Well just seen the Caretaker and Kill the moon, so dire and evil spoilage ahoy for those who haven't seen those episodes, read on at your own peril lest your viewing be spoiled by the spoilers!.

caretaker was actually not as bad as I expected from the He who mones review, while I agree with Stewart, why the hell would the doctor be so bad at fitting in with humans after he's spent the last thousand or so years with them, at least the Doctor existed as more than a commic foil for Clara here, I really disliked all the occasions Clara basically told the doctor off in this episode! it made him look like an idiot.

Clara and Danny I really didn't get as a couple at the start sinse their dialogue is so forceably witty and doesn't really seem to have much behind it,and Clara's "I love him" just came out of left field, however Danny did surprise me here. Rather than coming across as a moron I really liked his reaction to the Tardis, Clara's lame excuse and I surprisingly liked the way he stood up to the Doctor and actually characterized how stupid the Doctor's hatred of soldiers really was, despite the fact that this was yet more "oooh look, the Doctor is really stupid" type of characterization.

The thing that got rreally up my nose here was the ending. Danny summersaults over the random robot's head and distracts it. With the fact the only thing we knew about the robot was that it was a soldier from some war or other and the hole thing about soldiers, I was expecting Sergeant danny to turn around and start shouting parade ground orders at the thing and it obey because it recognized him as a soldier, ---- that would've really hit the theme of the episode, and perhaps put this irrational business of the Doctor's to rest, but no!

The business with Courtney I can't say much about, I likeed the Doctor's streight forward interactions with her, very nice and not pandering, but it just seemed to go no where really in that story and she just seemed to be there to tick the teenager box, And The hole thing with Clara going off with the Doctor during the day and coming back to Danny? really, this is getting old, micky, Rory, now Danny, what is it with new who and actually having compitant men in the Tardis! especially given this series habbit of basically showing the Doctor as an overgrown schoolboy who needs his teacher with him to keep him in order!

Over all Caretaker wasn't quite as dreadful as I thought, and I do surprisingly see a point to Danny Pink now even though Clara is sort of getting on my nurves more.

Regarding Kill the moon,  to be honest Cx2 I actually didn't mind the "moon is an egg" plotline, sinse basically it was the only major idea in the episode and was actually given room to breathe. Yes, it's a big sf idea, and it wasn't adequately explained but at least the ramifications were dealt with, problems for earthwith the tides etc, rather than what I expected after that point which was that the thing's parent species would show up, there would be a huge upping of stakes for no reason, more monsters and running around etc. I therefore give the episode credit on just having one screwy idea, which actually did serve a point, oh and I think the spider germ things actually did! kill people, sound the trumpets!

I didn't mind Courtney too much for some of it, I loved the teenaged winjing about being special to which the Doctor responded with "well you can be the first woman on the moon!" and I loved the bit where she said quite honestly "I want to go home"

I didn't buy her after that point, she was supposed to have been traumatized from just being almost killed yet instantly starts complaining about being board and playing with Tumblr! Honestly, if you locked me in the Tardis console room "Board" is the last thing I'd be . 

I also really didn't like the "woman kind makes the decision" line, this seemed pretty telling of Moph's thinking in a really nasty way, as did the "oooh lets have a democratic vote but then ignore it entirely!" if your going to have someone else make the decision, why the hell vote? The turning off of lights across earth was a nice metaphore, but come on! Again, the implications of this one are really rather disturbing if you think about it.

That being said I did think the "make humanity look up and considder space exploration" was a nice social comment, even though it was a bit throwaway and we could've done more on that one.

The thing that really! however annoyed me about Kill the moon, more than Courtney, more than the moon being a creature, more than the "ooooh how convenient instantly another egg to be the moon" plot was the end!

So the Doctor trusts  clara to make the decision, and turns out to be right, and recognized Courtney as a future president, and Clara throws a Hissy fit! For God's sake! So the semi immortal thousand year old timelord is actually right for once and miss perfect throws a wobler?

The 7th doctor manipulated his companion into blowing up an alien ship, and then followed by making her lose belief in him, the first doctor actually plotted murder when the Tardis was in a jam, the tenth doctor walked away from people whom history was supposed to see die then turned around and insisted on being arrogant enough to change it.

Lots of times the Doctor has been right at the expense of those around him, but nobody has responded by giving him a "I'm very disabppointed in you doctor, your a really naughty boy and you've let me down" speech before storming out of the TArdis!

I'm now starting to really dislike Clara, yes, the companion should be a strong character, should have their own will and do things on their own, should even disagree with the Doctor on occasion, but heck, the name of the program is Doctor who! not "te Clara show!"

The Doctor has to be right sometimes, and even when he's wrong there has to be at least some respect for the character and why he's wrong. This is why I'm a fan of the sixth doctor, who probably has one of the worst personalities, but has a genuinely nice core under that which comes out occasionally, and will always try to do the right thing even if it means going against his companion.

Well even if it was the time war, it's rather weerd and all too late given that the Moph retconed the time ar because oooh will someone please think of tthee children! (sorry but that plot point really gets up my nose given how much prominance the Time war had in the new series).

I also have never seen this tendency before the twelth doctor either, sinse doctors 9-11 encoutnered plenty of soldiers, and only tended to object to the ones who were actually doing bad stuff like Torchwood 1 or the humans and Hath having their clone war in The Doctor's daughter. Hell, in Mophat's own episode "A good man goes to war" the main theme as far as I could work it out was that the doctor was supposedly going to war against the headless monks or whoever and inlisting everyone from the series as his army, ---- or something! So, what the hell?

I've got a nasty suspicion that it's related to that comment you saw about the young Doctor not wanting to join the army on Galifrey, ---- which is just wrong on so many levels!

Indeed if we go meta a for a second here, I wonder if the Moph, or the bbc has some sort of political agenda here, sinse in the last few series we've seen the Doctor go to war, and there was all that stuff about "demons runs when a good man goes to war" or whatever, work for the British airforce, and now we have a companion who's supposedly been inAfganistan and has killed people, and is making out to have been a social outcast because people don't like soldiers.

I bet even the time war will play into this with the recognition that the Doctor in retconing Galifrey's destruction actually destroyed the Daleks and insured victory, this combined with the "three women over ride democracy" message from Kill the moon is politically heading into a very sticky wicket, especially for the Doctor who has always been an absolute libertarian and against tyrrany whether economic, political or religious.

Of course I could be reading too much into this and it might just be a bad writer plucking themes out of the air and sticking them together irrispective of whether they fit or not and trying to embue them with a false sort of gravitas in place of actual character development.

After all it wouldn't be the first time something gets pulled into New who just because the show runner thought it was a good theme, like russel T Davies the Atheist deciding to suddenly make the Daleks have a religion and start spouting off about blasphemy for no reason, something which really didn't sit well with their usual modus operandi of species hatred, ---- not one of Russel's cleverer decisions.

I agree with the He who mones review on the good dalek bit in Into the Dalek, that it was essentially just retreading old ground from the Ecleston story "dalek" and by repeating the lessons there it didn't really accomplish much.

In the Episode Dalek from season 1, the Doctor is presented with the possibility that a Dalek might change and become good, he is then told in "parting of the ways" by the emperor "you would make a good Dalek" which works at the time sinse the Doctor is given the choice to destroy all Daleks and humans, but refrains from doing it, ---- a nice character arc back to the time war (which of course only works if the Time war happened, but hay). This is why in evolution of the Daleks the tenth doctor actually is! prepared to  entertain the possibility that the Daleks might evolve. While I didn't think the Evolution of the Daleks two parter was one of Russel's best moments, and I really wish the humanoid daleks had hung around at the end, at least it did show that the Doctor had moved on.

yet, in Into the Dalek, the Doctor is once again back to his season one attitude of all daleks are vilve for some reason, forgetting  all the character development previously, indeed Into the Dalek basically functions as a poor copy of the episode Dalek.

I also agreed with stewart on he who mones that given that the supposedly good dalek in into the Dalek wanted to kill all daleks, there is a really serious inconsistancy here, indeed for me the "All daleks must die!" from the so called good dalek really didn't do it, a far cry from the childish and lets say it, cute! daleks infected with the human factor of Evil of the Daleks playing trains and making jokes, hearing an entire squad of daleks chanting like kids in a playground "dizzy, dizzy, dizzy daleks!" is just awsome!

Btw, this reminds me of a very disturbing toy I saw last year, a cuddly toy Dalek in dark purple which had a button to press to say the line "you would make a good dalek!" actually the line from Parting of the ways. I liked this for the disturbing implications of it, but really what child would sit in bed at night and want to be told they'd be a good dalek?

Again, if you want to examine dalek motivation properly the audios do it  especially well, particularly the Dalek empire series, I Davros and the story Jubalee.

Jubalee even has a Dalek coming to the conclusion that all Daleks need to be destroyed, but the way it comes to this conclusion and the logic involved is fantastic.

@Aaron, yep, I'm watching them with description, however I put much of the blaime for the series on Moffat sinse A, as show runner he has ultimate control over what he wants in episodes, for example the cole hill school bits and wangling with the Doctor's past, and B, because generally speaking very few guest writers have had enough of an impact on the series sinse Mat smith started, indeed the He Who Moans podcast made that very point about GAreth Robberts, heck for most of the episodes Steven Moffat is still credited as co writer.

The only really stand out episode for me that obviously did not have anything to do with Moffat was Niel Gayman's The Doctor's Wife, which felt pure Gayman, sadly though by the time of Nightmare in Silver Gayman was beaten into submission by his Moffasty, ---- either that or he really lost his touch, and I doubt that.

I'll watch the Orient Expres later this week, I'm expecting at least some fun in space and hopefully with Clara storming off maybe the Doctor will be allowed to get out from under her thumb for once and actually be Doctorish on his own, btw, is it me, or for all the yelling about "I am the doctor fear my wrath and run away aliens when i tell you", the Moffat seems really afraid to actually have the Doctor do! anything to resolve the plot? Much less in anything like a coherent manner.

@Dan, The less said about the Moffat era the better, however the Big Finish stories are for me the best of Doctor who, and what Doctor wWho should be. Of course they vary in quality, but even the very worst Bf stuff is miles better than what is currently on tv.

I'd personally recommend starting with the monthly range, sinse that is the main Doctor who series, and yes, it is good to start at the beginning. While the stories aren't as serious about over riding plot and are stand alone for the most part, there are still call backs to past events and a few out and out series ongoing plots, plus if you start at the beginning you get to see the introduction of all the new Bf assistants, most of whom have been great.

If you know anything about Doctor Who I'd recommend starting with the first, The Sirens of time, doctors 5, 6 and 7 in a big and very awsome plot with time shenanigans. it's only an average story in bf terms, but has so many good ideas it's just a really nice explosive start. Phantasmagoria, the second monthly story is completely awsome, the fifth Doctor and Nissa in 17th century England at the Hell fire club. Lots of good stuff including a really awsome villain, ghosts, disappearing gamblers, mysterious highwaymen, and an sf plot that all tie together really well.

I'm just listening to the first few monthlys again at the moment (I've just now finished number 28, invaders from Mars), and the quality is astounding!

So, definitely start with the mmonthly adventures.

After that, the New 8th doctor stories and the Dark eyes box sets (which are effectively New 8th doctor seasons five onwards), are worth a listen sinse they carry on directly with the 8th doctor's story from where he and Charley part company in the monthly adventures, though sinse that only happens in story 110 you've got a ways to go.

The companion chronicles are also good and have a couple of tie ins to the monthly stories though aren't as necessary, but are awsome for hearing stories with the first three Doctors, and of course the fourth doctor adventures are good if you like Tom Baker and Leela.

I Davros, Dalek Empire and Cybermen, the three spinoff series about the Doctor's various enemies without the Doctor are some of my favourites, especially I Davros, me being a big Davros fan (I've even met Terry moloy), and they're great if you really want to considder the motivations of The Daleks or the Cybermen.

I'd definitely start with the monthly's though, although each of the Spinoffs or specials have their own charm, mostly because when creating them Bf tend to try to do something different from Doctor who although connected to the whoniverse, for example morally ambiguous time meddling in Graceless, politics in Unit, or spy thrillers in countermeasures.

The only thing from Bf's who range I've personally really disliked are the Bernese Summerfield stories, sinse these rely so heavily on the novels it's realy hard to say what is going on, indeed there are even auydio stories that are direct sequels to Doctor who books and make little sense without. I'm told the more recent Bernese stuff is much more stand alone and far better, and even explains some of the confusions of the previous plot, but I've never managed to plough through all the previous stories to get to those even though I do own them all, though admitedly given that Reever was severely ill when i was listening to the first few Bernese Summerfield stories that probably didn't help much.

Oh and yes, I'm a realy extremem! Whovian, and for all I winj about Moffat I do absolutely love Doctor Who, I've seen a good proportion of the Classic episodes, some several times, and am a major bf fan as you can tell.

I think Moffat is allergic to tying up loose ends .

It's interesting that  the Divergent universe arc in Big Finish is cryticised for a quick resolution, and yet at least it has! a resolution, rather than going "And the Doctor yelled very loudly and the aliens exploded"

I think the description I have read of Moffat being more fond of writing trailers than actual programs is pretty accurate, indeed when watching some of the early mat smith episodes I actually felt like I was watching a fast action replay of a story rather tan the story itself.

In fareness my expectations for Orient express aren't high after Kill the moon, though it'd be nice to actually have an episode that stood out and made some sort of impact on me rather than "oh and there was that one with robin hood which was sort of fun, . It's funny, I could probably name all of the Russel T davies episodes in order right from Rose to End of time, even the bad ones, but with The moff I struggle to actually think of any episode elements that stayed with me at all for even a week, indeed if I probably only remembered the episodes because I was looking at reviews.