DRW50

I wonder if we'll ever see River again - I'm not sure if we will get one last time before she leaves for good, or if she'll keep popping in. She's so close to the time of her death now. Alex Kingston has such a tough job with the role, especially once they revealed her background and she could never quite have a real relationship with Rory and Amy after this. I think the best of River were her first interactions with Amy and Rory before they learned she was their daughter, when she was more vulnerable with them. And her first scenes with Matt Smith, which had fantastic chemistry. I especially loved some of her scenes with Rory where she was talking to him like his teenage daughter describing her first date, and he had no idea why. And of course this. I don't know if you saw this but it's a lot of fun. So is there anyone you'd bring back? Would you like to see Jack again?

That cover is just brutal to Jacqueline. She looks like a tranny on a budget.

They had planned this all along. They have to keep this going, because they need the revenue. They also love Romney and have been disappointed at just how shockingly poor a candidate he has been. This is their chance to make him a hero.

Obama has never been a good debater. One of the debate moments I always cringe at is "you're likeable enough." Debates only matter when the media wants someone to win. They didn't want Kerry to win, so they bent over backwards to help ramp up outrage over Mary Cheney to make sure Bush got out OK. Same goes for their fury over Al Gore "rolling his eyes" and "sighing." And both Gore and Kerry were better debaters than Obama. These were set up for Romney to win.

Obama's never been a good debater, and he was set up to lose no matter what. The whole thing just feels forced. The media has spent a long time preparing for this and are likely doing cartwheels. We'll see if they can whip up enough other crap (Libya, RACE TAPE, whatever else) to prop Romney until Election Day.

There are liveblogs at various places. I'm reading a little. I just can't stomach it.

I think at first she didn't fit the patterns of the most popular companions she was going to be compared to, like Rose. Strong, brave, spunky, in love with the Doctor. Of course she wasn't actually in love with him, that was just the early impression. Then you started to get a lot of complaints, some I'd agree with, some not, that the story with the Ponds was too soap opera, or not enough about the Doctor, or too complicated. I think it did get too complicated last season, but never felt like it was "soap opera", because they didn't focus as much on the big emotions as they would have with someone like Rose. I understand the idea that the show must be about the Doctor and a young cutie who idolizes him, but I think they'd gone as far as they could (which is why they brought Donna in). I guess we might be going back to that again, and it might work, but if so it's in large part because of the breathing room from Donna, then Amy/Rory. Over time I started to appreciate more of the darkness and sadness in Amy's character, which Karen Gillan played expertly. There were times when Amy was very underwritten but there are other times which were small scenes that stayed with me for years, like the scene after Rory was killed, where she was looking at a future version of herself, from a great distance, and waving, and wasn't sure why she felt sad (earlier, Rory had been there beside her in the future, then been killed and wiped out of history). Another was the nightmare episode where, after Rory was killed, Amy went back to reality by driving her car straight into a wall, knowing she had nothing to live for without Rory. I loved Donna (she's probably the only other companion from the Who revival I loved, aside from Rory, although I liked most of the others) but that's always a little tainted because of her exit, and the idea that she was nothing without the Doctor. Even if I wish we'd seen a little more of Rory at the end, mainly a Rory/Doctor scene, I'm glad we knew that Rory and Amy did get to be together, and that ultimately Amy made the choice. Mickey was treated horribly in his first season, although they gave him a decent ending (if you can ignore the whole idea of him suddenly becoming a freedom fighter and suddenly marrying Martha, who was now also a freedom fighter). If you didn't love Rose and the Doctor as OTP then you had to struggle a little in the first season. The show started to open up a little more in the later episodes of the first season, and then the second. I started liking Rose as everyone else seemed to start hating her. Ultimately I liked her family the most, which might be the part of RTD's era I miss most (he did bring in Rory's father but then we never saw him learn about Amy/Rory). What I'll always appreciate with the writing of the last few years is we weren't asked to look down on Rory because he wasn't the Doctor. He was his own person, and we were allowed to respect him in his own right, and to know that in many ways he was just as strong as the Doctor, and a very vital part of the TARDIS, not just the tagalong. The main focus was probably always on Amy and the Doctor, but in the end, Rory was what mattered most to her.

Debate starting up. Jennifer Granholm predicts that the media will declare Romney winner, as they desperately want to keep this race going. I think she'll probably be right. http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/10/granholm-media-to-declare-romney-winner-of-first-debate-137134.html

Tucker Carlson, proving again that his only selling point was a bow tie, has decided to add more blatant race-baiting to our national discourse, and pouts Crossfire cancellation style because the media doesn't want to hear his scary black man pitch. http://2012.talkingp...dia.php?ref=fpb

Thank you. I don't remember any relationship changes based on Phyllis "standing by" Jack. I don't remember any of that, other than Jack resigning.

She'd be more like Rebecca, with more gangbangs.

I guess Todd is Adam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrKKtY9VgNM

Oof. David Brooks, the epitome of a Very Reasonable, Thoughtful Republican, calls Michelle Malkin a "loon." http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/10/brooks-calls-malkin-a-loon-why-it-matters-137161.html

Smith is a real link to the past - he's not a big fan, as Tennant was, but he has a lot of respect for the show's history. I appreciate when he talks about Patrick Troughton, because he's obviously not just paying lip service. He adds a lot of Troughton and William Hartnell. For a while I didn't like Amy but once they toned down the predictable bickering and strong female companion saves the day stories, I began to like her. Moving away from the typical Doctor/young female companion relationship and adding Rory and bringing in more focus on her relationship with Rory was the best idea, focusing more on how the Doctor has affected both Amy and Rory. Episodes like The Girl Who Waited were a fantastic showcase for her. There haven't been any Doctor/companion relationships so deep in a long time, and sometimes I wonder if they should even have the Doctor with companions since he seems to increasingly destroy their lives. Hopefully this might be addressed when they bring Jenna Louise Coleman back.

We've had a dozen threads but never one collective thread. And what good timing, starting this AFTER the season just went on hiatus. I was still so depressed about the last episode I decided to start this. The obsession of my youth, a show I couldn't actually believe came back. I've always had slightly mixed emotions on the return but when it's good it gets right to your heart more than almost anything else in entertainment can. And when the right companion comes along, I become very attached (see my breaking my 3 and a half year avatar allergy). I wish Amy and Rory had been able to just leave of their own volition, but barring that, the last scenes were heartbreaking and harrowingly acted by everyone involved, especially underrated Matt Smith, probably the actor who has best captured the Doctor's spirit since the 70s. I loved Jenna Louise Coleman on Emmerdale and her first episode showed promise. I do wonder how they will bring that character back. If it's the same characters, before her death, then the Doctor will have to spend all his time not telling her or River he saw them die. Awkward. And then Doctor Who fandom always has first rate vids. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bJpfFLtbdY&list=FLNEnwk1pvnNWCT3Fn9r49Eg&feature=mh_lolz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TtyosTwrts

Doing that to Nikki, any such huge act of violence, and then having her reconcile with Victor after a decade apart (give or take) was a masterstroke. Kay Alden really took Y&R back to its basics at this point, with this story and the Katherine/Jill battles, all without endlessly going to the press to talk about how awesome she was.

The story initially seemed a little aimless but once Veronica went completely off and shot Nikki and Josh there was a huge jumpstart. Y&R had a listless few years and this was the way they said, "We're back!" I think fans did like her, and Candice Daly did a wonderful job. They stretched the story out about long as they could and gave her a sad exit.

More pity parties for Mitt from some of the media. http://gawker.com/5947910/yes-mitt-romney-is-getting-a-raw-deal-from-the-press

This channel has episodes of, among others, Ma Perkins and Rosemary. http://www.youtube.com/user/RadioFilmAndTV

I can't believe I missed these being uploaded. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRHJU5gn9eM You can also find episodes from 1984, 1992, 1995, and the first and last episodes of The City.

I was looking at TWOP and their thread is locked again. They get very heated about that show I guess. Oh never mind, it was that "don't post while the show is on" rule I never get. Sorry.

Nina Arvesen's Youtube channel is back now and so are the videos. Here's one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdQdsL1d0SU&feature=channel&list=UL

Kathleen Beedles' time at Emmerdale was seen at the time as poor, although the show hit the skids further after she left. The Who Killed Tom King? story didn't have the impact they'd expected, nor did most of the new characters (although Lexi later became a very good character). The Perdie gaslighting story got a negative reception from fans, as did the show's poor treatment of Rosemary due to backstage tension with Linda Thorson. A lot of fans had enough when the Christmas episode involved Greyson and Perdie fighting over a sweater containing a secret formula. Beedles seems to have done a decent job at Eastenders. I have no idea what anyone can do with Hollyoaks. For all the fan hype of Marquess, he did not create a single strong character. The biggest reason anyone cares about Brendan is because people get hot over the actor. His stories, if you can call them that, amount to a sociopath pulling faces while everyone writes how sad they feel for someone who beats his boyfriends into comas or who murders people or who rapes people. The Ste/Brendan story is one of the most offensive and destructive pieces of trash ever on soaps, and has made Ste a completely pathetic, irrelevant character. There is no longer any structure or sense of family or drive on the show, or any history. There's nothing. There are so many characters who are just plain used up, like most of the McQueens, outside of Jacqui and maybe Myra.