"Doctor Who" season 9 is going to be the most epic yet

That seems MUCH too early. But if the sneaking back is involved, there is no reason to set a time.

Spoiler-free previews of The Magician's Apprentice are up on both Digital Spy and Blogtor Who. They don't reveal much, but we have a name for the threat chasing the Doctor (or is it just one of "his servants"?), more on the change in Twelve's personality this series (described as "not so much the acid mad professor as ebullient magic hipster") and rumours of proper scary foes and the most effective cliffhanger scene yet.

As utterly disappointed as I was in Series Eight, I am actually looking forward to Series 9.

Capaldi has finally grown on me as The Doctor.

Aside from the atrocious finale, why did you think series 8 stank?

Because of all the other horrible episodes that year as well. The only episodes I could tolerate were: Robot of Sherwood, Mummy on the Orient Express, and Last Christmas.

Ironic, since I consider Robot of Sherwood excruciatingly bad and the worst of the whole series.

Nay, that would be Kill The Moon. The worst episode ever made in the history of the series. I'd rather watch The Gunfighters five times than Kill the Moon even once.

No love for Listen?

Robot of Sherwood was too campy, but I'd take it over Kill the Moon. Also, the finale pissed me off with the paradox it forced onto Listen.

That COULD go up in my esteem on a second viewing.

I hated the finale so much, you have no idea.

The premise had potential. The execution...

Which is why the first part seemed excellent on first viewing.

Rumours Coleman may be leaving again...

Meh, Kill the Moon was a sign of laziness - a few tweaks would've made for a very good Who tale, what we got was pretty shit though, but I can still last longer with it than say "Resurrection of the Daleks"...

Resurrection of the Daleks, to me, is a masterpiece compared to Kill the Moon.

I love Resurrection of the Daleks. But then it was one of the first stories I remember watching as a kid, so I'm biased.

^^^ I don't understand the hate myself.

Not too shabby... Though why bother using Colony Sarff if everyone knew damn well who he worked for anyway? Just send in the regular forces.

Spoiler tags please. Not watched it yet.

If you could get anything out of that other than a character's name, which out of context tells you nothing, then you are Luke Skywalker and I claim my fiiiii..... Aargh, you chopped my fucking arm off!!!

What I got out of that was more than you realise. I'm on my way back home to watch it anyhow, so shall return with a review.:..

*sigh*

I very much enjoyed that. Much more than anything in Series 8.

Doctor Who stands redeemed, for now.

Based on that episode, it looks like we're in for another totally shitty season.

I really hope I'm wrong, because Capaldi is awesome and he's being wasted by Moffat's dumbass scripts.

I've been pondering on it, and I think I know what's bugging me about Moffat. He's trying waaaay too hard to integrate the "new" Who into the "old".

The thing I liked about the Russell T. Davies years -- despite its own flaws -- was that it was a "clean" break from the old Who. The Time War afforded that clean break and also added an air of mystery to the new Doctors. I very much love the old Who I grew up with, but like every long-standing series (hello there, Star Trek) it became encumbered by its own mythos and canon.

The 50th Anniversary episode was brilliant (a rare home run for Moffat) but now it's opened the door for him to bring back all kinds of stuff. And looking at the majority of his work, I simply don't think he's up to the task.

That, and Moffat tends to bring down the house in ways that top the previous time, and requires a 'reset' to fix the inevitable paradox. Amy's wedding comes to mind.

Now that's more like it!