Clara is clearly already pregnant.

I want to touch on what you said about Clara's friendship with 12, because I think you inadvertently hit on something that's been missing from Moffat's version of this show for a long time.

Though, ironically, NOT the Master, as the Master went willingly (ish?) back into the time lock with the Time Lords and Gallifrey at the end of The End of Time.

While i used the letter grade as the easiest part of the badness of this review to pinpoint, I had mentioned multiple times the convoluted justification Alasdair does in his review to even make this episode make a tiny bit of sense, and that outraged me far more than the simple "B."

I have plenty of criticisms of the Davies era, it's just that even with all the cheesiness and the silliness and the sometimes-just-badness, the overall depth of character and inventiveness of storytelling has far more payoff for me than any of Moffat's forced, superficial cleverness.

Davies hit on a good compromise by having larger themes play out in B-plots and in the shadows of regular adventure episodes, and then culminating at the end of the season. Unevenly executed, to be sure, but something that made the seasons overall feel less disconnected and frenetic than they've been in the last 3…

I think it's hilarious how you make a point to reply to all of my comments in an attempt to insult me.

I've been reading TV Club reviews of the TV shows I watch for years and years now, and generally enjoy the exceptionally high quality of criticism here. And you know what? As a long time reader, I have a right to point out that I find Alasdair's reviews to be, well, SERVICEY, and as a reader I'm fully allowed to call…

I said what I meant in my initial comment: this review renegs on every criticism, and is filled with Alasdair bending over backwards to justify this episode as a "quintessential" Doctor Who episode. That's not what was on my TV. That doesn't seem to be what was on ANYONE's TV. And I find it suspect (and I've read him…

The reason the Isolus gives for finding her is that she is "so alone" because she lives alone with her mother. Her abusive father plays into that, sure, but he's also dead — he could have been a non-abusive father and she'd be just as "alone." Since the episode itself doesn't really place the abusive nature of that…

Yes, but Alasdair was the one who did the seasons 1-3 retrospective review over the summer, and I know he's reviewed seasons 8, 7 and I believe 6 (though maybe not all of 6). So it's fair comparison.

Definitely.

11th even more than 10th. Eleven used the sonic for literally any and everything. I've also enjoyed its diminished role this season.

"Baddie" was just shorthand for "alien of the week."

"Turn Left" is goddamn brilliant, what are you talking about??

"This episode sometimes doesn’t feel likeDoctor Who, and that fact is occasionally to the story’s detriment. And yet it’s that very quality of utter unfamiliarity that makes this feel like quintessential Doctor Who, for better or worse."

The deceased abusive father is barely part of the plot (and actually an element I think they could have shed to make the actual baddie of the episode more effective). It's mostly about lonely people finding ways to be less lonely, and the consequences of when loneliness goes too far, which plays into the overall…

And just to add on: Season 7 is all A's and B's with one C+, season 6 is all A's and B's, season 5 is all A's and B's. By contrast, Season 3 gets three C+'s and an F (not my fav season either, but really?), season 2 gets two C+s, and season one has a C+.

What would you characterize it as?

The contortion of logic in the review above, to me, calls into question whether Alasdair is able to actually watch and critique these episodes in any sort of trustworthy way. This was well below a B, with really obvious flaws that Alasdair either glossed over, ignored, or tried to explain away, and that to me is not…