I'll have to take a look.

By the by how do you feel about the current Doctor? I'm finding him rather flat and lifeless, though Clara seems to have really gone up several notches in my opinion.

I feel the same way about that awful film of Who in the 90s, for me the 8th doctor is the one from the time war. That said I did like the second series with Matt Smith more than the first. I can see some of what they're trying to do with the new doctor, I am amused by the bits of writing that portray him as a complete clod when talking to women, but it just doesn't seem to be working and I completely agree that the doctor has worked with soldiers often enough in the past. Yes he's had bad experiences with them on occasion but he never really prejudged them in that way before until they proved themselves excessively gung ho.

I have to disagree with Clara though. She's intelligent, confident, quick on her feet when it comes to dealing with unusual situations. Of all the companions I feel she is the one most capable of independent action without the Doctor's intervention, in fact I'd quite enjoy an episode where she's stuck dealing with a situation without the Doctor for some reason. She is also exceptionally good at reading people, she is constantly telling the doctor what's going through his head that he purposely hasn't told her. I'm not impressed by Danny Pink though, he seems rather superfluous. I'd really like them to just cut out all the love interest crap and focus on the stories themselves without all those distractions.

I've been listening to the last few episodes on radio four and Paul Megann is indeed incredible. I'm marginally disappointed that they've moved to the story of the week format of the new Who rather than the multi week stories of the old Who but I guess that's just the times changing.

Btw, for a great summation of the issues I have with Mophat, see the below review by E John winner from This page on the Doctor who ratings guide

A Review by E. John Winner
24/5/14
This includes spoilers, so if you haven't seen this episode... I don't really care.
This childish paranoia against spoilers (which Steven Moffat both feeds and
feeds on) has grown very tiresome. Knowing that everybody dies at the end
never detracted from my enjoyment of Hamlet. When reading Tolstoy's War
and Peace, I was unsurprised that Russia defeated Napoleon's army; I think
I'd heard that before. I knew before watching The Seven Samurai that 40
bandits and four samurai would bite the dust, that didn't prevent me from
being both thrilled and moved when finally experiencing it. In a different (yet
related) way, knowing that John Wayne's character would never die in the B
Westerns he made in the '30s did not make them any less fun. The fact is,
there's no such thing as a 'spoiler' except, perhaps, in mystery fiction, which
involves a certain puzzle game between the writer and reader. But even there
the spoiler is only important as long as the reader knows that there is a
solution, which the detective hero finally explains at the end.
But it has finally become obvious, with this episode, that the Moffat Doctor
Who is a puzzle game without solution, just a never ending soap opera of
misleading teases. Despite Steven Moffat's promotional promises, there are
no explanations in The Name of the Doctor; no solutions to any problems.
We don't know why the Great Intelligence has become obsessed with the
Doctor, we don't really know how Clara became the 'impossible girl' -
genetically programmed? by whom? River Song? - who of course hints that,
despite a supposed final goodbye, she'll be back, still 'connected' to Clara.
And then there's John Hurt. He's supposed to be the Doctor's secret that gets
revealed - except that his secret is not revealed, since we know nothing
about him other than that he is a secret. (It's as if I were to tell you, "I've got
a secret and this is it: that I've got a secret.")
I'm going to cross-post a little; this is the episode plot summary I wrote in a
review at the Internet Movie Data Base (website name winner55):
"THE PLOT: A problem is not introduced, it is arbitrarily generated - a
Victorian serial killer pulls a reference to the Doctor out of nowhere and
some smarty lizard gets her knickers in a twist over it. This brings about a
set-piece seance with a data-stream from the hard-drive of a computer, as
well as a young woman from the 21st century (who has all the personality of
a cardboard cut-out, but after all, the Doctor fancies her). Then some bad
guy who's everywhere and nowhere brings everybody to some dead planet
(how?) where the Doctor is buried in the future, sort of, or his time-streams
are, sort of, whatever that means. Then the Doctor finds a way into his own
tomb, runs around a bit to no purpose, suddenly appears outside the tomb,
then the bad guy attacks and the data stream opens the tomb, then everyone
goes in and 'omg wow!' the Doctor's time streams, sort of. The bad guy
commits suicide so he can cause the Doctor a lot of pain (now that makes no
sense, but what has so far?). Then everybody dies. Then the Doctor's
companion Clara follows the bad guy and dies and and begins chasing
previous Doctors around shouting 'Doctor!' for no discernible reason. Then
everybody's not dead anymore. Then a brief kiss from the dead woman's data
stream, effectively assuring a return visit from her or it or whatever -
'spoilers!' - yeah, aren't we all just a little tired of that tease? Then the Doctor
enters this own time streams because, y'know, he's god or something, and he
finds Clara only god knows where and - oh, look, there's John Hurt, whatever
he is, and - roll credits."
My argument in that review is that Moffat simply hasn't delivered a real story
to us, only a 'narrative' stringing together unconnected scenes. This isn't just
sloppy or lazy writing; it is BAD writing. Very bad.
I won't go into that further. I will say that my interest in Doctor Who began
to diminish as Series 7b dragged on - weak scripts, unsteady performances,
hyper-rushed direction and editing, and the growing embarrassment of Clara:
a two-dimensional 'character' evoking no interest beyond her supposed
mystery (which is no reflection on Jenna-Louise Coleman, a capable young
actress). Somehow, the base of the Doctor's heroism was getting eroded in
weird ways: Moffat's decision to abandon science fiction in favor of slap-
dash fantasy had never before been so apparent, and the character of the
Doctor was clearly losing any sense of heroism or problem-solving
intelligence; he was simply becoming a minor god in some remotely
Hinduistic pantheon, who bounced around quipping one-liners and
supposedly important truisms that were really hackneyed borrowings from 18
century verse.
And then came The Name of the Doctor, and I could see it as clearly as a
train wreck.
What's needed now is a summary of 'what went wrong with the Moffat era.'
It's as plain as what went wrong with the JNT era, but the implications are
more unsettling; on some level, John Nathan-Turner tried to be a professional
producer for a show he loved. But with Moffat, I have this unpleasant
suspicion that he hates the Doctor - the Doctor of whom he was supposedly a
fan at an early age. Clearly he envies the Doctor to the point of loathing him,
and is trying to reshape him in Moffat's own image - or, rather, of course,
what Moffat would like to be, were he a Time Lord. Failing that (and he
must fail that, since the series has a 50 year history he can't undo - no matter
how he tries), he seems determined to put an end to the series: 'No Moffat,
no Who!' his episodes scream at us.
Which is a pity, because the Doctor's greatest strength has been that he is a
shared experience.
But The Name of the Doctor, unfortunately, doesn't share anything with
anybody - except those 'fans' who function as cultists of Steven Moffat,
excusing his every flaw as some weird turn of 'genius.'
There is little more to say about The Name of the Doctor, other than it is an
appalling example of truly bad television - and the absolute WORST episode
of Doctor Who in any medium whatsoever. Like most long-time fans, I will
probably tune in for the 50th, but I doubt I will be watching after that. I am
tired. Tired of the unsolvable puzzles, tired of the soap opera, tired of the
fake magic, tired of the two-dimensional characters, tired of the rushed,
discontinuous plotting, tired of the 'epic', tired of the misuse of that term
(epic) by Moffat and his cult, tired of watching my hero deconstructed into
some pseudo-myth... But let me make that clear: I do not come to genre
fiction of any kind for an experience as messy and disappointing as real life. I
want my genre heroes to be heroic, to know how to resolve problems and
find some ethical resolution to conflicts that in reality continue to plague us
unceasingly. I found that in Doctor Who forty years ago when I first bumped
into the program on a local PBS station; along with some solid scares, thrills
and a good dose of humor.
The Name of the Doctor ripped that all away from me. Of course, it had been
going that way throughout the Moffat years, but there was enough to hold
onto, and the occasional story that made sense and delivered some real fun.
But this latest episode is so baldly in-our-face BAD that it can no longer be
denied. There is nothing left of Doctor Who on television.
Well, the good Doctor has suffered hiatus and cancellation and weird, Post-
Mod assaults on his history and character before, and he kept coming back. I
assume he'll come back post-Moffat as well. There is something about the
Doctor that haunts us, and I think I'm beginning to get a sense of what it is.
As William S. Baring-Gould once wrote of Sherlock Holmes fans, to such
readers "it is always London, 1890..." But that is the subject of another
essay, and, if I were to go on - well, that would be spoilers.

Wow Cx2, if your on the 4th season of eighth doctor adventures with Tamsin you have some major shocks coming up. The end of that season is probably one of the best Doctor who  finales ever and an amazing plot resolution, so look forward to that.

I agree though, The doctor doing "the Apprentice" was wonderfully silly and balances out some of the very dark stuff later in the season.

I liked River's introduction with David Tenant in silence in the Library when she was a mysterious and knolidgeable professor who was calm and enigmatic, and I do enjoy the concept of the Doctor meeting someone in reverse through time, however River in the elventh doctor era just became so annoying, schizoid and insane,  particularly with what was supposed to be flirting but actually came across more as being in your face and down right disturbing, --- -after all  what would you think to a male character who walked up to anyone of the opposite gender and said "oooh ! hello sweety! aren't you nice to look at!"  I lost any respect for her or her tragedy I'd ever had, particularly with how incoherent her plot was.

with Amy I wasn't sure if the bad temper and mood swings was her being scotish or just her being self obsessed, indeed one rather ironic thing I thought is that Amy is so similar to River that when it's revealed she's river's mother it's quite obvious, (obviously selfishness and s/xual predation is hereditory).

I certainly don't mind the Doctor's companion being the driving force for the story or kicking the doctor up the arse occasionally, but in Mophat who  it just seems the Doctor has no motivation of his own, ineither can he actually solve any plots without being told to by his female assistant.

Characters who are the Doctor's equal and will do what they think is right (even when it conflicts with the doctor), are awsome, but there is a difference between that and treating the doctor like an idiot, though in fairness the eleventh doctor was so bland that he didn't really have the presence or personality to stand up to much, ---- one reason why his usual way of defeating anything once his companion told him to seemed to be to shout at it and tell it to go away rather than actually doing anything practical to defeat it.

I can see what they planned with Vastra,but again like Clara I just can't see much in the character. It doesn't help that she got probably the most badly written introduction to any character ever, the Doctor in Good man tgoes to war (or as my brother and I refer to it good show goes to wrong), where the doctor just says "oh and here's my random silurian friend who I met in Victorian london off screen"

I can sort of see what they intend with Vastra, a wise and insiteful character who isn't afraid to do what needs to be done, but all of that sort of fades out when she doesn't actually end up doing anything, when her wisdom usually boils down to "stop being a silly billy doctor and just shout at that monster loudly!" and when the Lesbian thing didn't really mean much other than some again, annoying flirting with her random maid.

Really, being a lesbian doesn't make a character interesting unless it serves some point in the plot, rather than just going "oooh look here's vastra and her random bit of fluff"

Contrast this to say Toshico in Torchwood and the way she's manipulated by the Alien woman in "grieks baring gifts" and the Lesbian theme plays into the idea of having a pendent that lets her hear people's thoughts.

As for the backwards in time meeting thing, it's something bf have done much better in several cases. Most prominantly in the sixth doctor charley relationship, sinse the sixth doctor meets her as she's a temporal anomaly, and Charley, (who knows about regeneration from her time  visting Galifrey),  doesn't want to tell him who she is sinse she doesn't want to mess up the future or worse, tell him how he dies. The Doctor on the other hand is amazingly suspicious about this supposedly lost girl from the 20th cntury who he meets marooned in the far future and knows surprising things about the Tardis, ---- and of coruse being Colin Baker who is awsome, this suspicion is played wonderfully.

Getting back to the moph,I will say in fairness I can think of a couple of isolated eleventh doctor episodes I liked, but never because of the eleventh doctor himself or his companions. I really enjoyed seeing the silurians back, and the tention of the wounded silurian soldier with the humans one of whom has lost her son was fantastic, ---- heck Mophat even had a character die in that episode which made sense.

I liked The Niel Gayman penned story, The Doctor's wife, though more for the easthetic than the ideas, and I rreally liked "flesh and stone" the idea of workers in hazardous places using biological copies of themselves who then want independence was a lovely one.

My problem though is that over all things just felt bland and constnatly promising nothing, and none of the characters were particularly strong, indeed Mophat seems to think annoying=strong, plus I can't get over the fact of the main series plot, ---- or lack there of, and such stupidities as retconning the time war because oh no! there were children on Gallifrey! or chissling Paul mcgan out of his propper moment, ---- and the less said about the doctor's crazy regeneration  the better!

What said it all for me with mophat was the scene in Deep breath where clara is captured by the robots, ---- these supposedly nasty robots who have been murdering people off screen and canabalizing their body parts to repare their ship. The robots first threaten to kill her, then threaten to torture her with an evil blow torch and Clara just cries and asks the robots to tell  her all their plans, which they do.

the doctor reappears, and says what is probably the most telling line in new who about the writers intentions:

"Oh five foot one and crying, they didn't stand a chance!"

yes, these supposedly evil robots, woe betide that they do anything bad to the pretty girl, or the main character, or probably both! Come on, any self respecting dalek would've threatened to  exterminate clara, or started hitting her with electricity to get her to talk  faster than you could say agony beam! but no, this is a kids show, so "They didn't stand a chance!" Indeed, the shear sexism in that line alone makes me want to rip Mophat a new one, (I wonder if a male character would've been so invincible).

I wish that like Russel left with Tenant, Mophat could have left at the end of Mat Smith's run, then perhaps we'd be getting some semi decent stories for Capaldy to do and a propper doctor back, however as it stands I now regard Mat SMith and Capaldy's stories to not be part of the Cannon, or at least to take place in an alternative universe.

Actually, here is an idea! in Zagreus the Doctor enters the Divergent universe where time is cyclic. During the time war the Daleks discovered this universe and used it as a prison for important time lords, sinse being cyclic the temporal senses of time lords didn't work and they would exist for eternity.

Mat Smith and Capaldy's doctors take place in this universe on an alternative version of earth. The huge explosion in the tenth doctor's tardis at the end of "the end of time" was actually the Tardis being pulled into the wake of Galifrey and returned to the time of the time war, where it was plunged into the  Divergent universe by the Daleks who realized that having a future version of their greatest enemy would give them an ultimate edge in the war.

This is why nothing bad happens, sinse the Daleks are attempting to keep the doctor passive and not arouse his sense of justice to go galivanting around the universe, and also why the Doctor spends so much time on earth. Amy was created originally as a Dalek Replicant intended to be the Doctor's companion, however the Angels (which are really the Dalek's way of manipulating time in this universe), removed her and Rory from the equation when the Doctor started to become too suspicious about why nothing around him made sense.

She was then replaced by Clara, who was programmed with all the data of the Doctor's previous companions by the Great intelligence, and intended to be as bland as possible.

The Daleks then use the Doctor to test out various scenarios which they intend to utilize in the time war against the time lords and the 8th doctor, such as what might happen if the Daleks rebelled and turned good in Into the Dalek, or whether in fact they could trap the Doctor in a box like the Pandorica (an experiment which nearly destroyed the Divergent universe).

Of course the Daleks are aware that the 8th doctor will use The Moment to end the time war and destroy them, which is why they explored the scenario of what would happen if they could stop the Doctor from doing this, and thus allow the Dalek empire to rule the galaxy.

See, it all fits together!  now, when will the Bbc put me in charge of Doctor who? heck, I couldn't do a worse job than the Moph :d.

@River and the sexual thing I tend to think much more harshly of, sinse hay would anyone let a male character be like that? No, he'd be deemed a total creep, so why is it okay for a female character?

The only  time I liked river as I said was her appearence in silence in the library, and that basically because she wasn't behaving like the insanity she was in the series, her origin is frankly insane. So being concieved in the tardis some how magically makes her a time lord and she's used by someone against the doctor somehow and having a random mariage ceremony   with the doctor fixes this, only it doesn't because he's still a robot clone and some weerd faction controls her body, -----  what the hell?

Probably the entire new series run could bennifit from the audios, heck I'm even prepared to say Amy might be barable, sinse the audio series already made me totally reevaluate my opinions of several characters, the fifth and seventh doctors, Mel, Romana, who I never thought much to previously, ---- no, I've never really been a Romana fan, it wasn't that I particularly disliked her I just couldn't really think of much about her either.

Regarding the bf stories, unfortunately if you only started with the 8th doctor audios you have the one set that are! single episodes. Most of their main monthly series range are  four episodes spread over about two hours each, while their other stuff usually comes in the form of series box sets with four hour long episodes making up the hole.

That is one reason the New eighth doctor stuff finished up being  made separately at the Bbc's instigation.

Of course they're still slightly expensive, albeit less so than they used to be, so I'd recommend perhaps looking to borrow some of the back catalogue if you can, and then maybe picking up the new ones.

Of course I freely admit I'm a huge whovian, in case you haven't guessed :d.

Jack did occur to me, however Jack seemed to know who actually was interested in flirting with him and who not, and to hold back on people who  weren't, heck, look at his behaviour around   Riece, Gwen's husband, and in fact Gwen herself at least after he got to know her. River just seems to push herself at everyone and everything, which is as disgusting as it sounds.

With jack also, the flirting was only part of what he did, heck, he's a time agent and ex con man who's close to imortal, an expert in technology and head of a secret government agency who also happened to live through most of the 19th century. There's much more in his character to play with.

I know River is supposed to be this awsome archaeologist indiana jones type character, and to have all those crazy Mophat super powers, but really they just don't mean a lot to her character the way say Jack being a conman or a compitant police officer does.

If we play the plinkit game, there are lots of ways I can describe jack without referring to his flirting. He's confident and engaging, yet also world weary and synical on occasion though makes up for this with inthusiasm, even if occasionally forced inthusiasm, he also knows there are things he should be afraid of.

River is, ----- mmmm, well confident? and mmmm,loud, and mmmm,  misterious and quirky? Really if I forget about silence in the Library there's not a lot to say about River that doesn't relate to her silly back story.

With Bf and the license, they are already in close communication with the Bbc so that they don't step on the toes of the series. for example, the story "Patient zero" was originally going to be called Victory of the Daleks until Bf learnt that 2010,the Bbc wanted to use the title, ---- a shame sinse where as the Bbc victory of the daleks is widely regarded as the worst episode of New Who ever with the most horrible Dalek redesign in history, the Bf story is a really awsome series closer that involves the Daleks spreading diseases throughout time and has cool temporal paradoxes as well as some awsome stuff for Charley and the sixth doctor.

Bf actually are! doing the time war from the perspective of the eighth doctor,indeed at the moment in the 8th doctor continuity with the latest dark eyes it looks like the Time Lords are attempting to use a gasious life form which can take over other beings called The Eminance to wipe out the Daleks, but have realized that if anything The Eminance is worse and threatens to utterly take over the universe in the future.

They've already had the Daleks attempting to erase the time lords from Existance, and in the end of their political Galifrey series you see the Daleks attempt to invade Galifrey and the time lords respond by sending someone back in time to  get the fourth Doctor to try and alter the Dalek's creation in the Tv story Genesis of the Daleks.

there is supposed to be a Galifrey series 7 which expands on this, though with the hole war Doctor shenanigans (which even though i personally think it didn't happen the Bbc don't agree with me), it's doubtful they can show too much more.

With the License itself, unfortunately I suspect it's because the two series are legally different entities, sinse I know like a shot David Tenant wwould be back for Bf, heck before he was the Tenth Doctor he's played several parts for them already, from a very fervant and unpleasant Nazi, to a racist and biggoted colonel in the Unit series, to a genetically engineered soldier created to lead humans against the Daleks in the Dalek empire series.

Actually the last of these is particularly weerd, sinse the  soldiers have been  bred to be specifically charismatic, meaning that  Tenant is at his most extravert, and also the series finishes with him giving a long speech about how wonderful humans are and how even if there is another war with the Daleks humanity will never become like the Daleks, ---- that really! is difficult sinse it sounds so much like the tenth doctor even though he's exterminated just afterwards. Ironically, the series was recorded in 2005 as wel, so I wonder if, after Ecleston wussed out of playing the doctor davies heard that and went "hay! that guy sounds like a good doctor, go get him!" .

That Faq was written still at the time when people thought "the time war" meant Mcgan regenerating into Ecleston, which Bf couldn't do, (though imho as I said, Mcgan does still! regenerate into Ecleston).

They can still have an escalating conflict between the Daleks and Timelords, and have many hints to the fact that worse stuff is coming along, indeed in the Second Dark eyes the master is regenerated by the Time lords so we get another (and quite different)t Master before the one Tenant met who went and turned himself human.

Then again, sinse Davies left continuity seems to have gone out the window anyway, what with so much crazy shenanigans that don't make sense and vague hints that go no where, so it probably wouldn't matter if bf actually did! the time war, even if they have to stop short of the Doctor using the moment or regenerating.

As to Torchwood I agree. Series 1 was very much raaaagh! look this is adult! it has soap opera plots with affairs and things, and lots of gore, and people who are bi, and morally ambiguous and grim stuff!

However Series 2 started really picking up. All the characters got explored and heck, MArtha who was one of my least favourite tv characters actually was pretty cool in Torchwood, and Children of Earth aka Series 3 is just plane amazing!

Miracle Day aka series 4 has some unique ideas, great moments, and some hilariously ironic twists, indeed it sort of amused me that at the time Doctor who was doing it's "look americans! we have the moon landing, and jokes about the founding fathers, and long speaches about the American people, and please buy this!" Torchwood Miracle day was having very ironic pokes at a lot of American things from corporate Televangilists, to the death penalty and the Cia thinking their invincible.

Miracle day was good, though not quite as awsome as Children of Earth.

SoBtw, I just saw the episode "listen" yesterday of the new series, and yee gods mophat needs to get his act together! all that Surreal stuff about fear which basically boiled down to Clara telling the doctor he was afraid of the dark, and what on earth was that rubbish about the Doctor wanting to join the army or something? Indeed seeing the young doctor on Galifrey was just plane wrong!

If that episode says  something it's that the Doctor is an idiot and Clara needs to constantly tell him what to do, and the Doctor is crap at talking to kids, which given the fact that he has already had at least one child plus his grand daughter and that in the past the Doctor has been actually pretty good with kids was just wrong!

And if the Doctor is supposed to have no romantic feelings for Clara, what's all this ridiculous competing with Danny thee idiot Pink? Indeed Danny sort of annoys me (what is it with the Moph and actually writing male characters with any sort of integrity who aren't social missfits).

I do see what you  mean about Clara being a stronger character, but all "listen" seemed to say is that the doctor is an idiot and Clara needs to boss him around! indeed what this says about men generally is pretty cruddy, but would probably take another post.

On the plus side, I also saw Time Heist which was, surprise surprise, a good story! it had a real monster that actually killed! someone (sound the bloody trumpets), and I loved the idea of characters who died, even though of course Mophat had to undermine that.

It was even a sensible time travel story with a nice complete plot and ending, a shame that Mophat had to spoil the end with the doctor saying to Clara "Now beat that for a date!"

In fact the logic here really pisses me off, that everyone, including the thousand year old time lord has to compete for the affections of the pretty girl! grrrrrrr!

Mophat really! needs a punch up the hooter!
I'll carry on watching, but I don't intend to see any of those stories again much less buy them on dvd, and I still hold to my "Everything after the tenth doctor happened in the divergent universe" theory.

I think what's getting me with Danny pink is that in reality anyone that stupid would be regarded as an idiot. It really does! feel that Mophat can't right compiitant male characters (The Doctor included), and he just believes all men are over grown kids to be bossed around by women.

I also agree on the Bi thing. I have a friend who is Bi and is actually in a very stable mariage with another friend of mine. All being "bi" means is that he could've equally been married to a man, not that he runs around like some sort of moron.

I am willing to make an exception for Jack sinse first as I said he was the first character in Doctor who like that, and worked precisely because those around him were toned down (or at least mostly toned down). And second because Jack the character was also a nice guy who evolved from a time traveling con man, to the Doctor's companion, to someone who actually was willing to take a lot of punishment on behalf of others.

I never got that with River or even Amy, indeed it is a problem in a lot of modern writing I've noticed not just Mophs but it is truly difficult to write actually decent characters, ie, realistically good and fairly nice people who don't need a universe shattering danger to throw themselves in front of.

Jack, despite the self obsession, and everything else managed to hit this boundary, or at least to be brought to it over time.

Even people who hate Russel T Davies agree that his strength wwas character which is unfortunately true, and even though he did have a habbit of beating you over the head with characters occasionally, at least it was there, and if the Moph proves anything it's that too much is better than too little.

I can see why the perception would irritate you, though to be honest I wouldn't put River down to being bi so much as The Moph not being able to write, after all Amy is as bad.

The producers are easy to track. Russel T davies left when the tenth doctor (David Tenant), regenerated into the Eleventh Doctor (Mat Smith). I personally noticed a real dip in quality streight off, and while I can think of a few isolated  Smith episodes I like, like the reintroduction of the Silurians or the Rebel flesh episodes (the one with human Gangers created to work in hazardous environments), they are rare.

I personally regard seasons 2 and 4 (the one with Donna noble), as the best of the new series, closely followed by the specials and season one. I admit I didn't particularly rate Ecleston at the time, but rewatching season one now I find myself very much changing my opinion, sinse having such a dark, brooding doctor who you get the idea really did! destroy the daleks and timelords together and would seriously consider doing it again is actually quite a relief after fluffy Mophat land. Indeed, the above podcast has a clip of the 9th Doctor from the episode The Unquiet dead being happy because "just this once everybody lives" and makes the point that under Mophat that is pretty much all the time .

I actually find the Mophat stuff so bland that it's hard for me to remember what fits where or really think of any particularly noteable characteristics of the Eleventh Doctor at all, while I could probably tell you the title of every episode that Tenant and Ecleston were in. Certainly it was when Tenant and Davies left that I stopped collecting the series on Dvd as I just really! didn't want to see the episodes again.

As to whether Jack's flirting was a product of his being bi or his generally being a rogue, probably both, though interestingly enough in JAck's final appearence in Miracle day they seemed to have toned him down to being gay, though whether that is because the Miracle day plot happens to involve a doomed romance for Jack with another man in 1920's New York I'm not sure.

One seen for me that really hit Jack's personality was one in the start of Torchwood Season 2 (the episode appropriately called Kiss kiss, bang bang), where you meet JAck's ex partner, Captain John heart played by of all people James Marsters, (this sounds horribly corny and blatant but actually isn't just because of how awsome John is). John goes into a bar and clears it with an alien device (after saying what he thinks of all the people in the bar).

JAck walks in to find John in his red band leader style jacket sitting at the bar sipping a drink. John gets up and infront of a screen displaying a sunset the two of them do a wonderfully western style walk towards each other. They then proceed to engage first in a very serious kiss, then start slugging each other in a genuine old west style bar room brawl, complete with bottle smashing and people going through tables, while they catch up between blows.

it's a completely lovely scene and one you definitely should see if your a Jack fan (the torchwood dvd has full and highly atmospheric audio description of this).

Your probably right about Jack and the targets, although as I said unlike River Jack does at least only flirt with people who would be interested of either gender.

Funnily enough I did know a chap who was a lot like Jack in that regard, a rather mad and very creative Spanish director and conductor. We weren't sure whether he was bi or just incredibly theatrical, but he really did walk around calling everyone "my dear!" in a very inflated way. he was also a very nice chap, but pretty intensively flamboiant, once when I turned up to a dress rehearsal in full Victorian evening dress his comment was "Oh you do look fetching my dear!" I just replied "oh stop it"

I'd highly recommend Torchwood, especially if your  a Jack fan. season 1 is rather ropy in parts but it's definitely worth perciveering with especially by the time you get to Children of Earth and Miracle Day, indeed Children of Earth has probably one of the best premises I've ever come across that leads to one of the most amazingly nasty scenes, ---- even though the nastiness just involves several government ministers sitting around a table.

Yep, the "everybody lives!" was a nice moment precisely because in Doctor Who the quite literal opposite has happened on occasions .

Heck, watching the original 1963 "The Daleks" the shear body count is quite surprising by modern standards and goes as far as one guy hanging off a bridge by a rope while his companions are attacked by the Daleks actually cutting the rope and plunging to his very definite death! Quite dark for what was intended to be a light family series, and that's even before we get to the fact that several of the Doctor's companions in the classic series and on occasion the Doctor himself also met bad ends.

The Moph on time travel really gets on my nurves. if Doctor who has a theme it's that time has consequences. You can't go back and kill Hitler or stop Pompay errupting without seriously messing things up, heck a major plot in the eighth doctor audios is how seriously the universe gets screwed over just because the Doctor's companion Charley should've died in the crash of the R101 airship and din't.

Right at the start, Verity Lambert the series first ever producer and pioneer atually stated that time travel had the potential plot to ruin any series so had to be limited. At first this was done by making it impossible for The Doctor to control his Tardis, he literally never knew where he'd end up. Then, when Pertwee came around and the Doctor gained full knolidge of time travel the idea of the Blinevich limitation effect was introduced, that if the Doctor (or any time traveler), went back to events they themselves were present in things got seriously screwy in a possibly universe wrecking way.

Yet Mophat uses time travel as his "Get out of bad stuff!" card, to make sure nothing bad ever happens, ever! at all ever! including the bloody time war!

And when it's not time travel, well the Doctor's a robot clone, or the monsters just teleport people off to somewhere else, or some other ridiculouss deus ex machina.

This is precisely why Listen got up my nose, so the Doctor is afraid of the dark and there really isn't a monster, ---- well, mmm, how is that different to pretty much the rest of Mophat's era?

On The Weeping Angels, I actually quite liked them in Blink, sinse at the time transporting people back in time was nicely creepy and lead to some interesting moments like Sally meeting the older version of the young police officer she just left, the quantum lock only moving when unobserved thing is really creepy too.
I didn't mind their second appearence in "time of angels" sinse it was nice to see lots together and as that was very early in the Mophat run monsters that didn't kill were still a novelty. Unfortunately with the general lack of death and the fact that he didn't really do anything else that interesting with the angels after this much less introduce anything more immediately nasty to contrast them with all their appearences sinse then have been sort of meh for me, ---- though in fairness sort of meh is probably what I'd say about most of the Mophat era.

As to Amy and Rory, well I was personally glad Amy was gone :d. But seriously, it is established that the Doctor can't go back into eras that are time locked which is why he didn't change the outcome of the Time war, ---- of course Mophat utterly forgets about this when he wants to retcon the Time war later, so hay, just be glad Amy is gone and feel sorry for poor old rory,  being tied to someone so scummy (no wonder hher name is Pond!), :d.

I never really had the weary thing from Mat smith, mat smith's doctor has always been a bit meh for me. Indeed it's now been confirmed Mophat actually has said that he doesn't think the Doctor should change personality which is why Smith basically seems to be a crappier imitation of Tenant without the arrogance or the teeth or the complexity, and indeed why Capaldy's attempts to be "Dark" are largely falling flat.

I agree on the Doctor being alien and having different morality and making different decisions, look at the 7th Doctor manipulating his own companion in the past to blow up a house which was actually an alien ship, indeed you really! should see some of the ways the eighth doctor reacts to stuff if you want a portrait of that, although in the audios all the Doctors get their moments.

This is again why i'm rethinking Ecleston recently.

On Listen, what narked me was that the Doctor came out as so Irrational and as I said it seemed to be clara saying "oh don't be afraid of the dark you naughty boy!" We are never told why the Doctor was looking for invisible monsters, or even why Danny Pink as a child might or might not have been in danger, it just made both of them look totally stupid.

It's odd, sinse I have seen slightly similar scenarios work in the past and be dam scary for it, and 'm  usually a major fan of the more artistic side of Doctor who, indeed it's the fact that Who can go from horor, to high concept art, to pure sf drama or historical jeopardy that is what I like so much about it and why i'm so much more a Doctor who fan than I am of any other series, however the blandity (which is a totally cromulantt word), of the Moph is really getting up my nose. Indeed as the above reviewer put it, people are complaining that Dr. who is running out of ideas, but come on! it's about a man in a box that can travel anywhere in time and space, literally anywhere!  If Dr. who is getting stale that's not the fault of the premise sinse a more open ended premise doesn't exist, who's fault is it?

apparently however the next few episodes are from new writers, so even thouh the Moph still has his greasy grip on things we might see at least n episode or two with a twist coming up.

Yep, Mophat has actually been confirmed to have said "the Doctor's personality hasn't changed" though how anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the series can claime as much is beyond me. In fairness he also said he didn't want to put off Tenant fans, given how absolutely popular the tenth doctor was, however in which case he didn't really do himself any favours with a cheap knock off.

It's interesting that there was an audio for the 50th  aniversary called destiny of the doctor produced last year, produced by Big finish in association with Audio go (the people whom the bbc get to market their versions of Doctor who audiobooks), in which all eleven doctors each starred in a story , ---- sort of Graphic audio style dramatic readings with sfx done by either actor's who played the Doctor or various companions.

The idea was to have one self contained story a month each of which would illude to future developments and a crysis solved by the eleventh doctor to turn up in November and culminate with the 50th aniversary.

The problem? The eleventh Doctor just didn't have the presence, and having his character appear along side several of the other doctors just emphasized that, heck in a fifth doctor Segment in which a supposedly mysterious hologram appears and helps the 5th Doctor defeat an evil sentient social media network (no I'm not joking), it took me a while to actually realize who it was! and the final end when the universe is supposedly wrecked in a big time experiment gone wonky which the doctor fixes with various elements just ended up feeling flat for that reason. Funnily enough the big climax for me was the tenth doctor and donna's story on an alien world renowned for crashing spaceships and that because it featured killer corel and deadly crustations in a wonderfully alien and disturbing way, and Donna got the immortal line to a visiting alien anthropologist  who was researching the world because it was similar to his own race, "I've never hugged a shellfish before but come here!" .

Interestingly enough, people say had Patric Troughton not been the supreme actor he was, Doctor who could've instantly failed at the first regeneration precisely because! Troughton's character was such a different one to Heartnal, after all you went from an erassable old professor type with a stretch of alien ambiguity, to a scruffy clownish over grown kid who just barged into things for the heck of it but had a strange way of working things out in the end.

i love the section in "power of the Daleks", Troughton's first on screen appearence when he is mistaken for the earth examiner who he previously saw murdered, and when he's asked why he's there says very grandly but clearly with absolutely no idea "to examine!" and then just lets everyone else fill in the blanks.

His rant against the Daleks is brilliant too, sinse he clearly shows just how scared of them he was in a way Heartnal would've never done.

One explanation for the Doctor's regenerations I've heard (and one which occurs in the very first audio Sirens of time), is that the Doctor is the same person, however each regeneration highlights certain aspects of his personality more than others, which is why the rather passive and relaxed fifth doctor was followed by the self obsessed and extremely loud (in more ways than one), sixth doctor, ditto with the 9th and tenth.

The eighth for me is one of the most interesting doctors, sinse he really does go through a definite change, from a romantic gad about time and space, to someone who actually would!use the moment in the time war, in the same way the sixth goes from a paranoid character who takes dignity and self obsession slightly too far on occasion to someone who literally cries at the death of a couple of companions and in one of the best speeches in Doctor who history shows how much he hates the timelords high handed behaviour.

This is actually part of the reason for the existance of one of my favourite companions, Evelyn Smythe, the 55 year old history professor who travels with the sixth doctor sinse it is implied that his friendship with her which people have actually called the closest the Doctor has come to being married melowed him out considderably. Oh, and "married!" quite different to in love or romantically connected, the two of them just get along together in a wonderfully equal way, occasionally locking heads but always with a sense of respect for each other.

The only sad thing about Evelyn is that we've seen how she leaves the tardis eventually, and while there is room to tell more stories with her set before this unfortunately Maggy Stables has been ill so we haven't had any new Evelyn stories for a while.