Vamp

Strax is a fantastic character. The TARDIS should contain the Doctor, Jenna in a permanent state of "I've just been in the shower" and Strax.

I've liked all the other episodes this series, there's been some cracking stuff. That, on the other hand, was just dull filler. There wasn't any tension in for me at all. There were bits I liked, the eye of harmony reference was nice, the voices were nice and the library was cool but that's all there were for me, and everything else was just a bit lifeless. It reminded me of some of the worst bit of series six where the actual episode itself seemed like it'd been sacrificed in order to do some story arc bits.

I was bored.

So that was pretty good.

I'm in!

Isn't it psychic now? So I guess the idea is it pretty much does anything you ask it to. Yeah, I don't like it. It's one of the things Moffat's era seems to have taken to the extreme, I don't know whether that's his idea or just how its fallen but the doctor's constantly waving it around now. The end of that Day of the Moon double parter might be one of the worst incidents where the director had clearly decided that it looked cool when waved around along with the laser gun sfx.

I really wish they'd find some way of getting rid of that bloody thing again. I suspect they won't because of the toy revenue BBC Worldwide probably gets from it.

Half Time Lady.

I find it hilarious that Vamp can say "no, this is definitely true, guys" about something using "it was said once" as his defence, when you can find countless examples of it being made clear, in the series, that's it not true. I don't see how hard it is to grasp that I wasn't being serious. I said there's been tongue in cheek moments, made an obviously sarcastic comment like "I'm being deadly serious" about a show that it isn't remotely possible to be deadly serious about. Yeah, I'm not actually being serious. The Doctor doesn't really have a name, in that no one ever has had any intention to reveal it and no one ever will. Doctor Who is the closest you'll ever get. To be honest serious discussions about his name would be as boring as having a serious plot about it. Why he has hid his name, if indeed he has, is the interesting bit. There's been a bit in other Doctor Who fictions (mainly the books) about it being impossible for human beings to pronounce his name, but obviously their relation to canon (and canon is an equally bollocks thing to talk about when it comes to Who really) is questionable. In fact talking about canon and the name, I always struggle to get my head around the idea that the Master suggests the Doctor chose his name because of the meaning of the world (helping people) and then later River Song explains that Doctor has a different meaning and we get it from him. I know 'timey wimey' but that genuinely hurts my head to think about. Actually as another edit, I also think it'd just be fantastic if he was called Who. It'd be great. If his hidden name wasn't hidden at all and what so many people respond with when he introduces himself and what so many people talking about the show call him. It'd be awesome. And if some of the people who we'd thought had asked "Doctor who?" had actually asked "Doctor Who?"

Not strictly true, like Benji said there's been tongue in cheek moments. A computer calls him Doctor Who in The War Machines for example. And in German he was called Doktor von Wer, admittedly that's the Doctor of Who but still. I'm pretty sure he's also signed stuff with a question mark.

Yes, I was being deadly serious. We're never going to find out his name anyway.

How can you talk about Kenneth Williams without mentioning him on Just A Minute? For shame...

I don't think Amy got a key either did she? She took a key but then the Doctor took it back off her. Which is what made it really odd when he gave Victorian Clara the key so quickly in the Christmas special.

While I get what you were saying otherwise, I do like the fact that you've basically rewritten Moffat's 'Who' so that it didn't include love defeating the cybermen or the Doctor constantly waving a magic wand around that seemingly does whatever's needed at all times. I liked bits of this episode. It kinda had an old school feel for much of the episode (although not all the way through), some of the CGI was great, the Vigil were freaky, it was nice to have such an alient society and, of course, Matt Smith pulled it out of the bag with that speech which could have sounded rather forced if not for him. He really is well and truly above the show at this point. It was a bit of a miss but if you're going to have a miss at least let it be colourful I suppose. Next week looks promising, I'm not expecting a great episode but it looks looks pretty solid.

No one said they didn't. Somebody said you can't blame feminism for girls not liking men. And then you said "ah but you should work with female social workers because some women do hate men!" as if somebody had said "No, never in the history of the world has a woman ever hated a man." I think you were trying to have your own argument, I just don't know who with. I hope you win though.

Damn I've just blundered in here and said something stupid without even thinking.

I'm sure Skummy could do this himself but this... And then this... Also in regards to this... I'm dating a feminist at the moment. I presume she doesn't think I'm a 'macho asshole rapeist', or at least it hasn't come up, and I definately have a penis. She seems okay with my penis though. I'm not really sure what my natural desires are meant to be but I haven't changed my behaviour at all. Nor have I killed myself. Or maybe I have. Oooh, spooky. She also hasn't told me I'm evil, which again, I feel might have come up over dinner or something. I'm a feminist but that's not to say I haven't disagreed with some of the feminist critics in my field. I have. I don't however think that female teachers can touch children and male ones can't because I've worked in a child care situation and so I actually know that what you said there is odd and mental. I also know that that's something completely different. I'm genuinely a bit disturbed that anyone thinks feminism is causing men to die (which is essentially what you're trying to say with the suicide bit). Like really disturbed that anyone would try and put that across. In a post-post modern world I could probably find some more sensible reasons.

Lineker's spoiler, is that even a spoiler anymore? It seems pretty impossible to avoid.

It looks like a Russian player in Kazakhstan has died after a nasty hit. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/russian-forward-dmitri-uchaykin-dies-headshot-kazakhstan-hockey-195922921--nhl.html

Given that actual soldiers are pretty rude and the COD games are all about pretending that you're in a real life war (which sounds pretty shit to me but then maybe that's why I've only ever played them for about half an hour round a friend's house) and its also a bunch of guys pretending to be 'lads' and in a sporting event rather than having fun for a couple of hours I'd say its not surprising. Boring admittedly.

Anyone know a good NHL podcast?

Edit: So apparently I don't know how spoilers work. I just said that I'm glad that I can't see the theory in Katsuya's post being true because it'd be wanky beyond belief. Yeah that episode was great. I'm so glad that dismal series six is behind us and that series seven (bar the subpar exit episode of Amy and Rory) has been more single episode fun than some long "something big's going to happen, just not yet, this is the unimportant stuff" series arc. Like the Christmas special, I wouldn't say it was well written good drama but it was what Who is very good at, silly, mental, a little bit rubbish, and overwhelmingly fun. The bit where The Doctor was shocked that Clara knew what twitter was despite being 24 was the only bit that was too ridiculous for me (I'll except an anti-grv bike, not that she doesn't know what twitter is) but that was there for a Moffat rant against twitter which he'd obviously decided to keep in over sense and it was midly amusing so there's that. That's what this was really, a bunch of Moffat's bitter thoughts about the way society is all chucked into a silly children's story and it was really fun at being that. You wouldn't want it every week of course, but I can't really think of a better way of starting the second half of this series. And there felt like a relative lack of gimmicks beyond LONDON! WOOO! YEAH! and that actually felt really fresh. Kudos to whoever was directing for that. The last episode of this series sounds like it gets pretty dark towards the end so I wouldn't mind some more silliness in this vein before we get there. Especially since I'm rather wary that the anniversary special could try and be more than a little serious in tone.

The Original Series is the best. After that they seem to get ever more series and lose a bit of their charm. I remember watching Next Generation but never really giving a damn about anyone other than Data, and DS9 eventually wore me down too much. Having said that I've never really tried to rewatch any series, and I strongly suspect TOS doesn't hold up anymore.