Doctor Who

She's supposed to be leaving at Christmas, isn't she? Please tell me she's leaving at Christmas.

I feel that Capaldi has done a pretty good job as being Doctor but the series really was focused on Clara. The best episode by far this series was 'Into the Dalek', which was the sort of quality I feel the show has lacked over the past few series. People died en masse for once, as opposed to Moffat's usual tactic of not showing death/love being the solution, as it was once again in the finale.
However, on the whole the finale was okay/good too, although I agree that Danny Pink was very quickly shoehorned in and made his way to being the hero far too quickly - I also just didn't like him as a character, so having him save the day felt a bit ugh. Having Missy turn out o be the Master was something I genuinely didn't see coming (I thought she would be the Rani), and I think on the whole she was quite good.

I agree a change in head writer would be good. I've never really rated Moffat as head writer of Doctor Who, even though his episodes during the Russell T Davies era were some of the best, and he is very good with Sherlock.

I genuinely think at least part of the reason Clara was centred on this series was because they were scared that this was the first time in the new series that they had a truly older Doctor, and that since a large percentage of fans are very young, that focusing entirely on an older Doctor so quickly after a much younger Doctor and Tennant would put them off. I certainly got that impression when they actually brought in Matt Smith for a cameo in Peter's first story. So focusing on Clara and her relationship with Danny helped make the change that little less obvious. But from my point of view, as much as I like Clara (and I like her a lot more with Capaldi than I did Smith) I am really looking forward to the show being properly focused on the Twelfth Doctor

I agree, this has definitely felt like a 'Clara' series with the Doctor playing second fiddle. To my mind, that shows a lack of faith for the series and consequently its writing.

I'm obviously in the minority here but I've really enjoyed this series. The plots in the Matt Smith era got so convoluted I struggled to keep interest. But this series I think has been full of drama, interesting but not too complex plots and a welcome return for the Master, fantastically played by Gomez. And I actually don't mind Clara or Danny Pink.

To add my two pennies, I used to love it with Tennant, hate it with Smith, and think it's okay with Capaldi. I don't know if I'm just stupid but I didn't understand what was going on during 90% of the Smith episodes, and I'm still in the dark about bits of Capaldi's. I think Capaldi plays the role better than Smith, (IN MY OPINION), though.

Out of the "new" Doctors, I'd order them (from best to worst as it stands):

1. Peter Capaldi
   
2. David Tennant
   
3. Christopher Ecclestone
   
4. Matt Smith
   

There's not much in it for me between Capaldi and Tennant (they've swapped around in my head multiple times as time has gone on), and Ecclestone isn't far from the best two. Matt Smith isn't terrible by any means, but he doesn't hold a candle to the other three; his was the only tenure where I lost interest for a while.

As time has passed, my opinion of Tennant's Doctor has declined, and my opinion of Ecclestone's Doctor has improved.

To this day, i think it's a shame we never got more Eccleston episodes. I would have liked to have seen his character developed over at least one more series. I thought there was a lot more milage in the concept of Eccleston's Doctor recovering from his involvement in the Time War. I really don't rate the whole War Doctor thing personally.

Steven Moffat has confirmed that Peter Capaldi is returning for Series 9. Jenna Coleman is not confirmed.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/doctor-who-showrunner-confirms-peter-749557

If there ever became a day that he would love to play the doctor again (and he looked similar to how he was during his tenure) then surely they could adapt to create new adventures which would fit into his timeline but we're not episodes at the time.

I've always felt this would be possible, not strictly just for Eccleston although I would love to see that.

I've actually always had an idea that if the series began to under-perform they'd invite an old Doctor back, for example the most popular David Tennant, and do at least another series with them and slot it into their timeline easily. This would allow for a change of scenery without having the current Doctor regenerate and change the show effectively.

What they could actually do if they still wanted to run both the current Doctor's series plus an old ones would be to have one run from say February through April and then the current Doc's series in the time it now comes on August through November. A part of me would love this because I'd love another "spin-off". I can, however, accept it is extremely unlikely due to money and the fact people would claim that younger viewers would get confused, which even though they seemingly understand the current crazy, alien concept, is to a degree is understandable.

Carrying on from this, we know that multi-doctor stories are possible and thanks to Time Heist we know that if one of them happens to have aged considerable - as Davison had - they can just say "ah that's just because there is two of us". I feel that is the beauty of Doctor Who, no one knows what can and can't be done to a vast extent. They could have a series staring all the alive Doctors and be like "yeah, well a thing happened" and no one could say "yes but X, Y and Z don't allow that".

To come back to your point, I would seriously love Eccelston to come back for another series, but I doubt'll happen.
1) Eccelston has said he wouldn't ever do Doctor Who again.
2) When McGann returned for "Night of the Doctor" there was a massive cry from the fandom saying "give him a spin-off or something" which was hugely supported and it never happened. I don't think the money is there.

Nice idea, but it will Never happen. mind you Big finish are the only outlet for this.

As much as the fan in me would enjoy seeing old Doctors get new episodes, I think it would be a terrible idea for the show.

Mind you, as a child I was somehow convinced that Peter Davison had come back for the Matrix scenes in Terror of the Vervoids (I hadn't really seriously started watching it at that point, and Saturday afternoons were usually spent being dragged around town by the parents, so all I saw of Doctor Who, or the Tripods, was what I could glean from dragging my heels near the telly shops. Still, I was hooked).



Time Crash And I think it only got away with it because the whole thing was more of a skit.

"But fair play to you, not a lot of men can carry off a decorative vegetable."