Oh yeah, "A tear, Sarah Jane . . ." is awesome. Good call.

Actually, I think the governess/barmaid version of Clara in "The Snowmen" would have made a great companion. She has a lot more personality there than the modern-day version has ever shown since. And it would be a refreshing change to have a companion from the past. Now we're just left with a bland plot device who…

That is a good point. I made a snarky joke about it above, but that would have been another plus about her being cast.

That's true. I guess what I really mean is that no one bought it because there hadn't been a hundred "MEET THE NEW COMPANION, AMARA KARAN! THIS PARTICULAR BEAUTIFUL YOUNG WOMAN IS NOT CAUCASIAN AND THAT IS NOTABLE!" articles before it aired.

One note about the reality show elements: We almost got another episode in that vein in season 4 - a Ghost Hunters parody called "Century House," but Davies wisely scrapped it in favor of "Midnight," one of my all-time favorite episodes.

I said this during the reviews of the two-parter, but I really love that "Boom Town" has almost no fart/fat jokes. There's one at the very beginning, but after that Margaret is just treated like any other alien. It's such a refreshing change from the earlier story.

Oh absolutely. They did the same trick in the Moffat era with Rita in "The God Complex," who seems like terrific companion material and was introduced in the same episode that ostensibly has the Ponds leaving. Again, no one really bought it because obviously Amy and Rory needed to be around for the conclusion of the…

Agreed. Eccleston was remarkable, and this season is one of the ones I never get tired of rewatching. There are some missteps, to be sure, but it still feels so new and exhilarating after all these years. Like you, it was my intro to DW, so that has a lot to do with it, I'm sure. But it's still probably my favorite of…

This comes with the caveat that I'm a DW audio nerd, but the only last line that can compare, for me, is the 8th Doctor's "Physician, heal thyself" in "Night of the Doctor." He's such a classicist that a Biblical quote seems highly appropriate.

Hey @cappadocius: Krysten Ritter plays a recurring character in the second season of Veronica Mars.

I agree with all of the words in your post. They are my feelings as well as yours.

My wife and I were just discussing how much more we like Charley than we do Clara. She really makes me wish that Moffat had gone with the Victorian version of Clara from "The Snowmen." Not just because they're both from the past, but because that version seemed to have a lot more in common with Charley - she was a…

Well, that was more Romana I's thing. She was just out of the Academy and eager to prove that she could one-up the Doctor. Romana was more just his equal, quasi-romantic pal.

There was this TCM double feature release, but it looks like it already went out of print. I wish I'd snapped one up when it was released.

Well, there is this. It's not in the episode, but it's something.

If you were in high school any time after 1997, she was!

I'd say there's plenty of room for gaps in the 10th Doctor era. He always dropped off a companion and picked up a new one in separate episodes, so there could be fifty years between Martha and Donna for all we know.

Make sure you don't forget the 7th series that also already exists!

I'm the faculty sponsor of Doctor Who Club at the middle school where I work, and I'm sure some kids will probably lose interest with Capaldi (partially just because that's what kids are like at that age), but several kids have told me they're excited to have an older Doctor.

Smith, sure. But Tennant? All he did was feel his teeth and then say "Where was I? Oh right - Barcelona!" I'd say it seems more like character stuff in retrospect than it did at the time, when it was jùst "The Doctor is some skinny guy now."