I super disagree with the idea that RTD was good at planning arcs. Other than series one maybe, he never really did arcs. He just laid in easter eggs for the finale. That's not an arc really at all. Series 5 is still probably the best arc of new Who, because it's an actual story where the status quo changes for the…

Alasdair jokes, but I'd lay even money that she actually does turn out to be the Rani.

Toby Whithouse is especially good at that. I've never forgiven him for killing off Rita in The God Complex.

5 is one of the best! 5 and 3 are certainly the most consistent. Nah, the first season is the second worst.

So it's basically just the third worst season of Buffy?

You actually picked pretty crappy examples. The Marvel films have pretty big female audiences overall and Mad Max has a very extensive and vocal female fanbase. In fact, most of the people I know who have been raving about it have been women.

I one hundred percent agree about the "I knew your plan the whole time and had my own plan" reveal. Not only does it make the Doctor seem invincible, but it's also an anticlimax, because we never actually see the moment when the Doctor figures out how to save the day.

I disagree. I feel like the show sort of HAS to do it, because this incarnation of the character is so fun and likable. It's easy to get on her side and forget that she's evil. Especially in this episode when she's spending so much time helping out the good guys. I think you need periodic reminders that just being…

Yeah, people kind of forget that series 3 isn't just Martha being sad because she's in love with the Doctor, it's also Martha being justifiably annoyed because the Doctor is being a huge dick to her.

Martha Jones is still probably my favorite companion exit from the show. It was done pitch-perfectly.

For what it's worth, I believe somewhere in The Writer's Tale, RTD says something to the effect of "Well, this is Steven's, so I won't have to work on it much at all."

Yeah, this was how I read it, too.

There might be a difference between blowing it up from the outside, which is basically just a shell housing a different dimension, and blowing it up up the inside, which is directly connected to the time vortex.

In "The Stolen Earth" it looked like this: http://ic.pics.livejournal….

This occurred to me, too. It would be very "A Christmas Carol".

If nothing else, it was a lot of fun seeing Davros on screen again, and in a story with the Master, no less! It was also interesting to see him go a whole episode completely unable to start SHOUTING ENTIRE SENTENCES like he always tends to do.

Nothing drove that home more than the return to the Shadow Proclamation, which suddenly looked like a real place instead of a set.

Yeah, I feel like I've read this headline a dozen times. And yet every time the reviewer treats it like it's this massive risk.

I'll give you the fact that Poehler wouldn't be right for an Aaron Sorkin-written biopic. I've just always thought she'd be the right choice to play Ball in something. And I think, with the right director, she could knock the drama out of the park.

They should have just cast Amy Poehler. Parks proved that she can act her ass off and I can't think of someone more suited to Ball's style of comedy.