Bad Wolf vs. the Impossible Girl

I've been getting an earful recently the arc this series and how it's meant there's no overarching story even though, y'know, there totally is, and it's the Doctor and the mystery of Clara.

And it keeps getting put up against Series 1 and "Bad Wolf" for some reason, even though that really wasn't much of a story arc. People happened to be using the words, it got pointed out to us in the penultimate episode, and then in the last episode we found out why and we pretended it made sense. Even when there were two-parters they really didn't elaborate or expand on the season plot.

And so it was with Series 2 and Series 3 and Series 4. "Torchwood Torchwood Torchwood OH HEY TORCHWOOD IS A GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION." "Saxon Saxon Saxon OH HEY SAXON IS THE MASTER AND ALSO MP." "Planets bees planets bees planets bees OH HEY THE PLANETS WERE SWIPED BY DALEKS AND THE BEES WERE A BEACON." No substance. Just repetition followed by elaboration.

It's very much the same thing here. Each episode the Doctor will allude to Clara's impossibility, and the rest of the episode will be wholly unrelated to that. I mean, it's slightly better here, because there's emotional stakes--at least, there are in "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS" and "Nightmare in Silver", with the Doctor's secretive nature being brought to the forefront and Clara's mounting frustration with it, coupled with the Doctor's increasing fear that Clara is a deception of some sort.


I think the real problem here is that Moffat kind of raised our expectations with Series 5--which is probably the best continuous string of episodes any season of Who has ever managed. It, unlike other series of new Who, actually had progression in its arc. It wasn't just "crack crack crack OH HEY THE TARDIS BLEW UP AND TOOK REALITY WITH IT", we found out things in stages. It was gradually revealed to us that the cracks could alternatively serve as portals or memory saps, we found out midway through the series that the TARDIS had something to do with it all, and Rory's arrival and subsequent disappearance put things in flux and gave us serious, tangible emotional stakes.

Series 6 worked similarly, although it rushed things in places and cut a few corners. Rather than have important arc things happen in different one-offs, it made the conscious decision to put aside entire episodes for the arc.  It didn't quite work, but I admire the fact that they tried and the plot itself was actually pretty good. The action rise and fell and we found out things about River gradually rather than all at once in the finale.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Impossible Girl was compared favorably to Bad Wolf, but it's not, which is odd because they're neigh-identical in execution. This whole half-series has been a return to the Davies-era of arc plotting if I ever saw one.  Simply repeat the basic premise until the finale comes and the basic premise is explained in full.

So tell me, people--what's your beef? What makes Series 1 superior besides a mounting feeling of nostalgia (in which case, Season 9 clearly has the best story arc)? Answer in the comments section! I'm genuinely curious!

"The Waters of Mars" 4x16

Original Air Date: 15 November 2009

What is scary in this one isn't those water monsters. It's the Doctor.

Ten in the space suit! Squee!

The Doctor...Doctor...FUN!

I hate carrots.
Adelaide was born the same year as my brother. It's strange to think of him as 60.

If you really should go, Doctor, then I suggest you LEAVE.

DOCTOR: I've read all that stuff about you, Captain Adelaide. But one thing they never said. Was it worth it, the mission?
ADELAIDE: We've got excellent results from the soil analysis.
DOCTOR: No, but all of it. Because they say you sacrificed everything. Devoted your whole life to get here.
ADELAIDE: It's been chaos back home. Forty long years. The climate, the ozone, the oil apocalypse. We almost reached extinction. Then to fly above that, to stand on a world with no smoke, where the only straight line is the sunlight? Yes. It's worth it.

Okay, Mr. Time Lord Victorious, please calm down. You're scaring us all.

I knew she was gonna do it. Kill herself, that is. It was almost the only thing she could do to get things right.
Yes, yes you have gone too far.

Oh hai dere, Ood Sigma.

And that's a wrap on the Tenth Doctor for now. I'll be revisiting "The End of Time" later.

"The Next Doctor" 4x15

Original Air Date: 25 Dec 2008

I love his smile in the very begenning!
Allons-Y!
Ohhh, the companion's Rosita...like Rose. Didn't catch that the first time round.
That cyberman's head exploded!
Tethered Areal Release Developed in Style--that's why we're TARIStyle!
One thing cybermen do not have? Stealth.

"Turn Left" 4x11

Original Air Date: 21 June 2008

I almost hate this episode enough to not want to watch it again. I hate it because it is what would be without the Doctor!
Always go left....
I think they make that bug thing in like a backpack-y thing.
Did you pick up on that in "Fires of Pompeii," Lucius Petrus Dextrus said to Donna that there was something on her back?
This episode is invalid. Timelords have respatory bypass and therefore cannot drown.
The person in the stretcher wasn't DT. DT doesn't even know who it was.
Well, isn't that wizard?!
Is that like a sequel?
And Rose literally just disappears.
Its playing with Donna's hair!
It's more in a state of temporal grace than flux....
This...is to combat dehydration.
The music from this episode is particularly awesome. The released ones are: Turn Left, A Dazzling End, and The Rueful Fate of Donna Noble.
And the Doctor's all like...IZ MAH ROSE!

"Midnight" 4x8

Original Air Date: 14 June 2008

Can you spell sensory overload?

The Lost Moon of Poosh!

This professor guy is a loser.

Did you see Rose? She was on the TV screen! Yelling "Doctor" like in "Idiot's Lantern"?

Shamble bobble dibble dooble.

This whole episode is almost very Salem Witch Trials-y.

I guess humans can be the scariest of all.

"The Doctor's Daughter" 4x6

Original Air Date: 10 May 2008

You are completely impossible! It's not impossible, it's just unlikely.
What, Martha? Like you swallowed a hamster????
Look, David, It's your future wife!
Aww yay! Martha's OK!
Messaline? Isn't that a type of lettuce?
Pet the Martha....pet.
Technically, I don't have time for this. I might use that.
Anyone else tear up when we found out she had two hearts?
Did ya notice that here is the first time we hear some of  "This is Gallifrey, Our Childhood, Our Home"?, when he's talking about how being a Time Lord is a sum of knowledge, a code, a shared history, a shared suffering.
Look! A little mouse!
What's a Time Lord for?
The Hath has gills...can't it like swim in that stuff?
I almost cried when he died...
There in the terraforming room....I know what's coming....the feels! Did you know that terraforming is a real concept?
In all of my re watching of DW, I have never as anywhere near the same emotional responce as I did as the first time...except for this. I guess it just goes to show how good of a job DT did in the scene.
We need to see Jenny again!

"The Poison Sky" 4x5

Original Air Date: 3 May 2008

Are you my mummy?
That awkward moment when you watch yourself die.
Aaaand everything's okay again.
He's so willing to die. If I hadn't been like that, I'd find it disturbing.
Congrats Luke. You got the world into that mess, good for you for getting it out.
If you could go with the doctor, if you really could, would you? I would.
Wot! Wot!? WOT?!

"The Sontaran Stratagem" 4x4

Original Air Date: 26 April 2008

You hug him and you get a paper cut. I say that about my brother all the time. Why can't I have that part of his genetics?
Oh hai, UNIT.
Yes. That's exactly what he did to her. He turned her into a soldier.
I have a cup of tea...a really good cup of tea.
This is a specifically good episode.
Mah leg!
Ermahgeherd we're fighting Mr. Potato Head!
"A hothouse for geniuses. I wouldn't mind going. I get lonely." Can I come?
Advance the conquest. Oh, men and their conquests.
More tea!
The place where Donna lives looks so nice. I would live there!
The whole scene in Rattigan Academy is great-it's kinda all like "talk nerdy to me!"
Intruda window!
The lasts of the Time Lords will not die at the hands of the Sontaran Empire in the ruins of his prescious Earth!
OooOOOhhh battle status one.
Sontar-ha!

"Planet of the Ood" 4x3

Original Air Date: 19 April 2008

Have a nice day!
NO, Donna you did not just insult the TARDIS.
I miss the Ood. They should bring back the Ood. They best be at Trenzalore.
Ooh, Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire.
Hi Ood Sigma!

Who else thought of this?
I wonder what a baby Ood looks like.
Hear the Songs of Captivity and Freedom here.
My brother had a fish named Red Eye once.

"Partners in Crime" 4x1

Original Air Date: 5 April 2008

Who else thought that the Doctor and Donna were already working together?
I've met cat people. You're nothing like them.
Look! That taxi has ATMOS!
I love how Donna is such a teenager even though she's like 35ish. Parents who yell at her, hard time getting a job, spunky. I think I like her the best.
Aww, the Doctor stars talking about his findings and looks up and no one is there to listen to him :(
Why'd they shoot the door? I mean I know it was locked but like, don't they have a key?
You caught that puppy!
They said the title!
I wonder what an adult Adipose looks like.
Yes, Donna. You are waiving at fat.


DOCTOR: I just want a mate.
DONNA: You just want to mate?
DOCTOR: I just want a mate!
DONNA: You're not mating with me, sunshine!
DOCTOR: A mate. I want a mate.
DONNA: Well, just as well, because I'm not having any of that nonsense. I mean, you're just a long streak of nothing. You know, alien nothing.
DOCTOR: There we are, then. Okay.

Iz Rose.

"Voyage of the Damned" 4x0

Original Air Date: 25 December 2007

Wot? Wot!? WOT?!
Did you see the Union Flag throw pillow? Like the one in Sherlock?
New theme! Yay! I like this one a lot. It's all rockin' and such.
You know, Astrid is an anagram for TARDIS?
I should report you, but instead, I'll get you a drink.
That was not a buffalo wing. Buffalo wings have a sauce in them. My dad went to college in Buffalo, NY, where they invented the buffalo wing. So I know buffalo wings, and that was not a buffalo wing.

To repeat, I am Mister Copper, the ship's historian, and I shall be taking you to old London town in the country of UK, ruled over by good King Wenceslas. Now, human beings worship the great god Santa, a creature with fearsome claws, and his wife Mary. And every Christmas Eve, the people of UK go to war with the country of Turkey. They then eat the Turkey people for Christmas dinner like savages.... Now, spending money. I have a credit card in Earth currency if you want to by trinkets, or stockings, or the local delicacy, which is known as beef. But don't stray too far, it could be dangerous. Any day now they start boxing.

Possibly one of the best lines...

ITS WILF!

DOCTOR: Okay, okay. Shush, shush, shush, shush, shush. First things first. One. We are going to climb through this ship. B. No. Two. We're going to reach the bridge. Three. Or C. We're going to save the Titanic. And, coming in a very low four, or D, or that little iv in brackets they use in footnotes, why. Right then, follow me.
SLADE: Hang on a minute. Who put you in charge and who the hell are you anyway?
DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I'm nine hundred and three years old and I'm the man who's going to save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below. You got a problem with that?
SLADE: No.
DOCTOR: In that case, allons-y!

They could have like....Space Dowton Abbey.
Things are gettin' intense....time to take off the bow tie!
Bannakaffalata...dead.
Always be very afreaid of women with forklifts.
ALLONS-Y, ALLOSNO!
You're not falling...you're flying. Nah, you're falling with style.
Nope...only Britain is Great.
50,000,056 credits=1,000,000 credits. Good to know.

Can anyone else not help but smile when you hear the TARDIS dematerialize?

Happy Impossible Astronaut Day!