And Stuart has done his thing with flatline Find it here

Interestingly enough, he agrees with me on the Clara thing, and I found his comments on this being yet another opportunity for the Doctor to learn something where as it should've been for Clara interesting. I don't agree with him on similarities between Clara dn Rose, sinse while rose did have moments of high compitance and doing the same thing the Doctor did, firstly she never made the Doctor out to be an idiot while doing it, and secondly she was never quite as perfectly smug and satisfied.

I agree with him on the monsters here being a great concept, but I didn't like his comments on "monti python logic" or  the way he tosses around the word "escapism" which is really one of the most ill defined terms of cryticism out there (indeed I've had it in mind to write an essay on it). Monti python exists for craziness, and while it's craziness often played streight as if it had some sort of order, there fundamentally isn't a lot of logic to it.
Doctor Who's craziness should be at least internally consistant within the logic of the program. For example, the Doctor moving the tardis with his hand is a wonderful idea, but it stems from the shrunken tardis and the idea that dimentional energy has been leached from it. As I said earlier, it doesn't matter "how" it works, it just matters that there is an internally consistant explanation as to "why"

Sometimes Doctor who (even in the audios), goes a little over this line, but for me Flatline didn't because all the points were basically setup in a consistant way. people vanish on housing estate, clara gets through with psychic paper and looking official (sinse hay, occasionally people just aren't that curious), monsters are in 2D, become 3D and monkey with tardis dimentions, and sinse the tardis is dimentionally transcendental (it's in the name), we can accept the consequence of this. This is why as I said earlier I wish the solution the Doctor employed also went along the dimentional route rather than just using a magic force field.

Getting back to stuart I do agree with him both this episode and orient express should've been earlier in the run, indeed if these two followed deep breath I'd be a lot more positive about the series and the twelth doctor.

I'll check out saturday's episode later this week, likely tomorrow as has become something of a regular thing for me and my dad.

Jo Ford has now reviewd Mummy on the Orient express on his blog Find it here

Interestingly enough he was less keen on the episode, and raises some quite unique questions about explanation and Clara's fickleness, indeed he disliked the ending rapup of orient express so much he rated it down.

I find Jo ford interesting because unlike Stuart from he Who mones he generally likes things, indeed he acknolidges all the problems with Moffat era who, but then has episodes he just accepts and quite likes on principle, indeed his higher opinion of The Eleventh hour, Mat Smith's first story almost makes me want to watch it again. I'm not utterly convinced as Ford that the Moffat era problems are so easily ignored myself, indeed this is why I don't own anything beyond the end of the 10th doctor's era on dvd and why I'd  probably not myself rate any of the Moffat era episodes higher than around a 7-10, but I enjoy for'ds take on things.

Jo Ford actually is a great fan crytic because there is no part of Doctor who he dislikes on principle, and he appreciates different ways the series should work from the novels, to the audios and classic and new series, however within that he will assess each episode, audio story or novel individually and give his opinions, summing up both good and bad points and giving an over all conclusion and rating out of 10 based on those points. I don't always agree with either his conclusions or opinions, for example he disliked "The Doctor's daughter" because he said she came across as flat, where as I felt she had an interesting spark with the tenth Doctor with her being a created soldier who kills and trying to connect with The Doctor despite that. He also really liked Lucy Miller from the start in the new 8th Doctor audios, where as I personally didn't warm to her as a character at all and just liked how she was dealt with in the plot. But I appreciate reading his thoughts, because he argues them well and in an interesting way.

He also, being both gay and self consciously camp (which are two different things), has some quite shallow rather Captain jack style comments about  the looks of various characters, in particular how pretty he finds the male ones, though he reserves these for a specific section of the reviews at the end as a little bit of comedy.

Oh, and I'd also recommend checking out his startrek reviews, in particular I find it interesting that he has a fairly low opinion of a lot of next gen, and dislikes many of the characters such as Deanna, nosey parker stating the obvious Troi, and Picard the moralizing, though admitedly highly charismatic captain. On the other hand he loves ds9.

As I said, I don't always agree, but I find his opinions interesting, well argued and often quite funny.

Well regarding Jo ford's thoughts on Startrek, funnily enough happiness was one of his cryticisms of Tng, namely that everyone gets on far too well, ---- and not just in the first few seasons infected by Jean Roddenberry's imperial fluffiness. he also liked Ds9 because he feels Next Gen was hippocrytical in trying to be multicultural and then having the Federation impose their morality and "Be like a human" philosophy on every other culture, which was interesting to read. I'm not sure to what extent I agree but I thought he did bring up some good points, particularly about characters, ---- though I disagree with him on Dr. Bev Crusher being the blandest and worst acted character on the series, but then again I've always had ---- well a bit of a crush (ha ha), on her. 

With respect to Lucy I didn't mind her accent at all, indeed growing up in Nottingham with my parents and often going on visits to places around the North counties (including Blackpool and Skegness), Lancashire accents are somethig that sound very natural to me (I can do a pretty fair Stanley Holloway myself).

What annoyed me with Lucy is she seemed basically an architype of the new series companion and just to be in the audios to appeal to people who expect the Doctor to travel around with someone like Rose or Donna. Low income, disfunctional family, very gobby, isn't phased by time travel but secretly enjoys it.

Fortunately sinse the plotting of the audios is far better than the new series in character terms she both had interesting things to do without being the timie wimie center of the universe, and also had a believable relationship with the Doctor rather than either treating him like an idiot or worshipping the ground he walked on. Indeed, I believe when these were first heired Donna was the current companion of the 10th Doctor and the similarities between Donna and lucy are quite striking, ---- both catapulted into the Doctor's tardis unexpectedly, both starting off antagonistic to the doctor but growing to be friends though not anything more, both with families they generally don't get on with but with one older family member who they are very close to and who is also a friend of the Doctor's.

Oh yeah, and both having a final story with the Daleks involving all significant characters of the previous series coming together,  in a huge alliance including a past close companion of the Doctor from the classic series who is now older and her younger boy assistant, and a previous companion of the Doctor who has gone her separate way after being mixed up with another less than moral time lord rival of the doctor's, both even involve having to persuade the Doctor to leave a planet full of squid people and continue travelling  :d.

Okay, I admit some of those are a bit of a stretch but you get my point :d.

As to clara, oh god, I hope not more! reasons why Clara is the center of all creation and the Doctor is just her little timie wimie shofer, especially if this goes into clara's silly relationship with Danny tocan boy Pink, (really can Moffat have a relationship of people who just get on because they like each other and not because they're actually each other's future selve's parents bought back in time, FReud would love! him).

I laughed when jo Ford called the twist of Amy Pond's daughter actually being her best friend who she grew up with and Amy utterly dismissing all the implications of this not just timie wimie, but perversie wersie :d.

Then again you can't say much from new series trailers. A lot of lines and even sets often seem to be in the new series episodes just to show up in the trailers for next time and hook people, and lets face it if Moffat Who has one thing it does know how to do it's spill out the ominous and vaguely revelatory words (shame they don't actually reveal anything of significance).

On the plus side, well I'm deliberately not commentning on Tamsin or the  Story Lucy Miller sinse the next part is pretty amazing and goes down as one of the best finales in audio who, ---- possibly even in Doctor who generally.

Hmmm, I always felt the first few series of startrek were more stilted, but I tended to blaime that on the writing more than the acting, indeed I personaly find I critique script negatively and performance more positively in general, although there are exceptions, (like Troi I sound like a vampire, and those dreadful first series firengi).

It reminds me of a story i heard that apparently in the original terminator, Reece was supposed to be the super buff hard core body builder type, and the Terminator was supposed to be a very normal average looking human who happened to be a robot under human skin. Arny apparently auditioned for the part of Reese, and, ---- well can you imagine it:

"ai, am, reece, Ai, haf, com, from, da, future, to sev, you, Sarah. Ai, Laaav you"

(sorry if my attempt to write out the Schwarzenegger accent didn't come across).

I can just see the director banging his head against the wall going "hay, is this guy a robot?" Then suddenly deciding to recast the film .

Getting back to Doctor who, well it wouldn't surprise me if the Moff pulls another one of his nonsensical twists, just like retconning the time war or changing the Doctor's death on trensalore even though the reason the doctor went there in the first place was because he died there and found his grave, or oh look, all that stuff about "silence will fall" was because of a random splinter group and the silents are suddenly your friends and lets forget about all that last question malarchy.

I don't know why people call Moffat's plot twists clever, trying to be clever is more accurate, as Stuart said it really is like watching those parody tv programs on Futurama.

On the other hand, anything promising clara to stop existing gets good point in my book, hay maybe Moffat will unretcon the retcon of the time war :d.

Still I'll save my ire for when I've actually seen it, and I don't just mean the teaser, but the episode.  The Moff has failed to deliver on every single one of his over complex ridiculously circuatous plots with more holes than a fishing net made out of Gouder cheese, so hay even if the Teaser had Clara saying "Well Doctor I'm sorry I used my freddy Kruger claws to pull out that man's tonsils but he did look at me the wrong way, oh and by the way that coat your wearing is actually the skin of people I secretly murdered on our travels" ----- well I'd still expect it to turn out to have little or no significance.

If you've heard the first series of new 8th doctor audios, you've seen how a propper time and character plot with significance should work, and how one should be resolved.

speaking of Lucy Miller, let me know when you've heard the last episode, I'd be interested to know what you think.

The problem Cx2 is that there isn't much after! first contact. I haven't seen insurrection for years, and nemesis was hardly a superlative trek film, (I only have a copy because a friend of mine hated it so much he gave it me for nothing) , so usually when I think of tng I think of the tv series.

Indeed, to be honest first contact has some nice bits, but   I really dislike the way Picard is suddenly an action hero and the fact that the borg seemed so useless that an entire cube is blown up and they're stoaways on the enterprise for the entire film. The Queen had her moments as a villainess, especially her interactions with data, but I always preferd the Borg as a faceless collective, it was one of the things that made them so scary.

The two parter reintroducing the cybermen in New who series 2, though it was rather stretched out and had some issues did have a nice idea on this, sinse when a cyber leader is blown up you see a normal cyberman just bend down and download the files of the dead leader, turning his jug handles black and making him the new cyber leader. Indeed there the cyber leader was essentially not distinguished from standard cybermen at all, just the central component in a system.

I actually think the design of the new cybermen was quite correct, huge, clomping and metallic, and definitely not human, even if they have been sort of reduced to rent a villain status, and the emotional weakness plot has been so over used it seems all you need to do to defeat the cybermen is start crying :d.

I know we have multiple reply syndrome on this thread, but sinse I've just watched the finale of dark water/death in heaven, I wanted to offer some detailed thoughts (anyone who has seen it feel free to chime in). The He Who mones podcast mentioned earlier has still not done anymore reviews sinse flatline, and even Jo Ford and his blog has only got up to Mummy on the orient express, (though he's also been doing this months' audios from Big finish), either way I do like discussing these things so here we go.

Needless to say, if you've not watched the two episodes of finale, here come the spoilers of spoilery spoilage! 

Danny Pink getting hit by a car was a nice way to start off and for Clara and The Doctor to have the "should he be bought back" conversation, even though I've never really got this relationship at all sinse the two of them never at any time seemed to share chemistry or even be enjoying each other's company that much. However, then Clara tries to force the Doctor to go back and change history in a really horrible sequence of manipulation which turns out to be The Doctor seeing how far she'd go. Upon learning that Clara would go to the lengths of attempting to destroy his Tardis the Doctor responds with "oh okay tthen, lets go and try and gate crash the afterlife!"  ---- I'm not sure if the Doctor is just a pushover for all his supposed dark Scotish stubbornness, or whether he has just forgotten that mmmm, people you know, die and has decided he is god, albeit a rather ineffective second fiddle god to miss Clara, goddess of pushing him around.

I did rather like the corporate afterlife idea, very being human, and the idea of dead bodies still feeling is geuinely scary. The easthetic for the nethersphere, the skeletons in tanks and the dysen sphere (sorry about mangled spellings), mixed with all the vibes of a care home was really a nice idea, and I wish it'd had more time devoted to it rather than Moffat playing his usual stupid flirting game with missy and the Doctor once again.

The big reveal of the Cybermen wasn't actually that big if you remember the cybermen theme music from age of steel (really Murry gold should be consulted), though I disliked how quickly the cybermen just popped up here sinse the Afterlife was far more interesting. Plus, why would the cybermen need the minds of dying people? Even just waving a mention of the matrix of galifrey here didn't work.In the past, the cybermen have proved quite capable of pinching dead boddies from grave yards, sending them to the cyber chop shop and doing a full convertion, so why the hell the hole dying mind afterlife thing? really it reminded me of the film The Matrix, an amazingly illaborate mental landscape for a physical process that probably was entirely unnecessary, and don't even ask why the hell the cybermen from alternative earth are hear (really ever sinse their appearence in the first moffat episode with their huge space empire I'm totally uncertain what happened to the cybermen alternate earth origin at all, they just seem to pop up when needed, and in this episode they were quite literally rent an army for the master (or should that be mistress).

The no emotions bit with Danny i could vaguely bye into, sinse about all we know about Danny is that he's a soldier that has killed people in action and it's reasonable this bothers him, though all the lying to Clara over the phone seemed amazingly superfluous to requirements.

Missy as The Mistress aka female master I did actually rather like. timelord regenerations switching gender is something that has been speculated, and there's really no reason they shouldn't, and while Missy was yet again the standard moffat over s/xual, smart mouthed quipping hyper nutcase we're used to from any Moffat character with two x chromosomes, at least for an evil character that sort of attitude works, indeed it's remarkable how little evil and good female characters seem to differ under Moffat.

Clara again seemed not too bothered about Danny other than all the fibbing on the phone and the "i love you" stick, which while nice in principle probably would've worked a bit better if I'd actually cared about those two characters connection a little more than I did.

So then we get to the second episode, death in heaven.

My first problem with this episode is one of pacing, sinse the main plot seemed to get really incoherent while there seemed to be bags of time on the clara and danny cyber romance which I just didn't get the connection of at all, quite different from any of the Russel relationships. For a start, I wasn't sure from various lines whether the corporate death company was supposed to have been getting every soul in human history, or whether it's been just the hyper rich and being investigated by unit, or whether it was just the few cybermen that went and exploded, or how the mind transfer thing related to the condition of the boddies in the afterlife, the skeletons in tanks, the fear of crimation etc. Heck, one moment the nethersphere seemed to be inside saint Pauls, at another it was some sort of tardis, at another it was some sort of other dimention. A bit more info and time to deal with the concepts here would definitely have been good.

I also really didn't feel the cybermen pollen, or nano virus or whatever it was got enough explanation, particularly sinse where the episode started with cybermen jetting off all over the world and creating doomy black clouds in actually a quite atmospheric sequence, not a lot seemed to happen with this as it was all ddelayed reaction to create cybermen from dead boddies in grave yards. Above all with the pollen, I have to ask if cybermen can create rain that instantly creates fully upgraded cybermen from dead boddies from some nano virus or dna or something, why not just have it convert living people? It just seemed a pretty gaping hole, quite apart from the fact that getting cybermen that way sidesteps the real issue of cybermen, the body horor of having your body chopped up, covered in metal and your emotions removed to make you a cold blooded killing machine.

I did like the fact we saw the brig's portrait and that Kate Stewart returned, which is a nice link to the past, though what the heck was all that guff about the Doctor being president of the world? I much preferd it when he was just Unit's scientific adviser. In the same way as the cybermen were a bit confused I also didn't get mentions of the valiant aircraft carrier last used by Unit in "journies end" or of Saxon as Prime minister, particularly considering that Moffat (as reviewer jo ford so wonderfully put it), shoved all the previous invasions from the Davies era up Amy's crack so they never happened, (a shame as the earth who remembered alien invasions and had agencies like Torchwood to guard against them was much more interesting than just the earth who constantly forget).

Missy also seemed remarkably ineffective here, especially as compared to the last time we saw the master in New who, you know the person who destroyed one tenth of the earth's population with the future versions of earth, tortured characters for a year or made all the world into clones of himself. Missy seemed pretty ineffective here, sinse even if we bought her army of cybermen zombies plan she never really seemed to put it into practice and ended up in a pretty silly position, indeed it felt rather like the writer didn't know what to do with her so had her chained up for half the episode while the Clara and Danny romance played out, indeed it's rather odd how the story started as a big "zomby cybermen army threatens the world" and devolved into a few people having a chin wag in a graveyard.

One thing I will say about Missy though is her "she calls and you obey, heal doctor, the ultimate control freak and the man who can't be controlled" remarks were rather nice, even if pointing out the flaws in the writing doesn't really make them any the better.
I actually did like Danny asking for Clara to turn off his cyber inhibitor, sinse it was nice to see the emotionless cybermen from another perspective, even if Danny was so wooden (tears withstanding), that you didn't really notice much difference, and again his "where are your big speeches now doctor" moment was again a nice comment to the problems of the writing, even if I didn't buy into the Doctor as soldier business.

"love is not an emotion it's a promise" is just so problematic on psychological grounds I could write a hole paper on it's wrongness, but lets skip on to the doctor.

Clara's "I am the Doctor" was actually a pretty good fake out, sinse I wouldn't put that sort of twist past Moffat, indeed it almost feels like that was a rejected idea. The Doctor in general I didn't mind, and I loved his "I am just an idiot" moment sinse it was far closer to the way the Doctor should be thinking, but it seemed Missy and the Doctor just didn't get enough room to breathe as an interaction compared to the dragging story of Clara and Danny. Likewise, the Master (or missy), gives the Doctor command of an army? possibly an interesting plot if we actually had any idea that this doctor might be someone who would! use such an army, but however dour and Scotish and grumbly Capaldy has been, he's just not convincing on the dark front at all, sinse he's never threatened to be write in the wrong way, indeed on the rare occasions he has been even close to being right Clara has given him a slap and told him off, so, ---- mmmmm, the Doctor has an army? meh!

now david tenant with an army, after his "timelord victorious" speech in waters of mars, or Silvester Mccoy with an army, mr, I can manipulate the hole universe, or even Ecleston, that! would have been scary sinse there would be a possibility they'd go too far, but not capaldy. INdeed this is probably one of my biggest issues with the eleventh and Twealth doctors, in such a fluffy universe where nobody dies and nothing bad happens, the Doctor is a much less interesting character if he always has the power to solve anything once his boss aka assistant has told him to. I actually would've preferd the Doctor to shoot Missy at the end, sinse hay at least that would've given him a bit of kick and satisfied the "oooh look, morally ambiguous!" trait, but no.

So meh, angel Danny turns up and brings back Tiny Tim, the Doctor and Clara both lie to each other about being okay (though why exactly I'm not sure, sinse there was no reason not to tell the truth there), and everything is left in grim dysmality with cyber Danny's sacrifice, ---- or at least would be accept that a post credit sequence pretty literally says "don't worry kiddies, everything will be alright come christmas"

I think over all "meh" is my feeling to this finale.  I  suppose that is an improvement over my irritation with moffat's other finales with their timie wimie convolutions and instafix solutions, (at least there were no robot clones or instant resets here), but it's still a long way from Russel's finales sinse at least with Russel at the emotion was there.
But for the two episodes penned by MAtheson "meh" is sort of my summation for this series, which is certainly not! what I want to be thinking of Doctor who. capaldy could be a great doctor, some C baker grumpiness and unpredictability, some ecleston world weariness, some Mccoy manipulation, some T Baker tactless eccentricity and some Heartnal alien aloofness, plus his own personality. The problem is he's just not been given stories that show up these qualities, and it doesn't matter how many times you ask "is the doctor a good man?" if there is no possibility of him not being, then what is the oint in the question?

I really miss that universe which Tenant was in, the one with no timelords, chaos and darkness, where as Tenant put it "Everything became less kind" and that is what hurt Capaldy most for me, sinse with no reason or logic behind them in a fluffy "everybody lives" world, all these dark tendencies just look like the Doctor is Mr. Grumpy and has to be constantly told "chear up and don't sulk" by the ever smart and perky Miss Oswld.

I really hope Moffat finishes soon, and maybe under another show runner we can get back to the scarier, nastier universe populated by real, fragile people who we care about, in that! universe capaldy would be awsome! as it is, I still hold to my previous theory, there are ten doctors, one timewar, and yes, it did! happen.

Beware! possible spoilers of spoiling again.

Yep, I agree on the Clara eternally trusts the Doctor thing being annoying, though to be honest that's almost standard for a new who companion, indeed I think they've all had speeches about how awsome the Doctor is and how he's their bestfriend/eternal love of the universe etc, ---- all that is with the possible exception of Donna.

The audios have their moments too, though usually they are built on much more development and indeed they don't tend to give such moments to companions who've had as tempestuous and duplicitous relationship with the Doctor as Clara and the twealth doctor seem to have had.

For me however, it was the lack of chemistry in the Clara/danny romance that really hurt the finale. It seemed Moffat was trying for a big romantic conclusion like Parting of the ways, but just didn't manage it because I never really got through the series that Clara liked danny that much. Her speech about "don't say I love you it means nothign" again almost seemed like the writers pointing out their own short falls because when Clara said this earlier it just didn't do much for me, not compared to Rose, ---- heck even when Amy said she loved Rory, or the Doctor it was at least convincing, even if she'd switch her affections and start bitching the next second, and when I start comparing Clara favourably to Amy Pond you know! something is wronG.

I suppose you could say Clara knows all the Doctor's past from that crazy Timy wimy nonsense about Clara being woven through all the Doctor's timestream or something, though I have no idea where "four grand daughters" came from, sinse as far as I know the Doctor has always and only had one and that is Susan. It might be some obscure meta reference to different origin stories or futures for Susan, but if so it's a very obscure one that I don't recognize sinse as far as I know while there was an origin proposed in one of the novels, it was never followed up on and the audios are rather mysterious on who Susan exactly is, much less who her parents were. Likewise, last we heard Susan was still on 22nd century, post Dalek invasion earth. There is one of the 7th Doctor new adventure novels that had her steal the Master's tardis and then start travelling the time vortex, but firstly those Novels are now officially set in another universe from the universe of the audios and tv stories (which form a mostly continuous cannon), and secondly neither of these possible futures for Susan seas her "lost" unless something happened in the Time war which we're not being told, ---- accept that now the time war mostly didn't happen either, or at least not the important emtoional consequence of missing Galifrey.

As to the Scotish master, I suspect it was to counter the Scotish Doctor, rather the way that Tenant had Jon Sim as the master who was literally an evil version of the tenth doctor (they even looked and dressed rather alike), however it did seem a bit badly timed sinse if the master was going to be a woman, she/he is already different enough from The Doctor anyway, so why bother with the similarity? When Missy was revealed as having two hearts I actually wondered who she was. when she accused the Doctor of abandoning her I thought she might be the Doctor's daughter previously mentioned having regenerated, or maybe even the woman from "the end of time" who facilitated the Doctor's taking out of Rassilon.

One weerdly appropriate thing did just occur to me however, ---- given Moffat's standard "flirt happy" female character profile, isn't the name "the mistress" worryingly appropriate? .

As to cross gender timelord  reincarnation, well maybe this is leading to  female doctor in four or five years, actually during the "clara is the doctor" moment I actually did wonder if that was the point, sinse then at least the Clara show would still be Doctor who . It also does open some very itneresting reappearences, ---- Romana as a guy? or maybe a male version of the Rani?

Well oddly enough, Lesbians seem more accepted on Tv than gay men, particularly lesbians just being two normal female characters who like each other, though just put this down to the usual unrecognized sexism against anyone male. Interestingly enough, Jo ford in his cryticisms of Startrek Tng actually does note that for all their vaunted acceptance, where are the gay or by men, and why only weerd alien lesbians?

I wasn't to be honest thinking timelord Gender switching in lesbian terms (though we all know Moffat would do that with the character sinse the man does have certain obsessions especially with women), I was just thinking as you said in character terms.

I'd have loved to see a sort of hard as nails female master rather like the White Witch from the Bbc narnia series, ie, just a rock hard lady with the charisma of Christopher Lee as apposed to the usual flirty and gobby moffat female. There are of course other possibilities, ---- the Meddling monk turning into the annoying nun? . 

Btw, speaking of the Meddling monk, how did you rate "to the death" now there was a good finale.

I haven't watched all Doctor Who episodes of the new series.
While I can understand that a fresh start with the ninth doctor might have been a good move since the Show was originally canceled years ago and all that.
But what I didn't get was why lots of things were never answered inside the Show.
I mean if we looked only at the ninth and tenth doctor eras and we believed that the doctor ended the time war and only the Doctor and the Master got out somehow, then I would have liked to see a Story which could have told us if and how Leela might have seen the war and if she lived after it or not.
Then when the first new cybermen Story with the alternate earth came and the doctor stated that travel between realities was impossible, then I knew one question no one bothered to answer.
Theoretically one "universe" should still be accessible: E-Space.

What I also don't get is why now one is properly talking about the time war and why no media is showing it be that´books, Audio Dramas or movies or regular episodes.

I didn't get the entire silence Thing.
How were they supposed to know that the War Doctor didn't destroy the time Lords when he himself had forgotten and no other race, not even that one Dalek who broke the time lock first could see beyond the apparent destruction?
And what the hell was the purpose of the sige of that planet where the leventh Doctor should have died?
How did all races suddenly know that the time Lords were knocking at the door of the universe and why the hell did they think to prevent their return at all cost if supposedly their existence was deleted from all minds?
If so, no one could have remembered that it was dangerous to bring the time Lords back.
This however doesn't take into account if the time Lords if brought back, were still the Monsters seen in "end of time" or if they were reformed after years outside the universe...

What do you think of all this and do you think the Dalek/Eminence plot of the Dark Eyes series are some Kind of quasi-Prequels to the time war?
Is the Dalek time controler Aware of the war yet to come (from the Eighth Doctor stories Point of view)?

And does anyone have any idea why Big Finish is still not allowed to go into the new series era?
I mean apart from the main TV Show we only have the New Series Adventures books, but as far as I know, they are stand alone stories not like the Eighth Doctor or the Seventh Doctor books.
And since there are only the new Series audiobook and the Audio exclusive stories, I don't get why Big Finish or anyone else can't be allowed to go further than the eighth Doctor.

Moreover, Gallifrey series 6 implies that Narvin ordered the things seen in "Genesis of the Daleks" to which the Daleks might respond with the first shoots of the time war being fired...
I hate this "hinting and teasing".
Why can't there be definite answers.

And finally, isn't the entire current series 8 a bit strange?
I mean, if the Doctor did preserve the time Lords, shouldn't the plot of the season have been him searching for them?
And even if he found a female master, how did she get into the Primary universe?
The master was last seen in end of time, right?

@Cx2, I take your point on To the death and the Monk's motivations, though from a storytelling perspectiv I don't think there was exactly time to cover anything more complex with the Monk. The Impression I got was that the Monk was A moral rather than immoral and was making things up as he went along with regards to the artworks etc. We do know he's worked with the Daleks before and knows better than to cross them, so was probably trying to extracate himself and Tamsin from the situation as easily as possible while grabbing what opportunity presented along the way. The shear death count and drama though is astounding, and I'm actually willing to forgive Lucy Miller being such an annoying person for her exit moment. You can also see why the eighth Doctor at the end of "To the death" is! someone I could imagine using the moment to destroy the timelords and daleks together.

Regarding transgender timelords, it's an interesting question, however to be honest pretty much all of the mainstream timelords we've seen whether lords or ladies have been largely the same socially anyway. In the story Thicker than water which I just finished listening to again the 6th Doctor had the wonderful comment "Half the timelords are corrupt and the other half are fossels" which pretty much somes up their society nicely .

I therefore suspect that in such a stratified society where gender counted for far less, especially if gender was mutable between regenerations anyway, the question of transgender timelords just didn't come up, though it could be an interesting direction for a fellow renigade timelord like The doctor, albeit one I'd hate to see in the grubby mits of Moffat.

@Lord Raven, yes, season 6 of Galifrey is indeed the start of the time war, and the plot with the eminance and daleks in Dark eyes is intended as opening scenes. I've heard Bf are planning a galifrey season 7, so that might give hints to what Leela and Romana are up to regarding the Time war (or at least it's early stages), even if, unfortunately as Cx2 said, The time war itself can't be done by Bf.

There is actually a book set with John Hurt's war doctor, called "engines of war" (I'm waiting for the audio version), which is supposed to be the history of the time war, though to be honest I preferd it when the time war was a mystery, just this conflict fort across different dimentions in inconceivable ways, and the little hints we got from the tenth doctor, (I love his speech in the end of time when he lists all the bad things from the time war), is just so atmospheric. It's like Steven king's dark tower, better left unexplained, which is another reason I prefer myself to forget about everything after The End of time, and still maintain there are only ten encarnations of The Doctor.

From a meta writing perspective, there was a good reason for the time war before the 9th Doctor, and I give davies full credit for the concept.

By 1989, Doctor who had a huuuuuuge! lot of continuity, about future earth, about the timelords, about the history of various races. Indeed right before it's cancelation David Cartmal was actually trying to suggest some dark history for the 7th doctor because he felt there just wasn't the mystery of the timelords or the Doctor's identity that had existed before The Deadly Assassin.

The Time war was a lovely way of solving this, as well as giving Ecleston some really good character drama and making for a very dark universe. why is the end of earth shown in the second episode of the new series different from that shown in "Arc of infinity?" Because the Time war buggered up the timelines!

It was a great way for Russel to both eat his cake, ie, create new plot, and have it, ie, have old enemies like The Daleks and old friends like Unit and Sarah Jane, not to mention The Master return in some capacity.

Why is the Master no longer infected with the cheater virus from Survival, or using his tracanite body, or some crazy worm creaturein the heart of the Tardis? (the tv movie), because the Timelords bought him back to fight in the Time War, (another fact that the Eminance dark eyes audios have picked up on with the Mcqueen master).

It was a rather clever idea, both in terms of drama and in terms of continuity, unfortunately the Moffat had to *t all over it when he got his grubby paws on the series and turn the entire plot into a ridiculously incoherent mess, substituting convoluted for clever. That is why Lord Raven I'm not going to try and answer any of your eleventh Doctor questions, sinse I don't think there are! answers, or at least not ones other than "Because his Moffasty wanted it so"

Regarding paralell universes, remember that in Doctor Who there is a big difference between another universe and an alternate reality. E space, like The Divergent universe of the audios is a literally different universe on it's own time continuum, (though unlike The Divergent universe E space does have time, it just has a slightly different relationship to space than the universe we know). Alternate realities, ie, branching timelines where events turned out differently are quite another matter, indeed I don't think Doctor who has often visited such things, at least not by choice of unless there has been some serious temporal shenanigans or something very wrong with The Tardis like the 3rd Doctor's trip to a fashist Britain in Infurno. That is why I suspect the tenth Doctor said that travel between realities was impossible, or at least should be, and that without the timelords around things were much less regulated, ---- indeed this ties very well according to the idea that Rassilon used The Eye of Harmony to stabelize The Web of Time and create a continuous history for the universe in which The Timelords were the supreme beings and most galactic races evolved a humanoid form similar to the Galifreyan norm.

Regarding The Novels, well there are different series. The Vergin NEw Adventures range for the 7th and 8th Doctor have officially been said to be an alternate univers,e which makes sense given some of the craziness of those plots (look at the synopses for them they're loopy), while the Audios and the Tv series (at least until we get to the Moffverse with it's craziness), forms a nice coherent plot, (which is why one of the tenth doctor commics references Charley Polard, and why the 8th Doctor regeneration story referenced the audio companions). I believe the Bbc novels also mostly fit into that continuity too sinse as you said, they're pretty much stand alone adventures and don't affect the hole series.

In particular, I think the 8th Doctor's audio run is especially good, sinse he gets a very definite personality, where as the novels range he really fluctuated according to what each author wanted to do with him, quite apart from the fact that outside the generally steadying hand of Knick Brigs as head producer of Bf things in the novels often went rather ridiculous, eg, Galifrey being destroyed and then stored in the Doctor's brain, which sent him insane and created lots of whacky timelines with Jack the Ripper, The doctor's assistant being a girl with no feelings called Compassion who is some how a living Tardis? From the synopses I've read of the New Adventures novels plots it seems things went veeeeeery whacky indeed.

Regarding the legal issue, though the continuity is the same, legally classic who and new who are two different things, it's a very odd position. I agree Bf with the rights to new who concepts and doctors would be awsome (we know Tenant would come back for them, having worked with Bf before, and it's possible other new who characters would too), it likely won't happen while the Bbc still has rights to the new series, even Destiny of the Doctor was a collaborative effort between the now defunked  audio go (at one time the bbc's audio publisher), and Big Finish.

As to the next Galifrey we'll see. I discount the Romana Iii from the eighth doctor novels sinse as I said, they are now officially another universe. Having Tray however would be easy, sinse while she was a matrix projection, there is no reason the real! third regeneration for Romana couldn't show up. After all, sinse the Matrix holds the Biodata for all timelords, it's reasonable to assume that a matrix projection of the third regeneration of Romana would be an accurate one.

I suspect Tray will turn up returning from Romana's future, sinse I doubt Bf would have Romana Ii die and regenerate in the seriess as it would displease a lot of fans, though at the same time it'd be nice if they did. Tray, as a sort of very casual manipulative timelord I could actually imagine as the version of Romana from the Time War, sinse again, like The eighth Doctor as he appearrs in Dark eyes you could imagine that character working in a war setting and both Dark Eyes and Galifrey have moved into showing the early rumblings of the war as I said.

I don't know about any of the Bernece Summerfield questions sinse I confess that is one range I just haven't had the heart to plough through. I do own them all, including the five new box sets, however I just find the reliance of the early sets on the novels, indeed going as far as literally having audios serve as the second parts to Bernece Summerfield Novels with "previously on bernece Summerfield"  really irritating. I am told the box sets are worth it when you get there and even fill in all the random stuff about the novels, like all that business about Bernece getting pregnant with a crystal or whatever, but I've not nurved myself to get through them all (I got to about season 5 and gave up). I also confess I never really saw the appeal of Bernece as a character either, though likely that is a symtom of the same thing sinse it's a bit hard to be concerned about Bernece being manipulated by Braxiatel or having marital spats with her two husbands when I have no idea what her history with these characters is (I could go and look it up on tardis datacore or similar but it just doesn't have the emotional impact).

I likelyt will nurve myself again and run through th full whack at some point, but it's probably the only part of the Dr. Who audios that I'm slightly reluctant about.

Regarding the Axis, one interesting thing that did occur to me is with the Timelords no longer able to regulate all those aborted timelines, I wonder if someone like Jara tow from Axis of Insanity or something similarly distructive broke out, explaining all those ideas of why the Time war was so chaotic. It might also explain why the Axis wasn't used to save Galifrey or any bits of Timelord Technology, sinse if it became unhinged it'd probably be a far more dangerous place, so could no longer provide a haven the way it did when Galifrey was hit by the dogma virus.

Unfortunately, a lot of the answers to these questions are more to do with the behind the scenes history of the series than anything anyone planned. Jonathon Powel canceled Doctor Who in 1989 quite unexpectedly, indeed a 27th season was originally going to happen and several of the scripts were planned (the ones that later showed up as Lost stories). had the Cartmal Master plan gone ahead the 7th Doctor and Ace would've likely parted company, indeed apparently one idea was to have Ace eventually join the academy on Galifrey and be genetically altered into a Time Lord, (why the 7th Doctor was putting her through various tests). I personally like that idea as a final destination for Ace, sinse hay it'd give the timelords a good boot up the arse, and maybe it's something Big Finish, as now the official cannon for the 7th Doctor might do in the future (some of the hints in Signs and Wonders actually suggested as much). As with Romana's regeneration, I personally hope they do, especially now Ace and Hex have finished.

Anyhow, with Doctor Who cancelled, the Bbc didn't particularly give a dam about the series and sold the rights to the book series first to Virgin publishing (hence the Virgin new adventures).
Philip Segal, a British chap living in the states had been angling for an American who series for a good while, and after the series was canceled the bbc again just dropped him the go ahead. Unfortunately Segal ended up with that dreadest of dread networks, Fox! I'm not sure how much of the horribleness of the 1996 Telemovie is down to fox, and how much is down to Segal, but generally it was a very very bad idea, (casting Paul Mcgan was about the only good thing they did).

They wanted some sort of link to draw in fans of the old series, so they started with the 7th Doctor's regeneration, however they then proceeded to balls up continuity horribly, renaming the camelian circuit to a cloaking device, relocating the eye of harmony to the Doctor's Tardis rather than Galifrey, having The Master's crazy worm undead possession powers and lets not forget the Doctor being half human, indeed it's interesting that the book series sinse then and even occasionally the Bf audios have had to really screw around with the Whoniverse to fit this sort of continuity shenanigans in, for example having Evelyn's retinal scan made the basis of Galifreyan security in The appocalypse element explaining why a human could open the Eye of Harmony (though how exactly someone does! open a stable black hole I don't know).

Sinse the plans for the Fox series were ridiculous, ---- the half human Doctor and his brother the master travelling the universe together looking for their father, it's actually a slightly good thing that Fox gave them the usual treatment they give to all good sf series.

Doctor Who then fell into a black hole for a good few years, The novels tried to carry on with the 8th Doctor (though as I said perhaps not in the best way), though in 1999 Big Finish got the rights to start producing the audios, and did an amazing job especially  bringing back Paul Mcgan.

When Ecleston started in the new series in 2005, Davies actually admits that he learnt better from the Tv Movies mistakes, and didn't include a regeneration scene for the 9th Doctor. There are several hints that this is very early in the 9th Doctor's regeneration (for example he checks his face in a mirror in Rose and comments on it), and of course the implication is that he regenerated during the time war. I actually get the impression, as I said above that Russel T Davies wanted the time war to be mysterious and awsome, and rather beyond imagination, which to bbe honest from a dramatic perspective I much prefer.

The 9th Doctor's short time on the show is entirely due to Ecleston throwing a hissy fit. I actually wonder if the rather tacked on ecleston regeneration in "parting of the ways" was due to a later decision being added to the script later, heck originally for the 50th aniversary they wanted Ecleston back but he refused to go sinse "he didn't want to be type cast as doctor who" (for gods sake, type cast as Doctor who, the man is an idiot! that's like saying "I don't want to be type cast as James Bond"). On the plus side, that did give us the awsome tenth doctor.

Torchwood, and Sarah jane were both quite successful spinoffs, and I believe had Russel continued as show runner after series 4, we would've seen more connection between them and Doctor who, including what happened to the cast (a memorial for Liz sladen, say by having Maria and co from the Sj Adventures turn up and explain Sarah the character's death to match Liz Sladen's would've been rather nice). In Miracle day which was produced at the same time as Season 5 there were still harks back to Doctor Who. A fifth series of Torchwood would be rather nice, though I doubt it will happen so long as Jon Barroman is busy with his music tours and other jobs, and unless russel fancies writing another (a shame sinse Miracle day did end on something of a cliff hanger).

Unfortunately, with Russel out of the picture as you said the Moff wanted a complete break, and that included chucking Sj and Torchwood to the scrap heap. Moffat apparently has a huge ego, and it unfortunately shows in how he writes Doctor who, by having almost no references back to the Davies era (and even when he does as with the clockwork Robots of deep breath they're to episodes of the davies era that Moffat himself wrote).

Moffat even had his own version of the Time war so he could monkey with continuity in the form of the hole cracks in time thing, although the hole thing was so dam incoherent and bloody stupid it didn't really work at all and just make the moff look like he didn't know what he was doing with the series, which seems the case. this interestingly enough is why it is quite easy for me to say "Doctor who ends after the tenth doctor"

Regarding the war Doctor not having much time, that is a combination of decisions, firstly Ecleston being a grumpy git, and secondly Moffat being an egotistical arse hole.

Moffat planely decided he wanted to do the Doctor's thirteenth regeneration in a big epic way, so he had to cram two more generations in. He fudged the explanation that the clone doctor created in Journies end after the tenth Doctor got shot by a Dalek (which was not really one of Russel's best ideas anyway), was a missing regeneration, and then had to find another so had the War Doctor idea which also let him retcon the Time war in that stupid way. I'm not sure why he wanted to retcon the time war, imho it was much better as a mystery, ---- I also don't know why in hell! he didn't get Mcgan back properly to do the time war anyway even if he did want to do it.

Then again Moffat doesn't seem to like mystery or propper build up accept around random words that lead no where,  and he has a big thing about sticking his own bland characters into  supposedly integral positions in the Doctor's past, which I can only put down to him trying to satisfy his huge ego, like a little kid writing their name on a chair and saying "it's mine!"

Once again, this is why i believe Moffat deserves a punch up the hooter, the time war happened and was instigated by the 8th Doctor, and there are only ten real Doctors .