It would actually be a good time, since we're probably going to be learning about the value of continuity and so on. If you're going to include the first Doctor in a story about someone refusing to regenerate, it would be weird not to talk about that.

Do you count the Doctor's ageing during Heaven Sent? I'd get why you wouldn't, but still.

Meh, I watched it for a year and a bit, and they killed off everyone whose name I'd bothered to remember, so I stopped. I've since read some GRRM's actu-writing, and I didn't get the appeal of that either.

That's the thing, I don't watch the Throne Game, so it wouldn't be connected to that.

It did feel like a better rework of the Me/Clara ending from last season.

It's 400 miles long. So. Any part.

Yeah, and I do think Moffat gets way too much shit for The Wedding Of River Song. I thought it was a decent finale - and better for the fact that it was a single episode, something I wish the show would consider doing more often. The fact that the "puzzlebox" solution was one of the half a dozen "obvious" ones that…

My go-to example to prove this point is "Midnight", which a lot of people just assume is a Moffatt episode but was actually an RTD one. Clearly the guy was an excellent writer, and clearly he wasn't suppressing his idiosyncrasies - there's a few bits of his verbal goofiness even in that nightmare of a drama.

End of the day, the problem with serialising hard sci-fi is that it closes off more plots than it opens up. If you're doing anything other than a single story, you're going to be telling people "no" a lot of the time.

Nah, definitely not Richard Harris. Michael Gambon is great, and if they did decide to go for an older Doctor (and commit the CARDINAL SIN of making him a *spit spit* white male!!!!!!!) they could do a lot worse.

So… is it weird that I thought David Bradley was dead? Like, that he died about a year ago?

"Without hope, without witness, without reward", 'member?

I could totally get behind Karen Gillan as the Doctor. Ideally in here slightly Scullyish vibe from Day of the Moon.

It wouldn't be without precedent. Romana took her face from a character who was in, like, the previous episode, back in the day.

And, srsly, what kind of asshole is the Doctor if he doesn't tell people about this stuff?

Being the showrunner is a thankless task. I think if you actually sat people down and forced them, you'd get them to admit that they didn't actually hate RTD's episodes either. And if he wrote an episode now, I doubt they'd mind.

It's built for British family audiences. So yes, you have happy endings and justice for all, but you also have Roald Dahl-level shit going down because British kids are fuck-ups.

Kiiiiinda, but.

…OK, you got me: who was it?

I'm still hoping for Gillian Anderson.