I don't object to the idea of a female Doctor, but I am very skeptical about their ability to pull it off properly. I think Moffat borders on being a terrible writer for female characters, tossing in every cliche and stale trope he can. River's only managed to escape from being a cardboard cutout because Alex Kingston is brilliant and Moffat writes River more like the Doctor than a random human female. Even after two seasons, Amy is still pretty much just the spunky Scottish sidekick. Rory has been the recipient of about ten times the character development.

I think it's about time I filled out the questionnaire now. I've been posting in this thread for quite awhile, but have yet to answer the questions.

When did you first hear about Doctor Who?
When I was too young to remember, most likely. Growing up, all I basically watched was BBC shows on PBS or rented from the library (because I adored BBC almost from the day I was born. ), as well as anything Sci-Fi. I have a vague memory of it from back then. But I didn't become an official "Whovian" until much later. I saw, in passing, the advertisements for it when the show came back on in 2005. I watched the first couple episodes, but wasn't too interested in it at that time. It wasn't until I came on NarniaWeb and was... strongly encouraged by friends to re-watch the show that my old interest in it was sparked again.

What was the first episode that you watched?
I don't remember because I was very young. I'm pretty sure it was a Seventh Doctor episode. McCoy's tenure had just ended when I was born, so it seems very likely those episodes would be showing as re-runs. Plus, McCoy was the first face I recognized when I started looking the show over again. I have a vague memory of Paradise Towers, I think; as well as some later ones, like maybe Ghost Light or The Curse of Fenric. I don't know which one I saw first.

After friends kept recommending the show again and again, I decided to try getting back into it. I watched the 2005 pilot "Rose" on August 28th, 2011, and never looked back.

Classic Who fan or NuWho fan?
They're all the same to me. I don't really separate them at all, to be honest. The episodes we've been seeing since 2005 aren't much of a reboot, since it basically continues the old episodes, with only the Time War left out. If it weren't for the fact that the show had been cancelled for so long, there wouldn't be much point in re-numbering the series. I'd say I like what most people refer to as "Classic Who", plus the RTD Era. I'm not enjoying the Moffat Era so far, and look forward to seeing what the future holds for the show when it is someday taken over by someone else.

Who is your favorite Doctor?
The Fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker. He is everything the Doctor should be, and I never get tired of watching and re-watching his episodes.

The Tenth and Second Doctors (Tennant and Troughton) are tied for second place on my list. Seven and Nine (McCoy and Eccleston) are tied for third. Although, I have to say, the First Doctor will always hold a special place in my heart as well. I love all the Doctors, really.

I can't say much about the Third or Fifth Doctors, since I haven't seen very much of them yet. The Eighth Doctor was ruined by the bad quality of the movie, though I think he might have had the potential to be good otherwise. The Sixth Doctor annoyed the stuffing out of me at first, though he's maybe slowly growing on me. I don't like the Eleventh Doctor; although Matt Smith is a brilliant actor, I don't like what Moffat or the writers have done with the character.

Who is your favorite Companion?
I have a lot of favorites, of course, since the show has had so many wonderful characters over the years. I'd have to say my absolute favorite companions are Harry Sullivan and Donna Noble. Harry Sullivan had such a penchant for being annoying and lovable at the same time. With Donna, I loved the brother/sister type relationship she had with the Doctor. Plus, she could be intelligent, compassionate, and resourceful; while still being funny and odd. Just what a companion ought to be.

Other favorites are Rose Tyler (I adored her. I'm not sure I've ever seen a character on a TV show that was so real and human. Her imperfections just brought her closer to my heart); and Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter back in the Hartnell Era. I'm probably going to get hit over the head for this, but I also like Mel Bush very much. Sure, she's a bit silly, but she's also got spunk. I like spunk.

My least favorite companions are probably Grace Holloway and Peri.

Who is your favorite Villain?
Oh dear, I'm not sure I can pick. There are so many good ones! Let's see... I love The Master (particularly John Simm's portrayal). The Valeyard is fantastic. I'm a big Weeping Angels fan, of course; though I don't like the direction they went in post-Blink episodes. The Daleks are always good. Some favorite one-time villains would be the Vashta Nerada and the villain in Midnight. The Silence are probably the scariest villains of all time, and have a fascinating premise; but they've been overused by now.

What is your favorite episode?
I really liked the newer episodes with The Master (Utopia, Sound of Drums/Last of the Timelords, End of Time). Doomsday is a great, tragic episode and is one of the few things on television to ever make me literally cry. The Unicorn and the Wasp was brilliant. Vincent and the Doctor is one of the few Moffat-Era episodes I really liked. Of course, I like any of the Tom Baker ones as well. Particularly the Ark in Space episode.

How excited are you for Series 7?
(Yes, I changed the number. Series 6 aired long ago.) If I'm being honest, I'm not looking forward to it too much. As I mentioned above, I'm not too fond of Moffat as showrunner (though he did write some good episodes during the RTD Era). And after being disappointed by both Series 5 and 6, my expectations are not too high. I'll give it a chance, though. We'll see what happens.

~Riella

Amy's character is quite stagnant, isn't she? The weird thing is, I think Moffat can write female characters because I loved Madame de Pompadour and Sally Sparrow (although both of them are probably packed full of TV tropes now that I think about it.) I think it would be interesting to see a female writer be the showrunner for Doctor Who, especially since Doctor Who writers are predominately male. Not Helen Raynor though, I couldn't stand Evolution of the Daleks.

Here, now you don't have to watch the actual episode. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcEXapRzMOU

Found a piece of fan art that is exceptionally funny: http://theuniblog.evilspacerobot.com/?p=3144

Uniblog reposted it from BuzzFeed. If you follow the link to BuzzFeed, there's more fan art. Some of it is pretty spectacular and clever, but this was the only piece I laughed at.

And to finish off this post, this would have made "The End of Time" much better. Angst just doesn't suit the Doctor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2PJFGfShGQ

I was able to watch the first episode "An Unearthly Child" today thanks to youtube, but now I have the urge to watch at least one episode from all of the classic Who actors. Any suggestions as to the best episodes for each of the Doctors 2-7?

I was able to watch the first episode "An Unearthly Child" today thanks to youtube, but now I have the urge to watch at least one episode from all of the classic Who actors. Any suggestions as to the best episodes for each of the Doctors 2-7?

A good one with the Second Doctor is Tomb of the Cybermen.

Don't know about the Third.

For the Fourth Doctor, two really famous ones are City of Death and Genesis of the Daleks. One of my favorites is The Ark in Space, but that might be just me.

I haven't seen enough of Five yet to know which are the best for him.

Trial of a Time Lord is good for Six -- especially the last one, The Ultimate Foe. But it might not make sense unless you've seen the ones before it.

For Seven, skip the earlier ones and watch the later ones like Curse of Fenric or Remembrance of the Daleks.

By the way, if you like An Unearthly Child, try Edge of Destruction. That's a great First Doctor episode.

~Riella

stwin, the first Second Doctor episode I saw was "The Mind Robber" and it's still one of my favourites, largely because it deals with a land where book characters are alive. I remember the last Troughton episode, "The War Games", being pretty good as well, but it probably wouldn't be a good one to start with.

As for the Third Doctor, "The Three Doctors" is good (pretty much any episode where different regenerations meet up is fun). I also remember liking "The Time Warrior", and "The Curse of Peladon" and "The Monster of Peladon" were pretty good, too.

There are tons of episodes for the Fourth Doctor, but like Ithilwen said, two of the most famous are "Genesis of the Daleks" and "The City of Death". That said, I remember rather liking the Key to Time sequence (Season Sixteen with Mary Tamm's Romana) and the E-Space trilogy (Season Eighteen with Lala Ward's Romana). As far as individual episodes, though, (not that those all can't be seen individually!), I enjoyed "The Horns of Nimon" and I'll also second "The Ark in Space" simply because it had Harry in it.

For the Fifth Doctor, two must-sees, as far as my thinking goes, are "The Five Doctors" (the first DW I really remember seeing) and "The Black Orchid" (a purely historical adventure and just fun). I also remember liking "Castrovalva", "The Visitation", and "The Resurrection of the Daleks". The Guardian Trilogy (Season Twenty) is interesting as well.

As far as the Sixth Doctor goes, The Trial of a Time Lord sequence is pretty interesting like Ithilwen said. I remember "The Mark of the Rani" and "Vengeance on Varos" being interesting, though it's been a long time since I saw either. Also, there is "The Two Doctors", but while I loved having the Doctors interact, I remember the plot being kind of weird.

And for the Seventh Doctor, I would definitely recommend "Remembrance of the Daleks". I also remember "Delta and the Bannerman", "Battlefield", and "The Curse of the Fenric" being good. "Silver Nemesis" was also pretty interesting and, if I remember right, has a brief appearance of a fez.

Also, like Ithilwen said, if you want to see more of the First Doctor, "The Edge of Destruction" is good, as are "The Aztecs", "The Romans", "The Time Meddler", and "The Keys of Marinus".

I have by no means seen all episodes, so don't consider this list anything resembly definitive. Oh, and on the off-chance you haven't found it, the BBC site has a nice detailed list of all the episodes and plot descriptions.

I'll also second "The Ark in Space" simply because it had Harry in it.

I adore Harry Sullivan. It's so unfortunate that they took him off the show as early as they did. I love the relationship he has with the other characters -- how he constantly gets on the Doctor's nerves, and gets Sarah Jane angry at him for calling her "old thing" or "old girl". I have trouble deciding sometimes whether my favorite companion of all time is Harry from the Fourth Doctor's Era or Donna from the Tenth.

~Riella

Does anyone think/hope Helen Mirren will get her wish, and play the next Doctor?

Ergh, no. No, no, no, no. I really hate the idea of The Doctor becoming a Time Lady (sounds too much like the horrid fanfictions on the subject). It'd be worse than the Doctor with an American (or African or Spanish or X) accent, and that thought gets a bad enough reaction.

On a slightly different topic, since DW is between seasons now I've started watching Torchwood from episode 1 (available from my cable provider). I've now seen the first 5 episodes.

I'd seen the occasional episode or clip before, but it makes a lot more sense watching from the beginning (not to mention that I've seen the appropriate DW episodes that set up this spinoff ).

I agree with what Rising_Star posted about this show a while back. It's much darker than Doctor Who and definitely not family-friendly, yet has quite complex characters.

It feels like DW and yet it doesn't (I know that doesn't make sense; I'm just not describing it well). Maybe it's because it's set in the present on Earth, with (so far) no time-traveling or spacefaring main characters...no TARDIS or Doctor, but still with the occasional weird villain (or Cyberman).

Spoilers!

New details about the mysterious Season 7 revealed today. They can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/news/ ... ew_Details

This is an older article, but it mentions Jack Harkness coming back for Season 7. Has anyone heard anything more about this? http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2011/06/11/m ... ng-rumors/

~Riella

Thanks for the info.

Looking forward to series 7.

Please note that this Special Feature will close Sunday, March 4, after which the Doctor's adventures can be discussed in the Television thread. Fear not, though; we'll have another Special Feature when the next season starts.