Ringthane

Now that would be a cool idea - what if the Zygon version was still out there somewhere, and joins up with UNIT/becomes the companion? Of course, this is Moffatt we're talking about, so... I remember the reason they had a younger male companion in the first place was so they had someone who could handle the physical stuff Hartnell couldn't. Once Pertwee took over, he was capable of doing it himself and there was no longer a need for one. Although why they couldn't just have male companions like they did female ones, I don't know. I believe they had more female than male ones to get the male viewers watching.

Not true - I love "Blink" and the "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead" two-parter. Moffatt really has a gift for taking ordinary things - statues, a library - and creating great stories out of them. Also, those are two great examples of the series creating amazing new villians that are not only original, but scary as well - something that's fallen by the wayside of late (except for the Mummy and the Boneless). I also love "Coupling" - I don't know how many times I've watched those. As others have said, Moffatt's problem with DW seems to be that he has all these ideas, and there's nobody either willing to say "Well, OK, but where do we go from there?", or with the power to say so. Moffatt's reign reminds me of John Nathan-Turner's from the classic series - from what I've read, JNT was much the same way. There's just been too many times in the last few years when people are saying "Oh, come on", or if there had been a little more thought put into the writing, some of these clunkers would have been reworked or abandoned for better things. I mean, did the Doctor seriously almost ask one of the Merry Men for a urine sample? Did that really happen? Did we really have an interesting story about trees taking over the world reduced to a teacher scaring off a tiger with a flashlight and a feel-good story about trees saving mankind? Did the Moon really turn out to be an egg that hatched and produced a creature that immediately turned around and laid another Moon egg? Did those things really happen on Doctor Who?

Yeah, but that's not Doctor Who. As good as that show was, it's not Doctor Who. Which is where the Brig started, and which is where he should have made at least one appearance.

You know, the whole thing with saluting the Brigadier could have been done with a quiet scene, right at the end, where the Doctor visits the Brigadier's grave and salutes. Same idea, only much more meaningful and tasteful. And one more thing - Nicholas Courtney died in 2011. The series came back in 2005. That's six years they could have brought him back, and this is what we get?

More like Charlie X than Khan. Or maybe Miri. Comparing Clara to Khan gives Clara waaaaay too much credit.

If I remember right, that's because they started out shooting two episodes at once. Once they got to PK Tech Girl, they decided they'd be better off filming one at a time, and the show quality really improved. They talk about it on one of the commentaries (might even be the one for PK Tech Girl).

I have to agree here - I just rewatched the first season, and I was surprised to see how much of a jerk Ross was and how creepily obsessed he was with Rachel. From his fits when she dreamed about Joey and Chandler, to his whines every time Rachel was with Paolo, to how cruel he was to her when Marcel got away (I mean, I would be upset if somebody let my pet get away, but he just basically craps all over her as a person and a human being, to the point where a) his tantrum in "The One Where No One's Ready" seems a lot less out of left field and a little more scary, and b) makes you wonder why he wants to be with her so badly. I just wish someone would have said to him sometime during that year "Either ask her out or shut up about her and move on". And he sure falls for Julie quick enough for someone who is so in love with someone else, doesn't he? They may have changed how they wrote other characters as the show went on, and played up their most annoying parts too much, but Ross has pretty much the most consistent characterization in the series. Too bad that characterization is of such a whiny, controlling, childish, borderline abusive jerk.

One moment I just noticed was at the end of the one where Ben was born. Monica's holding Ben, and says "I will always have gum." If you watch Chandler in the group shot that follows (when the end credit comes up), he breaks into this huge smile. And he does it a second or two after the shot changes, so it doesn't seem like just an ordinary reaction to Monica's line. I know they didn't originally intend for Monica and Chandler to be together, but then you see something like that, and you really begin to wonder how early that was in the works.

So let me make sure of something - the Steven Moffatt who is now executive producer is the same Steven Moffatt who wrote "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead", correct? The story where the Doctor discovered that he can, in fact, open the TARDIS door by snapping his fingers? So why is the first few minutes of this story all about destroying the TARDIS keys, which would make it so that the Doctor could never get in the TARDIS again? Come on, Steven. It's not like those episodes are lost forever - they're on freaking Netflix, for Pete's sake. Take a couple hours off and watch your own show. And why would there only be seven keys? And why would the Doctor not be carrying a key on him? He always has before. Now he suddenly hides them all over the TARDIS? And part-time companion Clara knows where they are because... It just seems like there's going to be a bunch of payoff in the second part, and I'm not sure there is. Moffatt's become the Rick Berman of Doctor Who - overstayed his welcome and just throwing whatever ideas and stories he's got up on screen, no matter if they're good, or make sense, or work in the Doctor Who universe...