[Updated with Season 9 episodes]
The Internet likes a good list, doesn’t it? A nice comprehensive, frivolous ranking of a beloved something or other?
All right then. Let’s do this. Let’s rank every episode of modern Doctor Who from worst to best in four weekly installments: “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” “Are these good episodes?”, “These episodes are cool,” and “Fantastic!”
I tried not to agonize over the exact rankings, because I wanted to be done this century, so assume a margin of error of plus or minus a few. If I did this a year later, the order would likely turn out differently. It’s all just my opinion, and I respect that you’ll likely disagree. (I know—how dare I rank that episode that low and that episode that high?) This is just for fun, a way to reflect on what’s been a great science fiction series overall.
I love Doctor Who even though not every episode is a winner, and I appreciate how hard it is to write for television. Both showrunners, Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat, have given us brilliant episodes, and both have been guilty of failing to rein in their excesses. Nevertheless, the show remains great on the whole, and I’m thankful for the many wonderfully entertaining hours both writers and their teams have given us.
But none of us are perfect. So in this first part, let’s get the misfires out of the way:
JOEY hit another one out of the park! She showed us her beautifully melancholy and emotional side with a gorgeous rendition of 
Welcome to Binge Watchers Anonymous (BWA).
Stephanie Palmer over at 
This week there were two elimination nights in a row! Not sure how I feel about this – barely got to recover from the first one and we went barreling into the second a mere 24 hours later. Just like that, we went from Top 14 to Top 11! Snap.
You might have heard about this little show on AMC called 
In 
Be sure to read up on my introduction to this season 
In my home, I do not have cable – nor do I have DVR, or any other live TV recording technology. For some, this may seem like an impossible way of life, however, for me it has been liberating. As someone who could easily be kept hostage by a plethora of recorded TV shows from any number of 500 possible channels, I have found peace in not thinking about what’s on TV, or how I will make time for so many wasted hours. However, I have decided to try a social experiment called “Watch American Idol Live Every Week for the Entire Season,” or, in other words, watching TV the old fashioned way. I am doing this mainly because I had a crazy desire to reconnect with America’s favorite pastime (American Idol), and this is the only surefire way to see this adventure through.
The Twilight Zone
Thanks to all who participated in Smash Cut Culture’s first ever Oscar Pool.
And yet, Jimbo and Nedd, the resident hunter rednecks of South Park disagree, offering what amounts to the same argument relied upon by most southerners who oppose changing their state flags: The flag is a part of our history, our traditions. While people in the past did racist things and perhaps some minority today holds racist views, the whole culture of the South was not built around racism, and the flag represents the whole culture, not just the sordid parts.
There’s a certain kind of character everyone loves to hate: the supposedly average person who gets thrown into a terrible situation and suddenly becomes unrealistically good at everything he or she needs to do to save the day. Fanfiction writers call the female version “Mary Sue” and her male equivalent “Marty Sam” or “Gary Stu.” Of course, there are plenty of real-world instances of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in extraordinary circumstances, but most people tend to panic in an emergency. Mary Sues are annoying because they ignore that reality. (And having purple hair, wilver eyes, and a fake Japanese name doesn’t help, either.)
During that time, Wally West, the former sidekick Kid Flash, took over as the Flash. Wally was introduced in the late 1950s as the young nephew of Barry’s girlfriend Iris. (Unlike their TV counterparts, Barry and Iris were together from the Flash’s first appearance, and they did not grow up together.) When Barry and Iris eventually married, Barry became not only Wally’s mentor and idol, but his uncle as well.
Just as Wally is starting to feel comfortable as the Flash, the man he always saw as “the” Flash seemingly returns from the dead. Barry Allen shows up on his doorstep, alive and well, if a bit disoriented. At first, Wally loves having his uncle back. Sure, he starts to feel a little redundant as the Flash, but that’s a small price to pay. But then Barry’s behavior becomes…erratic. He soon snaps, leaves Wally to die in a hi-tech trap set by a new criminal organization, and announces himself as the one, true Flash. Wally escapes, of course, but he has to process the fact that the man he’s dedicated his life to has turned out to be anything but heroic.
It’s great stuff, one of the best comic book storylines of the early 1990s (which, admittedly, is not saying a lot. Those were dark, dark times for comic readers.)
Netflix announced a huge acquisition move that will stream every episode of the NBC’s nostalgia powerhouse “Friends.” Yet another TV hit is headed to Netflix. Just another sign that Netflix’s streaming quality is primed for major improvement.
Capaldi’s performance is superb. He commands the viewer’s attention, and like all great actors, his character seems to have quite a bit going on beneath the surface. Tremendous screen presence.
This detachment renders the Doctor’s behavior downright alien. And though he is an alien, he’s also a character in what was originally conceived as a children’s show. Doctor Who has grown up into a series that can appeal to many different age groups, but my feeling is the Doctor should always remain a good role model for younger viewers. He doesn’t have to be perfect, but he should continue to hold all life in the highest regard, maybe show some warmth and understanding once in a while. Maybe he’ll mellow out and get there, but so far, this isn’t a Doctor I can recommend as a role model.
And being a girl who grew up in the ’90s, that’s a hard thing for me to admit. Most of my pals who had a fair share of animation adoration (and even those who didn’t) had a special place in their heart for the series.
But then DiC picked it up and tried to air it in America. And if people my age remember anything of what the TV landscape looked like in the early 1990s, we remember that what sold was often boxed in ‘80s packaging, with bright neon colors, some shoddy fight scenes, and a moral at the end of every story. Basically, if it wasn’t “
And I finished the series, but after that, I left the Sailor Scouts behind. I saw that several other series followed it, Sailor Moon S and Sailor Moon SuperS (as well as some films), so it must’ve still been doing well. But when Hulu started streaming the unedited series back in June, I watched a few episodes, and it wasn’t awful. I still didn’t really care for Serena, but it was more tolerable.
But I also noticed something in the opening credits, the new theme song includes the lines, “We are not helpless girls/Who need men’s protection.” Now those are some big claims. And as I continued to watch the first two episodes (the third will be up next week), I think they’re going to keep their promise. Now sure, the show does not come without its problems.
If you felt cheated by Richard Mattox’s 