I totally agree Tomahawk, that was my major issue with Clara. Instead they pretty much used her as a mouth piece for all the fans that were in it for Tennant and Smith only.

New episode on tonight with the return of the darleks! One thing that I will say about the previous episode is that I quite liked the cinematography. This new series already feels different in tone, it looks and feels moodier/darker with harsher lights (Like in the restaurant scene, it feels cold, clinical and tense even before we realize that something is up) which makes me wonder how 'dark' this series will get. I wonder if it'll be like the baker years with horror/gothic elements to it!

So I have a question guys, who would you say is your favorite doctor? For me, I go with Paul McGann. The TV movie is very cheesy but he has some great moments in it ("Stand aside or I'll shoot myself!") What makes him my favorite is that I found him to be really enjoyable and engaging in the Big Finish audio dramas! If you haven't listened to some, definitely check them out.

Great comment about Sci-fi needing story. Every time I hear someone call 'super-hero' a genre I think the same. A story with super-heroes can also be a mystery just as a Sci-fi in space can also be horror. I think Sci-fi is more setting than genre.

Meanwhile, in the TARDIS: I think Doctor Who has been plagued by this problem since its inception. The original series had staff writers and budget problems, etc. Since 2005, we have Davies and Moffat running the show and that has come with both good and bad consequences.

Well that was... I can find no other word for it than...offensive.

On every aspect. The story was a trainwreck..literally, I think the script for this and a copy of a Robin Hood novel got in a trainwreck and the pages that didn't get burnt, shredded or lost were just thrown together in and called a script. It completely abandoned anything even resembling the (minimal) character work of the last two episodes. Completely abandoned any sense of reality or irony at what it was doing. And let's just not even talk about the Screwdrivers new ability to make a explode a pile of wood in a massive fireball can we?

All I want to do is sit Doctor WHo down and say "You see this? This right here? This is why I can't love you, and believe me I want to love you, with every fiber of my being I want to scream your glory to the wind.. but it's shit like this dude. I mean dammit man."

The really painful part, is that I enjoyed the first two episodes, I really really wanted to believe they were going somewhere with it all. That this really was a new season and a new Doctor.  And I saw the struggling character development, and the slightly half-assed story's, but there was at the very least a core to it that was interesting and hinted at something deeper. But this makes it really really hard to believe any of that anymore. This season is gonna have to do some major work to get back up there now.

And more than anything, it just makes me sad.