I grew up with Doctor Who - I first became a fan when I was about 7, over 40 years ago, early in the Jon Pertwee era (round about 1971). I have a vague memory of watching it when Patrick Troughton was the Doctor in the late '60s, but I was too young then to follow the story.

For me, the best Doctor is and always has been Jon Pertwee. I got a couple of Jon Pertwee-era stories on DVD recently and they look as good as I remembered them.

I didn't like Tom Baker as the Doctor at all. Something about him just alienated me. I wasn't that keen on Peter Davison at first, but grew to like him more as time went on. Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy could have been much better than they were allowed to be; they were hampered by terrible scripts, costumes and companions. McCoy was very good in the ten minutes he got at the start of the Paul McGann movie.

There have been only two Doctors that I accepted as the Doctor straight away: Paul McGann and Matt Smith. The rest, it took me two or three episodes before I accepted them.

I was glad when I heard that Steven Moffat would be taking over as producer, as I felt that Russell T Davies sometimes made the programme too silly (the belching wheely-bin in the first Christopher Eccleston episode, for instance). But I think that the most recent (2011) series got far too complicated; what I think of as "Farscape Syndrome" (I missed two episodes of Farscape and in that time the story had become so complicated that I couldn't pick it up again).

It's interesting that you didn't like Tom Baker as Doctor Who. You're probably the first person I've heard to say that.
I enjoyed Sylvester McCoy's Doctor Who but yes, his costumes were silly. He did have some quality stories though - The Curse of Fenric (the one with the vampires) and Ghost Light (which was quite confusing but very spooky and well-written). I thought his companion, Ace was also pretty good (if a little obnoxious at times).

I enjoyed Sylvester McCoy's Doctor Who but yes, his costumes were silly. He did have some quality stories though - The Curse of Fenric (the one with the vampires) and Ghost Light (which was quite confusing but very spooky and well-written). I thought his companion, Ace was also pretty good (if a little obnoxious at times).

I love Sylvester McCoy as an actor. I think he could have been one of the best Doctors, if he was allowed to be. But the mess that was going on behind the scenes (as well as John Nathan Turner's rather odd ideas) prevented it a lot of the time. I've only seen clips of the episodes you just mentioned, W4J, and I look forward to seeing those in full. So far, the only McCoy episodes I've seen in full were from his first season, such as "Time and the Rani" and "Paradise Towers"... Yeah... (Do you remember the scene where the Doctor got "glittered unconscious"? )

Tom Baker will always be my favorite Doctor, though, I think. For me, he is everything the Doctor should be. The zany humor from the Graham Williams era... the more intense, temperamental side of him shown in the Hinchcliffe era... he nailed all the qualities so perfectly. Plus, the brilliant dialogue by Robert Holmes and Douglas Adams doesn't hurt.

I am very fond of Jon Pertwee and Patrick Troughton too, though. I haven't seen as much of them as I'd like to. But what I have seen was fantastic. I look forward to seeing more of them.

King_Erlian, very interesting about Tom Baker. Just like W4J, you're the first person I've met who disliked him. And I agree with you on the early RTD episodes. The Eccleston episodes started off as being very odd. I thought it improved a lot after the "Dalek" episode, though. And especially after David Tennant came, RTD seemed to take the show a lot more seriously.

~Riella

I finally found uploads of "Bill Nye The Science Guy" on youtube now I can relive my childhood

Thoughts on the most recent Once Upon a Time episode -

I liked this one a lot better than the last one. I don't think i'd quite say it makes up for it, but it did good.

Thoughts on Once Upon a Time:

Episode 19:

Episode 20:

A few thoughts on tonight's episode of Once Upon a Time:

A few thoughts on tonight's episode of Once Upon a Time:

Spoiler

I guessed pretty quickly that it would be Henry, not Emma, who ate the cursed turnover, though at first I thought he might do so accidentally...

This was my exact same thought. These last two episodes were terrific. So far, my favorite episode all season has been about

ok, so I've gotten hooked on Wipeout - yeah lame I know XD but it's disturbingly entertaining

I got my hands on the entire 2nd season of Boy Meets World - the audio commentary is awesome!!

There's a TV show on BBC -- Wallander -- that I've been interested in for awhile. The problem is, I don't know anything about the content, or what the show is rated. All the DVDs are listed as N/R, and I can't find anything on Google that tells about the rating or content. Does anyone know the rating of the show, or if not, can anyone tell me a way I can find out?

~Riella

Ithilwen...alot of the time, the PBS Masterpiece website lets you watch certain shows for free (for a limited time) . I saw here, this person's blogged about the series before, so I tells you a bit about it, although no content ratings. Sounds interesting. http://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/?s=wallander But maybe if you check on here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/wallander ...they'll have future episodes you can watch, so you can see if it's kosher. Hope that helps somewhat!

Thanks, AslansChild.

I missed the last episode of Sherlock. Does anyone know if it will be on again before the final episode airs next time?

~Riella

Ithilwen, PBS currently has the previous two episodes of Sherlock available to watch online. Otherwise, I would check your local schedule and see if they replay it sometime this week---I know our station usually plays Masterpiece again the next night at least.
As for Wallander, I know I've heard it's good, but I'm not sure about the content. I'll try to ask around and see if I can find out anything on that end.

I missed the last episode of Sherlock.

That's too bad. My parents and I actually got to watch it, and we found it amusing because we kept recognizing the actors who played some of the minor characters (Gordon Kennedy from Robin Hood as the bartender, and 'John Chivery' from Little Dorrit, to name two). It was a good episode.

Well, with the final episode of Person of Interest coming up on Thursday, I'm already dreading the summer hiatus. These past few episodes have been quite the ride!

Episode 20: this one blew several carefully formed theories I had about Reese's past out of the water, but the ending surprised me so much that I honestly don't care. I probably should have anticipated the twist, but I was so convinced that

Episode 21: this was probably the most emotional episode all season. The irony of the episode title (Many Happy Returns) had to be intentional as Reese ends up having one of the worst birthdays ever. The flashbacks were, again, excellent, and Caviezel's performance was definitely a highlight. For once, the writers actually answered more questions than they raised, which actually gave the episode a feeling of closure (again, slightly ironic, considering). Finally showing us what happened to Jessica provided so much insight into what caused Reese to become the broken, homeless bum we met in the first episode. And hello there, Dagmara Dominczyk! Nice to see you acting alongside Jim Caviezel again, even if only for two short scenes.

Episode 22: after being put through the emotional wringer in the last episode, the characters were back in full snark mode last Thursday. The friendly banter was back, Reese was snooping again (Yay! I've missed that storyline), Finch was elusive as ever, the fight scenes were the best they've been all year, and the flashbacks to Finch's past were great as always. Excellent episode, with a great ending. The confrontation between Finch and

Spoiler

Grace, Harold's former fiance. That revelation made me happy for more than one reason. One being that she was played by Michael Emerson's wife. Eeee!

--- flambeau

ok, so I've gotten hooked on Wipeout - yeah lame I know XD but it's disturbingly entertaining

I love Wipeout! I don't know which is funnier, the over the top ways the contestants crash and burn as they are cast down into muddy water by a giant banana on a stick, or the announcers running (and hilarious) commentary as they go through the course. I was worried that the new girl who replaced Jill Wagner as the sideline reporter wouldn't be able to do the job (Jill's facial expressions during particular gruesome fails is priceless) but she's doing pretty good. I think gazer is the only other one who watches the show, and I believe that's because his nieces/nephews enjoyed watching it.