I love the weirdness of the McCoy years as much as anyone, but "Survival" is one of the least weird stories of those final couple of season. Especially if you're comparing it with the likes of "Ghostlight", or even "Battlefield", it's a pretty straightforward alien-planets-and-the-Master story, wrapped up in a…

It's a huge improvement on the second, though I shall say no more.

Hey, that guy might have a talent for comedy!

Thanks, Vicky! I knew your classical education was good for something!

Are we not all under the thrall of Dawes?

The conversation crows felt very Neil Gaimen, as did the idea that humanity just stopped talking to them.

Because location shooting is infinitely more expensive than studio work. But you're not wrong about the scenery here, there's a real effort made to use it not just to look pretty but to establish a feeling of time and place. Well directed episode, this.

Time's Crucible is astonishingly dull for such an important text. I tried reading it again about six months ago and I just couldn't get through it. That it follows the peerless Timewyrm: Revelation does it no favours, but even still.

Ben Aaronovitch. Battlefields is flawed, but almost all the flaws are in the production, not the writing, and Remembrance is arguably the best Dalek story there is. He's a really interesting, intelligent guy and I'd love to see what he can do with the new series.

Bill's presumed departure surely? I thought no decision had yet been made as to whether she'll be back next season, so it's not really right to be viewing her as only having a couple of episodes left at this point.

Accent consistency is not one of Doctor Who's hallmarks at the best of times…

You are, of course, not alone.

One of the most astonishing things about this episode, though it's very under-played, is the way that they actually find a way of potentially moving the Doctor/Master-Missy relationship forward - that quiet maybe-its-time-we-become-friends-again moment is really something, because that really changes the dimension of…

I'm pretty certain this is my favourite episode of Season 10 thus far. There was just something about this that worked for me. I don't think the pacing of this would have suited Smith's hyper-caffinated and/or dead-stop storytelling either.

This is one of the few episodes of the season that didn't feel completely wheel-spin-y to me, at least in part because, despite the tacked-on ending scenes, it felt like it was a complete story in and of itself, and what's more was actually a good one (as opposed to, say, Smile, which was self-contained but… not good).

Club of three.

I'm with you on the fact that Bill and the Doctor are one of the great Doctor-companion pairings, but I think they're good in very average story (and I disagree - I do think there's been a couple of outright bad episodes). I'm glad you enjoyed the Monks three-parter, but while I agree Extremis is brilliant, I don't …

"Sending America To The Cornfield"

Their voicesssssss do addd a sssssssertain ssssssomething, it's true.

Agreed, he's great as Tremas as well.