DOCTOR WHO

Vinette Robinson in Doctor Who 11x03 - Rosa
DOCTOR WHO

DOCTOR WHO 11×03: "ROSA"

"This ain't history here," Doctor Who reminds us in the smart, powerful, and horrifyingly timely "Rosa."

Doctor Who 5x12 - The Pandorica Opens
DOCTOR WHO

DOCTOR WHO: THE 20 BEST STORIES OF THE MOFFAT ERA

In the second part of my retrospective on Steven Moffat's era of Doctor Who, I discuss the Moffats with the Mostest: my all-time favorite stories from Seasons Five through Ten.

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DOCTOR WHO

DOCTOR WHO 10×12: "THE DOCTOR FALLS"

The tenth-season finale fails Pearl Mackie's Bill, but "The Doctor Falls" is a strong episode that sets Steven Moffat up to say his final word on Doctor Who.

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DOCTOR WHO 10×09: "EMPRESS OF MARS"

What could I possible say about Mark Gatiss's writing that I haven't said before? Not a thing, so I'm not even going to try…

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DOCTOR WHO 10×06: "EXTREMIS"

Steven Moffat's "Extremis" inspired some thoughts on River Song, death, and the problem of endings in Doctor Who.

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DOCTOR WHO 10×05: "OXYGEN"

"Doctor don't you call me, cause I can't go/ I owe my soul to the company store…" Workers of the world unite behind the Doctor in Peter Mathieson's "Oxygen."

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DOCTOR WHO 10×04: "KNOCK KNOCK"

Delivering nothing, saying nothing, and meaning nothing, Mike Bartlett's "Knock Knock" is a forgettable and regrettable hour of Scooby Who.

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DOCTOR WHO 10×02: "SMILE"

New companion Bill learns what it means to travel with the Doctor—and proves her mettle—in a strong second episode.

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DOCTOR WHO 9×10: "FACE THE RAVEN"

In which we consider The Impossible Girl, and the frustrating impossibilities of being a girl in Moffat's Doctor Who.

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DOCTOR WHO 9×04: "BEFORE THE FLOOD"

The conclusion of Toby Whithouse's two-part story left this reviewer with a massive headache brought on by confusion and frustration.

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DOCTOR WHO 8×09: "FLATLINE"

I can be as grumpy as the next critic, but seriously: anyone who can't love a Doctor Who episode like "Flatline" should get out of the Doctor Who-loving business.

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DOCTOR WHO 8×07: "KILL THE MOON"

Tough decisions, difficult confrontations, and painful emotional growth: sometimes, Doctor Who isn't meant to be easy.

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DOCTOR WHO 8×06: "THE CARETAKER"

"The Caretaker" is a relatively light episode of Doctor Who, but that doesn't mean there aren't important things happening: some of them kind of troubling.

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DOCTOR WHO 8×05: "TIME HEIST"

"Time Heist" isn't bad, it just isn't much of anything: it's all surface, no substance, delivering nothing more or less than what was promised in the title.

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DOCTOR WHO 8×04: "LISTEN"

Steven Moffat's stunning, exquisite "Listen" is an episode about nothing, and recognizing that nothing can be a very scary thing.

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DOCTOR WHO 8×03: "ROBOT OF SHERWOOD"

"That would be a rubbish idea," the Doctor says, and he might as well be talking about the entirety of Mark Gatiss's "Robot of Sherwood."

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DOCTOR WHO 8×02: "INTO THE DALEK"

With an older star, a darker tone, and a slower pace, this is not your father's Doctor Who. (Or, more to the point, it is…)

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DOCTOR WHO 8×01: "DEEP BREATH"

Everything old is new again in Doctor Who, but the show seems overly worried about whether we'll go along with the changes.

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DOCTOR WHO 50TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL: "THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR"

"The Day of the Doctor" is full of fan-service and tributes to both the old and new series, but at its core it is simply the next vital chapter in Doctor Who, one that fulfills what I have called "The Moffat Masterplan" and brings the past, present, and future of this show into glorious agreement.

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DOCTOR WHO 7×13: "THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR"

"The Name of the Doctor" is not perfect, and it does not make up for an uneven and scattered season, but it's a return to form for Steven Moffat, and a welcome revisiting of the underlying themes that made his first two seasons so powerful and so resonant.

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DOCTOR WHO 7×11: "THE CRIMSON HORROR"

Every fan of DOCTOR WHO has his or her own opinion on the "worst episode ever." But ask me today and my answer might just be different from the one I'd have given you yesterday.

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DOCTOR WHO 7×10: "JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE TARDIS"

Somewhere within the wreckage of "Journey to the Center of the TARDIS" there was a great episode of DOCTOR WHO to be found, but—like the Doctor—what we find instead is a big old mess in desperate need of a do-over.

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DOCTOR WHO 7×09: "HIDE"

"Hide" is not just the best entry in Series 7 so far; it's also a perfect example of how classic Who can be updated for modern times.

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DOCTOR WHO 7×08: "COLD WAR"

If I find myself just reviewing an episode, it usually means something has gone terribly, terribly wrong. So here's my review of "Cold War."

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DOCTOR WHO 2012 SPECIAL: "THE SNOWMEN"

The 2012 Christmas special gives us memory-erasing worm, a spiral staircase to the clouds, and—of course—the titual killer snowmen from outer space. But "The Snowmen" is a little more complicated than that, and thematically far richer.

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DOCTOR WHO 7×04: "THE POWER OF THREE"

At this point in the season—with only one episode left before the hiatus, and only one more week before the Parting of the Ponds—an entry like "The Power of Three" represents a wasted opportunity on an epic scale.

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DOCTOR WHO 7×03: "A TOWN CALLED MERCY"

"A Town Called Mercy" is an excellent reminder that it is possible to use the tropes of genre adventure to explore fairly complex ethical dilemmas. In fact, that's one of the things that Doctor Who does best.

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DOCTOR WHO 7×02: "DINOSAURS ON A SPACESHIP"

If "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" turns out to be the weakest episode of Series 7, we can count ourselves lucky—parts of it were tremendous fun, and it had just enough substance to save it from total irrelevancy—but it is both overstuffed and undercooked.

The Doctor (Matt Smith) and Oswin (Jenna Louise-Coleman)
DOCTOR WHO

DOCTOR WHO 7×01: "ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS"

Series 7 hits the ground running hard with an impressively scaled, impeccably paced story that cleverly marries the near future of this show to its distant and recent past.

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DOCTOR WHO 6×13: "THE WEDDING OF RIVER SONG"

Sometimes, the most surprising place we can find ourselves is exactly where we expected to be. "The Wedding of River Song," the grand finale of the 2011 season of Doctor Who, is long on spectacle, but short on revelation. By its conclusion, however, we are well-positioned to move forward towards something very different indeed.

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DOCTOR WHO 6×12: "CLOSING TIME"

"Closing Time" provides a turning point for the season: instead of piling still more guilt on the Doctor, Moffat and Co. begin to shake off the cumulative darkness of the previous few episodes, and start moving us back towards a more joyous, edifying vision of the Doctor we know and love.

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DOCTOR WHO 6×11: "THE GOD COMPLEX"

This is the Doctor's fear: the people he likes that he cannot save; the people he loves but can't protect; the confrontation with his own limitations; the reminder that he is better off alone.

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DOCTOR WHO 6×10: "THE GIRL WHO WAITED"

Make no mistake, "The Girl Who Waited" is essential Doctor Who, and its themes echo and ripple throughout the past and future of this entire franchise in dark and troubling ways.

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DOCTOR WHO 6×09: "NIGHT TERRORS"

We might recognize "Night Terrors" as something of a filler episode, but I have a feeling that children who watch it from behind their sofas may remember it as an absolute classic: an episode that scared them, and comforted them, and told them exactly what they needed to hear.

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DOCTOR WHO 6×06: "THE ALMOST PEOPLE"

Since Episode Two I had been bracing myself for the discovery that this whole season was either an alternate reality or a dream, either of which I would have hated. But this is so much better: a huge twist that somehow doesn't invalidate what has come before.

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DOCTOR WHO 6×05: "THE REBEL FLESH"

"The Rebel Flesh" certainly looks like a classic, stand-alone Doctor Who story, but there are definitely clues here that this story may be much more important than it appears.

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DOCTOR WHO 6×04: "THE DOCTOR'S WIFE"

Since 1963 we've seen this mysterious blue box that promised to be the gateway to all the stories to come. And last night, after more than 47 years, we finally met her.

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DOCTOR WHO 6×03: "THE CURSE OF THE BLACK SPOT"

"The Curse of the Black Spot" isn't even going fun to crap all over. It's not horrible, it's just not much of anything at all. It's a filler episode, a budget-controlling episode, a go-do-this-while-we're-over-here-working-on-the-ones-that-matter episode.

DOCTOR WHO

DOCTOR WHO – An Introduction

I doubt anyone involved in the creation of Doctor Who would have predicted that the show would be thriving well into the new millennium, but—whether by accident or intention—there's no denying that they built this show to last.