Doctor Who: "Kill the Moon" was really good

I think "Kill the Moon" is the best episode of season 8 so far and this is why:

(Beware spoilers.)

1. Twelve did what the Doctor does best: help people be better versions of themselves.
Courtney now has a reason to believe she is special, and it's not just because the Doctor says so. Clara saves the planet and that's to her credit, because the Doctor wasn't around to lead or influence her.

2. Clara is better when she actually has stuff to do.
I like Jenna Coleman (where did the Louise go?), but until the last few episodes, she was kind of stuck in a rut. Clara gets repetitive making and cancelling plans with Danny. She follows the Doctor and acts as his moral compass, again and again. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with any of that, but for a while Clara felt stagnant. But tonight? We got to see her comfort Courtney. She had to explain human things to the Doctor, like why a young girl would feel scared when there are monsters on the moon. Clara was scared. Clara was angry. And it was great to watch.

3. Twelve keeps saying he is an alien.
I love that he made humans decide what to do about the moon. He isn't human, so it wasn't his place to decide. Clara depends on the Doctor too much, and he made it clear that sometimes he shouldn't get involved. He distances himself and it feels very Doctory. None of this trying to blend in with humans and needing them to accept him.

4. The yo-yo.
Such a simple way to test the gravity on the moon, and it's so much better than some bogus gadget that might have been in a different space show. The Doctor makes use of what he has and makes it work. I like that Twelve doesn't over-complicate things.

What did you think of the episode? Let me know.

Amy Pond in Pompeii

If you've been watching Doctor Who for a few years, you probably remember that Karen Gillan guest-starred in a series four episode, "The Fires of Pompeii," as a soothsayer. Here is a screenshot of her from the episode:

Years later when Gillan was cast as Amy Pond, I thought it would be neat if her story finished in Pompeii. Like River, we would see Amy's death before we knew the character was part of the Doctor's future.

Imagine my excitement last year when I heard that the final episode with Amy and Rory would have Weeping Angels in it. It made sense—the Angels would send the Ponds back in time and feed off their energy. We already saw Rory as a Roman and Pompeii isn't far off. The Angels do send the Ponds back in time, but to 1930s New York, not ancient Italy.

Yesterday I re-watched "The Fires of Pompeii" to check on the plausibility of Amy ending up as a soothsayer in Pompeii. It might have gone like this:

• The Weeping Angels send Rory back in time to ancient Rome, after seeing his memories of being a Roman soldier.
• When Amy lets the Angel touch her, it sends her to the same time as Rory, but not the same place. Amy ends up in Pompeii.
• A side effect of being sent back, a head injury, or the fumes from the hot springs mess with Amy's mind. She doesn't remember her life in the 21st Century and she barely remembers traveling with the Doctor.
• When the soothsayers find her, Amy talks about a blue box and they realize she knows about the blue box in their prophecies. The sisters decide Amy has the gift of prophecy and they take her in.
• Amy never met Ten or Donna, so she does not recognize them when she follows them in Pompeii. She doesn't make the connection between the TARDIS and the man who steps out of it.
• Ten wouldn't know that Amy is his companion in the future, so he has no reason to care about her. Amy dies in the volcanic eruption, and we have definite closure to her story that fits with the show's canon.
• We could assume that Rory lives as a Roman soldier. Maybe his memories are scrambled or forgotten too, or maybe he is the "boy who waited" once more.

 I think this would have worked better than what actually happened to Amy and Rory.

Who is Clara Oswald?

Since Clara appeared in "Asylum of the Daleks," people have been posting online with possible about who she is. Here are my theories and speculations about Clara. (Spoilers for "The Bells of St. John.")

1. We are seeing Clara out of order, as we did with River. 

"The Bells of St. John" is the first episode in Clara's timeline, from her point of view. She becomes an expert computer hacker. Then at some point in her future (but the Doctor's past), she ends up in the the Dalek Asylum. I'm not sure where "The Snowmen" and the little girl in the prequel fit in yet. Moffat is giving us jigsaw puzzle pieces and we have to figure out how they fit together.

2. Clara isn't real. 

The Doctor is traveling alone and having hallucinations. Clara appears in each one. In "The Wedding of River Song" (6.13), the Doctor says "My friends have always been the best of me." Clara embodies memorable qualities from previous companions:

• a mystery girl, like Amy
• flirts with the Doctor, like River
• dies and lives again, like Rory
• wrongly assumes the Doctor is looking for romance, like Donna—Clara calls the TARDIS a "snog box" and Donna's reaction to the Doctor asking her to travel with him was, "You're not mating with me, sunshine!"

Maybe we'll see elements adapted from Jack, Martha, and Rose in the coming episodes.

3. Clara is a Bizarro version of the Doctor, a Timelord gone wrong. 

She shares some characteristics with the Doctor, but through a distorted lens. Clara regenerates but always into the same body. She maintains a similar personality but has no memory of her past incarnations. She wants to travel but can't make herself leave.

4. Clara is one person, fragmented throughout time and space. 

We see multiple versions of the same person, all from the same source code (a computer analogy, for Clara's hacking skills). The bad guys in "The Bells of St. John" are in The Shard and they separated Clara's mind from her body. We've had scattering and fragmenting before—the cracks in series 5 and the Bad Wolf messages in series 1. This time, it's a scattered person.

Each version of Clara can live on her own, disconnected from the other Claras. That's why the Doctor remembers encounters with her, but she doesn't have any history with him. That's why she can keep dying and living. Different Claras, all human, and similar enough that the Doctor thinks she is the same person that he has met before.

What are your theories about Clara?

Weekend Roundup - March 31

Articles I read this afternoon. Sources in parentheses. Comments from me.

Nine of the Best Ways to Boost Creative Thinking (Lifehacker)

How Can I Downsize My Ridiculously Large Wallet? (Lifehacker) - I'm happy with the way my wallet is, and I still read articles like this. I like seeing how people organize their things.

On Keeping a Notebook in the Digital Age (Medium) - I go back and forth on this topic, but I still feel most comfortable with pen and paper, most of the time.

The Spark File (Medium) - I like that the emphasis is on recording bits of stuff and ideas, without necessarily thinking of the big picture or end product.

Feedly Updates with 10 New Features to Help Ease Your Google Reader Transition (Lifehacker) - Right, Google Reader is shutting down in July. That's the thing in the back of my mind that keeps making me sad. I have a few alternatives to check out, and Feedly is one of them.

You Don't Always Have to Give Two Weeks Notice When Leaving Your Job (Lifehacker)

When It's Okay to Write for Free (Lifehacker) - Be sure to check out the comments after the article for various viewpoints on when it is (and isn't) okay to write for free.

Is Clara the New River Song on Doctor Who? (io9) - Spoilers for "The Bells of St. John."

Goodreads and Three Alternatives for Soical Bookworms (PopSugar) - You may have heard that Amazon purchased Goodreads this week. Not a big deal for me, since I'm hardly even on Goodreads, but some people are worried that Amazon will negatively affect the Goodreads community. This article reviews three similar social sites.

What Extremely Successful People Were Doing at Age 25 (Business Insider)

Doctor Who companions as puzzles, not people

For a while, something has been bothering me about Amy and Clara, and I finally figured out that it's because they're fundamentally different from the companions that came before them.

Amy and Clara are the Doctor's companions because he notices something special about them and then he asks them to travel with him. He is drawn to a mystery that surrounds each woman.

Amy is the "girl who didn't make sense"¹ and Clara is an impossibility. After "Asylum of the Daleks" and "The Snowmen," the Doctor realizes there's something strange about Clara. He says:

The same woman, twice. And she died both times. The same woman! […] Something's going on. Something impossible, something.

The Doctor asked Amy to travel with him so he could figure out what was going on with the crack in her wall, and now he's pursuing Clara to figure out how she could be alive in different places, in different times.

This is different from Rose, Martha, and Donna.² Each of these women started out ordinary, not tied to a larger mystery, and the Doctor met them while he was investigating an alien problem on Earth. Rose, Martha, and Donna became special after traveling with the Doctor because he showed them other life and other planets. Rose sums up the change in the season 1 finale, "The Parting of the Ways":

The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life. You know, he showed you too. That you don’t just give up. You don’t just let things happen. You make a stand. You say no. You have the guts to do what’s right when everyone else just runs away.

Rose, Martha, and Donna travel with the Doctor because he wanted a friend along for the adventure and not because there was something special about them.³ But Amy and Clara start as puzzles. They go on adventures with the Doctor too, but at the same time he tries to figure out their strange circumstances.

Why the change?

I feel like Rose, Martha, and Donna are stand-ins for the audience. They travel with the Doctor and through them, we go on adventures in time and space.

It's not like that, though, with Amy and Clara. They are not stand-ins for the audience because the Doctor is trying to solve them. It has nothing to do with us, but we're asked to be interested in Amy and Clara because the Doctor is interested in them.

The other odd thing is, Rory follows the same pattern as Rose, Martha, and Donna, even though he comes to the show after them and at the same time as Amy. Before meeting the Doctor, Rory was an ordinary nurse in a small town. After traveling with the Doctor, he becomes the Roman Centurion (his own version of the previous companions' Defenders of the Earth). Traveling with the Doctor made Rory special in the same way it made Rose, Martha, and Donna special.

I don't know why there's this shift in how the Doctor meets new companions, but we've lost something important to the series. An ordinary, everyday person as companion served as our tether to the Doctor and his adventures. But now that the companion is a mystery for the Doctor to solve, she isn't our tether anymore. Losing that Normal Person Connection distances us from the Eleventh Doctor in a way that did not happen with the Ninth and Tenth Doctors.


¹ The full quote is "The Girl Who Didn't Make Sense. How could I resist?" ("The Big Bang", series 5, episode 13)

² I can't say anything about the companions in the classic episodes because I haven't seen many of them.

³ Each women ends up being special: Rose is the Bad Wolf, Martha saves the world, and Donna becomes the Doctor-Donna. These are results of (not causes for) traveling with the Doctor. None of these things would have happened to these women if they hadn't met him.

Nine wasn't one for hero moments

Earlier tonight I watched "World War Three" from season 1 of New Who, and a few things stuck out to me (I think) because it's been years since I've re-watched Nine's episodes, and I've gotten used to Eleven and Moffat's writing reign.

1. Nine doesn't have fun in dangerous situations, the way Ten and Eleven sometimes do. When he's figuring out how to beat the Slitheen, he's stressed. When the missile is heading for the building, Nine looks like he accepted that they are going to die. It's Rose who suggests to go in the closet and huddle in a stronger part of the room.

2. Nine isn't proud of fighting aliens. He stopped the Slitheen from destroying the Earth because he didn't want six billion people to die, not because it was heroic or cool. He doesn't smile about it, doesn't brag, doesn't cheer. Think about how that contrasts to Eleven's "Boo-yah!" in series 5 or his "Who do you think?" in last week's "Asylum of the Daleks."

3. Nine trusts that his friends can take care of themselves (at least part of the time). When the Slitheen are chasing Rose and Harriet Jones through the building, Nine is on a different floor, running away from the police. He isn't looking for Rose or figuring out a way to save her—he's just running for his own safety. When he does meet up with Rose and Harriet, he confronts the Slitheen. And even then, he's not saving Rose and Harriet. They're teaming up.

Nine is as brilliant and compassionate as Ten and Eleven, but he doesn't have the same ego. It was refreshing to re-watch "World War Three" and see a low-key Doctor. The story was straightforward with strong character moments. Special effects and fancy camera shots were less of a priority. Those were better days for Doctor Who.

Missing pieces in Doctor Who

Every year I get excited for new episodes of Doctor Who. I look forward to new adventures, compelling characters, and intricate stories. And because the show is what it is, with so much is history and material, I'm willing to forgive minor plot holes and problems. To a point. Overall, I liked "Asylum of the Daleks," but I can't ignore the missing links in the episode.

Spoilers below for "Asylum of the Daleks" (season 7, episode 1).

Fixing the Future

I watched Back to the Future parts 1 and 2 earlier this week (for the thirty-fifth time, probably), and this is the first time I realized the problem with the part that takes place in 2015.

Marty can’t make changes in the future that will stay permanent and set, not if his timeline (and by extension, his family’s) is in flux.

There are two basic theories of time travel. One, everything is in flux all the time, so you can make changes anywhere on the timeline that will affect other parts of the timeline. Two, everything is fixed so no matter when you are and what you do, you cannot change what is supposed to happen.

The Back to the Future trilogy seems to follow the first theory, except for when Marty and Doc Brown go to 2015.

Marty poses as his son to save him from getting caught up in gang activity and going to jail. But just because Marty saved his son in one instance, that doesn’t mean his future is all right in every instance.

I understand when Marty meets his teenage parents in 1955 and his interaction with them changes who they are in 1985. The past affects the present. Makes sense.

But 1985 Marty can’t go to the future and make permanent changes. When Marty goes to 2015, he’s going to the future that results from the moment he left in 1985. The choices that he makes in his life will always be tweaking his future. If he chose to go to 2015 from a different point in his life, he would be going to a different 2015. So saving his son once doesn’t save him in every possible future.

If Doc Brown wanted to help Marty and his family avoid bad things in 2015 (one possible 2015), all he had to do was tell Marty what happens and when. Then Marty could take the appropriate action when the time came, instead of jumping to the future to make changes. And maybe all along, with Marty knowing what could happen to his son in 2015, he’s making changes to his life that bypass the problem Doc Brown saw in the first place.

That’s the flaw in Back to the Future’s plot: characters from the present make changes in the future that are supposed to take hold.

I was thinking about another character who interferes with his own timeline: John Connor in The Terminator. But his situation is different. Future John sends people and information back in time to help his younger self. Future John is making changes in the past, but we see the story from the younger John’s perspective. Even so, there’s a paradox here: if Future John is changing his past, he is changing himself. All the changes he makes to younger John’s life should result in a different life for and a different John in the future. If that’s true, then how was there the Future John who made those changes in the first place? The other option is, John’s timeline is fixed and The Terminator follows theory 2. But then Future John would realize that no matter what he changed in the past, the same events happened and he ends up in the same position. It would be pointless for him to keep interfering with his past if he knows he can’t make a difference. Paradoxes, time loops, alternate universes. These are themes in most of the stories I enjoy.

I’ve been watching a lot things that deal with time travel and alternate universes (or the things I’ve watched have had this common thread running through), and I find myself using theories from one show to explain events in another show.

Kyle Reese and John Connor’s birth never made sense to me until I watched “Blink,” an episode of Doctor Who where the Doctor explains that time is not a straight line but rather “more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff.”

Peter Bishop (Fringe) linked two universe to avoid destroying both, but in the process, he deleted himself from existence. Or, nearly. But where was he in between his non-existence and his return? The Doctor rebooted the universe and now Amy has parents when she didn’t have them before. Or did she and she doesn’t remember? I’m still working those out, but I find myself thinking of all these characters and ideas together. I sort out which theory explains which situation.

But Amy has an interesting situation. Mad, Impossible Pond. When we first met her she was a young girl who lived in a big house with no parents and an aunt that was away. But she doesn’t know what happened to her parents--she just never had them. Did they abandon her? Were they erased from existence? Where did Amy come from? She’s been in two seasons of Doctor Who, and we still don’t know. Then, more confusion, the Doctor rebooted the universe, and now Amy has parents. Where did they come from? Or did they come back? Amy tells the Doctor she’s scared/worried/frustrated/concerned because she remembers both versions: her life when she didn’t have parents and her life when she does. Both feel true to her. Amy gains a set of parents, and that makes no sense to me even though it shouldn’t matter. Rebooting the universe has nothing to do with timelines. The Doctor didn’t change anything about Amy’s past or future. He pushed the universe’s reset button and some things came out differently. But because we’re watching the episodes sequentially, I feel like Amy’s parents came out of nowhere because we knew her without parents first. But that’s not the right way of thinking about it. New universe, so things can be different. There doesn’t have to be any continuity or progression.

But there’s still the question of existence and non-existence. Either Amy didn’t exist and then she did (and still does) or her parents did exist but then didn’t (and now do). And the Doctor knows Amy is impossible. He knows her life doesn’t make sense and that’s why he wanted to travel with her. But I wonder, is he trying to figure out why Amy doesn’t make sense? Or is he content with the nonsense (and should we be too)?

Chameleon Circuit's Still Got Legs

Image from dftba.com

Chameleon Circuit released their second album, Still Got Legs, last week. The band makes music inspired by Doctor Who with well-written lyrics, catchy melodies, and enough variation to make distinct tracks but a cohesive album.

I've been listening to Still Got Legs for the past six days. I could write about each track, but I'd rather write about my three favorite songs on the album.

Regenerate Me sounds like the Doctor's victory song. A Gryffindor Rally Cry for the last Time Lord. My favorite part is from 1:11 to 1:28, a five-part chorus that quotes the Doctor Who soundtrack. This is the second song on the album (after a twenty-three-second instrumental track), and it serves as an introduction to the Doctor. From the lyrics:

Ten personas, I've walked the earth
Sole protector of the human race
You will know me by the big blue box
But you may never know my face

Mr. Pond is from Rory's perspective, about his concern for Amy's safety around the Doctor. My knowledge of classic Doctor Who is limited, but I think Rory and Amy are the first married couple to travel with the Doctor. We've seen companions' friends and families voice concerns about traveling with the Doctor, but never a husband. This track captures Rory's feelings perfectly.

I've loved The Doctor Is Dying since Alex Day posted an acoustic version of it on his channel. The song is about the Tenth Doctor's death. Like many of the songs on the album, the lyrics quote lines from episodes. The Tenth Doctor's emotions as he approaches his end are all here: his fear when the Time Lords return, his anguish when he realizes he has to die to save Wilfred, and his serenity when he visits past companions.

This is a sampling of the songs I like the most on Still Got Legs, but all of the songs on the album are fun to listen to (and addicting, you've been warned).

You can listen to all of Still Got Legs for free on Alex Day's website, buy the physical copy from DFTBA Records or download tracks from iTunes.

Other things of interest...a video from Chameleon Circuit about the album release and a handy graphic that shows who did what on each track.

Venom to his Spiderman

Since Netflix added Spider-Man, the animated series (1994-1998), to instant streaming, I've been watching season 1 and remembering what a great show it was.

"The Alien Costume" is a three-part story in the middle of season one. The symbiote comes to Earth with a space shuttle and attaches to Spider-Man. Peter fights it off, and it takes over Eddie Brock to become Venom. This story is the animated version of everything Spider-Man 3 should have been. But I don't want to talk about the film's emo Peter Parker.

I want to talk about how Venom is a reflection of Spider-Man and why that makes him such an interesting villain.

I'm going off the animated series here (which I expect is close to the original story in the comics). Venom knows everything about Spider-Man and Peter Parker because the symbiote tried to bond with Peter first. This gives Venom a few advantages.

1. Venom can block Spider-Man's spidey sense. Venom is the only thing that can sneak up on Peter, and we see how jumpy and paranoid Peter feels because of that.

2. Venom has Peter's memories, so he knows Mary Jane Watson and Aunt May.

3. Venom has all the same powers as Spider-Man, except he's stronger.

Venom matches and beats Spider-Man in strength and ability. He plays mind games. He threatens to expose Spider-Man and hurt his loved ones. Venom is dangerous because he knows how to fight Peter Parker and Spider-Man. He can attack both identities.

This idea of a villain who is a reflection of the hero reminded me of "Amy's Choice," a series 5 episode of Doctor Who. The Dream Lord is a mocking version of the Doctor (Time Lord) that comes from the Doctor's mind. He hates the Doctor, he taunts Amy, and he puts Amy, Rory, and the Doctor in a cruel test of distinguishing dreams from reality.

But there's an important difference between the Dream Lord and Venom. Venom is a reflection of Spider-Man, but a separate entity. The Dream Lord is part the Doctor, the dark thoughts about issues the Doctor doesn't want to face. Venom's threat is in being able to match Spider-Man. The Dream Lord's threat is in the Doctor torturing himself.

These types of villains are compelling because they aren't simply evil: they're evil that comes from the hero. That complexity shows a flawed side of the hero, and that's good storytelling.

End of Time

The New Year's Day Doctor Who special "End of Time, part 2" was the last episode for David Tennant, the tenth Doctor.  The episode had lots of good parts but also some let downs.  ***Spoilers below***

The Doctor falling through the skylight for example.  As a rule, if you want to rush in and stop someone from doing something horrible, don't hurt yourself in the process.  The Doctor crashed down through the skylight, and then he was on the floor with broken glass around him, needing a minute to recover before he did anything.  It was a cool shot, yes, but not a practical thing for the Doctor to do.  He's usually smarter than that.

The second letdown for me was Donna.  The Doctor has repeatedly said that she must never remember him or any of her adventures in the TARDIS or else she'll die.  When Donna does remember, all that happens is an energy wave comes out of her head and knocks out the copies of the Master.  She falls asleep and later wakes up with no memory of what happened.  I didn't want Donna to die, but it would have been fitting if her death in some way helped the Doctor stop the Master or the return of the Timelords.  Being the Doctor's best friend, she deserved more than what she got in the episode.

Those were the major letdowns for me, and also the dragging out of Ten's death.  But onto the things I really liked.

The moments between the Doctor and Wilfred were wonderful, especially the conversation about the gun.  The Doctor knew what was at stake if he didn't stop the Master, and yet he refused to take the gun.  The change in his decision is incredible when he realizes the Timelords are returning.  When the Doctor picks up a gun, you know something terrible is happening.

I like that the Master saved the Doctor.  I thought the Master would have let the Timelords do what they wanted, but then he stands up, completely composed, and asks the Doctor to move out of the way. 

The Doctor sacrificed himself to save Wilfred and that's nice and all, but I think there should have been a more significant way for Ten to die after everything he's been through.  In "The Next Doctor," he mentions that he hopes he doesn't die by tripping over a brick.  Ten's death was almost as unnecessary.  Death by inconvenient radiation chamber.  I liked that the Doctor visited his friends before he regenerated, but that also dragged out his death.  I was ready to see Ten die, so seemingly killing him in the radiation chamber only to have him walk around for another twenty minutes was terrible.  I realized how creepy it is to watch the Doctor not speak.  He didn't speak to Martha, Mickey, Sarah Jayne, or Jack.  Those brief scenes reminded me of the end of "The Family of Blood" when the Doctor is dealing out punishments in silence.

All in all, I thought "End of Time" was a decent send off for David Tennant, but I think it could have been better.  We saw only a few moments of Matt Smith, but I'm excited for the spring.

(And who was that woman?  The Doctor's mother?  His wife?  His daughter?  I wish we found out.)

Can Buffy be our Doctor?

TV Overmind posted an open letter to Joss Whedon that discusses the potential of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to be the "legacy" program in the U.S. that Doctor Who is in Britain. I love Doctor Who and Buffy, and I'm not opposed to anything Joss Whedon does, so let's take a look at what would and wouldn't work if Buffy were a continuing series.

The Doctor regenerates after he's mortally injured, and a new slayer is called after the current slayer dies. In both series, it's easy to switch out the main actor and use someone else. You're not replacing Darrin Stevens--it's a logical progression in the show. The Doctor's personality is slightly different with each regeneration and each slayer could take a different approach to her responsibilities. The Doctor can go anywhere in space and time to have his adventures. Slayers could be from anywhere on Earth, so there's the possibility of dealing with mythology and lore from various countries, and that’s pretty cool. The Doctor has different companions and he meets new people. Likewise, the slayer can have a new watcher, her own set of friends.

Where it falls apart

The Doctor, despite his regenerations, is the same character. Same man, new everything. He keeps his memories, his knowledge…the core being of the Doctor. The Slayer, however, would be a completely new person after the previous one died. She would need to discover who she is, go through training, and learn about vampires and the other baddies all over again because she’s a different person and new to slaying. It could get repetitive.

The Doctor’s character is a progression over time. Experiences that he has change him, and he retains everything he knows with each regeneration. Every Slayer, though, would be a different approach to the same type of character. You can have a Slayer that’s with it, wants to fight evil and does a good job most of the time (like Buffy). You can have the spunky, aggressive, violent Slayer we saw with Faith. You could have a timid Slayer, one who doesn’t want the job. You can have a Slayer that’s a mix of what we’ve already seen. My point is, how many times can you re-hash the Slayer? Every time there’s a new one, you need a different approach, something that’s new and creates a new character that make sense in the fictional world we're dealing with. Can you sustain something like that for very long? I think after a few Slayers, they’ll be too many similarities to care about the new one. Here's another girl who fights evil just like the dozen before her. Yay.

Every new Slayer would practically be a new show. New cast, new place, new problems. Doctor Who has those new things too with each regeneration, but the core character of the Doctor and his TARDIS keep everything together. The audience has something to hold on to while everything else changes. In a Slayer franchise, that constant thing would be the Slayer’s responsibilities, fighting evil, and I’m not sure that’s enough continuity between Slayers to keep the show captivating.

I’d love more Buffy or a similar show about a Slayer, but I don’t think it can hold up as a continuing program the way Doctor Who has. A collection of mini-series about vampire slayers, though? Yes, please. (Whedon being the one to do it would be amazing, but he’s pretty busy at the moment. Sigh.)