Category Archives: Television

My thoughts on Television episodes

A Day Late Review of “Into the Dalek”

So, here we are, episode 2 of series 8.  Episode 2 of Peter Capaldi’s run as the Doctor.  I was very excited for “Deep Breath” because it meant that new episodes of Doctor Who were starting up again.  It was also what I was expecting as far as the Doctor adjusting to his new regeneration and being all weird.  The first episode of a new Doctor always seems to be like that.  You don’t really get a feel for who he is as a man in the first episode.  At best, you might get a glimpse of it toward the very end.  This was a big reason why I was maybe a little more excited for this episode.  This is where we begin to see who this new Doctor really is.  Not to mention this episode had the word Dalek in it.  Let me just say, before I go any further here, this episode did not disappoint.  Let me also just say that there may be spoilers ahead, so be warned.

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“Into the Dalek” opens in the middle of some battle in space.  Two people, a man and a woman are flying in some small fighter ship and are under heavy fire.  During the fight, the man is killed and it looks like the whole ship is going to be lost with the woman in it.  And then she opens her eyes to find she is in the control room of the TARDIS, and there is the Doctor holding two teas in to-go cups.  They exchange a few words, and here we get to see a little bit about the Doctor’s character.  He is really no-nonsense.  She is upset because the man, apparently her brother, is dead.  The Doctor simply points out that she is not, and she hasn’t thanked him for it.  Just very straight forward.  I kind of liked it.  No apology for not saving her brother, just a statement of the fact that he did save her.  We find out here that her name is Journey Blue, and she demands to be brought to her command ship.  The Doctor obliges.

On the ship, soldiers and the commanding officer are there to meet the TARDIS shortly after it materializes in the ship.  They thank the Doctor for saving Journey’s life, but let him know that due to security protocol, they are still going to have to kill him.  Here Journey points out that he is a “doctor”, and they agree to let him see their patient.  He follows them to a holding area, where he comes face to face with a Dalek.  His first reaction is the same we have seen from all the Doctors, from Eccleston to today.  He wants the Dalek destroyed immediately, and absolutely will not help it.  He is unbending on this, until the Dalek pleads for help and says it must destroy all the Daleks.

The next scene is Clara, returning to school.  Here she meets the new math teacher, Danny Pink, a former soldier himself.  She is immediately taken with him, and why not?  He is a handsome enough young fellow, who also happens not to be the Doctor. (Yay for love stories not involving the companion and the Doctor!)  In addition to learning that Danny was a soldier, we also find out that he has some secrets in his soldiering past, some that he is not very proud of.  He is also absolute rubbish when it comes to talking to women, as Clara is basically begging him to go to a party with her, and he refuses, brushing her off because he says he has some reading to do.  Of course, he returns to his classroom, and recites to the empty desks what he should have said, and of course, Clara is there at the doorway to hear the whole thing.  Good new for Danny in the end, because she still agrees to go and get a drink with him.

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Right after this conversation, Clara goes into her classroom to find the TARDIS there.  Apparently, the Doctor has finally returned with the teas he went to get, leaving her 3 weeks prior in Glasgow.  Typical Doctor.  He drags her along on this adventure and promises to bring her right back before anyone knows she is gone.  They arrive on the ship and wisps her off to see the Dalek.  At this point, the soldiers are asking who she is and we get a definition of what Clara is to this Doctor.  She is his “carer.”  She cares so he doesn’t have to.

To save the Dalek’s life, they are shrunk down and deposited into the Dalek itself.  The rest of the adventure happens inside the Dalek for the Doctor, Clara and a small band of soldiers sent in to make sure the Doctor doesn’t end up being a spy for the Daleks.  While inside, they battle some Dalek antibodies, to little success, and again we see that life may not be as precious to this Doctor as it has been for others.  They ultimately discover what is causing the Dalek to be sick.  His power source is leaking radiation, so the organic part is being poisoned to death by the radiation.  The Doctor seals up the leak.  This fixes the sick part, but it also fixes the malfunction that has made the Dalek “good.”  The Dalek then breaks free for the equipment the humans have attached to it, and then goes to  computer and alerts its ship as to where the humans are.  The invasion force is now on its way to take over the ship and free the captive Dalek.  The Doctor feels vindicated, because he suspected all along that the Dalek was not really good, and he feels like that is exactly whet they have learned here.  Clara points out and helps him realize that what they have really learned is that you can have a good Dalek.

A new plan is set into motion at this point.  The Doctor is going to go off and have a conversation with Rusty, the Dalek.  Clara is going up to the memory vault to find a way to unsupress the memories the Dalek has suppressed.  They are successful.  Clara finds all the suppressed memories and unleashes them on Rusty, who begins to understand that no matter what the Daleks do, life will always prevail.  Also, during this process, the Doctor lets Rusty into his soul.  There Rusty finds life and beauty, but also hatred.  Hatred for all the Daleks.  Rusty latches on to this and decides he must still destroy all the Daleks because he now hates them.  The Doctor is disturbed by the fact that Rusty latches on to that one fact about him.

This was a great episode.  If I had a ranking scale, I would rank this episode toward the top of that scale.  But I don’t, so I won’t.  I will see that I would recommend watching this episode.  If you have already seen it, go back and watch it again.

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A couple of things to mention.  This episode finds the Doctor and Clara having a conversation about whether he is a good man.  It puts the audience in an interesting position because you begin to wonder if he really is a good man.  We take everything he does at face value, but he has seen some dark things in his past.  Can he really be a good man after all of that?  Clara is unsure as well, but finally, at the end of the episode declares that he tries to be a good man, and in some way that is all that really counts.  The other thing to mention is that we see Missy again, and “Heaven” when one of the soldiers dies.  I am interested to find out what ll of this is about, but knowing Moffat, when he finally does reveal who she is and what this place is, it will only raise more questions.

That’s all for now.  Again, I enjoyed this episode.  I think it is a strong episode overall, and would definitely recommend watching it.

A Day Late Review of “Deep Breath”

Well it finally happened.  Something Doctor Who fans have been anticipating for what seemed like forever. Series 8 finally premiered.  We finally got to meet the 12th Doctor and spend more than just a couple of minutes with him and get to know him a little bit.  The question now that it’s all over is, do we want to get to know this Doctor better?

The first thing I noticed while watching this episode is that the opening credits have been upgraded.  I know they change with each Doctor and sometimes during a Doctor’s run, but this time it seemed like they put a little more budget behind the credits.  They were crisper and cleaner, and just a little more “made for HD.”  Overall, visually, I liked them.  The song for the opening credits was updated as well, and this didn’t score well for me.  It was still the same song, essentially, but they tried to vary it enough that it almost didn’t sound the same.  Like having a best friend in grade school, moving away and not seeing them for 20 years.  When you see them again, they look familiar, you can tell it’s them, but they are also very different.  Overall, the changes to the song were not needed and I wasn’t a fan.  Maybe it will grow on me.

I was looking forward to the episode.  Like many fans, i had speculated about what this new Doctor was going to be like, and I couldn’t wait to see it.  I was hoping this episode would begin to answer some questions about the Doctor’s new self.  I forgot that it was being done by Steven Moffat.  He likes asking questions way more than he likes answering them.  Just when you think you might actually get to the bottom of something, you realize it’s all just a tease and there is a lot more to go before getting to the bottom.

Before you go any further, I must warn you there will be spoilers ahead.  This is not a review that comes out just in time for the episode to premier for the public, or just after the episode has aired.  It is a “Day Late” review, so i assume most people who are interested have seen “Deep Breath” by now, but if you haven’t, maybe you have it recorded, or it’s in your download queue, or whatever, then be warned, there will be spoilers ahead.

The episode begins in almost silly fashion.  A dinosaur mysteriously appears in Victorian London.  Nobody knows how it got there.  Enter Moffat’s favorite Doctor Who characters ever, Vastra, Jenny, and Strax.  It seems like these are the only supporting characters Moffat knows how to write, because they keep popping up.  All the time.  Seriously, am I the only one who is beginning to get sick of them?  Maybe I am, and that’s why they keep them around.  In any case, Vastra brilliantly deduces that the dinosaur must have time traveled.  Then Jenny notices it has something in its…excuse me, Vastra does point out, her throat.  She coughs (the dinosaur) and out comes the TARDIS.  The Doctor comes stumbling out followed by Clara and we get the classic modern regeneration episode, where the Doctor has no idea who he is or what’s going on.  He apparently also has a thing for big, sexy dinosaurs.  It’s a good thing they have arrived in Victorian London and that Vastra and Jenny and Strax are there to help Clara through this rough regeneration time.

This whole sequence began to get absurd and strange for me.  I had heard all about how this Doctor was going to be all serious and dark compared to number 11, and this was serious or dark, it was silly and strange.  He kept flirting with this dinosaur and his lack of Doctor like skill was just obnoxious.  The good news is that the episode did get better from here.

Well, not all of it was better.  Clara has seen all the Doctors, 1-11, and even the War Doctor.  This whole idea of regeneration should not be strange to her.  She, out of all the companions ever, should get it.  She has spent time with each of the Doctors, yet she cannot accept that this man is the Doctor.  She saw him regenerate, and she can’t accept it.  The whole episode is her wondering if he is really the Doctor and moping because she just doesn’t know if she knows who the Doctor is anymore.  I just couldn’t buy it.  It takes a call from 11 on her mobile at the end to convince her, and she still hesitated.  It was just confusing to me.

In any case, the dinosaur gets murdered as the Doctor is trying to figure out a way to send her home, while win his night-shirt.  The murder puts him on the case and he begins to investigate, and we begin to see that his Doctor means business.  As he is beginning to investigate, I really started to appreciate this more serious Doctor.  And, we see a moment where he blurs the lines between right and wrong, as he steals a coat from a tramp, using the line “No point in us both being cold.”  He and Clara both reply to an ad to meet for lunch in a specific restaurant.  An add they both believe the other placed in the paper, but neither one did. And as they are both discussing Clara’s egomania, they realize that none of the other diners happen to be people.  They are all robots, and  this restaurant is a front for cyborgs harvesting human parts to power their ships. (Yes, these are the same robots we see in the “Girl in the Fireplace”, and you will get frustrated as the Doctor cannot remember where he has seen it before) Clara and the Doctor get brought into the basement and meet the lead cyborg and discover what is happening.  They head for the door, and the Doctor seemingly leaves Clara behind, to face the cyborgs alone.  She tries to hide among them and escape by not breathing, but eventually gives in and is discovered.  She has a great face off with the lead cyborg and the Doctor ends up being there to save her, hiding as one of the cyborgs.  As the army of robotic men and women descend on the pair, Clara says the magic word, and Vastra, Jenny, and Starx come down from the rafters to save them.  The Doctor and the lead Cyborg break off from the group and have a great back and forth argument.  The Doctor is pleading for the cyborg to end it by jumping from his escape pod, and threatening that he might end it for the machine.  They go back and forth, and it all ends when the lead cyborg ends up dead, having either jumped or been pushed out of the escape pod and landing on a spire that does him through.  We don’t know, and it is left ambiguous, if the Doctor pushed him, adding to the intrigue of this new Doctor.

The cyborg ends up in some paradise, we don’t know what it is with a girl named Missy, who claims to be the Doctors girlfriend.  I didn’t recognize her, so I don’t know who she is, but she seems to know a lot about the Doctor and what he will and won’t do.

By and large, this episode does why it is supposed to.  It introduces the Doctor to the audience as well as his companion and cast of recurring characters.  It also introduces some of the story for this upcoming series.  It will be interesting to see where it goes from here.  We definitely saw that the Doctor has a darker side now, more serious.  We also get confirmation that there will be no flirting with Clara and this new Doctor, which is a plus for me.  Overall, I liked the new Doctor so far.  He isn’t my favorite, but to be fair, he has only been in one episode, so I need to give him some time.  I think this series will be going in a different direction.  A lot of people were saying that this new Doctor would be somewhat similar to Tom Baker, and I can see that a little bit.  Maybe a little like Colin Baker, a little darker, minus the clown suit.  I am interested to see where it goes, and personally can’t wait to watch next week.

What were your thoughts?  Love it? Hate it? Wait and see?  Share them with us in the comments, we would love to hear from you.

Star Trek: TNG-Inheritance

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I am back with another review of a classic Star Trek: TNG episode.  I didn’t know how to approach this series at first.  The first entry,  I just picked an episode I had always enjoyed and wrote about it.  I didn’t know how long I could do that, or if I should try to review them in order or what, so I decided to do it randomly.  And to assure that it is completely random, I have gone to a random number generator on the internet.  Here’s how it works: First I enter the range 1-7, for the 7 seasons of the series.  Once that number is generated, i put in the range of the number of episodes in that season, like 1-25.  This gives me a result like season 3, episode 14.  That’s the episode I will watch, and then I will write about it here.  I will keep track of the episodes that I have already discussed, so if the number generator spits out the same result again, I will regenerate until it is an episode we have not discussed. If it is a two-part episode, either the first part or the second, then I will watch both parts and review them here as one episode, for example Best of Both Worlds would be discussed as one episode, instead of two. I think this will be a fun way to rediscover the series I loved so much. For today’s entry, the number generator produced season 7, episode 10, which is entitled Inheritance.”

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In this episode, the crew of the Enterprise is sent to help a planet that is having some seismic issues and they need to help them solve it or the planet is going to be destroyed.  Don’t worry too much about the details of that, because, believe it or not, that is the secondary storyline of this episode.  One of the scientists from the plane who is helping with this seismic issue is a human named Julianna.  Once she and the other scientists meet with Captain Picard and the other senior officers, she hangs back to speak with Data.  She asks if he remembers her or recognizes her.  He doesn’t and she mentions that it is because he memory had been erased, and that she was there from the beginning, that she was married to Dr. Soong and had helped him build Data.  She was essentially his mother.  And that’s only the first bombshell here.

The first half of the episode involves Data researching records to validate her story.  He had previously been unaware that Soong had been married to anyone, so he had no idea that this mother figure existed.  In his research he is able to confirm what she has told him, so he accepts that she is his mother, and decides to try to get to know her a little better.  They visit in 10 Forward and she tells him about his “childhood,” from her stories we learn that Data started out very rude,  demonstrating a need for a politeness protocol to be added to his programming.  We also learn that he was a little nudist, refusing to put on clothing because he did not need protection from the elements.  This meant they had to add a modesty program as well.  During this “getting to know you” phase, Data, his mother, and LaForge are all working on drilling some magma pockets into the planet’s surface using phasers.  Data is of course doing the heavy lifting in the calculating department, but at one point, a correction needs to be made, and his mother is able to do it on the fly, showing she is one smart cookie.  This raises Data’s suspicions, to the point that he requests to see her medical records, which Dr. Crusher refuses to let him do.

Data and his mother are sent down to the planet to work on setting some kind of stabilization up in the magma pockets to save the planet.  The pockets are becoming unsafe, so the two of them are sent down to work quickly to finish the set up.  While down there they experience an earthquake type event and quickly finish up and head back to where they need to be to beam back up to the ship.  Their field generators have fallen off a ledge, and they need them to be able to beam back.  At this point, Data is pretty certain about his assumption, so he suggests that the two of them jump down.  He grabs her arm and they both leap off the ledge.  Data is fine, but Julianna’s arm has come off, revealing that she is an android, just like Data.

Once they are back on the ship, they inspect this new android very closely, and find she is much more complex than Data.  She has emotions, and tear ducts, and sweat glands, and puts out bio signs as if she were human.  She even ages like a human.  While looking inside her android head, they find an info module that has a holographic interface.  Data takes it the holodeck and the image is Doctor Soong.  He explains to Data why she was an android, how she had been injured during the attack by the crystalline entity, and she didn’t recover and died.  So he took her memories and turned her into an android.  He then asks Data not to tell her the truth, to let her live out her “life” still believing that she is a human being.  Data is torn.  On the one hand, if he tells her then they will have that in common and he won’t be alone in the universe.  on the other, she has what he has always strived for: she lives as a human, and he is not sure he can take that away.

This is a great Data episode as he continues to define what life truly is, and how artificial life can fit in with the rest of the universe.  Obviously, this is in season 7 so he is much further along in this process than he would be in say, season 1 or 2.  It was always interesting to me to watch the “Data” episodes, because his exploration of what our life is is a reflection of our exploration of our own lives.  It helps us to kind of step outside and look at ourselves differently. Because this is so Data centric, we see mainly just Data in this episode, with the other members of the crew popping in from time to time to remind us that they are still there.

I didn’t really remember this episode that well when it came up in the generator, so it was fun to watch it again and experience it again.  I am not a Data guy.  I enjoy the character, but if I am going to look for specific character episodes to watch, I would be more likely drawn to a Picard or Worf episode, so it was fun to experience a Data episode again. I would recommend this one, if you’re looking for something to watch on Netflix, check it out.

Star Trek TNG: Yesterday’s Enterprise

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Star Trek: The Next Generation, or Star Trek TNG, was one of the coolest television series ever to grace the airwaves.  As an impressionable young buck, it was the series that got me into science fiction.  I loved everything about the show back then, and one of the coolest things about it is that it still holds up, for the most part.  Looking back, what made TNG so cool?  I think it was a lot of things.  I think the crew of the Enterprise-D was amazing and they had such great chemistry.  Somehow, you could tell that they really enjoyed working together.  I think the ship itself was cool.  They took everything that was cool about the original Enterprise, made it bigger and got rid of all the clunky buttons and replaced them with a touch interface.  The new Enterprise was sleeker, more futuristic, just cooler.  I know there are a lot fans of the original series out there who might disagree, but this is what I grew up with, and in my opinion, TNG was the greatest Star Trek of all time.

Now that all the Star Trek series are available on NetFlix (with the exception of the animated series), it is easier than ever to go back and watch the old TNG episodes, and maybe, if you’re brave, you can work your way through all 7 seasons to the end.  If that feels like too much to bite off for you, then maybe I can help by occasionally selecting an episode to discuss here on the blog, and then you can go back and watch it.  It will be fun for me to go back and revisit some of my favorite episodes.

The first episode I picked is “Yesterday’s Enterprise.”  This episode premiered during the series’ 3rd season.  In my opinion, the 3rd season was really where the crew was hitting their stride.  The stories started getting more interesting, and the costumes began to look not so…’80’s.  This was also the season that introduced us to the classic Star Trek cliffhanger season finale with one of the greatest TNG stories ever-“Best of Both Worlds.”  The 3rd season was great, and other than the aforementioned season finale, “Yesterday’s Enterprise” was the best of the season.

If it has been a while since you have seen the episode, or if you have never seen the episode, let me give you a brief rundown of what the episode was about.  The Enterprise encounters some kind of temporal anomaly, which occur all the time in the Star Trek universe.  As they are checking it out, their scanners pick up another federation ship, and upon further inspection, they find out it is the Enterprise-C.  In the original, “real” universe, the Enterprise-C had been destroyed relying to a distress signal from a Klingon outpost.  This has led to the treaty between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.  Once they encounter this ship, though, everything changes in an instant.  There is no more treaty.  The Enterprise-C was recorded as missing, and the Klingons believed they had run away like cowards, leading to an ongoing war between the Klingons and Federation.  The Enterprise-D is no longer a ship built for exploration, but a warship.  You can tell, because no one turns all the lights on in war, because who needs a well-lit space when making battle plans:

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Guinan realizes that something is wrong, especially when she interacts with Natasha Yar (not dead, convenient since there’s no Worf on the ship).  She convinces Captain Picard that they need to send the Enterprise-C back to the past, and their doom, to make everything right. Picard must then convince the crew of the beaten up ship to go back, which, of course he does.  Everything is going to work out, until a group of Klingon Birds of Prey show up to take out both ships. The Enterprise-D almost loses ship and crew to rescue the Enterprise-C long enough for them to go back and get blown up in the past.  They hold them off just long enough, and everything returns to “normal.”

This episode really has quite a bit to get excited about.  Number 1, it marked the first return of Denise Crosby to her role as Lt. Yar.  She has been, and always will be a fan favorite.  I personally never cared for her character, but I know she is beloved by TNG fans, and was even back when this episode aired.  That alone would make this a favorite episode.  Plus, she goes out in a very heroic way by joining the crew of the Enterprise-C, a much better ending than her original demise.

Another thing this episode has going for it is the appearance of the Enterprise-C.  We had never seen it on film before, and it was pretty cool.  For geeks like me who totally go gaga over different ships and made up history, it was really cool to see the Ambassador class ship show up next to the Galaxy class Enterprise-D.  You could see how this ship was step in the evolution of the Enterprise, bearing a few similarities with its present day counterpart.

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A third thing this story had going for it was time travel and parallel universes.  Classic ingredients for a great SciFi story.  And, of course, it leads to a huge moral dilemma.  Do you put the universe back to how it is supposed to be, and save a bunch of lives in the process, or do you save the Enterprise-C and her crew?  Picard has to make this choice.  He doesn’t really know that sending the C back will change his universe and end the war before it begins, and the federation could always use another ship.  All he has to go on is Guinan.  Apparently, for Picard, that’s enough.

Finally, we get to see the Enterprise as a warship.  As a kid, I thought this was really cool.  If there was anything I felt like Star Trek was missing, it was battles and war.  After watching the last few seasons of DS9, I found out how wrong that is, but as a kid I wanted more action.  Seeing the Enterprise as a warship and an epic battle at the end of the episode, it was just cool. Plus, we see that no matter the circumstance, Picard is the greatest captain Star Fleet has ever had.

“Yesterday’s Enterprise” was one of the first episodes of the series that I remember really standing out to me.  I enjoyed, and it was one that kind of succeed me in even more to the show.  I think it is still just as popular as ever with the fans, and probably always will be. So, if you’re browsing through NetFlix, looking for something to watch, go check out “Yesterday’s Enterprise.”  Whether you’ve never seen it, or you are watching it for the hundredth time, you won’t be disappointed.

The Doctor Returns-A Look at the New BBC America Teaser

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August 23.  The most important bit of information we get in the teaser is the start date of the 8th “series”.  August 23.  That’s the only question the teaser really answers, leaving us mostly with more questions.  The teaser itself is only 16 seconds long, similar in length, I think, the BBC one teaser.  But the America teaser is better.  Let me include them both here, for comparison’s sake.

First, the BBC One teaser:

Now, the BBC America Teaser:

Both are short, and both serve to just let us know that the 8th series is coming.  But we get a little more from the BBC America teaser.  If you are just getting to the end of Matt Smith’s run as the Doctor, I should warn you, this will get a little spoilerish, so…don’t read on if you don’t want spoilers.

At the end of the “Time of the Doctor”, we see Matt Smith regenerate, as a result of what we can only assume is a new regeneration cycle from the Time Lords.  We know he is at the end of his regeneration cycle because they reference this in the episode, so he shouldn’t be able to regenerate.  He should die on Trenzalore.  But, thanks to Clara, the Time Lords decide to help him, and send him the ability to regenerate.  Not sure all the technical science about it, but there it is.

As a result of this being a new cycle, we get the feeling that this might be a different regeneration, including Matt Smith reverting in age right before the actual transformation.  Once the regeneration is complete, we get our first view of the 12th Doctor, and his first words (something about the color of his kidneys), and then the TARDIS is crashing.  He asks Clara if she knows how to fly it, making it seem like he doesn’t.  Now, when the Doctor regenerates, it is not uncommon for there to be a time of transition, discombobulation, and confusion.  But, they easy he asked her if she know how to fly the TARDIS, made me wonder if this was going to part of this new regeneration, that he won’t fully remember everything.  I felt like this might be a possibility because 11 goes on and on about how important it is to remember all the faces he had seen.  It made me think: “He is going to lose his memory when he regenerates”

Flash forward to now and this new teaser, and it would seem, at least from the BBC America teaser that he does, in fact, have questions about who he is, and whether he was a good man.  Clara says she is not sure she knows who the Doctor is anymore.  Other companions (Rose for example) have had a hard time recognizing the new Doctor when he regenerates, but this is Clara.  She is the only companion that knows all the Doctors.  She has seen and met all of his regenerations, including the War Doctor (she was the only one that met that version).  It is a bit more significant for her to say that she doesn’t know who the Doctor is anymore.

Most importantly, the teaser made me excited.  I think 12 is going to be a very different Doctor than what we have seen thus far in the “new” series.  He is older, seems a bit more stern.  I am excited to see how it plays out with Clara and with Moffat at the helm.  It is exciting, and now I can’t wait for August 23.