"The Wedding of River Song" 6x13

Original Air Date: 1 October 2011

How cool would life be if the time wound world was real? Pteryodactyls and
Meredith Viera! I know someone who knows her, so I guess I am 2 degrees away from the show.
It's always a woman that happens with you lately, Doctor.
Them skulls be like omnomnom space viking.
It's five o'two in the afternoon...your eyes are the size of the moon....
Awee now they're married! Yay!

"Closing Time" 6x12

Original Air Date: 24 September 2011

CRAIG! My second favourite Craig! (Next to Ferguson)
Increased sulfur emissions-don't even try to tell me that isn't a reference to Supernatural.
Will someone please tell me WHY they did the Amy Pond's Imaginary Friend intro? Please? Its not like she's even really in this one. Why, BBC, why? Meh.
There are aliens in the fridge. Yup.
The Doctor is so perfect to work in a toy store! Yay!
Teehee. I want an incarnation of the Doctor whose gay. That would be fabulous!
Ohmygod giant Amy Pond!
Its like a horseshoe crab, the cybermat.
Oooh. I just noticed that these aren't Cybus cybermen. Cool beans.
Gotta love it when cybermen's heads explode.
Oh hai River.

"The God Complex" 6x11

Original Air Date: 17 September 2011

So this is a fun episode. I feel bad for the guy in the gorilla costume, though. I had to dress up in a chicken costume once (it was that or a gorilla, actually) and it was so, so, so horrible.

Yup. They're in Norway. 

And it's definitly a  CIA thing. We have minotaurs that eat people. S'all good.

Wow, if I got a B in math we;d have a party or something.

Yay baskets of kittens!

Of all the weird DW episodes, this just might be one of the weirdest ones.

Dude. What if we take the pantaphobic George from "Night Terrors" and put him in the hotel....every room would scare him! I'm bad.

She said the title! She said it!

Le gasp! Door 11! I bet its the John Hurt Doctor in there.

I wish Rita didn't die. I wanted her to be a companion.

You Doctor. You mad bro?

Nooo Doctor why are you being so manipulative? Grr.

That's a good question, Amy. What do Time Lords believe in?

Getting really dark there, Doctor. Talking about you wanting to die and such.

Uh oh. Doctor wants to travel alone again. Not good. Very not good.

"The Girl Who Waited" 6x10

Original Air Date: 10 September 2011

Apalapucia. Sounds like it should either be a planet with a bunch of coffee shops or a planet of Central and South American civilisations.
They put a Disney Land on the twin planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius!
This all reminds me of what my aunt would say-kill 'em with kindness. Personally, I'd rather kill with evilness.
I disarmed it. How? It has no hands.

You know when sometimes you meet someone so beautiful, and then you actually talk to them, and five minutes later they're as dull as a brick? Then there's other people, and you meet them and think, not bad, they're okay. And then you get to know them, and their face just sort of becomes them, like their personality's written all over it. And they just turn into something so beautiful. Rory's the most beautiful man I've ever met.

Hear that, kids? Its true. it is so true.

"Night Terrors" 6x9

Original Air Date: 3 September 2011

Who else at first thought that the complex was the Powell Estate? Me!
What do we do with the things we don't like? Put them in the cupboard... Didn't we just put Hitler in the cupboard in the last episode? Okay then.
Has anyone else tried to send the Doctor a psychic paper message? Zero guilt.
As someone who has had actual night terrors, I expected this episode to be a bit more terrifying. Oh well. Although I was that kid who always slept with the lights on.
The music of the episode is so creepy. Its that "tick-tock goes the clock, even for the Doctor" music. Let me just put that music in the cupboard.
Are we sure that the landlord is not an multiform like Prisoner Zero? That dog gives me the creeps.
Arthur saying "let the monsters gobble him up" gave me the utmost concern.
NO. Don't take the lift. Don't do it. Oh, you did it.....screams, screams for everyone!
I think Doctor Who really needs to stop trying to do scary. It can do it without trying, and when they try it is not scary. It's just strange. Like, "The Crimson Horror", not scary--weird.
No, you're not dead--again.
Amy! We have so much in common! 1700 and something is my favourite year, too!
I love the way British people say the word "stupid"
I also love when the Doctor is around kids. I was so excited when Amelia Pond was gonna be a companion. I want a companion whose a kid!
No, Doctor, no! Don't run with giant scissors.
Yep. George's an alien. Yay!
I will never send you away, George. Until it's time for university.

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!

"Let's Kill Hitler" 6x8

Original Air Date: 27 August 2011

Aand evil henchman music for Nazi building....
Love the Teslector. Kinda super cool.
I'll be taking those glasses, thank you very much!
My brother and I have a joke about this episode. We're always like "He's still in the cupboard!"
You named your daughter after your daughter. What? Daughter-ception....
The teeth. Always with the teeth post-regen!

"Well, I was on my way to this gay gypsy Bar Mitzvah for the disabled, when I suddenly thought, 'Gosh, the Third Reich's a bit rubbish — I think I'll kill the Führer.'"

-Melody Pond/River Song 

Nice procreation of führer there, Ms Kingston!

OMG ROSE TYLER MARTHA JONES DONNA NOBLE!
HE SAID "DOCTOR WHO" yeesssssss!
Ermageherd Cat Nurses.

"A Good Man Goes to War" 6x7

Original Air Date: 4 June 2011

Did you notice that these cybermen are not Cybus cybermen?
"He's the last of his kind. He looks young, but he's lived for hundreds and hundreds of years. And wherever they take you, Melody, however scared you are, I promise you, you will never be alone. Because this man is your father." Who else thought she was talking about the Doctor? Please tell me it wasn't just me. How is Rory the last of his kind?

Look! Its Vastra! 

Ha. Battle of Zarathustra. And it's Strax! :) I will admit that I didn't make the connections when I first saw the mini eps with them.

No, Doctor, don't be a monk. Monks are not cool!

Silurian. Judoon. Sontaran. Pirates. You're in trouble.

DOCTOR: Oh, look, I'm angry. That's new. I'm really not sure what's going to happen now.
KOVARIAN: The anger of a good man is not a problem. Good men have too many rules.
DOCTOR: Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many.

Look! The Doctor's Cot. Here is the link to Doctor's Cot Gallifreyan; it's about 1/2 way down the page.

Demons run when a good man goes to war.

Night will fall and drown the sun,

when a good man goes to war.

Friendship dies and true love lies,

night will fall and the dark will rise,

when a good man goes to war.

Demons run but count the cost.

The battle's won, but the child is lost.

Cute lil poem-y thing.

"The Almost People" 6x6

Original Air Date: 28 May 2011

Awesome little bit. "I've reversed the jelly baby of the neutron flow!"

THEY WILL MELT YOU.

I just love having two Doctors. Who can't wait for the 50th?

No, bow ties are NOT cool.

Wonder if this is supposed to be the same monastery as in "The Bells of Saint John".

Well, here we go! Can't put off Demons Run any longer!

"The Rebel Flesh" 6x5

Original Air Date: 21 May 2011

I had a hard time getting through this ep the first time. Anyone else?
Such a CGI in the original image of the
I forgot about this Amy Pond intro. Why would they even do that? Did they think it was a good idea? Because it wasn't. It's stupid and annoying.
Yes! Muse on the TARDIS. Love "Supermassive Black Hole" :) If you ever get the chance to see Muse live, do it! They're really performance oriented; it was great. (PS, I liked them before Twilight. Because I'm such a hipster....)
Isn't it great when Matt Smith's voice cracks? 900+ years old and it still happens....
Oh no! The TARDIS is sinking!
Eww, her face fell off.
Holy TARDIS of Gallifrey....Ganger Jennifer looked like Prisoner Zero....
Production note: acid must always make a sizzling noise. Otherwise its just water, duh.
"You're never going to get your vehichle in here!" "I'm a great parker." No, Doctor you are not. You have, on more than one occasion, parked in the enitrely wrong century and even planet.
Oh hai dere Ganger Doctor. Nice face.

I just love it when DW gets political about issues that don't even exist yet. I guess those are the only politicial issues you can touch upon!

The Doctor's Most Valuable Tool

Not counting the TARDIS and his intellect, there are three things that the Doctor just couldn't get by without. And I'm gonna be mean and hide the not-so-obvious one behind the pagebreak. It does contain spoilers.

Sonic Screwdriver

The Doctor with the Sonic Screwdriver in Doomsday

Fun fact: scientists have invented a device that can move objects with sound. First and most important is the sonic screwdriver. Although it doesn't work on wood and can be disabled by some hairdryers, it's been invaluable since it became more prominent in the revival series. It is "harmless... doesn't kill, doesn't wound, doesn't maim." It's simply successful at what the Doctor tries to be: something that helps and never hurts. But the Doctor does hurt and that is part of his most valuable tool.

Psychic Paper

The Doctor uses the Psychic Paper on Shakespeare

Making its twenty-sixth screen appearance in The Power of Three., psychic paper has been indispensable for the last three doctors, though far less reliable than ol' sonic. In Army of Ghosts, we see the psychic paper fail for the first time when Rose uses it on Rajesh, a Torchwood employee, who then tells us that he, like all members of Torchwood, has a basic level of psychic training. Very soon again we also see the paper fail when the Doctor uses it with William Shakespeare in The Shakespeare Code because Shakespeare is too intelligent for it to have worked. But it plays on the mind, which leads me to the Doctor's most valuable tool.