What kind of drives me nuts is how many basic, fundamental storytelling rules Moffat egregiously breaks - and more often than not, he seems to get away with doing it. Among them is the 'Show, don't tell' rule, since we are always having characters explain to us how we're meant to feel about someone. By the way, the…

He was sniffing roses, wasn't he? If that was an intentional reference, it was a nice and subtle touch, showing the Doctor's subconscious working overtime to alert him to something.

I thought that their use in The Waters of Mars was actually rather elegant, and not just because of Murray's tremendous scoring while Adelaide recalls the last time she saw her father or mother. When that Dalek turned and floated away, I had chills, which is kind of odd and funny in and of itself. Plus, it proved that…

You'd think that if they were trying to get very old-school with Capaldi, they'd also get back to basics with a haunting, minimalist theme more reminiscent of the First or Second Doctor. I think that could be very cool.

Yeah. If anyone was mean, it was condescending-as-usual Vastra, who didn't give Clara room to grieve losing 'her' Doctor, even though we saw how emotional and sentimental Eleven became (like the Tenth Doctor before him) when it was his time to regenerate. So, yeah, everyone was pretty dense, which is frustrating to…

I almost would've preferred that as an explanation: "But no t-rex on Earth could be so huge!" "Who said anything about Earth?"

Vastra trying to defend the script choice actually made it worse for me, somehow. Like, 'Nah, they totally get that big.' 'Oh, okay. Guess we can throw out these mountains of evidence saying otherwise, then.'

I already found Vastra to be frustrating and condescending before this episode, but it certainly didn't help that she was such a fucking dick to someone who just 'lost' her best friend in the friggin' world. The Doctor can't be all, 'Oh, but it feels like dying…!' and yet the companions are supposed to roll on like…

That's weird, because that's actually what Eccleston said himself about everything: He loved working with Davies (again), was glad to help relaunch the program, glad to have met and inspired lots of young people, etc. But he saw members of the production crew being treated horribly (both in terms of workload and in…

I really don't know if I want the show to go "dark," or to take itself more seriously, and not just because I don't trust Steven Moffat to handle that material with any delicacy or poise.

It's definitely a retcon (for want of a better word). It's obvious that beyond a couple of lines of sitcommy banter, it was never really a consideration. In fact, I vaguely recall Moffat wanting to get away from the love-angst for a while? But maybe I made that up. Either way, it was added post-facto, the first real…

I can't wait to meet the Keymaster.

People always say this sort of thing, but obviously, if the Doctor was suddenly a seventeen-foot tall robot who could shoot lasers out of his eyes, with no explanation, you might complain. Because we depend on continuity, which is sort of married to canon - what has been established as factually true within the…

It's weird: For me, Cold War was actually one of the better Series 7 episodes (not that that's saying much), but it's also so very… by-the-numbers. It felt competently written and executed, but also generic. It's something I've noticed with a few of Gatiss' stories, actually.

In fairness, fans complaining about fans complaining (and trying to marginalize said complaints and brush 'em off in the process) seems to be as much a tradition as the former!

If anything, I would argue that this episode demonstrated the Hound's ruthless approach to life biting him in the ass: A world of cynical killers who believe in nothing but advancing their own agenda is no world at all. What the Hound needed was someone like Nedd Stark, who held to values larger than himself, and who…

It's named after Drogo, which I like in theory, but yeah, I could have done without the cute play on words. "Drogon" amounts to a cringeworthy pun, really.

It's an enemy they've been fighting their entire life, though. They have lost friends and comrades to wildlings - and vice versa. This is what usually happens during a protracted struggle, in spite of best intentions. It seeps into your soul.

They're like Fembots, but with Nazi uniforms!

Yeah! And another thing: Why are women always dating jerks and putting nice guys in the friendzone?