The Doctor, The Widow, and The Wardrobe

I recently rewatched Steven Moffat’s first New Who story, “The Empty Child”/”The Doctor Dances,” and it was much better than I’d remembered. My only major complaint, apart from the contrast between Captain Jack’s American accent and his UK English dialogue, is that the script comes…

The God Complex: postscript

I just rewatched “The Horns of Nimon.” Let’s just say I think it’s fallen a bit in my esteem since I was a lad. Also, “The Stones of Blood” is my second favorite story of this era (meaning seasons 16 and 17 of classic Doctor…

The Wedding of River Song

THE WEDDING OF RIVER SONG: SHORT VERSION FOR BUSY PEOPLE THE UNIVERSE is disintegrating due to the Doctor’s personal PROBLEMS again. DOCTOR: I’m going to die, for real. RIVER: Don’t die! DOCTOR: I have to. RIVER: I won’t let you! This REPEATS for almost FORTY…

Closing Time

If you’re an American, you have a pretty good chance of being able to watch Doctor Who with little or no context for the guest actors in it. Billie Piper can just be Rose (and not a teenage pop star), Catherine Tate can just be…

Who cares about our baby?

Here’s an alternate view on “The God Complex”. I enjoyed the episode, and I think it works and makes as much sense in isolation as any episode of New Who. But I must agree with this reviewer that taken in context, Amy and Rory once…

The God Complex

I’m a sucker for a minotaur. A guy with bull horns can make even an iffy story like “The Time Monster” just a little better, and I’m not gonna front like the hilarious “The Horns of Nimon” isn’t tied with “The Stones of Blood” as…

The Girl Who Waited

We rarely see the Eleventh Doctor on planets other than Earth. In the televised adventures, he’s set foot on alien soil (as opposed to ships or space stations) only three times: “The Time of Angels,” “A Christmas Carol,” and “The Doctor’s Wife.” Only one of…

Putting on the ritz

Here’s a very interesting theory about why the Doctor changes into a tuxedo in “Let’s Kill Hitler.”

Night Terrors

Big twisty mind-blowing arc episodes like “Let’s Kill Hitler” are fun, but this show isn’t really about its main characters. The need for a central mystery is right there in the title. This is, in fact, how the show has managed to continue for 48…

Let’s Kill Hitler

Doctor Who is not a series known for good titles. The classic series is full of stories called things like “The Robots of Death,” “The Seeds of Doom,” and “Terror of the Autons,” to the point that its most successful parody (written by Steven Moffat…