The death of the Doctor should have mythic resonance. The arc of River Song should be a Greek tragedy. The Silents should represent some figurative force or high concept that has a broad impact on the universe — or at least we should at least get the sense that they have a plan (to manipulate cultures behind the scenes Illuminati-style, maybe) that goes beyond hassling the Doctor.

But none of these things are true, because the stories are not told as drama but as riddles. They’re clever riddles, and sometimes they’re fun, but they’re not moving, and they don’t resonate outside themselves.

River’s history is so knotted and confusing now that I just can’t believe in her as a character, and it doesn’t help that she didn’t really grow up in any normal sense, or have any independent hopes and dreams. Her existence has been bent to one purpose: first to kill the Doctor, then to find him, then to marry him. Her skill with a gun, her archeological education, her ability to fly the TARDIS, all of these attributes stem directly and solely from her link to and obsession with the Doctor, for all we’ve now seen. One of the strongest female companions the series has ever seen turns out to be the most codependent. How could you not be disappointed?

I’d love to know what your son’s theories are about the answer. I sure hope Moffat’s turns out to be the same one we hear in “The God Complex.”

On the other hand, my oldest son was furiously writing in his journal last night and fell asleep before putting it away. I didn’t purposely read what he wrote, but on the first page was a drawing of the Tennant year’s logo, and then the first question. I could see he went on to write his own theories on the next page.

I love seeing him excited enough to write (aural narration is his strong point, his brain moves too fast for writing) about Doctor Who. So I’m not complaining about the episode in front of him. But I will probably always be mad about River Song. I think I’ll go back to the Library and pretend I don’t know what happens to her in 2011.

Unmoving is an apt word. Characters that die-but-not-really is now an explicit joke within the show. Bubble universes mean that you can do all sorts of bizarre whimsical stuff because it’s timey-wimey magic and then just erase it like an Etch-a-Sketch when you’re done. River always meets the Doctor in reverse order, except when she doesn’t. And hey, they get married purely for rhetorical reasons (“I don’t want to marry you” / “I don’t want to murder you”).

I’m watching the show mainly for Matt Smith now, and because I’ve loved this show and the premise that keeps it going since I was 8 or 9 years old. I love that it’s popular now, I love that it has the money to look good and the savvy to be smart and not completely embarrassing. If only it would slow down and get a solid grip on things really happening and meaning something, instead of being mental phantoms or time cul-de-sacs, I’d be ecstatic.

I understand that Matt and Karen are exceedingly popular with the fans, but I think showrunners who kowtow to the public for ratings damage their shows (see: Heroes and Zachary Quinto). I agree that new companions are in order.

Though I meant “fine” as in “okay” rather than “awesome,” I’d agree the Doctor is less enthused about his being “just a guy who can screw up” than I am.

The Doctor’s line when he opens his door is “Of course. Who else?” To me that doesn’t sound like Lake Silencio, especially with the cloister bell and overall darkness. But maybe he’s recognizing whoever’s in the spacesuit that shoots him (River? himself?). Or maybe it’s Amy, dead on the floor of the TARDIS (or any or all of his past companions). Maybe it’s River in a wedding dress (impending doom! sound the cloister bell!). Maybe it’s the Master (please, no, enough). Maybe it’s Fenric.

It seems likely that both the Gangers and the tricky time-duplication we saw in “The Girl Who Waited” will play into the solution to the Lake Silencio problem, but ugh. Man, a Ganger Doctor would be the worst. All he has to do is set the sonic wrong and splorch.

“but one who also can make the wrong choices and fail once in a while, and that’s a fine thing to be.” Not sure if he’s saying the last part – between this, The Girl Who Waited, and his anguished flip-through of NuWho companions in Let’s Kill Hitler (“Show me someone whose life I haven’t screwed up”), and of course his looming death, he’s probably not feeling that clever right now (wonder if what he saw was Lake Silencio; he’s already seen himself [or a Ganger, at least] this season). He’s dropping off Amy and Rory because he realizes he really meant what he said to her. (That said, I don’t think they’re going away for good)

When I heard the cloister bell, it struck me that this whole part of the season feels very much like some of the dread hanging over Logopolis…

Now, if our intrepid showrunner was really ballsy he’d kill of the Doctor and have a Ganger Doctor take his place (we know it isn’t a Ganger that dies since the body doesn’t dissolve).

Unfortunately it’s grown almost completely self-involved, and when the character development frequently amounts to chronological tricks rather than anything mythic or archetypal, it’s hard to really care. River has a really messed-up life history, but it seems to have granted her no real depth at all. She and the Doctor don’t get married because they have some deep connection, but because he promised her they would in an offhand moment.

I look forward to watching the show, and yet I almost always feel a little indifferent to it in hindsight. Truth is, I’m more a fan of the premise of the show and the thread of myth that stretches thin over the many years it’s been on than I am a fan of any particular era. That’ll keep me watching — that and the fact it could be a LOT worse — but it’s frustrating to think about what it could be.

As for River regenerating: I wouldn’t doubt it. The chronology would get pretty strange, though — I think they’d actually have to make two Rivers at this point (and we’ve seen a couple different ways that might happen). I wouldn’t have been shocked to see her become the companion next season, but my brain doesn’t want to work out how that would make sense.