Who Review: "Robot of Sherwood"

"I'm just as real as you are."

The Doctor and Clara meet the famous outlaw of legend, but is he the real thing?

When the Doctor takes Clara to 1198 Sherwood Forest, they discover the truth of Robin Hood, the mad Sheriff of Nottingham, and climate change. With nods to previous Doctors ("Hiya!") and an affectionate look at the importance of legends, stories, and impossible men, "Robot of Sherwood" delivers an entertaining ride with the season's strongest showing yet as the Prince of Thieves meets the Last of the Time Lords.

Who Review: "Into the Dalek"

"I see beauty!"

The Doctor's greatest enemy returns to challenge everyone's expectations.

This week's episode of Doctor Who deals with some interesting moral issues and a lot of very good character development for the Doctor. Clara continues to emerge from the shadow of her (thus-far) superior predecessors as we see her as more than just a live-in nanny who sometimes travels with the Doctor. I've been avoiding most news about this current season of the show, so I was not sure what to expect from the episode. I was almost as surprised by the episode as the Doctor was when he went "Into the Dalek."

Who Review: "Deep Breath"

The Doctor is Back!

But is he a good man? And was the premiere of season 8 actually any good?

All right, let's get one thing straight. I love Doctor Who. I've been watching the show in one form or another since I was six years old, it's always enthralled me. Even at its worst, Doctor Who is still my favorite bit of science fiction on television. No other show tells stories quite like the stories you get when you travel around with a centuries-old Time Lord who picks up stray humans (and the occasional human-looking alien or tin dog) and drags them through all of space and time in a rickety old time machine. The reruns of the old show on PBS in the 80s introduced me to concepts that blew my pre-teen mind. The new show, since 2005, has done the same for my adult brain.

With that in mind, then, I have to confess that "Deep Breath," the debut episode of Peter Capaldi, the 13th actor to play the Doctor on-screen (although he's still called the 12th Doctor because John Hurt's incarnation was a secret - come on, keep up!) was mostly lackluster. However, it did have some great bits that showcased Capaldi, Jenna Coleman as his assistant Clara, and the new tone for the series.