after) and of course Anthony Ainley's walking fromagerie.

I actually thought RTD's last season was his best one, and Moffat's first season has far outweighed anything he's done since.

OH GOD DO NOT EVEN TALK ABOUT THEM GIVING THE SERIES TO CHIBNALL.

Fair cop — it's been an age and a half since I re-watched "Spearhead".

Remember that the average age of Doctor Who's audience in the UK is skewed rather a bit younger than the avclub commentariat. A handsome and well-preserved 60 doesn't look "that old" to people in their 30s and 40s. It's a very different thing if you're twelve, which a very large chunk of the fan base quite literally…

Of all of the really bad ideas that the old series had that the new one could have decided to make canon, it's so bizarre to me that "post-regeneration trauma" made the cut. It was an 80s-era invention that was synonymous with some of the weakest episodes of the show's weakest era (apologists for Castrovalva, please…

In fairness, RTD ran the show for four years and it got notably worse each year. Moffat has at least maintained a more or less consistent level of scatterbrained incompetence throughout.

I'd just like the man to admit that he bit off more than he could chew and hand the executive producer slot to someone who's actually good at it.

We didn't see 9 after regeneration

Yeah, of all of the eras to hearken back to in terms of the theme, I am a little gobsmacked that he picked the Davison/C-Baker years. But it's still an improvement over the overly busy disaster that was Series 6 and 7, so I guess I'll take it.

Hm. So that theme arrangement. Not sure what I think yet: it's very "bright" in a "digital synthesizer using the theramin preset" kind of way. But at least there are few or no cymbal crashes and zero lightning strikes, so that's an improvement anyway.

I actually thought that was a subtle suggestion that Clara is into gay male porn.

As a matter of policy, I try not to get into point-by-point arguments with literal basement-dwelling obsessives, even and perhaps especially when I generally enjoy their writing. :)