WhovianNet recently caught up with the host of the BBC’s brand new Doctor Who Fan Show to find out more about the weekly YouTube series that’s been taking the Whovian world wide web by storm.

As its title suggests, the show, which was launched last month, celebrates the lives and times of our beloved hero in all his Gallifreyan glory and its presenter, vlogger Christel Dee, gave us an insight into what her fellow fans can expect from the show and the process of creating each episode. Check out our full Q&A with Christel below!

Q. Hi, Christel! Firstly, can you describe the Doctor Who Fan Show in a nutshell?
A. Doctor Who: The Fan Show is a weekly show on the official Doctor Who YouTube channel that celebrates some of the awesome stuff fans are making as well as interviews, a smidge of Doctor Who news and funny comedy sketches.

Q. When did you first become a Doctor Who fan?
A. I first came across Doctor Who in 2005. My first episode was The Empty Child. I was 13 years old and it scared the living daylights out of me! I was hooked from that moment on.

Q. And how long have you been a YouTuber?
A. I started my current YouTube channel in 2011 but I started making YouTube videos in 2007 on an old channel where I used to make video diaries at conventions. I set up a new channel in 2011 as I was studying for a Film & Television Production degree and wanted a side project where I could practice editing and presenting/interviewing skills. I’ve been attending conventions and cosplaying since 2006 and wanted to show the hard work and dedication that goes into making costumes in a fun, informal way. I then joined the YouTube channel, FiveWhoFans (5WF) in 2014. We make comedy sketches, serious episode reviews and songs. We also have a podcast and an original Doctor Who audio series called Aimless Wanderings.

Q. Based on your own experiences, what advice would you give to anybody who is interested in starting up a YouTube channel of their own?
A. I think it’s good to make videos about something you’re passionate about because that will shine through on screen and make you and your videos engaging. Plus, making videos should be fun, so choose something you like! I recommend keeping videos relatively short in length (reviews can be a bit longer, I think) and try to upload regularly, too. Strong channel branding is useful to help build an identity for your channel and don’t forget to make eye catching custom thumbnails! Social media is really useful to build a fan base and engage with fans. It’s also useful for updating people on what’s happening and reaching out to new audiences.

Q. Great tips! How did your involvement with the Doctor Who Fan Show come about?
A. The BBC were looking for a fan to host the show. They found my videos on FiveWhoFans and my own channel and I was invited to an audition.

Q. What is the typical process of bringing an episode of the Doctor Who Fan Show from script to screen?
A. Each episode is very different so the process varies from week to week. As it is an online show, the turn around is fast and we’re often working on multiple episodes at once. With my producer Chris Allen, we work together to plan content for each episode. We both script the links and comedy sketches and George Shankster, our shooter/editor, films and edits them.

Q. In what ways can viewers get involved with the Doctor Who Fan Show?
A. We’re always on the look out for weird and wonderful stuff. So whether that’s a cosplay, a video you’ve made, a cloud that looks like Peter Capaldi’s hair, send it to [email protected] or tweet us @dwthefanshow.

Q. What’s the best thing about working on the Doctor Who Fan Show?
The Doctor Who fan community is huge so it’s lovely to be able to highlight some of the awesome stuff that fans are making and doing. We also get to experiment a lot and make a variety of stuff. One week we might do an interview, the next week a silly comedy sketch. We film on lots of different locations and I get to wear lots of silly costumes! Everyone who works on the show are huge fans, too.

Q. What do you think it is about the Doctor Who fandom that makes it such a great place to be?
A. I think the Doctor Who fandom is very unique. There aren’t many things that cross ages, genders and cultural barriers in the same way that Doctor Who does. I love the way it brings people together and the passion it ignites in people, too. There’s also so much to celebrate. So many Doctors, companions, monsters, time periods and worlds. Everyone has their favourites and it makes the fandom so interesting and exciting.

Q. Finally, is there anything coming up in the Doctor Who Fan Show that viewers can look forward to?
A. There’s loads of awesome stuff lined up including robbing Steven Moffat’s lair, an episode filmed entirely in Minecraft and we’re off to San Diego Comic Con in a few weeks.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the official Doctor Who YouTube so you never miss an episode!

Neve McIntosh has discussed the possibility of starring in her own Doctor Who spin off in an interview with The Mary Sue.

The actress has become a firm fan favourite for her portrayal of Madame Vastra who was first introduced in the mid-Series 6 finale A Good Man Goes to War. Since then she has made several returns alongside her on screen wife Jenny Flint and their associate Commander Strax. Their ongoing liaisons with the Doctor have led to fans campaigning for them to land a show of their own. “Every fan I meet asks about that,” she said. “I would love it.”

She continued: “Or maybe a one-off TV special, or we could just go straight to the movie! I think I need to corner Mr Steven Moffat. We’ll see what happens, though. You never know.”

She also commented on her character’s controversial kiss in Deep Breath which sparked a flurry of complaints. The scene was even cut from some international broadcasts. “I had no idea it would be such a big deal,” she admitted. “Yes, it was a kiss, but I was also breathing life into her. I hope that people can come around and realise that a wife can kiss her wife.”

Would you be interested to see a spin off with the Paternoster Gang? Have your say below!

A Christmas Carol…no, stop singing. Please stop, it’s horrible; I meant the story. Is there any story more well-known than ‘A Christmas Carol’? Is there a story that has been updated and rejuvenated more than that beautiful tale by Charles Dickens? Probably not and Doctor Who’s version of A Christmas Carol might just be the best adaptation, in my opinion. So, without further ado, here is my review of ‘A Christmas Carol’ written by Steven Moffat (the episode was written by him, not my review. If he says any different, I’ll deny it!)

This story is my favourite Christmas Special solely because it is the most Christmassy. This story’s whole plot revolves around Christmas. With the other Christmas Specials, it seemed to me that they were just episodes that happened to be set around Christmas time. Their plots could have been easily taken from that setting and placed into a different one with just a few minor adjustments. If you tried to take this story out of its context, it would probably resemble a badly edited picture with all of the background still attached from the original…the point is, it’s Christmassy. Even ‘The Unquiet Dead’, which is not technically a Christmas Special but is set around Christmas and actually features Charles Dickens, has nothing on this episode in terms of Christmas spirit.

Another thing I liked about this episode was the acknowledgment by The Doctor that he was using the plot of A Christmas Carol to aid him in his plan. There have been so many adaptations that just use the plot without a character even mentioning the similarities but in this story, the Doctor has a wonderful epiphany moment and realises that’s how he’ll get Kazran to turn nice.

Aesthetically, the story was beautiful. Sardick Town seemed to have a Terry Pratchett flair to it. The sort-of-almost-steampunk-ish buildings and costumes were brilliant and worked well with the story. They really seemed to say ‘A Christmas Carol in Space’. The special effects were stunning as well. The opening shot of Sardick’s house and the clouds swirling around the top of it was absolutely gorgeous and the way the hologram of Amy and Rory and the rest of the passengers looked was quite eerie which worked well in this story.

Speaking of the story, I was so glad that Steven Moffat utilised time travel for this story in an interesting way. He could have just had the Doctor go backwards and forwards in time and show Kazran his life but he was creative with it. The manipulation of the whole ‘fixed points can’t be changed but everything else is in flux’ idea in order to in turn manipulate Kazran’s life was ingenious and having the present Kazran as the Ghost of Christmas Future was a very Doctor Who and indeed Steven Moffat way of interpreting the story. Michael Gambon was detestable as both of his characters (and I mean that in the best way possible. The way he played both Kazran and Elliot Sardick was fantastic. They were so horrible.) And I think it goes without saying that Katherine Jenkins did wonderfully in the episode both on the acting and singing fronts. While I loved Amy and Rory, I thought the decision to use them sparsely in this episode was a good one. It allowed for more time to focus on Kazran and Abigail’s relationship and gave Amy more gravitas when she appeared as the Ghost of Christmas Present.

If there was one word I would use to describe this episode, it would be ‘beautiful’. It was visually stunning and the plot was wonderfully optimistic and full of Christmas cheer. In my opinion, this is the best Christmas Special that Doctor Who has ever produced (although, with Santa in ‘Last Christmas’, I don’t know how I’ll feel come Boxing Day). I believe this episode is worthy of a 10/10.

Thank you for reading, and Merry Christmas!

Written by Joshua Gardiner

Everyone loves a text book love story. The whole boy meets girl, they fall in love and a happily ever after. But as we Whovians know, Doctor Who is never that simple. Our latest love story we see unfolding is that of Miss Oswald and Mr Pink, the lovely Clara and Danny. But as this series draws to a close, what will become of them and will it be a happily ever after?

We first met Danny in the newest series of Doctor Who, in episode two. He is the newest member of staff at Clara’s school, where she works. He is a maths teacher, despite what the Doctor thinks. Danny was a soldier, but we don’t really know what made him leave the forces, other than he was pushed too far. The first meeting between Danny and Clara is very awkward, Clara clearly thinks he’s worth a shot, as she asks him to a leaving doo, which he refuses. But when Clara walks in on Danny banging his head against a desk because he said no and correcting all his answers to yes, she says, “Will you look that terrified when you take me out for a drink?” (Clara, series eight, episode two). Danny says yes. The smile Clara smiles, as she walks down the corridor, is clearly that of someone who is feeling sparks. Anyone who has been in love, knows that smile and when thinking of their love, or how they met will smile that smile at the memory. And so the school yard romance begins.

In episode four, we rejoin Clara and Danny on their first date, dinner (and the drink). Well, what an absolute mess! Clara and Danny are as awkward as they were when they first met. All they seem to talk about it work, but they end up laughing about a student they have in common when Clara slips, making a dig at Danny being a soldier, “From you, that means something.” (Clara series eight, episode four). Naturally Danny gets defensive saying how he dug twenty three wells as a soldier and saved whole villages and towns because of them, people he kept safe. Well, it’s easy to say it goes downhill from there with Danny then slipping up saying, “sometimes people like you can get the wrong end of the stick” (Danny). Clara thinks he’s making assumptions and leaves Danny sat at the table. But the rest of this episode is intertwined with Danny and Clara’s relationship. With Clara and the Doctor ending up in Danny’s childhood, where we find him in an orphanage, back to modern day with Danny in the restaurant just after Clara left and finally to Colonel Orsen Pink, from one hundred years in Clara’s future and a pioneer time traveller. So this Orsen Pink, same surname as Danny and a very very similar face, in fact played by the same actor, so could this be a good sign for Danny and Clara, however time can be rewritten. “”Stay away from time travel.” “It runs in the family” “What? Sorry what do you mean, runs in the family?” “Nothing – it’s just silly stories – one of my grandparent – well great-grandparents”" (Clara and Orsen). Could this be Clara and Danny? We will have to see.

Then that fateful day arrives, the Doctor meets Danny. But first we see Clara juggling life with the Doctor in the tardis and life with Danny on earth. Until the Doctor gets a job at Clara’s school as a caretaker. To start with the Doctor gets the wrong end of the stick, knowing Clara has been going on dates with someone on earth, he thinks it’s a teacher called Adrian who looks a bit familiar. The Doctor thinks so too. Adrian looks a bit like a certain bow tie wearing past face and the Doctor thinks he’s the one Clara has been going on serious dates with. Obviously he’s wrong and despite the clues around the school, for example, “Ozzie loves the squaddie” written on a window that the Doctor rubs out, he doesn’t twig it’s Danny. When the Doctor and Danny meet, Danny almost gets killed by the Skovox Blitzer in the school hall and the doctor gets annoyed that the “PE teacher” got in the way. As Danny was a soldier, the Doctor thinks he must be a PE teacher, which is wrong. Danny twigs, working out that the Doctor and Clara know each other, forcing Clara into telling Danny who the Doctor is to her and also vice versa. In that process, Clara says she loves Danny.

Later in the same episode, Clara sneaks Danny into the Tardis using the Doctors invisibility watch. That does not go well. It doesn’t take the Doctor long to realise that Danny is there and naturally he gets smart, reminding Clara of all the times she has left with the Doctor then gone back to Danny. When Danny becomes visible again, he and the Doctor argue. It results in Danny showing Clara that the Doctor is an Officer. Danny is a soldier but the Doctor is an officer. In the end Danny ends up impressing the Doctor by helping get rid of the Skovox Blitzer. All the Doctor wants is someone who is good enough for his Clara and Danny, by saving the world, is one step closer.

So Danny and Clara, not the best of starts, but so far so good. Danny took the fact that the Doctor is an alien really rather well. Along with the fact that Clara and the Doctor travel through time and space together. So what will happen in the end? Clara is living a double life, and she has been for a while. She runs off with the Doctor for these 30 second adventures, without a second thought about Danny, what she has back home and what she leaves behind every time she sets foot in the Tardis. But has the lure of the Tardis claimed another life? It’s all speculation, especially with the rumour of Jenna Coleman’s exit from the show, that was neither confirmed or denied. Truthfully, I’m hoping for a happy ending, after the sadness, pain and tears of the last companions exit, Amy and Rory. It would be nice to have a happier ending. I’d like to think that Danny and Clara stay together and build a life together without the Doctor, but remembering him always. “Run you clever boy, and remember.” (Clara). But what will the mysterious Missy bring to the finale and who will she be to Clara. I don’t want to predict an ending, but in an ideal world, happily ever after would be nice. But for now, we wait, wait and see what the finale will bring.

ITD features some of the best innovation since sliced bread, in this reviewer’s opinion; it’s got style, emotional depth, that good old Jungian circus, and a flair for the profound that’s easy to math up with previous Dalek outings, no matter which side of the bread your butter’s on.

Spoilerphobes, read at own risk.

It begins with a lone rebel vessel in the blackness of space, alone in an asteroid field, pursued by a Dalek ship.

Quick as a flash, the Doctor snaps up the surviving pilot Journey Blue (a possible fourth wall call-out to the Doctor’s connection with the TARDIS and consequence, and choices), and she snaps right back at him, upset at his failure to also save her brother, who was presumably fried to crispety crunchety goodness and disintegrated right after she dematerialized. It is shown in episode how unlikely it was that he could have saved the brother, how he made the callous, yet surgically precise triage-worthy decision to save her, and still the sister doesn’t care. Some might say the Doctor was subconsciously bowling for gratitude on a fixed lane with that one, even though, within the artifice of the scene, we believe that ship has sailed. Talk about a poster child for the Backfire Effect, and I’m not talking about the Doctor.

Then they reach the mother ship the destroyed ship came from, on the run and hiding from the bossy pepper pots stalking the asteroid field. Woah now, this place is not a happy camper’s vacation trailer; it’s stocked with weapons and soldiers and everything the Doctor doesn’t like- complete with a Dalek who is so badly damaged it has apparently turned awesome and started guest narrating for Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. And painting happy little clouds in its spare time. So the Doctor and his backup band go electric and get shrunk in a scene straight out of a sixties movie; they travel through the Dalek’s eyestalk. Inside, they dread to go where no man has gone before: Cthulhu’s private after-party. Cue the creepy basement furnace music from that old pc game, Scratches. Heheh.

The Dalek itself is soon encountered after the usual gauntlet of flying death ball laser-sighted antibodies and People Who Die, AKA red shirts. There, in its crèche, it squirms half-heartedly, obviously wounded, every image of itself thus far a most excellent mirror into the Doctor’s own self-discovering dilemma of a psyche. Add back in the Overcompensating Woman-Girl with a Gun (Journey Blue) plus Neurotic Turkey Baster (Clara) and we’ve got ourselves a recipe for distinction that formally begins with the infamous line: ‘No, no no!’ from the Doctor after he fixes the Dalek and it goes back to being a psycho. Afterward, he tries to mind-meld with the Dalek to help it remember a moment of beauty it witnessed, to show it a better way through showing it his mind. We all know that Daleks can’t bake cookies! They don’t like Soft Kitty, either! Silly Doctor. Fortunately he has Clara and Journey re-awaken those suppressed memories of the birth of a star, which it had only appreciated while injured. Then, in the mind-meld, it sees the Doctor’s hatred, finds that more beautiful and turns against the other Daleks, proving that the Doctor’s hopes are, in his mind at least, false- there can be no good Daleks. Except him. It appears to have chosen for him, answering the question put forth by the episode in an obscene and brilliant way; but that is the ruse- the trial of water, illusion laid bare.

In fact, ‘Rusty’ aka Buridan’s Dalek makes its case most bluntly when it tells the Doctor that he would make a good Dalek. Then it turns away from him to help the other people on the ship, reinforcing the Doctor’s delusion that neither one of them can change. Of course, the mind sees only what it thinks it should or can, and often starves- this is illustrated when the Dalek arcs from being damaged and good to being repaired and bad, then finally comes out post-epiphany with its basic nature intact, if redirected. An excellent metaphor for the Doctor. Though we do not often connect a Dalek with the monomyth of the Hero, Into the Dalek is the journey of the hero at its most basic, for the Doctor and the Dalek, reducing them both to the exquisite symbol of the spinning mirror of self-image and illusion. Joseph Campbell would be proud.

But would he truly applaud the convoluted and at times ambiguous bond between judgment, consequence, resolution and subtle apotheosis so frequently displayed in this episode, which seems to be a theme this season? At times it seems more Ridley Scott than Carl Jung, more Freudian Slip than Objects Lesson. The proof of that pudding is in the way the ingrained terror of certain of the ship’s inhabitants overtakes their willingness to think, to be rational in the face of danger. But destruction, as anyone who reinvents themselves as much as the Doctor does knows, can be a chance to reach phoenixian heights, and that is very Golden Shadow, which I suspect is the absolute theme of this season.

However, nirvana is ephemeral by nature, as the presence of Missy suggests at end of episode. Might the Golden Shadow never be actuated, the True ‘Promised Land’ never reached, if there is too much interference by this strange, familiar woman who somehow manages to remind us of River, Romana I, The Rani, Clara, the Woman, the TARDIS, Idris, the Master and Death all at once? The Doctor, after all, denied Journey Blue her request to enter into the TARDIS, because she reflects his own nature. Hasn’t this theme been done already?

In essence, for me, Into the Dalek wins the gold star for mathematical excellence on every level, both for its willingness to infer and its strong self-as-journey themes.

Watch and learn, fellow Whovians. Burn with me.

Capaldi then… he’s pretty fantastic isn’t he? From episode one, Peter made the role his own and has continued to shine throughout the series; now at the halfway mark, it’s safe to say that Peter Capaldi is safely the Doctor.

Deep Breath saw the introduction of the Twelfth Doctor to our screens and what a treat that was; darker, less tolerant, and all round… sassier, the new Doctor was certainly a change from the lovable Matt Smith. This Doctor created an air of uncertainty; was he really the same man and could we still trust him? Of course we could, because by the end of that episode (thanks again to the Eleventh Doctor for clearing things up) we were left with no doubt that the Doctor has returned. No sooner had we got our breath back (I’m not even sorry), we were thrown back in at the deep end with Capaldi’s first Dalek episode. Into the Dalek saw the Doctor fight his most feared enemy, but with a twist. The Doctor was lured into believing that little Rusty had changed, and was a ‘good Dalek’, if such a thing could ever be, and he was ultimately left disappointed, which perhaps explains why he is just so untrusting of most species. From Rusty to Robots, and in the third instalment of Series Eight, the Doctor comes across the ‘mythical’ Robin Hood in Robots of Sherwood. Here, we were treated to the joyous interactions between Robin (played by the fantastic Tom Reilly) and the Doctor; the prison scene where the pair were arguing so much they didn’t realise that Clara had left them to bicker while she saves the day is one of my favourite sequences of Doctor Who to date. By the end of this episode, we see that the Doctor does have a heart (or two) and manages to reunite Robin with his love, Marion. Robots of Sherwood was not only a spectacular spectacle with a budget bigger than Robin’s beard, but this episode allowed Capaldi’s comedic value to shine through.

Now if ‘Robots’ was happy and joyful, the episode that followed was very, very different. In one of the strongest episodes many have us have ever seen, Listen was a rollercoaster. By deciding to focus on something being under the bed, Listen certainly delivered on the fear-factor. The sequence with a young Danny Pink, the Doctor and Clara all stood looking at the window while some kind of being wandered around behind them harked back to the kind of fear created in episodes such as Blink. Listen showed us that it’s okay to be afraid of the monster under the bed. It’s okay to keep coming back to our fears; if the Doctor is scared, we could be scared. After the heart-breaking realisation that Clara was the one who created the Doctor’s fear, we were transported to the slick, ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ style episode, Time Heist. This was a switch from anything we’ve seen before; slicker, faster and all round more stylish, this episode was a pure blockbuster. Capaldi proved that he was an action hero as well as a caring rescuer.

Throughout the series so far, we’ve been treat to the blossoming relationship between Clara and Danny. The painfully awkward interactions between the pair only made me more endeared to both characters and it made me more invested in their relationship, and revealed another side to Clara’s personality; one that is shy and bumbley, just like Danny around Clara’s interactions. Despite how cute their relationship was, we were all waiting for that moment when the Doctor would have the chance to assess Danny…

So that brings us to the most recent episode, The Caretaker. The ‘domestic’ episodes are my personal favourite as they allow for more character development in a way that actiony-spacey episodes don’t; The Lodger is still one of my favourite episodes ever because placing the Doctor in a human situation only serves to show how alien he actually is. The Caretaker was no exception to this rule: set in a London school that Clara coincidentally works at, the Doctor, under the guise of a caretaker sets to work on catching a deadly alien living in the surrounding area; who knows whether the Skovox Blitzer (kudos to whoever thought of that name) intended to kill everything in sight, or whether he was simply defending his position in the catchment area for Coal Hill. More important than the monster in this episode, the Doctor meets Danny Pink for the first time, and it’s safe to say that it didn’t go according to Clara’s plan… We all spotted him in the trailer for the episode after Time Heist: the Matt Smith lookalike. Who was he? Was it a coincidence? Well, as we know well enough by now, never take anything in Doctor Who to be a coincidence (unless that the school the alien is at is also the school that Clara teaches at). Let’s be honest here, who didn’t get a teeny bit emotional at the thought of the Doctor truly believing that Clara would and could only fall for someone who was the spitting double of a previous regeneration? This episode did three things, to three characters:

1. We saw how protective the Doctor is of Clara and how much he really cares for her.

2. Clara’s choice of Danny instead of the Matt Smith double only goes to show that maybe the Doctor doesn’t know her as well as he thought and that she isn’t as dependent on him as he maybe thinks.

3. Danny Pink has some serious attitude. The way he stands up to the Doctor and then saves the day is commendable. I like him.

So as you can probably tell from my mini review of the series, I like Capaldi a lot. Series Eight is so, so, so strong, I haven’t had any real issues with any of the episodes. After every week, I find myself saying ‘okay, that was my favourite’ only to find myself saying the same thing the following week. I can’t wait for next week already (although those spiders do look VERY scary to someone with arachnophobia) and I must applaud Capaldi and the team for changing the direction of the show so boldly and bravely. It worked.

When “The Name of the Doctor” first aired, nobody was quite sure what to expect from Clara afterwards. Many people were caught up in the revelation of the “Impossible Girl” mystery; some enjoying it and the clever inclusion of Classic Doctors, others feeling it cheapened Clara’s character. I, however, along with many others, was more excited for the prospect of a companion that had met every single one of the Doctor’s incarnations and knew the detailed intricacies of his life.

Sadly, the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special dashed the dreams of this clique of fans, as, when asked if Clara remembers the Doctor’s other lives, she dismisses the question with “a bit.” This left something of a gap in our minds once filled by hope and speculation. But, the mind of a Whovian, like a healthy vine, will grasp onto anything in close proximity. When the following Christmas made good on Steven Moffat’s promise to wrap up just about every plot thread from the Eleventh Doctor’s era of Doctor Who, we were left to ponder the remaining strands. The one I’m choosing to address today is the alarmingly antagonistic relationship between the girl and the blue box.

First I think it necessary to look at what we know about the Tardis. Who else has the Tardis reviled, even more so than our Impossible Girl? Who has the Tardis actively tried to kill and run away from? If you answered Captain Jack Harkness, then, well, aren’t you a smarty-pants? Yes, as we’re told by the Tenth Doctor, Jack was turned into a fixed point, a “fact”, something that should be impossible (oh lookie what I did there!). The Tardis detests paradoxes and other such things because they twist and contort time. How does this apply to Clara? Why, because she’s a walking plethora of paradoxes in herself, that’s why.

Let’s look at Clara and the Doctor’s relationship from a fourth-dimensional, non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint. The Doctor only seeks out Clara and takes her on as a companion because he has already met her twice before at different points in time and space, where she died both times; this being possible because the Doctor and Clara eventually go the Doctor’s grave, and Clara scatters herself through the Doctor’s timeline. In other words, the Doctor and Clara must go to Trenzalore in order for the Doctor meet the two fragments of Clara that inspired him to seek out the Clara he goes to Trenzalore with in the first place. Confused yet? Imagine how the poor Tardis must feel.

Now, this would appear to make Clara a necessity to the Doctor and the Tardis, as she is the main component in a stable time loop. As is always the way with Doctor Who, however, things are never that simple. First off, this time loop means that the Doctor must visit his own grave, which, according to the Doctor, breaks a fundamental rule of time travel. Already then Clara becomes a source of great confliction for the Tardis; she must simultaneously come with and not be allowed to go with the Doctor. This alone would be enough justification for the Tardis’ disdain for Clara. But again, there’s always more.

Clara is, in part, responsible for the Doctor crossing his timeline to go to Trenzalore, as she is given a message for the Doctor from the Great Intelligence telling him to do so if his friends are to be left alive. Naturally, the Doctor goes immediately, but the Tardis resists. This is still wrong, made worse by the machinations of the Great Intelligence. He intends to enter the Doctor’s timeline and turn every victory the Doctor has ever had into a defeat. Think of it: MILLIONS UPON BILLIONS OF PARADOXES. This causes the universe to, as one would imagine, literally collapse in on itself; another demerit for Clara in the Tardis’ eyes. And yet, Clara must be present to jump into the Doctor’s timeline to save him millions upon billions of times, saving the universe and, more importantly to the Tardis, the Doctor. The Universe is where the Tardis draws its power from, so allowing Clara to almost cause its destruction only so she can save it immediately afterwards would be like manoeuvering a lit match away from a gas can with another match.

But then it all worked. Clara and the Doctor’s combined efforts corrected his timeline and saved the universe. For all intents and purposes, the Doctor, the Tardis, and Clara have successfully weathered the paradox storm surrounding them. Why do I think this means the Tardis and Clara are BFF’s now? One of the first scenes in “the Day of the Doctor”, the episode immediately following Clara’s timeline diving caper, we see Clara miraculously close the Tardis doors with but a snap of her fingers. While never explicitly stated, this ability is implied to be semi-legendary in its existence and something unique to the Doctor alone. Do I think Clara capable of this feat merely because of the big blue box’s sudden gratitude towards the Impossible Girl? No. Companions save the Doctor all the time and seldom receive special treatment. But it is half of the answer. To understand the other half I ask you all to go with me on one final tangent.

As I mentioned earlier, Clara’s expedition into the Doctor’s timeline left some optimistic and others annoyed. From both parties I heard two ideas that I believe can be related to one another. From the former the idea that at least one of the fragments of Clara was a Time Lord, thus able to be on Gallifrey to convince the Doctor to steal the right Tardis. From the latter I heard frustration at the notion that the backstory related in “the Doctor’s Wife”, that the Tardis stole the Doctor as much as he stole her, had been retconned.

But what if it wasn’t? We know Tardises are living, conscious beings just like you or I; they merely exist in a way much different than your average lifeform. If it’s not too big of a stretch for Clara to become a Time Lord, then why couldn’t she have instead become…the Tardis matrix itself! Think about it; it upholds the story the matrix related in “the Doctor’s Wife”, it just twists the circumstances a bit. It would also explain the Tardis’ choice of using Clara for her voice interface when they spoke with each other, and why, in addition to taking a liking to Clara for saving the Doctor, Clara can open and close the doors by snapping her fingers; they’re connected, as the Doctor and the Tardis are. Furthermore, the Tardis describes Clara as a vain narcissist. Assuming the line of thinking that the Tardis consciousness is a version of Clara, then it only makes sense to like using Clara’s form and give her special treatment after the paradox problem is resolved; she would essentially be granting boons to herself.

So there we have it, what I see as the Tardis and Clara’s relationship in a nutshell. But what are your thoughts?

If you spend more than ten minutes on any Doctor Who forum (or the comments section of any Whovian’s facebook status) it usually degenerates—like the age-old ‘that’s what Hitler did’ devolution—to a slanging match about the merits of Steven Moffat. The basic opinion being that he’s not much good, and bring back Russell T. Davies before the whole show goes down the toilet.

Firstly, arguments like that are usually exceptionally whiney, being mostly perpetrated by the guys who made it through the wilderness years with no show at all, but now seem to be arguing they’d rather now watch every week than have the show as Moffat is running it. Which it patently totally rubbish. It’s just that Who fans like to argue.

The basic firing line up against Moffat is a combination of over-complicated plots, ‘clever-clever’ dialogue, thinly written supporting characters, misogyny and turning the Doctor into a giggling child. Go through those one by one, and you might have an example for each, but that doesn’t really mean that it’s a statement that can be made about the whole of Moffat’s era at once.

I’m a huge prior fan of both Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat. Queer as Folk was a defining part of my TV adolescence, and Davies’ The Writer’s Tale is one of the most fascinating books I’ve ever read. As it happens, I saw him in the crowd at a very large public event this weekend and experienced a ridiculous burst of hero worship, and am kicking myself for not having the nerve to approach him. What Davies brought to Doctor Who was the same thing he’s brought to everything else he’s written—a human connection that completely refuses to deal in archetypes. Only Davies would ever have though to slam Doctor Who into the genre of British council estate soap so thoroughly as to create something like Rose and her family, but its undoubtedly that aspect of the rebooted Who that bought it the love it achieved from the mainstream and turned it back into an unassailable institution. Davies’ stories were powered by sentiment and emotion, and it’s never cleared in the finales of his era’s various major characters: Nine’s jubilant regeneration, Rose’s tearful departure, Ten’s sorrowful tour of those he loved.

And in the middle of Davies’ series of human ties and the rise of the underdogs, Stephen Moffat turned up to give us four gems of twisty-turny plotting, slick scares and iconic soundbites. The episodes were uniformly considered highlights of their series, and given his success with previous shows Coupling and Jekyll I couldn’t have been more excited that he was taking over. He was the natural choice.

The problem comes with an audience that seemed to expect that Moffat was going to carry on the series in exactly the way that Davies has. Which ignores a few patently obvious facts: firstly, that any showrunner is naturally going to make their mark on the show, and secondly that Classic Who itself was a show defined by very obvious eras of storytelling. Is it any surprise that Moffat turned out as series that turns on his original calling cards?

Where Davies’ Doctor Who powered on humanity, Moffat’s powers on mythology, hanging itself on the feeling that the Doctor has lives for ages upon ages, seen many wonders, building every character into something significant: The Madmen with a Box, The Girl Who Waited, The Impossible Girl. With that kind of framework, he infused his iteration of the Doctor with the feeling of a dark fairytale, fed from the stories that infest our childhood. If you want to see it done well, look at A Christmas Carol. If you want to see it down half-well, look at The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe.

And he did it really well, for the most part. Individually, on an episode by episode basis. The difference is, unlike Davies’ series which had Moffat’s clock-puzzle episodes to vary its tone, Moffat doesn’t swing some of his off-episodes into that sort of salt-of-the-earth drama that Davies’ excelled at. Instead we get weak episodes like The Rings of Akhaten and Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS. As Moffat said himself, they got really good at doing something at failed to notice we’ve got tired of it.

And he does seem to have learned from it, if our Capaldi Doctor and freshly-rewritten Clara seems to be anything to go by—shedding the trappings that were both his signature and a thorn in the side of fans, and moving into something a bit different. Of course, it’s Into The Dalek that’ll give us a sense of where the whole series is going, which by the time you read this, you’ll already have seen. Fingers crossed, eh?

“Am I a good man?” That is the question we are all face with in our lives (particularly I would assume men, unless a female is still confused about her gender when she goes through a mid-life crisis). Peter Capaldi’s Doctor seems to be faced with this pertinent question in the new series of Doctor Who as he continues his adventures through time and space! However, the Doctor has aged a bit since we last saw him and has a few more grey hairs – that could be to do with that fact that he is now 2000 years old! We can tell this from the recent BBC One trailer of Series 8, which was screened at half-time of the Germany vs. Argentina 2014 World Cup Final. Many a Whovian was waiting for Gary Lineker (the only person on TV who has more sticky-out ears than the 9th Doctor Christopher Eccleston) to reveal the trailer after sitting through an evening of football – which the Germans eventually won (maybe the Argentineans could of done with Winston Churchill and his Daleks, rather than Lionel Messi!)

The BBC trailers have slowly-but-surely revealed more and more about the upcoming series, but that first trailer they showed way back when was only about a second long and only revealed a shadow of Peter Capaldi in the TARDIS. Unfortunately, there are those who can not wait until the 23rd August 2014 and have already leaked bits of the new series. Leaks and spoilers are even more common and harder to prevent in 2014, with the intense usage of social media and the worldwide appeal of a show like Doctor Who, as the leaks have apparently come from America, according to the BBC.

However, amongst the controversy and leaky headlines, it should be a time to celebrate as Doctor Who will be returning very soon. It has been a long nine months of waiting (you could’ve had a baby in this time) with Matt Smith’s Doctor leaving our screens in December 2013 and now the new face of Capaldi returning to our little silver boxes (which are probably not bigger on the inside – only if it is the Queen’s Coronation – then they defiantly are, as they have too fit a woman inside) in August 2014. Although, it is not all change as Jenna Coleman (she has dropped the Louise since the last full series, though) continues as the Doctor’s assistant and it will now be Clara Oswald who has too deal with the aftermath of a Time-Lord regeneration! It seems like there may also be another TARDIS makeover in store, like there usually is when the Doctor changes faces. In my opinion, I still like the coral look that was used by Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant, but it looks like the new TARDIS scene will match the mood of the new series, in terms of being much darker!

The Doctor has a lot to live up to after last year, as in 2013 there was the 50th Anniversary Episode of Doctor Who, however 2014 seems to be the year of the Scotsman, which new Doctor Peter Capaldi is, as this year sees the Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow and there will also be the Scottish Independence vote in September. The trailers suggest that the new Scottish Doctor will come face-to-face with one of his oldest foes, as if I am not hearing things, then the voice of deadly Dalek creator Davros can be heard. I have been waiting for the return of Davros just as much as I have been wanting a return for the Master (see one of my previous articles – called ‘The Master Plan!’). Since Davros departed in 2010 it has been inevitable he would one day return – no Dalek can be completely ‘Exterminated’ as we have seen by the amount of times the Daleks have returned from the dead and the Doctor has defeated them! Cybermen are also set to return in Series 8 as Capaldi was seen filming with some Cybermen outside St Paul’s Cathedral in Central London.

Overall, it is exciting to see how a new actor will portray a ‘new Doctor’, but at the same time Matt Smith’s bow-tie and fez will be missed. Plus, it is not all change as we will still be able to see the development of the Clara Oswald character and see how she reacts to a new man! I say, roll on the 23rd August, so that we can legitimately find out about the new and old foes the Doctor will soon have to face, as we need something more to watch on Saturday evenings rather than just an episode of Tipping Point: Lucky Stars and Star Wars for the hundredth time!

What does the new series buzz mean to me? That is an excellent question. What comes to mind as I write this article is a combined feeling of tedium and excitement. On one hand, it’s a new season of Doctor Who! There’s everything to be excited about. Not only that, but we have a new Doctor as well; Peter Capaldi has entered the Tardis! We know he’s got the acting chops, we know he’s got the Whovian cred, and we know he was probably born to play this part. So yay.

But, and here’s the rub, it’s what they do with the man born to play the Doctor that really counts. And what have the teasers shown us? What has Steven Moffat said on where the show is going?

“Into darkness,” apparently.

We see the phrase ‘dark and gritty’ used to describe a lot in pop culture these days. In a million years, would you ever guess that Doctor Who would follow this trend though? Don’t get me wrong; the show has always had it’s darker moments, especially in New Who, and they usually work quite well. One of my favorite episodes to this day is Series 1’s ‘Dalek’(2005), in which the Doctor angrily tortures a chained, defenseless creature. ‘Dark’ on its own is not inherently a bad thing when it comes to story. But as the prevailing tone of this particular program? Furthermore, why is the show seemingly taking this more somber route? Is it truly to serve the story, or merely an attempt to seem ‘hip’ and edgy?

I fear the latter may be true, since we last left the Doctor on a mostly positive note. Not only did the Doctor manage to attempt the impossible and change his personal history, saving his own people rather than slaughtering them, but he was given confirmation that he succeeded in this attempt and fought tirelessly to ensure their security. I heard many complain after the Day of the Doctor aired, saying that by allowing the Doctor to save Gallifrey then he loses his darkness. While this is a legitimate concern, I liked to argue that this is not true in the slightest. The Doctor still went to war, committing other sins, and every sinister deed he acted out afterwards still happened; the context is just a little different. His darkness is still there, his hearts are just a little lighter.

Which brings us back to my original objection. Capaldi can still be intense and thrilling without being that ‘dark’. He shouldn’t be questioning whether or not he’s a good man, since it wasn’t that long ago(for us at least) where he showed us that he still managed to be one “on the day it wasn’t possible to get it right.” The matter should be moot. Nevertheless, being one who’s thought heavily on regeneration, I know each new incarnation is a completely new assortment of personality, quirks and character traits. Having gone past the limits of a natural Time Lord lifespan, all bets are off. Having a wickedness testimonial from the Daleks(and Davros apparently?!) doesn’t hurt the intrigue either.

I want to go over what I liked, because I’m really not dreading this season; cautiously optimistic is the right word for it I think. There’s an assortment of new creatures and contraptions that look like a lot of fun. The cinematography, at least from what we’ve been shown so far, is absolutely stunning. But what I think I’m most excited for is what they’re doing with Clara.

I heard Steven Moffat compare the Eleventh Doctor’s introduction to that of the Third Doctor; both Doctor’s with no carry over companions or cast members of any kind. It took a lot for both to establish themselves as the Doctor on their own. When the Fourth Doctor first graced screens, it was so drastic of a change that it was nice to have Sarah Jane and the Brigadier there to look at this new person and say “Yes, this is the Doctor.” Clara is serving in this role for a new era, helping to ease a modern audience into a new Doctor. I enjoyed Clara when she was first introduced as a mysterious woman appearing throughout time, but when she was brought on as a companion I found her bland and underwritten. As Series 7 progressed, though, I observed a steady incline in her character, which culminated in her preventing the Doctor from making the biggest mistake of his life a second and third time. I think Clara’s next task, aiding new Doctor’s and new audiences alike, is the perfect next step for her character, and I am nothing but enthusiastic to see where it goes.

In all honesty, I don’t think Series 8 will be bad. It would take a lot for me to think any Doctor Who series will be bad. Like most series’, there will no doubt be good episodes and bad episodes, but a great story. What does the new series buzz mean to me? It means one of my favorite television shows is still on the air for another year, and that is something to be celebrated.