What If... the Doctor's moral compass had never formed? (Part 2)

Last time, we had seen a Doctor who had not taken on Ian and Barbara as companions. As a result he alienated his granddaughter Susan, who voluntarily chose to leave the TARDIS and her grandfather behind. He regenerated not long after, finding himself with new companions in the form of Vicki Pallister, Steven Taylor, and Sara Kingdom. Also, when we last left them, the last of their number had filled the Meddling Monk with so many holes that he whistled on the way to the ground, Sara knowing something that the Monk has yet to do and trying to prevent it... which might have worked, if the Monk were not a Time Lord and thus a regeneration had begun...

What If... the Doctor's moral compass had never formed? (Part 1)

Well, it is the 60th anniversary and there's no way I'm gonna finish (or even start, in some cases) the stories I wanted to do to celebrate. Blame real life, it happens.

However, I do have enough time to shoot the breeze and talk about a continuation of a What If? scenario that I've already done - namely a universe where Ian and Barbara never investigated their strange pupil Susan Foreman. That's right, this is technically "What If Ian and Barbara never investigated Susan?" Part 5, but I decided to spin it off into its own for reasons that will become clear soon enough.

Spoilers for Classic Who below the cut. You've been warned!

What If... Jenny survived "The Doctor's Daughter?" (Part 2)

Alright, so... it is the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who, so it'd be rather bad of me to not do something in the month of November to acknowledge that... even if I am about six days too late. Whoops!

And I'm sure the Fiction Corner stories will be finished at some point in the future, but I doubt we'll be seeing the rest of them in 2023 for sure.

That said...

MadCap's Reel Thoughts - "Doctor Who: The Movie" (1996)

...oh, you thought this was gonna be Hellraiser? Nah, I decided to bring you some real horror: The Doctor Who TV Movie from 1996.

It's only the 60th anniversary year for my favorite TV show of all time and the major plot of this does involve an alien parasite trying to steal bodies, so it's technically horror-themed if nothing else. Beyond it, of course, being one of the most controversial entries in all of Doctor Who canon, which is not a statement I make lightly.

From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "The Curse of Fenric"

Excuse me, do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior Ug-Qualtoth?

Alrighty, a little bit of a notice before we start. Generally in the past, the Horror Month TV reviews have been Supernatural. We will have a Supernatural episode up for this month. However, I decided that I'm going to change it up a little this time as the title of this post may have clued you in to. Rather than going with just one series - I'm going to skip around the various series that I've reviewed and pick a spooky episode from each one. So, given that there are five Tuesdays in this October, I have decided to review at least one episode from:

• Doctor Who
• Quantum Leap
• Supernatural (duh)
• Sliders
• ...and one other special thing, which may come from any of those series or something else entirely!

Everybody got that? Good! Then we can get on with this episode (the penultimate one of the entire classic show), one of my favorite episodes of not only the Sylvester McCoy era (which we've touched on before), but of all of Doctor Who in its entirety.

The Curse of Fenric!

Seriously, this is honestly one of the best episodes of the entire show. Old or new.

...no, really. I'm not even kidding.

From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "The Big Bang"

*record scratch* Yeah... it's me. You're probably wondering how I got here.
Well, to answer that, we'll have to go back a ways... or forward... it's complicated.

I'm always fashionably late to weddings, after all.

From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "The Pandorica Opens"

Piscem hunc magnum quondam cepi!

And so, we come to it at last! The first part of the epic two part finale of Series 5!

Let's GOOOOOOOO!

From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "The Lodger"

"Hey, wanna buy some Girl Scout cookies?"

Now it's time for a concept that I'm kind of iffy about - the companion-lite episode. The reverse of Doctor-lite episodes like Love & Monsters, Blink, and Turn Left, we saw this experimented with in the very, very excellent Midnight, where Russell T. Davies cleverly (no, really, it was) explored the tropes of Doctor Who and turned them on their head. In Series 5, Moffat decided to continue the tradition and thus Gareth Roberts penned The Lodger, which we'll be looking at today.

From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "Vincent and the Doctor"

From lizard people from the dawn of time to a Post-Impressionist painter who is arguably one of the greatest who have ever lived. It's time to get into one of my favorite episodes of Series 5 and indeed the entire Matt Smith era of the show - Vincent and the Doctor.

From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "Cold Blood"

Excuse me but do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior, Curt Connors?

Last time, the Doctor, Amy, and Rory found themselves at a Welsh mining operation in the far off year of 2020 that was becoming the target of a bunch of Silurians. Faced with a nigh-impossible situation, with humans captured by the Silurians and Silurians captured by the humans, the Doctor finds that it is not remotely a small tribe of them... not remotely a small tribe at all...

From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "The Hungry Earth"

"I'll never let go, Jack."
"AMY!"
"Right, Amy. Amy... right..."

So... it is now the year 2023. The Chris Chibnall era of Doctor Who is over, and I can very generously say that it was a contentious era in the show's history. We'll be getting to it and all of its downs and... downs... later. I opened this episode this way because I'm about to drop a bombshell on you... ready?

Chris Chibnall... once wrote good Doctor Who. Other than the just ok Doctor Who he wrote before this point. Apparently with Moffat holding his reins, the man can produce something halfway decent. Go figure.

From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "Amy's Choice"

That awkward moment when your date isn't ready and you have to sit and make idle conversation with her parents...

From Venice in 1580 to the village of Leadworth... or is in the TARDIS? A mysterious, enigmatic figure torments the Doctor, Amy, and Rory in between two different time periods, but which one is real?

Let's find out!

From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "The Vampires of Venice"

"This isn't Buttercream at all!"

Last time, the Doctor shoved Amy into the TARDIS to fix a problem.

This time, well... let's get into it...

From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "Flesh and Stone"

"The Angels will master this...'Macarena'!"

Well, last time, we left our time travelers in a heck in a bit of a sticky wicket. Under a crashed spaceship inside of an ancient temple filled to the brim with Weeping Angels that were beginning to wake up and surround the Doctor, Amy, River, and the Red Shirt Brigade.

Top 10 Reasons Why Rose Tyler is the Doctor's Best Companion EVAR!

...what's that? Oh, right. I know, it's Saturday and you're expecting the final part of "The Mirror World"? well, it's coming. After it, we'll have something... new. Still Doctor Who, but new. More on that later, though...

Instead, right here on this lovely April the first, I want to instead celebrate my favorite show of all time by talking to you about your favorite companion and mine, as well as the absolute best companion in the entire sixty year history of Doctor Who. Honestly, you already know who I'm talking about from just that sentence, not even talking about the title of this post!

Really, who couldn't like this person who is most definitely not a gigantic dumpster fire of psychopathic behavior, derangement, and failure? Certainly not I, not I. Really, it's hard to pin down it down to just ten moments that signify that Rose Tyler is the best companion that the Doctor has or ever will have in the history of the show, but I think I've managed to get it down to just ten. Blasphemous as it is to put our goddess, Saint Rose of Tyler, to a list in just the mere double digits! So, without further adieu...

What If... the Doctor remained Time Lord Victorious? (FINALE)

Finally, the journey comes to an end.

Last time, geez, we had a lot going on! Didn't we? Doctors and Masters generating, the Great Intelligence and the Matrix collapsing, and finally the Key to Reality was now released and ready to be used.

The fate of the omniverse lies in the hands of... the Time Lord Victorious!

Let's see how it ends!

From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "The Time of Angels"

Why did you get the Angel's Big Brother audition tape?

Alright, we come to it at last. Moffat's re-introduction of the character of River Song and, for good and ill, all that would mean through most of the Matt Smith era and a bit of a denouement near the end of Peter Capaldi's run. River is a character that I have complicated, but mostly positive feelings about. I'll get into the specifics of why when we hit A Good Man Goes To War, which I feel is where the conversation is best slated for given the content of said episode. For now, let's get into Time of the Angels, part one of our first two-parter in Series 5.

From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "Victory of the Daleks"

"Haven't you been here before already?"
"And I'm gonna be here a surprisingly high amount of times after, too."

Single most stupidly awesome thing in a Doctor Who episode coming in just a few paragraphs.

Just you wait!

Believe me, if you don't know what happens in this episode it will very likely blow your mind.

And I'm not even kidding!

...mostly.

From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "The Beast Below"

"Hey, have I got something in my teeth?"

So, remember how I last time that I was talking up Moffat's era?

Yeah... here's where I have to give him a firm "Nah."

Let me elaborate.

From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "The Eleventh Hour"

See? I told you. Just a couple of weeks.

And it seems not a moment too soon, as we are in the thick of the Doctor Who's 60th Anniversary! That's right, this show has existed for 60 years coming up in November in this, the year 2023! Needless to say, with it being my favorite TV show of all time, you know I have to celebrate! In fact, I've already started by penning Chalybe Panacea, a story in which the Ninth Doctor teams up with former companion Nyssa in order to save the universe from the 1980s Cybermen, and more stories will be following on from that. However, now that we've finally gotten Supernatural out of the way with Season 3, I think it's time to sink our teeth back into the journeys of a madman with a box.

So, with that said, let's get started!