I hear you, Calli, the caper was not as caper-y as I wanted. You might be right about Leverage raising expectations. I did enjoy the Doctor figuring out what he had chosen to forget and giving Madame K his number.

I think I liked Who better before there were so many arcs and intertwining storylines. I liked the background of Gallifrey in Old Who, and the Master and the recurring characters, but there wasn't quite so much entanglement and "I bet this means something later on".

Yes, they only really did a season-long arc a couple of times, with the Key to Time and the Trial of a Time Lord. (And the former at least wasn't any real mystery, just an organising principle.)

Classic Who had a very different feel in many ways. Pacing is the one I notice most. Not entirely surprising given that it used to be serialised, but even allowing for that there's a big difference. (Sometimes I feel like these days, they'd fit all of episode 1 of one of the old adventures into the pre-credits.)

One thing I love about old Who on DVD is the quality of the special features and such. The Making Of specials are excellent on their own, but then you get other bits like an extended look at the music of the Third and Fourth Doctor eras, or a discussion between Caroline Johns, Katy Manning and Louise Jameson about being the Doctor's companion, or a 45-minute documentary about Doctor Who's relation to the politics of the day. It's superb stuff.

The commentaries are great too, and I love listening to Barry Letts, Terrance Dicks or Verity Lambert about how the stories were produced. But (and this is the point of this digression) I do occasionally wince when they start bemoaning the changes to the formula in New Who. Yes, there are significant differences, and the old ways had some strong reasons and advantages, but for the most part, the same is true of the new series.

Case in point: Letts and Dicks are very much down on New Who's extensive use of the sonic screwdriver, which has become something of a magic wand. This is true, but for the new production, that's pretty much the point. It lets the Doctor get out of anything they don't want to spend time on, and into something that they do. It suits the pacing of the new show.

Plus, the Doctor using it to blow up the archery target in Robot of Sherwood was very funny.

I hear you, Calli, the caper was not as caper-y as I wanted. You might be right about Leverage raising expectations. I did enjoy the Doctor figuring out what he had chosen to forget and giving Madame K his number.

There was a dearth of capering. I really only got that feeling right at the outset when they first escaped the bank's security team (and a little bit when they got through the floor). The rest of the running about felt more like a Minotaur story.

What I found interesting about the Doctor figuring out the identity of the Architect is how he started by latching onto the one thing he knew about the Architect, that he hated him. (As soon as he started on that line, I thought "Ah. It's him.")

What I like about their use of it this time around, compared to (say) Amy's Choice, is that it went almost entirely unremarked upon. Where Eleven finished Amy's Choice all "MAH PAIN", Twelve is more "Yeah, I hate myself, so what? I hate everybody."

I can't be the only one who thought, "Ah, the Teller is in the Incentive Program"?

The Strain: I loved that the kid retrieved Morleys brand cigarettes. And that Our Heroes are squabbling their way through the sewers, because, no, they really only just met and they're not a cohesive bunch at all.

Other than that -- leaving a 10yo kid in charge of the old woman?

Wait, was there a new DW this week? It wasn't on my iTunes for some reason.

I can't be the only one who thought, "Ah, the Teller is in the Incentive Program"?

I wish I'd thought that! Nice.

Wait, was there a new DW this week? It wasn't on my iTunes for some reason.

That's what happens when you try to put a memory worm on your iTunes.

You know, we'd never have to worry about being spoiled if we all had memory worms.

Hey, Gotham premieres tonight -- would we discuss it here? I assume yes, since most of the comic-book TV shows are here.