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[brokenrecord]

I saw a bunch of reviews before watching the episode that it was boring, not very good, formulaic, and disappointing. So that's what I was thinking about going into watching the episode.

I love the idea that Winston Churchill knows the Doctor and calls him for help.

I also like that it appears that Eleven calls Amy "Amelia" when he's irritated with her.

At this point I feel like they should just stop pretending that there are no more Daleks anywhere in time or in the universe except for these last couple remaining ones. Because they always come back, which is why it feels more and more ridiculous everytime they come back.

I like that the new Dalek paradigm includes producing Daleks in different colors.

I really enjoy that the Doctor leaves Amy so she'll be safe and he can defeat the Daleks, but that she doesn't just sit around and wait for him but actually tries to figure out a way to help him. And she also helps with the... convincing the robot/bomb thing he's human.

"I can rid the universe of you once and for all!" Really, Doctor? Really? Because I'm pretty sure you've operated on that logic before, and look where that got you.

He kissed Amy on the forehead! And she talked about liking someone she knows she shouldn't, and how it hurts, but a good kind of hurt, and glances at the Doctor! (Did I mention I ship Eleven/Amy? Because I do. I can't help it! It's what I do.)

It feels weird, the Doctor not telling Amy about the Time War and his history with the Daleks and all that. I'm not sure if that was decided because Eleven's not ready to talk about all that with Amy (which doesn't seem fully true because he did tell her he was the last of his kind just last episode), or if they just wanted to distance this season from the past ones. Or if Eleven is just not as angsty about the Time War and thus doesn't really... consider it as big of a part of him.

Ok, so yes, this episode was not as great as the previous two, but... I didn't think it was that boring or bad. But I did just come off of season 1 of Torchwood, which... there are quite a few really, really boring episodes of Torchwood season 1. My expectations for the return of the Daleks was really, really low, though.

Next week:
ugh seriously two episodes of River Song? sigh. I never liked the idea of her character (as I'm sure I'll get to talking about once I rewatch season 4), and I knew she was coming back, but I didn't realize it was for a 2-parter. And while I've been excited for the return of the Weeping Angels, it's tarnished a bit by including River in it as well.

Finished season 3 of Doctor Who in my rewatch!

Same warnings as previously: spoilers potentially for all aired episodes of both Doctor Who and Torchwood, and I am a crazy Doctor/Rose shipper, so that tends to pop up from now and then (although really not very often when talking about this season, for the obvious reason of Rose not being around. There are definitely a few points I bring her up, but mostly in relation to when the Doctor is talking about her and missing her and all. I don't really bring her up later in the season).

The Runaway Bride
DONNA! I don't think I've actually seen this episode since seeing season 4.

omg the Doctor's face and voice when Donna finds Rose's shirt. I mean, for some reason I didn't really think about this before when watching this episode (probably because there were many, many months between when I watched Doomsday and this), but this all takes place immediately after he says goodbye to Rose and they're both crying and Rose tells him she loves him and the Doctor almost tells her the same.

I love Donna. This isn't new or surprising or anything, but I think some of this is residual from loving Donna in season 4. I love her saying "POCKETS!" and "And that goes double for your mother!" Oh Donna. You are so awesome.

It's kind of interesting when they're sitting on top of the building and the Doctor is looking her over with the sonic screwdriver and is like "You're not special, you're not interesting," and so on how season 4, and, particularly, the finale show that that's not true. Donna is special and important.

;ljkasf my heart breaks for Ten so much when he's at Donna's reception and remember catching Rose. (And like I said, I find it really interesting that that's the moment that flashes. Like, I know that it matches what he sees with the dancing, but at the same time, I can totally make that such a shippy moment.) Seriously, every moment in this episode having to do with Rose kills me, and I'm sure people who hate Rose or Ten/Rose hated all this, but for me it was perfect. Because as I said, he did just say goodbye to her. It makes sense that she'd still be on his mind and he'd still be dealing with losing her. (He can't even say "Her name is Rose" without being kind of teary and choked up!)

Smith and Jones
I actually really like this episode. There's nothing amazing that happens, but I think it's a good introduction of Martha and it's an interesting enough story.

I really love when Martha hears both of his hearts and he winks at her. And their discussion over whether she saw him that morning or not and he's like "Why would I do that?" and idk. I just enjoy it all.

I really love Martha. I feel like I appreciate her more every time I see her. When I was first watching season 3, I was like "YOU ARE NOT ROSE OMG" but then I got over it and now I'm just like "YAY MARTHA." And also "Poor Martha," because the Doctor totally treats her worse than any of his other companions (except maybe when he leaves Jack behind). I could totally see The Girl in the Fireplace occuring with Martha, because I don't doubt that he would leave Martha behind, because, as I said, the Doctor is kind of an ass to her.

I enjoy all the random reasons the Doctor comes up with for asking the plasmavore for his questions (like, took Magnetics, failed, took Geography, passed that one, postman, that's why the bunions).

(;lkasjlkjf the Doctor saying "We were together" about Rose. I know he doesn't mean together, but whatever, I'm a crazy shipper and I can interpret that as I'd like.)

The Shakespeare Code
There are parts of this episode I really like (such as Shakespeare and his flirting with both Rose and the Doctor, and there are some really excellent liens), and there are parts that I don't (like the Carrionites and basically the main plot of the episode).

The Doctor saying "Rose would know" is pretty ridiculous, but it's totally coming from the Doctor missing her and idealizing her once she's gone. And, I mean, I think it relates to his line in The Impossible Plant/The Satan Pit when he says "If I believe in anything, I believe in her" or whatever, so even if she wouldn't really know, he believes so much in her that he thinks she would. (But that is definitely one of his worst moments with Martha. Poor girl.)

Also, I love the end with Queen Elizabeth.

Gridlock
I really love this episode. I don't even fully know why, but I think it's great.

I love when Martha asks if she can visit his planet, and she's going on and he's just like "Yeah. Yeah. Suppose it is. Yeah." Also, I love how Ten is all "I'M THE LAST OF MY KIND GALLIFREY WAS BEAUTIFUL" and so on, when in reality, the Doctor did not have the best relationship with the Time Lords when they were still around and when they come back. I think he tends to idealize things a bit.

BOE. I love the Face of Boe (slash Jack Harkness). The Face of Boe needs to come back. I mean, I know he dies here, but, you know, the Doctor could totally travel and meet him before this point.

lol I like that Ten pretends to have to think about it for a minute when Martha asks if he brought Rose there. Yeah right, there was no way he wasn't actively remembering their time together there.

Ok, one reason I love this episode is definitely DAVID TENNANT + KITTENS = AWESOME.

Also, I just love when Ten says "Everyone, drive up" and everyone does and the sun in shining on them all and it's just very heartwarming. I'm a sap, ok.

And my favorite favorite part (ok, after Ten + kittens) is when Martha's like "Nuh-uh, I'm not going anywhere until you sit down and tell me about yourself."

Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks
These are two of my least favorite episodes of the season (my least favorite is either these or the next one, and the next one has the advantage of being only one part, so these might be my least favorite). But, once we get to 42, I absolutely love every episode until the end. So I will make it through these next three!

Ok this episode is already boring me 10 minutes in (This is definitely a 2-parter that I think could have been cut down to 1. It isn't really interesting enough to be a full 2 parts.), so I'm going to use this opportunity to say that one of my favorite solutions to defeat the Daleks is when they first appear in like... what, the second serial with the first Doctor, and they stop the Daleks with static electricity.

Aw to when the Doctor says "They always survive, and I lose everything," He always almost sacrifices everything to destroy the "last" Daleks, except there are always more. (You'd think he'd clue in on that eventually.)

What is it with aliens and pigs? First the fake pig alien the Slitheen send to crash into Big Ben, and then these pig/human hybrid things the Daleks create. Seriously, for the first one, fine, but why would the Daleks select pigs to make their slaves? How does the fact that they only survive 3 weeks help them at all, either? Wouldn't they want something a little more long-term?

So after the Doctor takes the Dalekanium off the top thing of the Empire State Building and Martha electrocutes all the pigmen, I was like "Good, this episode is finally almost over." And then I saw that there were still 15 minutes left and remembered the whole end part where they get all the Dalek-controlled humans to stand up to the Daleks or whatever, and I was very disappointed.

"Daleks, if you choose death and destruction, death and destruction will choose you!" / "Incorrect! We always survive!" heh, see, the Daleks know what's up. I'm with them. Also, the first line was really rather stupid, so I enjoyed it being shot down.

"In the whole universe: just one." False, Doctor. But you keep thinking that, I suppose.

The Lazarus Experiment
I think I have decided I like this episode more than the previous two, in part because I remember that there are some really, really pretty scenes in it, especially in the end with Martha and Tish and the evil guy and the Doctor in the church thing.

Another one of Ten's most asshole-ish moves towards Martha is bringing her back home when she wants to keep traveling. I mean, come on. When your companion faces off against the Daleks and doesn't run from you screaming and lives to tell the tale and you've told her about being the last of the Timelords and the Time War and all, she deserves to stick around. And Martha had totally proven herself. Ten was just being emo.

Tish is kind of an idiot in the first half of this, but I like her in the end, especially when she saves Martha. I kind of wish we saw more of Martha's family than we did. Tish, particularly. She could have traveled with them for just a trip or two, even! I don't know, I just feel like we got to know Rose and Donna's families much better. Not that I really wanted a huge amount more time spent on present day Earth during the third season, but still.

Awwww to when the Doctor is talking about being old enough that everyone he's ever cared about he's lost.

I like that Martha turns Ten down for just one more trip. She doesn't really let him set the guidelines. She won't let him blow off her questions about where he comes from and she won't let him decide to just string her along one trip at a time. And that's one of many reasons Martha is pretty awesome.

42
Yay, finally to the best episodes of the season!

I kind of ship Martha and Riley. He should have come along with her and the Doctor at the end!

This is a super pretty episode. I love the like... idk sickbay or whatever, with the reds and oranges in the foreground and the blues and green in the background. And there's loads of smoke/mist all over the place, and some really nice visuals.

I love the total silence as Martha and Riley in the escape pod start drifting away from the ship.

I also love that Martha kisses Riley! I remembered a kiss, but I thought he kissed her. You go, Martha Jones.

Human Nature/Family of Blood
Oh man these episodes are so good. The ending, particularly, is just like mind-blowingly awesome.

I like that Martha figures out that Jenny isn't herself pretty quickly. And I do feel bad for her that she has to sit by and watch the Doctor fall in love with another human and even when he does mention his memories as dreams, only Rose comes up.

(Honestly I have very little to say because when I watch this episode, I'm just like L;KAJSDLFKJ;LJ THIS IS SO GOOD.)

John Smith seeing the Tardis and pleading that he wants to be John Smith and doesn't want to be the Doctor and all that is so sad. And yet he's still the Doctor, deep inside, and he chooses to let go of his human life and become the Doctor again.

I love when John Smith holds the watch and starts on about the low-level telepathic field and he's just so the Doctor again, and then it's gone.

I love that when he goes to the spaceship, he pretends to still be John Smith for awhile and gets a handle on everything. And I love the reveal that this family was really nothing special, but the Doctor was showing them mercy. If they had just left him alone, they would be fine. I get chills everytime it goes through what he did for each member of the family. Especially the little girl; that one really kind of just creeps me out.

Blink
Oh man, I love this episode. It's one of my favorites of the series, maybe my absolute favorite.

First off, CAREY MULLIGAN! Back before she was getting nominated for Oscars and everyone knew who she was. I don't think this episode would have worked as well had she not been so awesome. (I still hold out the hope of Sally Sparrow as a future companion, even though now that Carey Mulligan is all famous and such, that probably isn't incredibly likely to happen.)

It's weird how the Weeping Angels are really the scariest and creepiest creatures on the show, and yet you never see them move. But seeing them one second have their eyes covered and then a split second later, they've uncovered their eyes, is one of the creepiest things ever. (I'm now getting super excited for the upcoming two-parter with the Weeping Angels. I hope it's just as excellent as this episode, although that's a very high bar to reach.)

I really love how every little piece of the mystery is revealed. It's so excellent. Moffat is so good at storytelling (even if I'm not always 100% thrilled with what his stories tell - The Girl in the Fireplace, namely. And I have issues with the library episodes in season 4, which I'll get to).

I really am finding myself loving Larry this time. I love how excited he is over having both parts of the conversation, and that he has "The Angels have the phonebox" on a t-shirt.

For some reason I didn't think of this before when watching this episode (I'm not sure how I didn't), but when I was pretty young, there was this small figure/statue thing in my mom's office and oh man it freaked me out. I had a couple of nightmares about it, and I was okay during the day, but I did not want to go in there at night with the lights out alone when it was there. The thing is, it wasn't even scary looking at all; now, I can't figure out what freaked me out so much. I know I told my mom at some point and either that was when she got rid of it, or she had gotten rid of it and then I told her and she was like "You should have told me, I would have gotten rid of it sooner!" but I honestly can't remember. All I know is that it was gone after a little awhile. But thank god this episode didn't exist then, because this episode would have freaked me the fuck out. As it is, ma episode freaks me out enough. And the end clips with the Doctor voice over about not blinking and all the statues around in the world? WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO, MOFFAT, SCAR CHILDREN (AND ME) FOR LIFE? COME ON, NOW. (But seriously, omg I love this episode so much.)

Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Timelords
I love these episodes (I count them all as a 3-part storyline, even though some places it's separated into this and then the 2-part finale). I know parts (or all) of these episodes are criticized and some people hate them, but whatever, I've always loved them.

JACK!!! I'll always be sad that Doctor/Rose/Jack didn't have a better/longer reunion, but I am glad that the Doctor and Jack got to reunite for these episodes.

Awwww Rose is one of the first things Jack asks about. That's so sweet. I forgot about that; I usually just remember his obsession with the Doctor.

Ok seriously Jack goes back to 1860. He's also buried for a really long time (in the season 2 finale), right? And he travels back as well to 1941 as a Time Agent and then during Torchwood season 1, and he's also in... 2005 I guess during Boomtown. So there are totally times where there are 3 Jacks at the same points in time, right? Ridiculous.

HERMITS UNITED. "Meet up every 10 years, talk about caves. It's good fun! ...for a hermit."

I like that they at least try to explain why the Doctor left Jack even though he knew he was alive and not make him be so much an ass that he just left him there. (Although he still shouldn't have left him behind. But still.)

I absolutely adore the scene between the Doctor and Jack when Jack is in the chamber thing and they're discussing what happened with Rose and how Jack can't die and all that. It's just an incredibly nice scene, with the Doctor asking Jack if he wants to die, and the Doctor admitting Rose is stuck, which I realize I don't think he ever made clear to Martha. He went on and on about Rose and how perfect she was and that she was alive and no longer with him, but not that she was forced away from him, stuck in a parallel world.

Seriously, I really love Utopia particularly. The ending is just fabulous. The music and the Doctor realizing he's not the last Timelord and the Master opening the watch and regenerating and leaving them behind.

It's funny what a role Ten's chopped off hand ended up having on the show. I definitely didn't expect it to matter after The Christmas Invasion, but it's what allows Jack to find the Doctor and allows the Master to age the Doctor and, of course, allows for the Doctor-Donna and so much that happens in the season 4 finale.

My alarm clock beeps to the same beat as the... 4 beat rhythm that's always in the Master's head that he broadcasts out.

I love that Martha basically saves the whole world single-handedly. Martha is totally kickass. I love that she just starts laughing to herself as the Master is going on.

I still wish Jack had gone along with the Doctor for at least a little while. I mean, come on, Jack! He travels in time! You can return to this exactly point again (um, theoretically) and you won't have left your team alone at all! Anyways. I love the Doctor and Martha's faces when Jack says they used to call him the Face of Boe. And I still wish the Doctor would meet the Face of Boe again at some point, knowing that he's Jack.

On the one hand, I'm like, good for you, Martha, for realizing that you need to move on from the Doctor and you can do amazing things on Earth on your own. On the other hand, awwwww poor Doctor. He's all alone now for the millionth time. I'm mostly on the proud of her side, though.

Anyways, now onto Torchwood Season 2! At some point I'll actually get some work done. Well, maybe not. As I said, I only have the research proposal due Wednesday, and I just don't care about it at all. I mean, as long as I turn something in, I'll get some points, and I really don't need all the points anyways. And it only has to be 5 pages minimum, which includes references. And I have an idea of what I'm going to do, I just haven't written it down yet. And the professor said that he would look at the assignment again more closely because a lot of people were bitching about it in class on Friday because it does seem like a pretty ridiculous assignment for only 10 points, so I don't know that it makes sense to do a bunch of work on it and then have him potentially change things for the assignment tomorrow. At least that's what I'm telling myself. I've also done some very minimal research for my final Mood and Anxiety paper and have an idea of what I want to do, although I want to run it by the professor at some point. But that's not due for a little over 2 weeks, so I can outline the paper and do some research this week, write a draft over the weekend/early next week, as my professor to look it over midway through the week, and then edit it and be done with it several days before it's even due. I don't know, I should probably be doing much more work than I am, but I just can't motivate myself at all, and watching Doctor Who and Torchwood is much more fun. Besides, I'm sure it'll be fine. I'm just going to let myself have this lazy (but enjoyable) weekend and I'll work harder this week and next.