ketose

Or a guy who looked like the previous incarnation of himself.

Tom Baker has the most episodes of any Doctor and for that reason alone, one has to respect his place in the series. I like Three and Five because they were more adventurous. Baker's Doctor has been compared to Holmes, although he might even be more like Detective Columbo, knowing more than he lets on. I like many of his episodes, especially with Leela, who was a major counterpoint to him. I think you're right about Sarah Jane getting dumber by the season. In the beginning, she had a lot of curiosity about the Doctor, then she just ended up screaming at monsters. Her NuWho episode mostly served this narrative that season that companions are frequently damaged in some way by traveling with the Doctor. I think the Liz Shaw line (quoted by the Brig) was something about the Doctor needing someone to hand him test tubes and tell him how wonderful he is. Jo Grant was supposedly an intelligence agent, but ended up fitting the bill of test tube holder.

One of the great things about the Doctor is that he can be a nerd, a cool character and a natural leader. Ironically, Liz Shaw left because the Doctor knew too much about science. Some good Pertwee episodes are Spearhead in Space (the first), Planet of the Spiders (the last). There's The Time Warrior with Sarah Jane. I also kind of like Inferno because of the mirror universe angle, which was fairly fresh back then.

Agree with the idea of taste being something that you sort of develop. The guests had the caviar and probably didn't think much of it. Ben's an ass for saying to tell them it's Beluga because they can't tell the difference, then bitches when he has to make food they're more familiar with. Maybe if Ben didn't get caviar from the bait shop, they might have been more interested in the finer things he had to offer. By the way, I would ask for shit like Mojitos and baked Alaska and everything else that's either expensive or hard to make if I'm paying the equivalent of the median US income per passenger. I'd ask for freakin Condor omelets with truffles. Amy is the first stew on this show that I haven't considered weird looking in some distracting way. Kate and Kat need to return those horse hair wigs.

I was amused because I'm not on Facebook and just joined LinkedIn. This episode didn't encourage me to change that. I think Eliza kind of went along with the idea that hookups are just part of life. Henry was basically right. When sweet potato didn't have Eliza at his beckon call, he realized he missed her and not just sex. It's also good that Eliza is able to be a guru to Henry and that she wasn't actually the one to get him to try Facebook.

I'm also a fan of Pertwee. Being Earthbound, Liz Shaw was the only "companion" who never went anywhere in the TARDIS. He also showed a different side of the Doctor. He was able to make a life for himself on Earth, even getting a cool car and other concessions from UNIT. There are Matt Smith episodes that also show that he can join humanity (but not assimilate exactly) when the situation calls for it.

The only group Bravo wouldn't accept talking crap about is LGBT. I never saw episode three last season because it was banned after it aired the first time due to that. Kate sucks. She can't serve with a smile, and that's important when your "waitress" is serving your for three days straight. She can't coordinate for anything. Adrienne was a better chief stew. At least she treated Kat like crap for being drunk, unlike Amy who just gets treated like crap because she smiles too much. I agree with the comment that Kelley should just hit it and quit it with Jennice. Unfortunately, he's got it bad and he won't be the one to break up with her. I like how Captain Lee said he couldn't believe Kelley was a Marine. I guess Lee was in the Corps. Even though Ben has Kate figured out, he also kind of sucks at his job. He needs his own restaurant and some sous chefs to make the regular fare he's too important to make.

In Trial of a Time Lord, Six was accused of genocide for killing a bunch of homicidal plants.

And another thing. Speaking of consequence free actions, Clara does this noble thing, goes into the Doctor's time stream, helps and saves him countless times and then has NO memory of the experience. Amy and Rory went through the reboot of the whole universe and they still have the memories of their original universe existence. At least they did until River came along and invaded their history. The one thing that would make Clara interesting (but also magical, like Rose, Donna and Amy) would be that she knows the Doctor's history. Imagine if she spent this season having to remind Twelve who he was (due to a new set of regenerations) through personal experience guiding him.

I think the Doctor and Clara really have a toxic relationship now. He's lonely and needs a companion, but he's too jealous to let her have outside interests (which would normally not be an issue in the Whoverse). Clara wants to travel and be a special snowflake, but she resents the Doctor for showing up on his schedule instead of hers.

Whoops. I meant the stuff that was in the Tower of London, which actually belonged to UNIT in 2013. Who knows where it went in 2049.

By the way, the shuttle can't make it to the moon or land on it, as far as I know. And where the hell is Torchwood? Don't they have a room full of space junk they could put together? But that reminds me of another problem with Doctor Who. In the classic series, the Autons would take over a village on the outskirts of London or something and have to be fought as an invasion. Now, the whole planet is ruined. How about the first season, where humanity was reduced to watching deadly reality shows because of the Daleks? Then there were the various invasions. Can't they go to another planet that's been ravaged in some way. At its best, Doctor Who used to do allegory. They would tell a story by making it on another planet but really about humanity. Now, they just make an anthology series by constantly hitting the reset button.

Classic Who was an afternoon / early evening show back when it was on PBS. Where I was, it was something like 2-4 PM on Sundays. Going back to my kid brain, I think some of scariest parts of the show were highlighted by the ominous music. There were also the piercing sounds of the laser weapons and the creatures hiding in the shadows because the rubber masks looked kind of silly in broad daylight. There were also a lot of lumbering creatures which predated the zombie trend. NuWho has gotten worse as it goes along because they have this need to raise the stakes every season. The universe has been in danger / destroyed at least twice. The Daleks come back every season. Every Earth astronaut is stupid and has to be saved. I think the episodes are needlessly complicated with pseudo-science, even without the technobabble. Captain Jack, while an entertaining character, ushered in far too much sexual content for a "kids" show. The creature of the week never seems malevolent anymore. Hell, they've made Daleks semi-redeemable in this incarnation.

This discussion started me thinking about poor Adric from Classic Who. He stayed behind on the ship that was about to crash into earth using his awesome maths to try overriding the controls. He failed, he died and the ship crashed, which killed the dinosaurs and led the way for humans to walk the earth. He made the wrong choice and failed, dying a meaningless death. It was a real love letter to those who hated Adric. Clara basically pulled a Homer. She did what was objectively the wrong thing and it turned out right entirely by accident. The funny part is that the Doctor never really saw anything in Clara that would make her a good companion. He was chasing Impossible Girl and ended up dragging her along and interfering in her own history because she had invaded his history. She never really chose this adventure and seems to have a limited interest in it. At least Amy spent some time as a companion before she dropped to part-time.

Oklahoma is kind of culturally Southern, like Tennessee, even though they're not in the Southern part of the US. I get the visual aspect of the on deck controls, but it would really suck to be out there in a storm. What I got from the show is that the lower control wasn't in neutral and the failure was that it shouldn't have to be to release it to the on deck steering. But since I know more about control systems than boats, I have no idea how it's supposed to work. I'm glad someone finally joked about Ohana meaning family this episode. Whoever at Bravo made up the name for the boat this year watched too much Lilo and Stitch.

The spider germs reminded me of the macroviruses from Star Trek Voyager, which is probably not what DW wants to emulate.

There's already speculation that there's a non-American as the American president. Chester A. Arthur. I didn't get the pro-life vibe so much as it being another "The Beast Below." There was a big unique alien creature whose death would potentially save millions (or billions) of lives, but its life ended up making everyone better off. In the case of the Star Whale, Amy actually used some reasoning to make the decision for everyone. Clara just decided that the Doctor wanted her to save it. I'm pretty sure many of us think that Clara saved it because of the Doctor and not to prevent genocide. Also, the moon creature must be part tribble, being born pregnant. My question is how in the hell did it gain mass in space? Did it absorb an asteroid?

Worst transition for a companion has to go to Peri from Five to Six. He was pretty rough with her.

The yoyo was indeed a callback to Tom Baker. On BBC America, there was a clip of Peter Capaldi talking about how his daughter's boyfriend had to teach him to use a yoyo. This episode had it all with callbacks to another Doctor, astronaut plotline #7, the Doctor putting children in danger, Clara making the decision for everyone (a la The Beast Below). Best of all, Clara is done traveling with the Doctor. Time for a new companion! More seriously, Twelve is becoming the boyfriend trying to keep the relationship alive long past the point where she's found a new fella. The only difference between Pink and say Rory or Mickey is that Danny doesn't see the Doctor as a rival for attention so much as a charismatic influence who could put her in danger. The story arc is suffocating the rest of the season right now. The only out I can see is Clara leaving. Hopefully, the Doctor can find someone more worthy of his temperament.

I read Captain Lee's interview somewhere last year. I think you got it right. From what I've seen on the show, the captain can pilot the boat from the cockpit or the area that he uses on deck when the weather is nice. It sounds like there's some kind of switch that turns control of the ship from one to the other and that part failed, so one set of controls started working when they shouldn't. If someone couldn't get to them, people could very well have been hurt. I ended up seeing this on Thursday right before Watch What Happens Live with Ben and Kat as the guests.

When Niles was with Mel, he basically became Daphne's friend. Some of that was set up, the idea that just as Daphne knew Niles was crazy about her, he suddenly stopped sniffing her hair and going weak in the knees when she would talk about sex. Daphne kind of ended up being the home wrecker in Niles (and her) relationship in that season.

To me, the bitching about your job is the only "real" part of this show. My mom worked in various customer service jobs and there's one universal truth. If you are annoying to people, they will talk shit about you behind your back or after you leave. The whole point of the show for me is the bitching about spoiled rich classless clods. It's the reason Bravo has to pay the charters. If they talked about paying customers like this and it was aired, the company would get their ass sued.

I think there's a difference when it's a miniskirt or dress with what are basically tights. Of course, she's wearing that as a woman closer to 30 than 20. If she were dressed like she was in Asylum of the Daleks, I'd consider it more exploitative.

Really early TV couldn't even be recorded. There was a device called a Kinescope that literally was a film camera placed in front of a TV screen. I think Doctor Who came after video tape, however. Still, almost no one had a VCR back then and only a few stations might have recorded old episodes for a backup. Not only was tape expensive, but standard practice was to put that and film media into climate controlled vaults. Every cubic foot had a cost for heating, cooling and dehumidifying all year round.

Most of the episodes now have been a romcom about a school teacher and the guy she fancies as she jumps through time with an old man with no sense of purpose. This is Twelve's problem. The Doctor is going on adventures in the TARDIS because the scripts tell him to. I have no idea what his motivation is at all. Even when Nine and Ten seemed to lack purpose, their wanderlust was the motivation to go different places. This Doctor constantly seems like he wants to go home and have a quiet night in. Clara seems like an obligation to him as well. It's like he offers to take her places because she saved him from oblivion and the least he can do is take her on joyrides. Like I read upthread, no one seems to be having much fun.