Another season! There are a number of weak ones in this season, but oh man the highs are high. Especially the finale and transition to Season 8. Oh, I’m looking forward to that!

minor spoilers It’s quite a season for the last we see of the Ponds and Eleven's last run. Not to mention the introduction (several times!) of Clara . Oh, and a multi-doctor story! with Ten, Eleven, and the War Doctor! .

Quite a season.

Onward!

Episode by episode thoughts/quotes, might be some minor spoilers:

• Asylum of the Daleks - Eleven and the Ponds take on Daleks. Oh, and a mysterious girl who makes soufflés? A fun start to the season.

  Oswin: Is there a word for “total screaming genius” that sounds modest and a tiny bit sexy?
  The Doctor: Doctor. You call me the Doctor.
  Oswin: I see what you did there.

• Dinosaurs on a Spaceship - Guess what’s in this one? Having a few temporary companions in Riddel and Nefertiti was a lot of fun. Oh, and the interplay between Rory and (surprise) his dad was great.

  Brian Williams: A spaceship… driven by dinosaurs?
  The Doctor: Brian, please! That would be ridiculous. They’re probably just passengers.

• A Town Called Mercy - The one in the old west. Except in this one, the ‘Gunslinger’ is a relentless Cyborg kept out by a ring of stones.

  Amy Pond: What does he want? Has he issued some kind of demand?
  Isaac: Says he wants us to give him the alien doctor.
  Amy Pond: [to The Doctor] But that’s you. Why would he want to kill you? Unless he’s met you.

• The Power of Three - The one where the Doctor meets his greatest foe yet–boredom.

  Rory Williams: We have two lives. Real life and Doctor life. Doesn’t feel like real life gets much of a look-in.
  Amy Pond: What do we do?
  Rory Williams: Choose.
  [sounds of the Tardis appearing]
  Amy Pond: Not today, though.
  Rory Williams: No, not today.

• The Angels Take Manhattan - Well, it does a number on the lore of the Weeping Angels, which I’m not a fan of. Otherwise, this a solid episode–and quite the send off to the Ponds. We’ve been feeling it all season.

  The Doctor: I always rip out the last page of a book. Then it doesn’t have to end. I hate endings!

• The Snowmen - Well isn’t that a familiar face… except the Doctor never actually saw Soufflé girl. Weird. Oh, also living snowmen with terrifying fangs. But you know, it’s Clara that’s the interesting part.

  Clara: It’s smaller on the outside. The Doctor: Okay, that is a first.

  Oh, and I also do love episodes with Madame Vastra, Jenny, and Strax. We get a bit more of them this season, but they would have made for great companions in my opinion.

  Strax: Sir, permission to express my opposition to your current apathy.
  The Doctor: Permission granted.
  Strax: Sir, I am opposed to your current apathy.
  The Doctor: Thank you, Strax. And if I’m ever in the need of advice from a psychotic potato dwarf, you’ll certainly be the first to know.

• The Bells of Saint John - The Doctor tries to lock himself away in time, but of course that never works. So instead, he finds… another Clara? This time in the present day.

  The Doctor: This whole world is swimming in Wi-Fi. We’re living in a Wi-Fi soup! Suppose something got inside it. Suppose there was something living in the Wi-Fi, harvesting human minds, extracting them. Imagine that. Human souls trapped like flies in the World Wide Web, stuck for ever, crying out for help.
  Clara Oswin: Isn’t that basically Twitter?

• The Rings of Akhaten - This is an amusing one to see relatively close to The Tombs of Atuan. I dare you to say Atuan didn’t inspire Akhaten. It’s a fun adventure on a spaceship and has a big Doctor Speech too.

  The Doctor: So… So… Come on, then. Take mine. Take my memories. But I hope you’ve got a big appetite because I’ve lived a long life and I’ve seen a few things. I walked away from the Last Great Time War. I marked the passing of the Time Lords. I saw the birth of the universe and I watched as time ran out, moment by moment, until nothing remained. No time. No space. Just me. I walked in universes where the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a madman. I’ve watched universes freeze and creations burn. I have seen things you wouldn’t believe. I have lost things you will never understand. And I know things, secrets that must never be told and knowledge that must never be spoken. Knowledge that will make parasite gods blaze. So come on then! Take it! Take it all, baby! Have it! You have it all!

• Cold War - Stuck on a sunken Russian submarine with a rogue Martian Warrior. Sounds like a good time.

  Clara: Am I speaking Russian? How come I’m speaking Russian?
  The Doctor: Now? We have to do this now?
  Clara: Are THEY speaking Russian?
  The Doctor: Seriously? Now? It’s the TARDIS translation matrix.
  Clara: Are they?
  The Doctor: Yes! They’re Russians!

• Hide - A “Ghost”? If only it were that simple.

  The Doctor: I’m The Doctor!
  Alec Palmer: Doctor what?
  The Doctor: If you like!

• Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS - The TARDIS as salvage? That’s a new one. Oh, and it’s always fascinating to really get into how much smaller the outside really is.

  Clara: I think I’m more scared of you right now than anything else on this TARDIS.

• The Crimson Horror - Another Vastra/Jenny/sTrax one, which is great! I just wish we could see them in another time.

  The Doctor: Okay, so… North London, 1893. Yorkshire, 1893. Near enough.
  Clara: You’re making a habit of this, getting us lost.
  The Doctor: Sorry. It’s much better than it used to be. Oooh. I once spent a hell of a long time trying to get a gobby Australian to Heathrow airport.

• Nightmare in Silver - Taking Clara’s nanny-children to a space theme park seems like a terrible idea. And that’s before it’s actually a ruin and, turns out, there are cybermen involved. I really like the Doctor’s chess game in this one.

  Clara: The only reason I’m still alive is because I do what the doctor says. Can you guarantee me you’d bring me back my children alive and unharmed? I trust the Doctor.
  Captain: You think he knows what he’s doing?
  Clara: I’m not sure I’d go that far.

• The Name of the Doctor - The fields of Trenzalore and the Doctor’s greatest secret. Oh, we’re getting into the season finale no, aren’t we? Things are just getting much bigger. And not just the TARDIS.

  River Song: I died saving him; in return he saved me to a database in the biggest library in the universe. Left me like a book on a shelf; didn’t even say goodbye. He doesn’t like endings.

  It’s good to see River again. But oy. That’s cold, Doctor.

• The Day of the Doctor - Man, getting all of these episodes in the right order never seems to go well. Here, we have the Doctor with an emergency message from Queen Elizabeth I. So of course he responds. As does the Doctor. And the Doctor.

  Oh, that’s one heck of an episode. We don’t get nearly enough multi-doctor stories and this one–well, this has a lot of that!

  Tenth Doctor: But don't worry, I started a very long time ago!

  [Numerous TARDISes approach Gallifrey]

  First Doctor: Calling the War Council of Gallifrey, this is the Doctor.

  Eleventh Doctor: You might say, I've been doing this all my lives.

  Second Doctor: Good luck!

  Third Doctor: Stand by.

  First Doctor: Ready.

  Fourth Doctor: Commencing calculations.

  Fifth Doctor: Soon be there.

  Seventh Doctor: Across the boundaries that divide one universe from another.

  Sixth Doctor: Got to lock on to his coordinates.

  Ninth Doctor: And for my next trick...

• The Time of the Doctor - Once again, we have the Doctor’s greatest enemies come to fight him. So much for resetting time, eh? But it’s a fine show off in the town of Christmas. And once again, we see the Doctor breaking all of the rules.

  Clara: [reads from a cracker] And now it’s time for one last bow, like all your other selves. Eleven’s hour is over now, the clock is striking Twelve’s.
  The Doctor: I don’t get it.

  Spoilers… but it’s a satisfying way to end Eleven’s run. On to Twelve!