Doctor Who 11x01 Recap: “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” (Say Hello to Thirteen) [Guest Poster: Stephanie Coats]

“The Woman Who Fell to Earth”

Original Airdate: October 7, 2018

Nearly a year ago, at Christmas, the Doctor regenerated. For the first time in the show’s history, the time-traveling alien regenerated into a woman. Jodie Whittaker became the Thirteenth Doctor... and was promptly dropped out of the TARDIS and into the night sky. You’d think the TARDIS would be a little more understanding about regenerations by now, but apparently not. Since then, we have all eagerly awaited seeing Thirteen in Doctor-y action and the time has finally come to say a proper hello.

IT’S JUST LIKE RIDING A ...

Soon-to-be new friend (previously known as “companion”) Ryan is in his early twenties and still trying to learn to ride a bike. We’ll learn later that Ryan has dyspraxia, a developmental disorder that affects coordination but can also impact memory, planning, and organization. His gran, Grace, pushes him towards her second husband — another soon-to-be new friend — Graham. When Ryan falls again, he chucks his bike off the mountain cliff and then has to hike down to find it. That’s where he encounters a glowing geometric something in the air and touches it. A giant Hershey’s Kiss-shaped pod appears in its place. Ryan touches that too, because why not?

Our third new friend is Yasmin, a meter maid looking to do more than break up parking disputes. Her supervisor sends her to investigate Ryan’s call about the pod. She and Ryan went to primary school together and their history makes her wary of believing his story until she also touches the pod and finds it’s freezing.

WRONG TRAIN, WRONG TIME

As Graham and Grace are on the train, the power suddenly goes out and the train slams to a halt. Only the couple and a young man named Karl are trapped as a dark, tentacled mass of electricity starts hovering towards them. Just then a figure falls through the roof between the passengers and the alien. It’s the Doctor! Quickly getting her bearings, she electrocutes the tentacles to buy them time but doesn’t have her sonic screwdriver to unlock the doors. She didn’t get the memo that every new Doctor has to have a new sonic, of course.

Just as Ryan and Yaz arrive, alerted by a call from Grace, the creature zaps them all and flees through the Doctor-sized hole in the roof. Understandably, everyone is freaking out. The Doctor is struggling to remember her own name and is operating without a TARDIS as well. It exploded and dematerialized. However, she does manage to convince Yaz not to file a report just yet. Graham espouses that they don’t “get aliens in Sheffield,” so what they saw must’ve been something else. That’s all well and good, Graham, but what about when you see a giant alien pod sitting in woods? The group (minus Karl, who leaves as soon as he can) goes back to where Ryan and Yaz left the pod... but it’s gone.

They weren’t the only ones looking for it. Rahul has been searching for this pod for years. He brings it back to his warehouse and sets up video cameras to record as he watches it crack open. A creature that looks reminiscent of an Ice Warrior emerges. Rahul demands to know where his sister is, but he gets no answer. The creature kills him on contact. On top of a building somewhere in the city, the tentacle creature is scanning the city looking for someone.

THE SHEFFIELD SONIC

The Doctor has reached the end of her post-regeneration high. She faints with her finger FIRMLY up her nose (trying to gauge when, precisely, she would faint) and rests on Ryan’s couch. She bolts upright when she realizes they’ve all been implanted with DNA bombs, which — you guessed it! — will kill them when they go off. Snatching Ryan’s phone and erasing all his data, the Doctor uses it to zap herself and rushes off.

The reformatted phone is supposed to lead them to the tentacle creature but instead, they find the creature from the pod. It runs off before the Doctor can question it. The team does locate Rahul’s body, though. Frustrated without her sonic, she decides to build one out of whatever is left in Rahul’s warehouse. The result is a rough looking sonic that’ll certainly do the job. While she’s working, Ryan and Yaz find a video on Rahul’s computer explaining that his sister was taken years ago, and he’s been tracking whatever took her in hopes of finding her again.

For the new sonic’s debut act, the Doctor scans the pod and finds tech that will allow the creature to return home. The Doctor theorizes the two aliens are using Earth as a battleground. They head off once again in search of the tentacle alien. Looking like Ghostbusters, they surprise it on the roof and overload it with electricity. But the Doctor’s theory was wrong. The alien was simply a gathering coil, designed to scan and gather data for something else — a.k.a., the other alien... who is now on the roof too.

THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME

The warrior alien explains he is a Stenza, a warrior race that collects teeth from their victims and wears those teeth on their face. Gross gross gross. Tim Shaw (yeah, that’s his name) is on Earth hunting a randomly selected human as part of the Stenza’s ritual for choosing a new leader. But, as the Doctor delights in pointing out, he’s cheating big time. He’s supposed to use no weapons, but the gathering coil was locating the human for him and implanting DNA bombs. She rubs it in his tooth-filled face that he’s too weak to be a leader. I love her sass, but it’s maybe not the right time because Tim has a short-range teleporter and is determined to find his target. Who is that?

Karl, of course — the poor other passenger on the train. He’s working at a construction site when he spies Tim climbing a crane toward him. The Doctor, Graham, Grace, Ryan, and Yaz arrive to help. While the older couple gets all the other workers clear, the remaining three climb another crane in the hopes of reaching Karl first. Karl nervously crawls towards them as Yaz and Ryan swing the Doctor on a crane to reach him. The revived gathering coil blows the circuit, though, stopping the crane short.

After much coaxing, the Doctor gets Karl to jump towards her, but Tim plucks him right out of the air. Still in Twelve’s Doc Martens, the Doctor takes a running jump after them and just makes it. She bargains for Karl’s life and the lives of the others by threatening to destroy Tim’s recall button. He won’t be able to leave Earth without it. In perfect Doctor fashion, she offers Tim a chance to change his mind, but when he elects to blow up the DNA bombs, he finds out the Doctor remembered who she is after all. She’s the Doctor, and no matter what face she has, she always knows how to reverse the polarity, so to speak. Instead of blowing up the bombs, Tim destroys his own DNA. Karl gives him a well-deserved shove off the crane, Tim snatches the recall button, and teleports home.

Sadly, Grace and Graham don’t know the day is saved. All they see is the gathering coil still causing problems. Grace climbs up to destroy it, and succeeds, but is electrocuted in the process and falls to her death. Pretty crappy to introduce this wonderful character, who we knew wasn’t a “companion,” and then kill her off in the same episode.

ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE

Ryan’s absentee father doesn’t show up to the funeral for Grace. And she was his mother. That’s cold. Graham delivers a sweet eulogy. In a conversation with the Doctor, he reveals they met when he had cancer. Grace was his chemo nurse. He can’t help feeling he was the one who was supposed to die, not her.

Ryan and Yaz take the Doctor shopping to finally get her out of the war-torn clothing from her predecessor. She emerges in the new costume we’ve all already seen, suspenders and all. Feeling more herself — or rather figuring out her new self — the Doctor devises a way to use Tim’s pod’s technology to locate the TARDIS. The trio helps her activate the tracker... but then are all sucked into space alongside her. She turns to see them suffocating among the stars.

Final Thoughts:

• This was a good first outing for Chibnall and Whittaker, as well as the supporting cast. I worry how the story will balance three very different companions (can I still call them that or do I need to say "friends" now?) but I like them all so far. 
• When Ryan admitted to touching two unknown objects and everyone shouted at him in disbelief and the Doctor immediately said she’d have done the same thing... I knew Ryan was going to be a great companion.
• I can already tell Whittaker’s face journeys are going to be a highlight of her run as the Doctor. She pulled several fantastically funny faces in this premiere alone.
• Tim Shaw: “You’re interfering in things you don’t understand.” The Doctor: “Yeah, well, everyone needs a hobby”
• The Doctor, after jumping: “These legs definitely used to be longer.”
• The Doctor: “Why are you calling me madam?” Yaz: “Because you’re a woman?” The Doctor: “Really? Does it suit me?”

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10 Reasons to be Excited for Bill as the New Doctor Who Companion [Guest Poster: Stephanie Coats]

Even though we still have to wait until December for the Doctor Who Christmas special — and then until spring of 2017 for season 10 of the show to actually debut — there’s still plenty to get excited about. Most exciting of all is the debut of the new companion, Bill, played by Pearl Mackie. She’s already set to be a delightful addition to the TARDIS, and we have ten reasons why we’re looking forward to both the actress and the character she plays!

Pearl Mackie and Peter Capaldi already get on really well.

Every shred of evidence points to Capaldi being one of the nicest, sweetest people on the face of the planet. So it’s hardly a surprise he and Mackie get along. But the fact that they’ve already formed a cute bond is lovely. For proof of this bond, look no further than the footage of their promo photos and Mackie’s first day on set.

Bonus points to Mackie for seizing the opportunity to hang all over Capaldi. Because honestly, who wouldn’t?

Her wardrobe is on point.

Every companion, male and female, have had their own styles throughout the series of Doctor Who. And of course, as the times have changed, so have the clothes. But Bill’s wardrobe is a new kind of fabulous with colorful and sometimes eclectic pieces that perfectly straddle the border between modern and vintage. Bill’s attire is definitely a different direction from Clara’s chic, occasionally hipster, schoolteacher vibe and opens up an entirely new world for cosplayers.

She brings a touch of nostalgia back to the series.

The very first footage of Bill showed her in an outfit that was very reminiscent of the 80s. Even though Steven Moffat has confirmed she’s from the present day, there’s no denying that many of her costume pieces harken back to the 80s, and even the early 90s. The fact that Bill brings something nostalgic and vintage to Doctor Who is fascinating, and very different from the other companions on the series to date.

(Plus the possibility of this joke is really too good.)

Her name.

First, in regards to the actress herself, it must be said that “Peter & Pearl” makes a very nice alliterative tag for all of you Tumblr fans out there.

But there’s a lot of fun to get out the name “Bill” as well. It gives us the excuse to make “Bill and Twelve’s Excellent Adventures” a thing. The mystery of her last name, which has yet to be revealed, raises the idea that Bill may be related to a known character in the Who-niverse. Plus, there’s something special about a woman with a typically male name. Is it short for something like Wilhemnia? Were her parents just huge Billie Holiday fans?

Or maybe this touching fan theory is closer to the truth.

Her HAIR.

When Capaldi first started his run as the Doctor, he had shorter hair to accompany the dark and edgier aesthetic the show was trying to go for. But as his time in the TARDIS went on, his hair got longer and floofier by the season (and sometimes by the episode) until it was a mass of waves at points in season nine.

Pearl Mackie is already poised to match Capaldi’s ever-changing but always glorious coif, and frankly we couldn’t be happier about that. After all, besides time travel, hair is arguably one of the most important elements in Doctor Who. River Song will tell you that.

Pearl Mackie is adorable and funny.

Doctor Who is a British institution unlike anything else on television, so it’s really no big shock that anyone cast in any role would be a bit giddy with excitement. But that doesn’t mean we should overlook how adorable Pearl Mackie is and how excited she is to be a part of the Doctor Who universe. Just check out evidence of how much she geeks out about her role and the show (and life in general).

Pearl is super sweet to fans.

As filming on season 10 progresses, more and more fans have showed up to watch the on location filming. Both Capaldi and Mackie have happily signed autographs and taken pictures during breaks and at the end of their long days. Reports from fans paint Mackie as kind, generous, and delighted to meet them.

Bill’s sass level is A+.

It takes some out-of-the-universe sassiness to call a Dalek fat and question its chosen battle cry while, at the same time, running for your life from them. The Doctor needs to be sassed and often by his companions and has in the past. Being put in his place occasionally really helps keep his ego in check. Just ask Amy Pond. Or Donna Noble. Actually, I guess the latter might not remember what you're talking about...

(Too soon?)

Pearl Mackie can sing.

No, like, she can really sing. And we all know from previous experience (and knowledge that he was in a band) that Peter Capaldi can play guitar and sing as well. Give us a musical episode of Doctor Who already, writers! What more do we need to do in order to prove that it is warranted?! I mean, really, we just a John Barrowman cameo, at this point, right?

Pearl has Jenna Coleman’s blessing.

Not that any companion ever needs the blessing from their predecessor, but it’s certainly nice that Pearl Mackie has one as Bill from Clara Oswald's alter ego, Jenna Coleman. From the start, it was clear that Coleman was a huge backer of Mackie. She sent the new companion a beautiful bouquet of flowers her first day on set. She also had this to say. And honestly, we love seeing love and blessings passed down between Doctors and companions!

We’re so excited to see what Pearl Mackie brings to the Doctor Who universe when her companion debuts in the Christmas special, and hope that you are too! Sound off in the comments about what you’re most looking forward to about Bill as the new companion.

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How to Ruin A Female Character in One Easy Step

I love and staunchly defend female characters in my favorite television series. Why? Because they need defending, quite frankly. There are a lot of male writers and a lot of female writers who try to do justice to characters -- who portray women as layered, vastly complex, and intensely passionate. I love those writers. But there are a lot of writers who write the women in their television shows or movies more like archetypes than actual human beings. They write the mean cheerleaders and the nerdy girls and the "sluts," and the overachievers and if you line up these women from these movies and television shows side-by-side, you'll find that a lot of them look fairly identical. There is nothing that distinguishes one of them from another. That's when I get upset and frustrated and just plain sad.

Doctor Who has always had an array of strong female characters. There was Rose Tyler, a seemingly unassuming girl who worked in a shop and loved to eat chips, but who eventually became the defender of Earth. Then there was Martha Jones, brilliant and beautiful scientist who didn't abandon The Doctor in his time of need but ended up being brave enough to walk away from him. Donna Noble was loud and wonderful -- a woman who wanted to be something more than a failure in the eyes of her mother and who ended up saving the entire world and never remembering how remarkable and integral she was. Then there was Amy Pond, the girl with the dreams and her Raggedy Doctor; a woman who learned how to better love Rory and herself. And we had River Song, the kick-butt action hero of the group who also was vulnerable and cheeky. Then there was Clara Oswald, the souffle girl and the enigma and the sassy (tiny) woman who challenged and fascinated The Doctor. Now, none of those women was perfect. I'm not here to argue that Doctor Who always does a perfect job at portraying women -- sometimes it fails rather spectacularly, sometimes women are portrayed as just okay, and sometimes the female portrayal is awesome. But since the show is pretty vast, it DOES do a great job at incorporating an array of women at least.

Clara was in the running for my favorite companion (Rose Tyler will always, probably, be my favorite), and if you read that sentence again, you'll notice that I use the past tense. That -- as you also probably gathered from the title -- is because this season of Doctor Who ruined Clara Oswald for me (and my extremely intelligent best friend and co-Who viewing partner, Simi, who will be referenced quite frequently in this post). So below, I'm going to talk a LOT about Doctor Who, a lot about Clara, and a lot about the writing of this season. After all, series eight definitely followed a how-to book in the writing room: How to Ruin A Female Character in One Easy Step.

So how do you accomplish that? Let's begin!

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Take a Deep Breath... It's My 'Doctor Who' Premiere Review

When you’re an English major in college and take writing workshops, your professors will utter words to you that you will never forget. They’ll become a cliché, honestly, and you’ll find yourself repeating them for years to come in social and academic situations. Sometimes these words will weave themselves into your high school career, long before you’ve even approached college life. They are the following mantra: “Show, don’t tell.” They’re simple words with a profound meaning within the context of writing. When you’re in high school, they’re used to prevent over-explanation. In college, they’re used to prevent both over-explanation and heavy-handed writing. You don’t need to tell an audience that characters are in love – you can SHOW it. You don’t need to tell an audience that a character has matured – you can SHOW it. You don’t need to tell us, as audience members, that a character is worthy of affection – you can SHOW it by how you write that particular character. Let’s briefly look at Community as an always apt example: Dan Harmon did not need to tell us that Jeff Winger has grown. Characters occasionally make reference to the fact that he has changed but the primary vehicle for that character growth has been for Dan Harmon and the other writers to SHOW us how much Jeff has grown through his actions and his words. That is what writing – good writing – is: “show, don’t tell.”

No one likes to be berated and no one likes to be talked down to. Furthermore, I know of very few people who like being told how to feel about a character or characters within the context of anything, be it literature, plays, or television. It is our natural human tendency to bristle at the command; it is our tendency to rebel. Why not, instead, let us fall in or out love with characters without any demand to feel a certain way by the writer? Wouldn’t that make more sense? Wouldn’t it lend your audience to a different sort of intimacy with those aforementioned characters? (The answer in my opinion is unashamedly “YES!”)

I’m going to preface this post by saying this: I had zero problems in “Deep Breath” with Peter Capaldi or Jenna Coleman. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m absolutely smitten with Clara Oswald as a character and her status as “the impossible girl.” She is immensely talented and can elevate any scene she is in. Peter Capaldi’s debut proved that he’s a force to be reckoned with in Doctor Who as our beloved Time Lord. He is, too, able to chew any scene he is in no matter how absurd, silly, serious, or emotional the moment. He proved that in “Deep Breath.” And since I presume you all are waiting for a “but…”, here it is: the writing did not do these characters justice at all. It was erratic and bizarre at points. At best, it was a romp into an adventure with a semi-tied bow ending; at worst, it was a two-hour lecture from Steven Moffat about all of the reasons we need to accept Peter Capaldi’s age and status as The Doctor.

So, let’s explore some elements of “Deep Breath” that I think worked and a lot that I think did not. My best friend and I explored these themes and problematic issues when we spent an hour after the episode discussing them last night, so I have a LOT of feelings. And perhaps you do too.

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The British Are Coming! (Reviewing BBC's 'Sherlock,' 'Death Comes to Pemberley,' and 'Doctor Who')

I’ve only been to London once on a layover to Italy. And though it was dreary and cold, and though I had been on a plane overnight, was both jetlagged and probably smelled, I loved every minute of the bit of the city that I got to experience. I’m an English nerd – I love literary history and everything that entails. So it’s still a dream of mine, someday, to return to London. But until that time comes, I’ll pretend that I am cultured by watching as much BBC/BBC America as I can. 

And watch I do. So much so that I decided to compile a post of three BBC series that have infiltrated my life: the influential, addicting sci-fi series Doctor Who, the intense and captivating Sherlock, and the mini-series based on Jane Austen’s beloved characters, Death Comes to Pemberley. So I thought that I would take the opportunity to reflect on each of these, now that they have ended their seasons/series and encourage you all – if you aren’t – to watch. There are still other BBC dramas I have yet to watch but desperately need to (looking at you, Orphan Black) as well and I look forward to enriching my life with more beautiful British people soon.

Grab your jammie dodgers, a cuppa, and practice your best British accent because we’re going to talk about three delightful series starting… now!

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A Farewell to Matt Smith: Eleven's 11 Best Lines/Monologues

When I began to watch Doctor Who, I was advised to take a break between the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor’s eras. I didn’t understand why, of course, until I watched “The End of Time” and sat at my desk, sobbing uncontrollably. I didn’t want David Tennant to leave. I didn’t care who the next Doctor would be, really. I just knew that my Converse-wearing, “allons-y”-shouting, great-haired Doctor would be gone. And under the guidance of those friends, I took a break from marathoning Doctor Who.

It’s the best advice I can ever give to someone watching new Who, really. I feel like too many people breeze through the Doctors and don’t really take the opportunity to mourn them. You lose something when you lose a Doctor – whether it’s Nine, Ten, or now Eleven – and if you don’t wait at least a little while before picking the series back up, you’ll never quite appreciate the actor who replaced your beloved. If I hadn’t waited before beginning season five, I would have spent the entirety of the rest of the series lamenting the fact that Matt Smith wasn’t David Tennant – that Eleven was nothing like Ten. And honestly, I DID do that throughout 90% of “The Eleventh Hour.” I was skeptical of this new face; he wasn’t like Tennant at all. He was younger and sillier and he talked with his hands and babbled.

But the end of “The Eleventh Hour” changed my perception. As “I Am the Doctor” swelled and the audience saw flashes of each Doctor’s regenerated face, I felt the sudden sense that this new Doctor – Eleven – was not a child. He might have been younger than Ten and he might have been a bit goofy but he was also every bit as determined and strong and willing to defend the planet. He was epic. He was a hero.

Over the years, Matt Smith has really grown on me, to the point where I now cannot tell you exactly which Doctor (Ten or Eleven) is my true favorite. I’m going to miss Matt Smith a lot, who brought this quiet sort of intensity to his Doctor. He was unsuspecting but not to be dismissed. He could be cold like Nine and full of self-loathing like Ten. He was a man with nothing to lose and should therefore not be trifled with. He had fantastic episodes (“A Good Man Goes to War” is my favorite new Who episode of all time and one of Matt Smith’s best episodes), brilliant co-stars and companions and some pretty epic emotional moments. And he put EVERYTHING out there as The Doctor. Literally, his transformation from series five until now is just astounding. He’s physically aged, of course, but you see the aging of the Doctor with him. You see those “big sad eyes” and the pain and heartache that occasionally drags him down. You see every single emotion of The Doctor in Matt Smith’s face and I cannot adequately express how much I will miss him.

As Eleven, Matt Smith has been fortunate to have had some amazing and memorable lines and speeches. He’s a master at delivering a monologue, and Moffat has given him plenty of meaty, emotional, and gut-wrenching material because of it. So I decided that in order to celebrate Matt Smith’s era and send him on a proper farewell, I’d revisit eleven of the best lines/monologues from Eleven’s era.

Grab those tissues, cuddle up with your TARDIS blanket and head below the cut, because we’re counting down some of the best moments in Matt Smith’s era now!

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Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary Special: "The Day of the Doctor" (#SavetheDay)

"The Day of the Doctor"

Original Airdate: November 23, 2013

“I fell in love the way you fall asleep – slowly and then all at once.”

While John Green’s poignant and oft-quoted line has been utilized to describe the deepest and most profound love… it also pretty aptly sums up how it feels to be in a fandom, doesn’t it? You never anticipate falling headfirst into a television series, but somehow – for a vast majority of us, at least – we DO. It’s this wild and wacky ride down a rabbit hole.

I started Doctor Who by complete happenstance when I was perusing television series on Netflix one evening. And the rest, as they say, is history. Recently, Doctor Who celebrated its 50th birthday, which is quite a feat, making it the longest-running science fiction series on television. It is with good reason that this series is so beloved: though the face of The Doctor has changed over the years, though there have been numerous monsters and companions and writers and showrunners, one thing has remain unchanged: this is a story about a mad man with a box who is desperately trying to save the world, but who also – more often than not – needs to be saved by the humanity he is attempting to protect. The Doctor may be the heart(s) of this series, but the companions are the soul and backbone.

“The Day of the Doctor” is the 50th birthday episode of Doctor Who, and it perfectly encapsulates everything that the series does: humor, heart, a touch of horror and – most importantly – humanity. It was quite effortful to attempt to review the nearly 90 minute episode, but I have decided to break my review down into categories, pinpointing the particular elements of the episode that wove so brilliantly into the fabric of the overarching story.

So, if you’re ready, grab your sonic screwdriver and let’s dive into “The Day of the Doctor”!

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Throwing Awards at Their Faces (Three Actors Who Deserve All the Nominations)

In a world of DVR, Hulu, and – in my case – television streaming, very few people concern themselves with watching television shows live these days. Families have commitments; children have sports practices or theatre rehearsal. College students are cramming for mid-terms or else procrastinating from cramming for mid-terms. And even nine-to-fivers cannot schedule their nights around television programming. We have busy lives and busy schedules, and sometimes (unfortunately) our favorite television shows suffer at the hands of the merciless but elusive Nielsen unicorns because we don’t watch “live.”

There are only three scripted shows that I make the effort to watch live each week: Community, New Girl, and Doctor Who. I’ll forgo watching How I Met Your Mother and then marathon in chunks. I used to skip weeks of The Office and be perfectly content. But the three shows I listed above, I will always make the effort to watch live. I’ll schedule my life around them (which… sounds pretty sad when I type it out like that, actually).

As all three have recently wrapped up their seasons, I thought it would be appropriate to talk a bit about actors within the shows that I feel deserve a lot more recognition and praise than they usually receive. I’m talking, of course, about actors Joel McHale, Jake Johnson, and Matt Smith. And I will be talking about them a LOT in this post – actually, I’m devoting the entire post to them – and how they each deserve to have all the awards thrown at their faces.

Well, not literally at their faces.

… You all know what I mean.

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Nine, Ten, Eleven (This is a LOT More Than Just Counting)

In the wake of watching the latest Doctor Who Christmas special (which tore my emotions into itty bitty pieces of confetti and, of course, caused me to curse Moffat), I thought it was very intriguing how Eleven dealt with his pain and grief. Throughout the course of the series, we’ve seen all three incarnations of the Time Lord Victorious deal with the loss of companions and those he loved very differently. Each Doctor seems to unearth a new layer of pain within himself every time he loses someone and Eleven’s grief over Amy and Rory was no different in that regard.

So I thought it would be interesting to chart the way in which Nine, Ten, and Eleven have dealt with their losses and what this says about each of them as incarnations of the same person. Because truly, it’s revealing when you realize that this person – this alien, traveling through space and time – is not three actors. He’s not even three regenerations, really. He’s ONE man. ONE Time Lord. And ONE person who has suffered.

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Top 10 Sob-Worthiest Moments of "Doctor Who" (According to Me)

There are a few things that Doctor Who does really well. It is a show that is nearly flawless at simultaneously developing plot and character within the span of forty-five minutes. It also is really good at tugging at heartstrings (or, in the Moffat era specifically, ripping out your heart completely) and creating iconic sad moments. Given that "The Angels Take Manhattan" aired last night (and in fact, makes this list), I was inspired by my friend Kim's (of "Head Over Feels") response to the episode. So I decided that I would create a list of some of the saddest Doctor Who episodes that I can recall. I've cried plenty of times in this show, but these episodes are ones that have made me sob. Are you ready to find out if your favorite "sob-worthy" episode made my cut? Get those tissues out and ready, then!

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