Doctor: yes loved, loved, loved the episode. My personal highlight was a very shallow one. Towards the beginning of the episode when it was clear where they were and what it was inhabited by my thought was "Motherfucking dinosaurs on a motherfucking spaceship". Two negatives.

1) They have a greedy murderous trader with a big nose and they name him "Solomon"?

2) Queen Nerfiti chooses to have a romance with the white big game hunter in 1902 Africa rather than go back to rule her people?

No matter how cool, it seems that everything ends in misery.

Is that a vibe you're getting from here, or from other people? Just shooting in the dark--yesterday's ep didn't end in misery. Are you getting that read from here?

Mostly from here. Since I don't follow it, the only other place I hear about it is people squeeing and/or cussing on twitter. Every episode seems to result in the same thing (people squeeing and/or cussing) so, I dunno.

Moffat is a fine writer, but sometimes he makes me wince.

Sad things do happen somtimes, but when you say "ends in misery" I think of shows like Supernatural. Doctor Who hasn't lost its roots as a kids show, and is really not taking itself seriously at least half the time.

The current Doctor is a wacky goofy guy with the power to save the universe. He prefers being wacky and goofy to having to save the universe, and when he commits genocide it rarely takes anyway.

You can also watch older Doctor Who - if you are looking for an intro to Doctor Who but don't want to watch the new show then Tom Baker years are good. Although I'm biased Tom Baker was my gateway Doctor. And there is some sad stuff but there's way more action and adventure and fun stuff.

Current Whoo has some sad moments--companion departures are 50/50, but Nine had the pain from the Time War, and Ten was intermittently punishing himself for it, but they both managed to have some hijinx. Torchwood is the Who with the misery.

Sad things do happen somtimes, but when you say "ends in misery" I think of shows like Supernatural. Doctor Who hasn't lost its roots as a kids show, and is really not taking itself seriously at least half the time.

Don't all the Companions either die or have their memories erased or get trapped in nether dimensions or something? None of them get to say, "thanks for the awesome ride! I'm retiring to Bath now, have a good eternity without me."

None of them get to say, "thanks for the awesome ride! I'm retiring to Bath now, have a good eternity without me."

Martha did precisely that. Rose has her own Doctor she can actually have sex with, so being separated from this Doctor isn't as sad as it could be. Donna--Donna was highly shafted. Those are the big three ended companionships. Donna's grandpa left with little angst, as did Mickey, and Captain Jack worked out his issues with the Doctor, and left on very good terms with him.

So...no, not really. And even if it did, that's once every 2 years. It's not like they spend too much time wandering about with the end of their sojourn hanging over their heads (except they kinda are doing that now--Amy and Rory have a real life--the Doctor comes and picks them up for fun, but that's not going to last much longer, one way or another).

Sarah Jane had a great time post-doctor until the actress playing her died. Martha seems to be having a good post doctor life. Captain Jack ends up with immortality post doctor. Immortality is not always pleasant but on the whole he seems to enjoy it.

xpost

Sarah Jane had a great time post-doctor until the actress playing her died.

Hadn't she been abandoned by the doctor without a word for like 20 years until they reunited in "School Hard"?