Nixie thanks for starting this discussion thread - and suggesting some things about the show we can talk about before the new season starts too, well done!

I'm going to try to answer all the questions you posed but I can be a bit wordy so I might need to break it into more than one post myself! Side note - I'm sort of surprised at one question you didn't pose, which seems to be the most asked one among Whovians - who is your favorite Doctor? (Mine would be #10; Tennant's just the best. But I must admit, Matt Smith did grow on me quite a bit and I'm going to miss him!)

Okay, favorite companion would have to be Rose. Probably because I started with modern Who not classic Who and I started watching from the start of the modern series so Rose was the one who helped introduce me to the Doctor. I think she's more of an everywoman with less discernible skills than some of his other companions considering when the Doctor met her she was a young shop girl with no real direction to her life before he showed up, whereas others have come into it with some skill set beforehand (well, maybe not Amy but certainly Rory, Martha, Donna, Captain Jack, River, et al... they've all had something they were good for. Clara too; I often forget her she has yet to really make an impression on me, but that's another topic for another time). Anyway, I loved the chemistry between Rose and 10 and I've disliked any attempts to create something romantic with the Doctor and a companion since including his so-called marriage to River.

My favorite episode... hmm... well, oddly I think it's "Blink" even though the Doctor isn't in much of it. The Weeping Angels were freaking scary in that one. They lost some of their impact when they were brought back but that episode they were scary. My second favorite(s) would be "Silence in the Library/Forrest of the Dead". I liked the mystery of River at that time and I've really hated how much of that mystery they've taken away since. Third favorite(s) has to be "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End" for reuniting 10 with all of his companions over the years and giving Rose her own little Doctor takeaway of sorts by asking her to care for his human hybrid (and they wasted an opportunity having Tennant and Billie Piper back for the anniversary and not revisiting that plot, if you ask me).

Okay that's two down and this is getting long so...another post...

I'll come back to #3 and do that with #6. So I'll address 4 and 5 first -

Predictions for this season... hmm, well knowing how Steven Moffatt likes to continue to make things more and more convoluted my guess is we will revisit places we've been not that long ago because he's not very creative and will come up with some ridiculous reason why it's suddenly okay for the Doctor to cross his timeline over and over again and also make like Clara is the bestest friend he's ever had ever and we should all love her even though we know less about her now than we did when we first met her as a Dalek (the whole fractioning her off throughout his timeline bull still doesn't explain why she called herself Oswin rather than Clara when she was a Dalek or why her Victorian version wasn't more savvy or more aware of who the Doctor was given she did not originate in that time... but again, I digress).

Well, I know from some reveals that have already come out that Madame Vastra, Jenny, and Strax are back so we're obviously going back to Victorian times once again. They've also mentioned the Daleks will return for the umpteenth time. There was some other classic Who villain I think they mentioned was going to return but I can't remember which one that was. Oh and I think there was something about the Cybermen being back too...

I think it would be nice to see the Doctor and Clara and whoever else will be joining them this season visit other worlds more. It just seems like they spend too much time visiting Earth be it in the past or future - he can travel anywhere and yet it seems less and less that he's anywhere where there aren't humans in some form so even when he's in other worlds it's often far into the future and they claim humans have ventured there by then. I just think it'd be nice to see other beings that aren't monsters - occasionally we meet a few but it'd be nice to see some more of that.

To be honest, until I see Peter Capaldi as the Doctor and feel like he really and truly is the Doctor I'm not sure I can think of where he should go or what he should do yet. Obviously, the dynamic between the Doctor and Clara will change now - I wasn't sold on her so much either because Moffatt's not really fleshed her out as a character as much as he should've (I wish the regeneration happened with a more solid companion in place). I don't mind the idea of an older Doctor but Capaldi feels like he's older than he is and I think I've just been so used to the vibrancy of Smith, Tennant, and Eccelston that I don't see how Capaldi will fit with that and if he's a dramatic departure from what we're used to it might be hard to adjust.

Okay I think that's all I'm going to say for today but I will get back to the other questions tomorrow and I look forward to what others have to share too!

Rumor has it Jenna Coleman's leaving the show - not sure it's true yet because I haven't found confirmation of that but it wouldn't surprise me either. I don't think Capaldi was tested with her before he was hired, which would've been wise, so it's plausible the two do not have any chemistry together on screen or she's not happy with the direction of the show or something... anyway, she's confirmed to appear in the Christmas Special at least but I don't know anything after that. Just thought I'd mention it though and see what others think about it...

I guess I didn’t ask to name our favourite doctors because I figured it would be a bit obvious. I can’t quite decide between 10 and 11 myself. They both do something different for me. David Tennant is gorgeous with his piercing, tortured eyes, and his scientist-expert-professor manner. Then Matt Smith can display the wide-eyed wonder of an innocent child while sometimes letting a tiredness come through his eyes that allows you to believe he’s many centuries old.

1. My favourite companion is Amy because some details about her childhood remind me of my own childhood – namely that she drew many pictures of her obsession, The Doctor. I drew compulsively and I too developed stories from these pictures. I had an imaginary friend – several, in fact – and I still hope to one day be a writer, which Amy eventually does.

2. I too really liked Blink, as well as Love and Monsters. Sometimes I like when a series follows a different format for an episode here and there. I loved lots of episodes from Matt Smith’s first season – The Eleventh Hour, The Beast Bellow, Vincent and the Doctor, The Lodger, and The Big Bang. From the next season I also really loved The Girl Who Waited, The God Complex, and Closing Time. And of course I loved the Christmas specials, A Christmas Carol and The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe. It’s hard to say which is my favourite. I often tear up during The Big Bang when The Doctor shows up at her wedding because I always wished my imaginary friends would become real and come and find me!

I think I too will have to write back another time. I can’t wait to see the show!

You know, when Amy first came along I didn't care for her at all; I think it felt too much like they were trying to recreate the dynamic between the Doctor and Rose, especially when Rory was not around. I liked when Rory became a regular in the TARDIS too because he gave Amy more depth as a character and took away the notion that the Doctor would be seen as her boyfriend rather than as just her friend. Other than when Donna was there, they have always seemed to feel the need to add that boyfriend aspect in and the only time I felt it worked was with Rose. But I liked Amy and Rory as a couple and really by the time they were saying their goodbyes I was truly sad to see them go.

Matt Smith definitely grew in the role - at first I thought he was gangly and silly and trying too hard to be a sillier version of Tennant's Doctor, but he came into his own by the end of his first series. His first series I think was the best of 11 though - I mean, he got better in the role no doubt the longer he was in it, but I felt like Moffatt's writing got a little crazy after that series - so much of his second series was about River and then the third series was a combo of Amy and Rory's departure and the mystery of Clara that wasn't all that mysterious. I felt like Moffatt almost made the Doctor a supporting character in his own show and the stories have often been a bit convoluted and yet resolved far too easily (how many times has he literally created a big red button to press and bam! all's well again?!).

I re-watched the 50th Anniversary episode again over the weekend and to be honest, I was less enthusiastic about it this time than I was when it was on last year and I was watching live. Last year, I think I was just excited about it finally being on and getting to see 10 again and the little nods to the past along the way... but I think the "War Doctor" was a dumb revelation (I would've rather seen them bring back Paul McGann as #8 and let him be the one to fight the Time War than to suddenly create another version of the Doctor no one knew before and throw off canon); bringing back Billie Piper only to play the interface on yet another "big red button" machine as Bad Wolf rather than to see her back as Rose was a waste; and re-writing the Doctor's history by having 10 and 11 show up on Gallifrey before he destroys it and allegedly "all 13" versions of him coming together to help Gallifrey disappear and only seem like it's been destroyed was all sorts of wrong. First off, by saying all 13 versions of him were there it implied there will be no more versions of him after Capaldi's done with the show. Second, how would his earlier selves have known to be there? His later versions would know because they would have the memory of the situation presumably, but then again by the end of the show they acted as though they would all soon forget what occurred, which was just a convenient way of trying to fix the fact that they nearly made all previous episodes nullified by the one move. Then again, Moffatt already did that with the end of the last series when Clara was scattered throughout the Doctor's time stream to help him across all of time and space (which elevated her as a companion rather unfairly) and we saw her telling the Doctor which TARDIS to steal in the first place when we learned in the episode "The Doctor's Wife" that the TARDIS chose him.

Anyway, I still have the Christmas Special to re-watch before Saturday... I'm not sure it will fare well in re-watching any more than the Anniversary Special did. I'm just not keen on Moffatt's version of things in more recent years. That's why I'm cautious about Capaldi taking over too - I'm curious what kind of excuse they will make for his previous appearances in DW as other characters and I'm curious how his Doctor will ultimately measure up to the others before him. I just can't see him being much of a runner, you know?

I meant to post the other day - what's the consensus on the season/series 8 premiere?

If I was giving it a grade, I'd give it a C.

I thought it was a bit long - it easily could've been a normal size episode rather than "feature length". While I cannot dispute Capaldi's acting ability, I felt like the episode let him down a bit because in spite of its length, I don't feel like I have any more of an idea what kind of Doctor he is any more than I did before the show started, compared to the intros of Matt Smith and David Tennant where in their regular length episode debuts I think we got a decent understanding of what characteristics they were going to bring to the character. I don't think Capaldi was given enough to work with to give that - too much time was spent with him forgetting his past and who he was and acting like he lost his marbles. The only thing I thought gave us a glimpse of his Doctor compared to others was his monologue with the android and them leaving us wondering whether the android jumped or was pushed - because what we've always known of the Doctor would dictate he reasoned with the android and the android jumped, but my guess is this version of the Doctor is different than the others in that he pushed him out.

I thought one thing they did do well was give us more insight into Clara than we ever got in the previous half season she'd been around for - her standing up to the android after the Doctor seemingly left her there was the best thing I've seen from her, but at the point when she was stuck in the room with the androids and he wasn't willing to give her the sonic screwdriver because he might need it and seemed to have left her there alone to try to save herself really irked me - because I didn't like the idea that the new Doctor would be the type to not care enough to make sure she got out safe too and he never indicated to her he would save her in some way the way previous Doctors would. I found it strange though that they spent so much time with Clara not accepting his regeneration seeing how she's supposed to the "audience representative" so to speak; the last time a companion was present for a regeneration was Rose with 10 and while at first she didn't want 9 to go away, when they landed and 10 stumbled out of the TARDIS and her mother and Mickey didn't believe he was the Doctor, it was Rose that insisted he's still the same guy and they had to get on board with that. I think it's more effective when the companion who witnessed the change is the one who says "he's still the Doctor" rather than the secondary characters like Madame Vastra or Jenny. I mean, Rose had more of a connection with 9 than Clara had with 11 and Rose had less warning about regeneration than Clara did too, so why was Clara moping about it for so long?

Oh, it also bugged me that they had Madame Vastra suggest he choses his faces based on who he is with - first off, 10 was not with anyone when he became 11 so it wasn't like he became 11 for anyone's benefit then but they basically suggested he chose to look like he does now because Clara used to have a Marcus Aurelius poster in her room (nice tenuous explanation for Capaldi's previous appearance in "The Fires of Pompeii" but how might they explain his appearance in "Torchwood: Children of Earth" or does that not count as being part of the Whoniverse because Moffat didn't write it?) after first accusing Clara of only liking the Doctor before based on how he looked. It was like they were slapping the whole audience in the face saying we only liked the Doctor before because Tennant and Smith were good looking guys (forgetting the reboot's success hinged first on the big ears of Chris Eccleston) and not because we enjoy the stories or the characters for anything beyond their appearance.

The best part of the episode for me ended up actually being the surprise Matt Smith cameo at the end. I realized how much I'm going to miss him on the show in that one moment and how much more chemistry Clara had with him than with Capaldi. I wish though that he had phoned not to speak to her to beg him to give his new self a chance (which again felt like they were begging the audience to give Capaldi a chance as if we weren't on board with the choice when most people were okay with it) but rather if 11 asked to speak to 12 to say "give Clara a chance" since it largely felt like he wasn't (like the line about missing Amy - which I had to rewind 5 times to catch with closed captioning on even because Capaldi's accent's too thick for him to talk that fast; I couldn't even read the CC quick enough before it would disappear for the next dialog line). It would've been a better twist.

Don't get me wrong, I'm giving Capaldi a chance to grow on me the way Smith did but I think if he doesn't grow on me, it won't be Capaldi failing so much as it would be Moffat's writing, which I think has been diminishing over time when it comes to this show. I hope next week's Dalek episode is a better story.

Personally I really enjoyed the episode, and I think you hit the nail right on the head when you mentioned the audience not being on board with his new incarnation – I think Matt Smith was so great and loved by so many as The Doctor that a lot of people are so disappointed to see him go, and can’t imagine the show without him. I realize that’s how it always is when The Doctor regenerates, but the actor replacing him is much older than usual, so the writers may be worried that the audience won’t give him a chance. Not only will the doctor’s personality be different, but he won’t be young and cute and there won’t be that potential for a romance to develop between the doctor and his companion, so audience members who like that sort of thing may lose interest.

Speaking of Peter Capaldi’s age difference, I think it’s kind of funny that the first thing we see in the opening episode is an unwelcome dinosaur ... dinosaurs are kind of synonymous with “old.”

So far I think I like where this season is going. I think it will be darker, and if I had to guess I’d say The Doctor might try to correct some of the mistakes he’s make over the years, or at least learn from them to do less damage. I say this because The Doctor stated that he saw his face before, and that he’s trying to tell himself something. Peter Capaldi played a man in Pompeii, and if I’m not mistaken The Doctor is responsible for the volcano erupting in that episode. So I think a lot of focus might be on the destruction he’s caused.

Anyways, I’m just glad it’s on again!

I could understand the need to sell us on an older Doctor IF people weren't totally gung ho for the choice when they announced Capaldi as the next Doctor, but when they did the big reveal special and the lead up to it had a lot of speculation favoring him going in to that, I think the vast majority of fans were supportive of the choice or at the very least cautiously optimistic. There wasn't a groundswell of people demanding they re-evaluate the choice or else they would give up on the show (sure maybe a handful but I'd say at least 95% of fans around the world were at the very least okay with the choice). So given that, I don't know if we needed two hours of insistence that we get on board with the new Doctor since we already were. Like, when Matt Smith debuted, we weren't given the heavy-handed get on board message we got this time and that was coming out of the Tennant era that was beloved (not saying Smith wasn't beloved, but Tennant still outranks him on all polls) plus Smith didn't have the benefit of having an established companion to help the fanbase transition with the way Capaldi does or the way Tennant did - so really that "get on board" message would've made more sense for him than Capaldi. Capaldi's an established actor and Smith was a virtual unknown at the time too...

I also found it a bit of a slap in the face of newer fans of the show to suggest we only want a pretty young Doctor the way Madame Vastra was scolding Clara was as if Moffat was scolding us as fans for liking the guy he picked before or the guys that came before him only for how they looked and not for what they bring to the role. I think most fans are well over the idea of the Doctor as a romantic boyfriend type to his companions; that why many people cite Donna as their favorite companion of the recent era because she and 10 were clearly solely friends with not a hint of anything unrequited - no longing glances, no random kisses, no flirty banter. The one thing that made me dislike Amy was when she attempted to make out with the Doctor the night before her wedding to Rory. It was unnecessary and the two were much better in the long run only being friends with her romance being with Rory.

Good point about the unwelcome dinosaur - I didn't even equate it directly with Capaldi so much as just write it off as an unnecessary plot device. But yeah, it was another way of them suggesting Capaldi's not welcome in the role which is a misconception on their part.

Yeah, Capaldi was in "The Fires of Pompeii" - he played Marcus Aurelius, whose family the Doctor saved after Donna begged him to. They alluded to it when Clara mentioned the only poster she had in her room growing up was of him and not of any cute boys after Vastra accused her of being only interested in the Doctor before because he was cute.

I wonder if this Doctor will be concerned with correcting his mistakes and doing less damage - I kind of thought that was more the angle of Matt Smith's Doctor so I almost expect with them saying Capaldi's going to be such a great departure from him that he may be more like classic Who Doctors who weren't always so forgiving and heroic. The bit about not knowing whether the android fell or was pushed makes me think we're looking at a Doctor who is perhaps more vengeful than his more recent incarnations. I could be wrong, but I could easily see them going in that direction thinking it would spice things up or something.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it's on again too, I just hope it doesn't get dreary and I hope they don't turn the Doctor into an unlikeable character (like I was okay with Capaldi and willing to give him a chance as the Doctor, but the writing on that first episode left me a little cold. I'm not giving up on the show or anything but I want to feel warmth for the character and in that first episode I didn't feel it the way I have for the previous 3 guys playing him).

Well, this week was a better episode. More action and all. I like the new guy - Danny - but I'm guessing the Doctor's dislike of soldiers mention and knowing Danny's past as a soldier will come up again in the future but not until long after he joins Clara in travelling with the Doctor (because you know she won't tell the Doctor about Danny's past now).

One thing I found sort of funny - the Doctor, Clara, and the two remaining soldiers wound up in that liquid waste dump area of the Dalek but in the very next season they were all out of there perfectly dry with no gross goop on them still at all. Continuity issue or what?!

Anyway, big mystery of the season seems to be who is that Missy woman and what is she up to? There are over a half-dozen theories on who she really is online; some actually sound plausible while others are just silly (like if it's River then Steven Moffat's just run out of ideas and needs to retire and we need to have an episode that then mind-wipes the whole thing from ever having happened...). Moffat does like to revive old characters though, especially Classic Who characters, so suggestions that she could be the Rani, or a female version of the Master or the Valeyard make some sense to me. What do you think?

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you.

I didn’t think the audience was actually against Peter Capaldi, or The Doctor being played by an older actor for that matter. I do think though, that there will always be that percentage of (mostly female) fans who gravitate to a show mainly because of their attraction to the star and that the writers were aware of this. The writers knew that young, female fans new to the series who want to see a romance develop between the Doctor and companion could lose interest if their crush is replaced by an actor old enough to be their dad. I could also see some young children losing interest because I think Matt Smith’s portrayal was particularly appealing to children.
Anyways, I’m not saying that the majority of the audience was against Peter Capaldi at all. I’m partly going by my mother’s disappointment in Matt Smith leaving and in Peter Capaldi replacing him. Not that she is a loyal fan of the show, but she strongly voiced her dissatisfaction.

Also, I believe the writers also tried to sell us on Matt Smith during his first episode after David Tennant’s Doctor regenerated. The episode was called “The Eleventh Hour” – very fitting as Matt Smith was now the 11th actor to play The Doctor. Unlike last time, his first interaction after regenerating was with someone he had never before met – someone who would not be comparing him to his former self and, since Amy was a child, someone who would accept him as he was. I loved their first meeting – I felt I was getting to know The Doctor through the eyes of a child.
Twelve years later we see Amy meet The Doctor again, but she doesn’t believe he is the man she met that night – or perhaps refuses to believe it. After all, she was forced to see four psychiatrists over the years. The Doctor then tries to convince Amy that yes, he is the same man she met that night, and I think this parallels the audience’s need of convincing that this is still the same Doctor we saw regenerate that night. He implores Amy to “believe in me for 20 minutes.” I think this is what the writers were asking of the audience – watch the rest of the episode, suspend your disbelief, give this actor a chance, and get to know The Doctor again.

Now about the second episode:

This 2nd episode with Peter Capaldi as the Doctor reminded me a bit of The Beast Below – the 2nd episode with Matt Smith as The Doctor. I wonder if they did that on purpose. Both episodes involved the characters inside an alien creature, the characters drenched in the creature’s fluids, the question of whether or not the creature is good or evil, and the companion recognising something crucial about the creature that The Doctor missed. Also, both involved The Doctor being compared to the creature – in the case of the Star Whale both were very old, the last of their kind, and warm-hearted, empathic beings who couldn’t stand to see children cry. This time, however, The Doctor is being compared to a Dalek ...
Perhaps I was wrong in thinking that The Doctor would correct mistakes or try to do less damage, but I do think the subject of his mistakes and any destruction he caused will be a major issue. He wants to know if he’s a good man, and there was obviously a time he wanted to be a good man because he chose the name, “The Doctor.” But, like the robot he compared to a broom in “Deep Breath,” he has regenerated so many times and recreated himself so much that he may not be quite the same man anymore.
It wouldn’t surprise me if he sees a little of himself in every villain he comes across this season. And like you mentioned, I do think Danny will be travelling with Clara and The Doctor at some point just as Rory did with Amy. I do think Danny’s experience as a soldier will be an issue with The Doctor, but I’ll bet anything that whatever Danny has done, The Doctor may have done the same at some point if not worse.

Wasn't there some mention in "A Good Man Goes To War" about how the word "Doctor" meant "soldier" to that particular army that helped the Doctor and co. get Amy back (I think the mention came somewhere around the time they were coming to realize the translation of Melody Pond in that army's native language was River Song but I could be wrong about that...). It's been a while since I've watched that one but I could swear that episode and also "The Stolen Earth"/ "Journey's End" it gets pointed out to the Doctor just how many people can gets to fight in his name for his cause and how much destruction he causes in his wake... so in essence, the destruction he causes kind of always has been an issue (even in Eccleston's 1 season, they went back to satellite 5 after he thought he fixed things there only to find a hundred years later it became an insane broadcaster of reality tv and vulnerable to Dalek takeover.) I don't know if any of it is new really unless this version of the Doctor does something different as a result...

Good catch in comparing "Into The Dalek" with "The Beast Below" - I totally did not put those two together but yes, both were very similar in storyline and style with the exception being that the Star Whale is seen as a positive creature and thus the comparisons are positive whereas this time with the Dalek, it's obviously not a positive - so, do you think this was meant to show the Doctor isn't the positive hero-figure we believe him to be then? I mean, the hatred of the Daleks has long been there but we tend to forgive that because we always see the Daleks as nothing but monsters... that episode had me thinking more about the episode "Dalek" when Rose inadvertently woke up the dormant Dalek who eventually saw sunlight and begged for death because he felt flawed by Rose's humanity touching him.

It's funny your mother was disappointed with Capaldi's casting - my dad was too and he's not a fan of the show either, he's watched it a few times when I've had episodes on but he would always pretend he wasn't getting into it even if he was - the night of the premiere I was watching the pre-show and he saw a pic of Capaldi and said, that's the new Doctor? I said yes and he replied, "oh I don't like him". He favors Tennent; he didn't even care for Smith either so it wasn't a youth or looks thing with him, just the vibe I guess. Still, I found it funny he even was weighing in...

Sure there will be detractors to the casting, there always are. Many people were put off with Smith's casting initially too but he proved them wrong, I think. I just think (and many of the critics seemed to echo the sentiments) that the first episode this season spent too much time trying to convince itself he was right for it because the vast majority of fans didn't need to be convinced, so it felt weird. Amy meeting him as a kid then again as an adult and having an issue with it because he's got the same face so many years later and how is he real and such - that all made sense to the story. Rose only had mere minutes of explanation of what was about to happen to him before he regenerated and when they emerged from the TARDIS and Mickey and Jackie asked who he was she didn't hesitate to say he was the Doctor and basically even though he looked new and she wasn't sure whether he'd be the same guy she knew she still told them he's the Doctor and they needed to just accept it. Meanwhile, Clara, who's seen other versions of the Doctor when she was fractured off into his many time streams and whatever vague memories she retains of the actions that occurred in "The Day of the Doctor", plus discussions with the Doctor in advance of what occurred she knew he had the ability to regenerate and she was the one that asked the Time Lords just beyond the crack in the wall to give him the ability to regenerate again so he wouldn't die - so for her to then be so unaccepting for much of that first episode, it just didn't sit well because it was not fitting right. Clara should've been the one telling Vastra, Jenny, and Strax to get on board with this new Doctor not the other way around. I think that's what didn't quite work.

Anyway... third episode... I liked the Robin Hood storyline. Something that didn't feel like a rehash since we'd not been to that time and place or seen Robin Hood before so that part was nice. Loved the banter between the Doctor and Robin. And I like that Clara is holding her own quite a bit. I sort of expected since we met the new guy in ep 2 that he'd be back in this one, but I guess after being inside a Dalek Clara needed a little vacation before returning to work. Speaking of, one thing I kind of find odd - it used to be that the Doctor and his companion would continuously travel together, only occasionally stopping home in the companion's natural time line to say hello to family and friends and often deal with whatever issues have cropped up there in that moment. But ever since Amy and Rory got married, the Doctor seems to drop his companions off at home for some time and then come back later to pick them up for another adventure. Why is that? Why isn't Clara just travelling with the Doctor full time like Rose, Martha, and Donna did? Or like Amy and Rory did prior to getting married? It's just strange to me how he now comes and goes like that...

Okay "Listen" is officially my favorite episode of the new season.

It's probably the first time since the introduction of The Silence that I actually covered my eyes for a second (the scene in Rupert's bedroom when someone/something was under his comforter on his bed and they turned around and looked out the window and it started to come up behind them I was a little worried about what it might have been.... and kind of bummed later that we never actually found out).

I felt like it was the first episode that gave us context to the characters (like finding out a little more about Danny/Rupert) and it was the first time I felt like Clara made a real impact that made sense in the Doctor's life with what she told his younger self (as opposed to the whole fractured versions of her throughout his timeline, guiding and protecting him bull that they came up with last season as a means to defeat the Great Intelligence). About the only thing I found strange was the Doctor's insistence to open the hatch when they were with Orson at the end of the world (have we not been to the end of time and space or however they defined where they were before? "Utopia" perhaps?) - given what transpired in the episode "Midnight", when a being outside the tram took over control of the Doctor and he almost was thrown out to die because of that, why take the chance that the sound he was hearing might actually be something outside trying to get in? And surely once he unlocked the door and it began to open without him opening it, that should've been enough to want to get in the TARDIS and just watch from the screen inside it to see what might come through the door once it opened, right?!

Anyway, I liked that there wasn't any actual "monster". I liked that each of the timey-wimey scenes connected via the Danny the soldier toy. And I like that they hinted Orson could well be related to Clara as well as Danny... or not. I'm guessing not though. I'm guessing his mention about time travel running in the family according to stories he's heard about a great-grandparent were in reference to Danny but not Clara. What I found odd was that Orson didn't take notice to her calling him Danny when she first looked at him - surely the name should register if Danny is his great-grandfather's name or just because the toy solider was called Danny or what have you. Oh and did you notice when the Doctor had Clara put her hands into the TARDIS so it could lock on to her timeline to figure out when she first had that same nightmare he had referenced that he said the TARDIS could see her whole life from birth to death and she said no previews please, or something to that effect... anyway, there was a definite nod to the possibility Clara will die. Either she's going to actually die and wind up in Missy's demented version of heaven OR Moffat just threw this in as a ruse because they've been playing up this whole "Is Jenna Coleman leaving the show?" rumor for everything it's worth.

All things considered... best episode of the season so far. Hope next week is as good.

Sorry I haven't responded in a while. Yes, my mother is so against Peter Capaldi!

I only just watched "The Caretaker" now. I knew The Doctor wouldn't like Danny because he's a soldier, but I thought it was cute that he had to approve of Danny like The Doctor was Clara's dad. I also loved how he thought her new boyfriend was the guy who looked like his 11th regeneration.

Ok, so I just finished watching the (mid-season?) finale and I have to say I'm really disappointed in the unevenness of this season. I mean, "Listen" was a highlight and easily among one of the best single episodes of the new Who era, but the season overall has had more downs than ups. That one about the whole world being covered by trees as a means to protect it from a solar flare didn't even have any sort of point to it - there was no baddie of any kind really and it just felt so lackluster as an episode, and the one about the moon being an egg was rather lame too. They both felt like Moffat had run out of ideas. Then you get to the two part finale where we finally get the so called big reveal about Missy, which would've been more exciting had we seen more of her all season or at least alluded to what she was about more in the season, only to find out she's a female form of The Master. Been there done that. I really was hoping Moffat would be more clever, make her The Rani or Romana or River even. We've seen The Doctor and The Master face off enough and his story was essentially done and over with. Bringing him back as a woman was pointless except to say "see we can make a male Time Lord into a female" and sort of back door the issue after all the "make The Doctor a female" stuff prior to Capaldi's casting. Moffat said in some interview that he doesn't see the point in bringing back old characters people don't know, assuming newer fans won't follow and understand but The Master was an old character revived the last time they brought him back and people were on board with it so surely it can be done again (same with old foes; it has been done before and we all follow along and understand). I don't get the point of bringing The Master back at all... and dressed up like a demented version of Mary Poppins to boot...

Plus, I had a really hard time enjoying the two-parter after the first one had that whole bit about cremated people begging not to be cremated because they still feel after they die - that made me a little sick, especially given how I'm sure I'm not the only fan out there that has had deceased friends and/or relatives who have been cremated. It was a very inappropriate tact for them to take... the whole turning the dead into Cybermen may well be the newest low they've taken. Sure, we are meant to hate the Cybermen and Missy's plan to use dead people to create a Cyberman army but then we are also to believe they are our dead friends and relatives, it just felt cold. The whole thing was a miss for me. Especially since the only point Missy had in making this army up was to give them to The Doctor as a gift...? It just felt lame.

And what was the point of even introducing Danny only to kill him off now? And we went into the future and encountered a distant relative of Danny's, clearly since he looked just like him, had his last name, and had that tiny soldier toy Danny had too - is this no longer a possible thing? If that is the case, then they just created a paradox in their own show because without meeting the future relative, Clara would never have ended up back in the Doctor's own timeline to when he was a child to tell him never to fear what's under the bed and to give him the power to go on to become who he became. It negates that whole story, which was the best part of the whole season.

Plus, back to Missy for a second, with her confessing she was the one who gave Clara the Doctor's number, it negates the whole "impossible girl" thing, where the Doctor sought her out because he met her two times before and how was it possible... leading her to jump into his timeline and fraction off later on when he is threatened by the Great Intelligence. Now we are meant to believe it was the Master/Missy who orchestrated that somehow, from Gallifrey or wherever he was cooling his heels, thus making her not so impossible after all. Basically, all of Clara's storyline is a big timey-wimey hot mess. I just don't think Moffat and co. were truly thinking things out when they planned this season, if they planned at all.

I don't mind Capaldi the way I thought I would, and Clara has improved this season over the last because she felt more developed in a sense, less just going along with the Doctor for no apparent reason like she did when she started out. But I don't get their relationship anymore and I don't get the point of Danny having been brought in for nothing and I feel like they may have really lost the plot this season far more than any other in the new Who era. It's sad really because the show should've been great and I just am not feeling like it fired on all cylinders even though it should have been... or is it just me being crabby today?

Jenna Coleman has confirmed she's going to be returning as Clara for season 9 after all. Sounds like she had been possibly planning on leaving but then changed her mind and they just altered course with the storyline planning as they went along... or something like that.

I've got mixed feelings about it. I mean, I think season 8 allowed Clara to develop as a character far better than the half of season 7 she was in did, which made me like her more than when she was introduced because I didn't initially care for them putting so much importance into Clara without giving us reason to care about her being so important (comparative to other companions). But, I'm still not certain about the chemistry between her and Peter Capaldi's Doctor, like I thought she and Matt Smith's Doctor clicked a little faster and easier and it made more sense that she was with #11 than her being with #12. I was thinking perhaps the best thing for the show (given how uneven season 8 was) would've been to allow Capaldi's Doctor to have a brand new companion. I still think it might be good to add to the mix even with Clara there - like I thought when they introduced Danny he was going to board the TARDIS like Rory did with Amy or when Rose was joined by Mickey or Adam or Captain Jack whenever he'd show up... actually, come to think of it, Captain Jack would give the whole mix a good shot in the arm - even if just for an episode or two. Clara would have the sort of reaction to him that Rose, Martha, and Donna did when they first met him and #12 would be all the more irked by it - it'd be great. I think they might need something like that.

I have yet to see the Christmas Special - first time I've ever not watched a DW special on the day it aired - just wasn't really as crazy about having to watch right away like I used to be. That can't be good...