Deep Breaths, Everyone: Doctor Who’s Series Eight Premiere

Welcome back, Whovians. After eight months of waiting, we’re finally treated to series eight of Doctor Who. We’ve got a new Doctor, a dinosaur, clockwork-y cyborgs, and the Paternoster gang. With the massive amounts of media hype surrounding the series (including some major script and episode leaks), does the series opener live up to its promise? Sort of.

Loads of spoilers for this episode below the cut.

Top 20 Romantic Couples in Geekdom (10 Canon/10 Fanon): 2014 Edition

This Valentine’s Day, as all Valentine’s Days, will not succeed in bringing our city down. This Valentine’s Day, as all Valentine’s Days, will soon recede into painful memory, fading with time, until another foul Valentine’s Day is upon us again.

—Welcome to Night Vale, “Valentine”

It’s that time of year again, nerd friends. That awful time of year known as Valentine’s Day. Once a year, before Valentine’s Day, our authors nominate and then vote on ships for our Top 20 Romantic Couples in Geekdom (10 Canon/10 Fanon) list. It is during this time that the LGG&F writers go from peaceful coexistence straight into full-blown anarchy as each writer battles for their favorite ships to make the list.

So now, blood-stained and bruised, it is my job as Supreme Overlord of LGG&F to bring you this year’s Top 20 Romantic Couples in Geekdom.

Doctor Who Series 7.2: Who Cares?

Hi, all. So you might have noticed that I left off my Doctor Who episode reviews after “The Bells of St. John”. Never fear, though: I’m here to make up for it with a review of all the remaining episodes in one post. Buckle up for mediocre plots, tired tropes, and characters with no character after the jump!

It’s Smaller on the Outside: The Doctor Who Christmas Special Review!

Guys, I am… I am shocked.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to like “The Snowmen”, because I’ve honestly sort of hated all of Series 7 so far. I was worried about what would happen with Clara, I was worried about the characterization in general, and I was worried about Moffat being too pleased with himself and being annoying or too timey-wimey or something.

But guys, the special was actually really good!

Doctor Who Series Seven: A Top Ten Wish List

I am starting to get tired of waiting for Series 7 and the 50th Anniversary special! Who’s with me?

Some plot spoilers and set photos and whatnot have been creeping out over the past few months, and we know that there are a few certainties: the Ponds are leaving, new Companion played by Jenna-Louise Coleman (and possibly named Clara?) is joining Team TARDIS, and the Daleks and Weeping Angels will be making appearances (as might Madame Vastra, the awesome lesbian Silurian Victorian ninja).

That still leaves a lot of wiggle room, though, for my wish list. I mean, we don’t even have any idea what will happen in the 50th Anniversary special, which won’t be occuring until 2013. Let’s throw out some ideas and hope Steven Moffat reads this blog.

1. Possibly!Clara has been billed as a fast-talker and a match for the Doctor’s exuberance.  Pleasepleaseplease keep her in check, or make the Doctor a little bit more subdued. He already has puppy-like boundless energy and he really needs a more Donna-like check on his craziness than someone who will out-crazy him.
2. The Ponds’ leaving has already been drawn out unecessarily what with bringing them back after the Doctor already said goodbye once. Give their farewell some dignity, don’t make it unnecessarily tearjerking just for the sake of tearjerkingness, etc.
3. Make the scary villains scary again. The Weeping Angels have been a little over-exposed in my opinion, and their appearance in Eleven clashed with the canon given in Ten that they could be any statue. The Daleks are sort of a joke at this point.  Make them scary again. (Although with a first episode titled ‘Asylum of the Daleks’, I think I may get my wish.)
4. Exciting new locales, please! Let’s try dinosaurs (which I seem to recall might have been hinted at, or I just saw fanart of the Doctor riding a dinosaur and got confused…) or, y’know, anywhere in Asia or Africa since they’re basically never been seen (an Egypt episode! or mix up the constant WWI and WWII stories with an Asian world war setting! Literally anywhere on those forgotten-by-the-writers continents would be nice!)
5. I’ve heard speculation that the ‘Doctor’s true identity’ plotline ties back into a plot arc that had to be scrapped when Seven was taken off the air twenty years ago. It would be really awesome if we could have a more solid tie to Old Who than just the recurring villains.
6. Lady Bacula expressly desires a Cervantes episode where Eleven is the inspiration for Don Quixote. I want an Oscar Wilde episode if they can make it a proper episode and not a PSA gay-issues story.
7. Can’t believe I’m saying this, but… Fewer timey-wimey shenanigans? The whole kerfuffle with River about broke my brain, and I have a high tolerance for timey-wimey stuff—hell, I’ve seen the Star Trek reboot at least ten times.
8. I’m still not exactly sure how the hole in the universe thing/the big bang affected the actions of previous Doctors, or the spinoff-series universes (I’m three seasons behind in Torchwood) but I’d like to see some reunions for past companions. I’ve heard ideas tossed around regarding a multi-Doctor mashup a la Time Crash or Old Who’s The Five Doctors, but that could be tricky considering Eccleston’s definitely not gonna come back and as much as I love Rose, she needs to stay in Pete’s World—she got several last hurrahs and a Doctor of her own, and bringing her back randomly would be a great way to make the fans think DW‘s writers are truly out of ideas.  Mostly I want Jack Harkness back. I know he’s working full time at Torchwood now but he could benefit from a more light-hearted adventure. And fan theories about him being the Time Agent who arrested River Song abound.
9. I see no real reason to switch Doctors at this point, but the world could be a better place if the 50th Anniversary special gave us a regeneration into a POC or female Doctor.
10. If nothing else happens in the whole of the seventh season and the 50th Anniversary special, FIX DONNA NOBLE. SHE WAS YOUR BEST FRIEND, DOCTOR, AND YOU RAPED HER MIND ‘IN HER BEST INTERESTS’ AND LEFT HER A SAD, SELF-ESTEEMLESS SHELL OF HER FORMER SELF. YOU WILL ALWAYS BE A DICK FOR THAT UNLESS YOU FIX HER. DON’T WHINE ABOUT GUILT—DO SOMETHING.

What else would you like to see in the upcoming season? Only two more grueling months of Wholessness till we can be happy (or at least angry at Moffat) again.