Star Trek The Next Generation, Season One Spoilers for 1987! Netflix recently allowed you to save some videos offline, and the entire history of Star Trek appears to be up for grabs. So I’ll be watching Trek on my
TV Crowning Sherlock Gosh, the world is depressing right now. Not that worse things haven’t happened before, but apparently I had some emotional investment riding on the idea that the USA had broadly sensible leadership.
TV Judder-free since 2008 I was minding my own business, listening to the Accidental Tech Podcast, when John Siracusa delivered a brand new thing to be neurotic and obsessive about: 24 frames-per-second content being delivered over 60
Doctor Who Death in Heaven I think you ought to know, I'm feeling very depressed. I did not expect a Doctor Who season finale to be so gutting. They've made me almost cry before, but I've never felt
TV Dark Water Talking about part ones is a mug’s game. Too much about ‘Dark Water’ is riding on Moffat sticking the landing with 'Death in Heaven’. So, without trying to
TV In the Forest of the Night Even more than ‘Kill the Moon’, this is Doctor Who as fairy tale. Whether it works for you depends on two things: how keen you are on that idea, and how
TV Flatline There’s a lot of fresh ideas turning up this year, and I like it. Elements of ‘Into the Dalek’, 'Listen’ and 'Kill the Moon’ have all been particularly
TV Mummy on the Orient Express I loved this story. I had forgotten what it felt like to go back and replay my favourite moments obsessively during the week. ‘Mummy’ reminded me. I was initially terrified…
TV Kill the Moon This was different. There’s a lot of differences between this year’s Who and last year’s Who, but I don’t feel it’s ever been as
Quote Forgetting The human superpower: forgetting. If you remembered how things felt, you’d have stopped having wars, and stopped having babies. — The Doctor, ‘In the Forest of the Night'
TV The Caretaker At times, ‘The Caretaker’ seems to be explicitly trying to be 'the funny episode’, with that sort of 'funny’ music they play on TV when everyone’s sneaking
TV Time Heist I’ve never been so freaked out by new-Who than when the unfortunate bank-visiting gentleman turned his bald head to reveal that it was now concave instead of convex. Yeesh. This serves
TV Listen As the fine folks on The Incomparable’s TeeVee podcast pointed out, this is a story with a pretty weird structure. In a way, it’s sort of reminiscent of some
TV Robot of Sherwood I have a meh-hate relationship with Mark Gatiss’ Doctor Who scripts. At their best, they’re tolerably pointless. At their worst, they’re accidentally horrible, like ‘The One Where The Doctor and His
TV Into the Dalek I knew this story was going to involve a crazy plot where the Doctor is shrunk and goes inside a Dalek. I did not expect it to be spliced with a mixed-up and
TV Deep Breath Nine episodes in, I’ve realised that I’m really loving Doctor Who again, for the first time since series five, if I’m honest. As a result, I now
TV The Name of the Doctor So, firstly, relief. They didn’t actually try to tell us the name of the Doctor. I was reasonably confident that they wouldn’t, after the whole issue last season when they said
Quote The Ice Warriors It’s then that he issues the least scary command ever given by a Doctor Who monster: “Run down that machine as quickly as is safely possible. Sss.” As catchphrases go,
TV Nightmare in Silver I’m oddly ambivalent about Neil Gaiman’s second Doctor Who script. I quite liked his first: it had creepy moments and some excellent villainous and macabre characters. Of course, it also had
TV The Crimson Horror The best thing about ‘The Crimson Horror’ is that the Doctor isn’t in it for the first half. The worst thing about ‘The Crimson Horror’ is that he isn’t in it
TV Journey to the Center of the TARDIS Since the Doctor is a hero who doesn’t use violence (usually), he presents, I guess, a reasonable challenge to the unimaginative writer. If you’re not capable of imagining clever ways around
Photo Doctor Frazzle Just taking the Doctor’s bow tie away makes him appear at least 30 percent more frazzled. This was used in ‘Hide’ to excellent effect.
TV Hide How wonderful to get an episode of Doctor Who that isn’t immediately forgettable. ‘Hide’ kicks several key goals that make you feel like it actually has a reason to