The problem is that then you have no female regulars at all. We'll get a male companion with the thirteenth Doctor, I suspect.

I like Zoe a lot. Victoria was pretty forgettable, and I've not actually seen (or, really, heard, since I don't think there's any complete serials with them) anything with Ben and Polly.

Yeah, I think it would totally work if you have writers capable of serialized storytelling, which obviously you do now.

I thought the transition rather clearly started in Death in Heaven.

Mostly when they didn't know what to do with three companions, they just made Nyssa sleep for the whole story, or had her sit in the TARDIS and not do anything.

Daniel Nettheim? Do you mean Peter Harness?

I mean, Sleep No More is pretty equivalent to Victory of the Daleks, the mediocre Gatiss effort of Season 5. And Under the Lake/Before the Flood is of pretty comparable quality to the Chibnall Silurian story. I think all the rest of the stories this season are pretty damned good, whereas Season 5 still leaves you with…

You may not see them again, but you'll hear Jenna Coleman and Maisie Williams as Clara and Me in Big Finish's Clara & Me Adventures series of audioplays, coming in August 2025.

I mean, it reveals that his lover is actually his enemy. I don't see why it matters that we've never heard of Talia herself before. We've been reminded of Ra's by this point, so it's not like it's just coming out of nowhere.

You're putting it into the most random, irrelevant sounding way you can possibly do so. How about "the woman the main character has been sleeping with is actually the daughter of his former mentor who turned out to be a monster he killed, and she's actually the mastermind of a plan to get revenge against him." That's…

Yeah, the Talia one actually ties Dark Knight Rises back to Batman Begins. I thought that was totally fine.

Why doesn't Oliver's real father qualify as a real father to him?

It's not anything to do with a copyright dispute; it's a licensing issue.

I understand your point, but I don't think I'm willing to make the same distinction you are. Nonsensical science is the bread and butter of Doctor Who.

I don't know, having the power of animals doesn't seem quite as good as being able to transform into different animals because you have mastered the secrets that divide man from animal, animal from man.

Yes, that was my understanding - he realizes what he has to do, and that he *has* been doing this for thousands of years, but he never actually remembers it.

1 - ignore "rules" established in one earlier episode and never mentioned since.

Because he didn't know about the diamond wall until he was out of confessions and the creature was coming for him?

"I can't operate on this man, he's my son!"

Except that the whole plot of the movie relies on him being half human, from what I vaguely recollect. His half humanness is what allows him to use the Eye of Harmony and defeat the Master, or something.