Doctor Who Thread VI: "The Very Model of a Gallifreyan Buccaneer" [SPOILERS]

[turkishproverb]

Well, it's the end of an era.

The Sixth Doctor is regenerating.

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I wonder who seven will be?

[Androgeus]

Well, it's the end of an era.

The Sixth Doctor is regenerating.

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I wonder who seven will be?

They should try getting someone outside of England to play the Doctor, the BBC is meant to represent the entire UK. Hopefully they'll tone down his outfit, maybe drop the whole question mark thing as well.

[Eldan]

Sadly, seven didn't really drop the question mark thing. I like seven, though. He's my favourite.

[Androgeus]

Sadly, seven didn't really drop the question mark thing.

That was the joke.

[CurlyKitGirl]

Why My Milkman Is the Best Milkman in the World
By Koorly KitGirl, age 23 7/8

He's the best.

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Simply the best.

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Better than all the rest.

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He also gives us free boxes of (as in two pounds) of biscuits.

But yeah, he was transferring all of his Doctor Who into digital form, and he did from from VHS/TV/DVD to digital/computer form, sometimes in multiple steps, as with the videos. So when Dad found out about his massive endeavour Dad offered to take all the DVDs off his hands.
The best milkman.
Seriously.

Now to see exactly which stories I have. See, the milkman (Ronnie Soak ) said he had all stories from One to the end of Six. Obviously some are going to be missing, but I'd like to see exactly what I have.

Missing Serials:
1 - 6; 18 - 22; 24; 26; 28; 30 - 34; 36; 38; 40 - 43; 49; 65 - 66; 72.

Additional Things

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The Missing Years documentary (including 'Underwater Menace' episode 3)
Lost in Time - containing episodes 'the only one' from 'The Abominable Snowmen'; two episodes of 'The Wheel in Space'; one each from 'The Web of Fear', 'The Space Pirates' and 'The Enemy of the World'; the documentary The Missing Years (lost in time-ception!) and frgments of 'The Macra Terror', 'Fury from the Deep and 'The Highlanders'. Oh, and episodes from 'The Dalek's Master Plan', 'The Crusade', 'The Celestial Toymaker', fragments of 'The SMugglers' and 'The Tenth Planet', 'Power of the Daleks', 'The Moonbase', 'The Faceless Ones' and 'The Evil of the Daleks'.
The Strangers - a sci-fi mini-series starring Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Sophie Aldred in something that honestly sound like it would make an interesting Who serial.
K9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend - yep, the pilot episode of the attempted 80s spin-off.
Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans
Doctor Who: 30 Years of Time Travel
More Than Thirty Years in the TARDIS
Retrospectives of the Pertwee and Baker Years
Doctor Who: the Curse of the Fatal Death and the crossover Doctor Who/Eastenders things everyone likes to forget happened.
More documentaries that I've never heard of.
Downtime - aka the sequel to 'The Abominable Snowman' and 'The Web of Fear'
The Airzone Solution
P.R.O.B.E.: Unnatural Selection. No idea what it is, but it involves Liz Shaw and was written by Mark Gatiss.
And for some reason, DVDs with episodes of Doctor Who: Confidential on them and nothing else.

I can confirm that this stack is taller than me. So . . . what do I do with my duplicates?

[Kato]

Eff you, Curly, you have no idea how jealous I am And probably a bunch of others...

On the other hand, I'm taking my sweet time listening to the Who audio books I got from humble a few weeks ago. But then again, they aren't that great.. I still want a Who tower larger than me!

[CurlyKitGirl]

Eff you, Curly, you have no idea how jealous I am And probably a bunch of others...

On the other hand, I'm taking my sweet time listening to the Who audio books I got from humble a few weeks ago. But then again, they aren't that great.. I still want a Who tower larger than me!

Hey, audio books are cool. I think. I actually have the audio version of 'The Power of the Daleks' on my not-Pod (read: generic mp3 player), so that's more a radio play than an audio book. Haven't listened to it yet though . . .
Are they Classic or Nu books?

As for the jealously . . .
Sowy Kato. I dust wanted to s'ow off my pwesents.
But it's pretty cool isn't it? I kind of want to take a photo of the tower, but I restacked them all into the box in numerical order and I can't be bothered to get them out again, And I am fairly short, so it's not that impressive either.

[Kato]

Hey, audio books are cool. I think. I actually have the audio version of 'The Power of the Daleks' on my not-Pod (read: generic mp3 player), so that's more a radio play than an audio book. Haven't listened to it yet though . . .
Are they Classic or Nu books?

The Dalek Empire series, Lost Stories, and Stageplays. First are kind of generic, non-Doctor stories (but Daleks, so, yeah) and the others classic, but... I've only finished the first Dalek Empire sub-series. I also put them on my mp3-Player but I guess I need to do more sport or find other opportunities to listen them.

As for the jealously . . .
Sowy Kato. I dust wanted to s'ow off my pwesents.
But it's pretty cool isn't it? I kind of want to take a photo of the tower, but I restacked them all into the box in numerical order and I can't be bothered to get them out again, And I am fairly short, so it's not that impressive either.

Well, it looks like a whole bunch, anyway. You're milkman clearly is pretty great (though, I guess unless it IS Ronnie I'd argue if it's the best). I hope you enjoy your presents, no matter how jealous it might make me

[Thufir]

So . . . what do I do with my duplicates?

You should give them to your whichever of your High Priests lives closest to you. Oh wait that's me.

And I am fairly short, so it's not that impressive either.

I think it's pretty impressive to have a stack of DVDs taller than anyone who's fully grown.

[turkishproverb]

Why My Milkman Is the Best Milkman in the World
By Koorly KitGirl, age 23 7/8

He's the best.

Spoiler

Show

Simply the best.

Spoiler

Show

Better than all the rest.

Spoiler

Show

He also gives us free boxes of (as in two pounds) of biscuits.

But yeah, he was transferring all of his Doctor Who into digital form, and he did from from VHS/TV/DVD to digital/computer form, sometimes in multiple steps, as with the videos. So when Dad found out about his massive endeavour Dad offered to take all the DVDs off his hands.
The best milkman.
Seriously.

Now to see exactly which stories I have. See, the milkman (Ronnie Soak ) said he had all stories from One to the end of Six. Obviously some are going to be missing, but I'd like to see exactly what I have.

Missing Serials:
1 - 6; 18 - 22; 24; 26; 28; 30 - 34; 36; 38; 40 - 43; 49; 65 - 66; 72.

Additional Things

Spoiler

Show

The Missing Years documentary (including 'Underwater Menace' episode 3)
Lost in Time - containing episodes 'the only one' from 'The Abominable Snowmen'; two episodes of 'The Wheel in Space'; one each from 'The Web of Fear', 'The Space Pirates' and 'The Enemy of the World'; the documentary The Missing Years (lost in time-ception!) and frgments of 'The Macra Terror', 'Fury from the Deep and 'The Highlanders'. Oh, and episodes from 'The Dalek's Master Plan', 'The Crusade', 'The Celestial Toymaker', fragments of 'The SMugglers' and 'The Tenth Planet', 'Power of the Daleks', 'The Moonbase', 'The Faceless Ones' and 'The Evil of the Daleks'.
The Strangers - a sci-fi mini-series starring Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Sophie Aldred in something that honestly sound like it would make an interesting Who serial.
K9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend - yep, the pilot episode of the attempted 80s spin-off.
Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans
Doctor Who: 30 Years of Time Travel
More Than Thirty Years in the TARDIS
Retrospectives of the Pertwee and Baker Years
Doctor Who: the Curse of the Fatal Death and the crossover Doctor Who/Eastenders things everyone likes to forget happened.
More documentaries that I've never heard of.
Downtime - aka the sequel to 'The Abominable Snowman' and 'The Web of Fear'
The Airzone Solution
P.R.O.B.E.: Unnatural Selection. No idea what it is, but it involves Liz Shaw and was written by Mark Gatiss.
And for some reason, DVDs with episodes of Doctor Who: Confidential on them and nothing else.

I can confirm that this stack is taller than me. So . . . what do I do with my duplicates?

PM Me, we'll talk.

Eff you, Curly, you have no idea how jealous I am And probably a bunch of others...

On the other hand, I'm taking my sweet time listening to the Who audio books I got from humble a few weeks ago. But then again, they aren't that great.. I still want a Who tower larger than me!

The WHO audios in the Humble Bundle weren't the best of the best of the audio line. If you want some recommendations, tell me what some of your favorite episodes/stories in who are.

[Nai_Calus]

Horribly late to the party, just finished catching up on Series 8.

Spoilers ahead:

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Episode 1-3: Watched it a while back, got bored, didn't pick it up for a while, apparently picked a bad episode to stop with.
T-rex in london, robots, Ominous Foreshadowing, Vastra et al, nice but it's too early to tell anything about Capaldi
Don't remember the second episode at all. Must have been one of those dumb ones like the other ones I can't remember anything about.
Sherwood forest, robots, happy reunions, whee.

Episode 4: Not bad at all. A little odd in hindsight. Mr. Future Pink Descendant must be either erased from history or descended from a brother or something, since... Well. Clara is all tied up in the Doctor's past again, urgh come on. Nice little loop explanation though. Little unclear how they managed to actually end up on Gallifrey for Clara to be the monster under the Doctor's bed.

Episode 5: Let's rob a bank with a cast of random characters. Not too badly done, the side characters were fairly interesting and the resolution was nice.

Episode 6: The Doctor is horrible at pretending to be human. Random small children. The Mysterious Foreshadowing again.

Episode 7: Honestly this just feels like a way to get Clara mad at the Doctor for Character Development. The entire thing was ludicrous and just really kind of bad.

Episode 8: Clara's still mad, but going on 'one last hurrah'. Yeah sure. Not with four episodes left in the season. Not too bad. Mummy that turns out to be an ancient augmented soldier 'defeated' by surrendering and telling him he's dismissed, whereupon he conveniently crumbles to ash. Odd that it was actually wrapped as a mummy.

Episode 9: Clara plays at being the Doctor while Flatland goes horribly wrong. Some obvious references here. Rigsy, etc. Creepy aliens. Nice one.

Episode 10: Trees everywhere, including apparently the oceans given the globe views of the earth(Wait, what?), a little girl who's linked in to it all, and a big solar flare that doesn't wipe out humanity because trees are our friends. This one was just odd, but we have a nice little family reunion at the end.

Episode 11: Oh no you didn't, show. Really? REALLY? I did not like this episode. Clara trying to betray the Doctor, the Doctor letting it happen in a fake context and then being OK with it, just... What. And then the whole thing is just... Ugh. And of course it's the Master. Who else. Come on at least have it be the Rani or a demented Romana or something.

Episode 12: Really? You just disintegrate Osgood. Bad Moffat. And Danny is begging to be destroyed. What? And Clara is OK with this and helps do it. What. And then... Oh just what all around. This is the worst series ending since Series 3. Which come to think of it also featured a spastic overly hammy Master. And I hated Series 6's ending, but I think I disliked this one more. Just... No. Then the ridiculous lying to each other at the end, urgh. Then there's the deus ex machina with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. The salute was actually a nice moment, but the rest of the episode just... Urgh.

Christmas Special: It's Inception. With facehuggers and Santa Claus. BWAAAAAAAAANG. There's even a spinning top moment at the end. And of course the Doctor going under the crab to pull Clara out of the bottom layer is reminiscent of Cobb going to Limbo to retrieve Fischer and Sato. Even the same number of dream layers:

Real World(Or is it)
Old Clara (The streets/warehouse)
Research Station 1 (The hotel)
Research Station 2 (The snow hospital)
Clara/Danny Christmas (Limbo)

We do somewhat vary in not starting in Limbo or the real world and instead start in Level 1 and go down from there.

One thing I'm not quite sure of is which dream level the Doctor picks up Clara on. They go to the research station, but were they already on level 2 or did they start on level 1 and go deeper when they joined the others there? Still, entertaining enough, and a slightly better dealing with of Danny's death than the finale. And yes, Clara, you do need to be going with the Doctor right now.

....BWAAAAAAAAANG

[Sunken Valley]

New series coming in September 2015. Who's Interested?

I'm going to finish the series 8 reviews I abandoned. Who's interested? And more importantly, who remembers where I left off?

[danzibr]

I haven't posted in this thread before due to spoilers. I've seen all of New Who on Netflix. In fact, starting at the bee episode my son (4 years old) started watching it with us. Just last night we restarted it because my son wants to see all of it (well, we're holding off on the old stuff due to incompleteness).

Ahh, good to see Christopher Eccleston again. My favorite.

Question bout S1E1

Spoiler: Do I really need to spoiler this?

Show

When he's in Rose's place he looks in the mirror, flips his earlobes and makes a comment about their size. Is this supposed to be the first time he's seen his face since regenerating? So presumably, in his timeline, he went from 8th to War to 9th, then rode the TARDIS straight to S1E1 (or at least nowhere with a mirror).

[factotum]

New series coming in September 2015. Who's Interested?

I'll give it a try to see if they've made Capaldi's Doctor a slightly more pleasant person--if he's still the same miserable misanthrope from the previous series, will probably give up on it until the next regeneration.

[Eldan]

Maaaaybe. After the last series (7), I was already ready to give up, since Moffat's series-long arcs very seriously grating, badly written and never resolved anything, no matter how much they were shoved into our faces.

Then Capaldi and... I don't like him. He's not only quite unpleasant, there were also a few episodes, early in the season, where he just seemed generally incompetent, too. Relying on the most special (but characterless) girl in the universe to solve the problem for him.

Maybe that was just my mood at the time. But I stopped after a handful of episodes.

Meanwhile, on my listen-through, I have now finished Big Finish audio plays 1-105.

[Dienekes]

I'll give it a try to see if they've made Capaldi's Doctor a slightly more pleasant person--if he's still the same miserable misanthrope from the previous series, will probably give up on it until the next regeneration.

Eh, misanthrope Doctor I actually kind of like. If they drop his hate on for soldiers (seriously, your best friend for years was a soldier, get over yourself).

It's Clara that I found utterly unlikable. Her first season she had no personality, and her second season they gave her one that was annoying, and delusional ("The Doctor, he's the one person I will never lie to!" Dude, you lied to him and nearly killed him the episode just prior. Did you just forget that little insane stunt?)

[Fragenstein]

Eh, misanthrope Doctor I actually kind of like. If they drop his hate on for soldiers (seriously, your best friend for years was a soldier, get over yourself).

I like Dr. Grumpy as well. He's always had widely divergent personalities between regenerations It's part of what separated him from the Master, who remained stable throughout most of his lives. Lawful Evil to the Doctor's Chaotic Good.

Well... until lately...

I do not like Missy. Not in the least. But it's not because the master is now the mistress, but because the master is now a cartoon level loonie with a mad crush on the Doctor. Very similar shenanigans as what Moffat pulled on Moriarty -- and that's just dang disrespectful.

It's like Capaldi has the potential to be the best Doctor since the first Baker boy, but they just keep writing for Smith. If they wrote for Capaldi and cut the comedy factor to something tolerable, he would rock.

By the way -- does anyone find it fitting that both the first and last Doctors of the first cycle died of old age? Or, I believe that's how Hartnell left the show. It was a long time ago, so I may not be remembering properly.

[Calemyr]

Capaldi himself is very interesting for me. I really like this version of the Doctor - practical, aloof, blunt, and just very alien. As they said he would be, he's the opposite of Matt Smith's Doctor: an older body filled to bursting with manic energy compared to a younger body already ancient and weary. His episodes, however, very often suck. He's well acted, but horribly written, if you follow me. So much wasted opportunity, all around. The heaven thread? That could have been gorgeous, but it just hinted at and then decanted and used all in one go for yet another cyberman plot. Missy was charismatic and fascinating, and the actual goal of her scheme was frankly wonderful, but again it was long, drawn out hints combined with a single unsatisfying event. Danny Pink should have been incredible. A soft-hearted and good man with the discipline of a soldier and the spine to stand up to the Doctor while being male? He could have given Rory a run for his money. Oh, there was so much they could have done with that guy... And they wasted him. Awesome Pink (yeah, it's Orson, but all I'll ever hear is Awesome) went from being a great twist to the story to being a confusing anomaly in time, as Clara doesn't seem pregnant or a mother in the Christmas episode. How is Awesome related to Danny or Clara? Even that bratty little girl? Good grief, they could have done something with her, but the best we got was a throwaway line about how seeing the moon blow up will inspire her to become president one day... which will require a large rule change in either America or England, for an English national to become president. I could go on, but I think you get my point.

Moment after moment, brilliant idea after brilliant idea, just misused and wasted all season, but Capaldi was compelling enough to keep me coming back. Clara had her moments, too, when she wasn't being a stupidly stubborn compulsive liar. I would have preferred Victorian Clara over modern Clara, personally, but she's not irredeemable. At very least, Jenna Coleman can pull of some wonderfully elegant costumes and show a little bit of heart when Danny Pink wasn't involved.

A new season brings new possibilities. The Doctor is no longer confused about his identity (I'm not a good man, I'm... an IDIOT! With a BOX!), so he could really get to grips with things now. Missy's strange scheme has been revealed so she doesn't need to be portrayed as irredeemably evil anymore, possibly becoming that unpredictable wild card I always thought she should have been - part ally, part enemy, entirely insane. The first season of a new Doctor is always tricky. You've got a half dozen writers working on stories for a Doctor that hasn't really taken shape yet. Hopefully this time around Capaldi's performance will have solidified the 12th Doctor in the minds of the writers.

[Kato]

Hm... I have to admit, I still haven't gotten really warm with Capaldi. Not that I dislike him or his portrayal but it's... I can't put my finger on it. Maybe because most of the stuff I remember from the last series was bad. I mean, not everything was bad but between things like Kill the Moon and Forest of Night it's hard to not think about how atrocious the writing can be. I don't dislike Clara as much as some others obviously do, but she's also not my favorite companion, I guess. (Though, thinking back, there is no companion I couldn't start complaining about, honestly)
Anyway, knowing me and considering my friend will probably hold me at gun point I'm very likely to watch the new series, unless it goes really badly.

[Psyren]

I have little to say myself except that I love Capaldi and absolutely adore Missy's unique brand of insanity.

I also still like Clara but I think it's time for a new companion in the TARDIS, if only because I'm afraid that the longer she stays, the more likely it's going to be that Moffat makes her exit horribly violent and traumatizing for the Doctor.

[comicshorse]

Even that bratty little girl? Good grief, they could have done something with her, but the best we got was a throwaway line about how seeing the moon blow up will inspire her to become president one day... which will require a large rule change in either America or England, for an English national to become president.

I think it was said she'd marry the President not become one.

But yeah add my voice to feeling positive about Capaldi's grumpy, manic and ruthless Doctor. Now if we could get a companion who could fire dialogue right back at him with equal wit and venom it could be great ( and lets give the Master a rest for a long time okay)

[LordRahl6]

This past weekend my local PBS affiliate ran The Unearthly Child as part of pledge month and were saying that they would air ALL of Season one which I would find AMAZING given the difficulty in finding some of the Missing Episodes especially the Marco Polo Arc which is completely lost at present.

Edit: For those not Familiar with pre-2000 material BBC did organize their production runs in seasons.

[Eldan]

I like the idea of grumbly, angry doctor, I just don't think it actually worked in what I've seen. Blame the writing, I guess, the actor seems fine. What I don't like is incompetent doctor.

Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I have this image in my head of the Doctor just stumbling through some episodes and doing either nothing or just making everything worse through clumsiness, then someone else or a Deus Ex solving everything.

[Aedilred]

This past weekend my local PBS affiliate ran The Unearthly Child as part of pledge month and were saying that they would air ALL of Season one which I would find AMAZING given the difficulty in finding some of the Missing Episodes especially the Marco Polo Arc which is completely lost at present.

Edit: For those not Familiar with pre-2000 material BBC did organize their production runs in seasons.

If I remember rightly they still have the audio tracks for all the episodes, even the lost ones, so they might fill in the lost episodes with that and a couple of illustrations or still photos: it's been done before I think.

[Androgeus]

I I do not like Missy. Not in the least. But it's not because the master is now the mistress, but because the master is now a cartoon level loonie with a mad crush on the Doctor. Very similar shenanigans as what Moffat pulled on Moriarty -- and that's just dang disrespectful.

RTD is just as much to blame for the crazy master character as Moffat. I mean Moffat could have rolled it back to the more in-line with the classic character, but he isn't the originator of the miss-characterisation. (I can't really talk to much about the Master as I've only seen Logopolis, The Five Doctors and The Ultimate Foe. Oh and I've heard all of Alex Macqueen's Master at Big Finish).


On series 8, I think it only had 2 actual bad episode, Kill the Moon & Forest of the Night (Remember I'm massively flawed and find it hard to hate anything Doctor Who related). I dislike Forest more because it's just boring, at least Kill the Moon you can laugh at how bad the science is and then expand it to say this like "The Silurians went in to hibernation because they were scared of an egg".

[comicshorse]

Kill the Moon[/I] & Forest of the Night (Remember I'm massively flawed and find it hard to hate anything Doctor Who related). I dislike Forest more because it's just boring, at least Kill the Moon you can laugh at how bad the science is and then expand it to say this like "The Silurians went in to hibernation because they were scared of an egg".

I kinda agree Series 8 was a strange mix of terrible episodes ( 'Deep Breath', 'Kill the Moon', 'Death in Heaven') along with some great ones ( 'Listen' and 'Mummy on the Orient Express'). With the rest hovering around the average to good level

[factotum]

By the way -- does anyone find it fitting that both the first and last Doctors of the first cycle died of old age? Or, I believe that's how Hartnell left the show. It was a long time ago, so I may not be remembering properly.

No actor playing the Doctor has ever died, of old age or anything else, while still in the role? Hartnell left the show in 1966 (albeit he did pop up briefly in "The Three Doctors" in 1973), and died in 1975. As for the "last Doctor of the first cycle", that was Sylvester McCoy, who's still alive?

Or do you mean in the show? If that's the case, Hartnell's Doctor died due to having his energy drained by Mondas, although his advanced age may have been a factor. McCoy's doctor died due to human doctors attempting to operate on him to save his life after he was shot in America.

[Kato]

No actor playing the Doctor has ever died, of old age or anything else, while still in the role? Hartnell left the show in 1966 (albeit he did pop up briefly in "The Three Doctors" in 1973), and died in 1975. As for the "last Doctor of the first cycle", that was Sylvester McCoy, who's still alive?

Or do you mean in the show? If that's the case, Hartnell's Doctor died due to having his energy drained by Mondas, although his advanced age may have been a factor. McCoy's doctor died due to human doctors attempting to operate on him to save his life after he was shot in America.

I think he refers to the characters and likely doesn't mean McCoy/7 but Smith/11 who was the first of new tghe cycle after being... whatever the Timelords did after Clara's plea. And then dying of old age.

[Fragenstein]

I think he refers to the characters and likely doesn't mean McCoy/7 but Smith/11 who was the first of new tghe cycle after being... whatever the Timelords did after Clara's plea. And then dying of old age.

I'm talking about Grandfather Hartnell's character dying. It's largely agreed upon that age is what ultimately did him in. Perhaps not universally, but it's how we've always seen it.

Then Smith's Doctor spent several generations defending Christmas until he was a tired old man. Age was the primary factor in his passing as well, and he was the last of Hartnell's regeneration energy. Count him as 11th or 12th or however you like, he was 13 as far as his biology was concerned. The Timelords had to grant him a completely new cycle to gain Capaldi.

So your answer would be that I actually am the only one who finds that to be fitting.

[Psyren]

( and lets give the Master a rest for a long time okay)

Why? "He's" my favorite villain by far and he didn't show up for the entirety of 11's run.

I like the idea of grumbly, angry doctor, I just don't think it actually worked in what I've seen. Blame the writing, I guess, the actor seems fine. What I don't like is incompetent doctor.

Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I have this image in my head of the Doctor just stumbling through some episodes and doing either nothing or just making everything worse through clumsiness, then someone else or a Deus Ex solving everything.

12 is definitely competent, he's just pretty bloody dark/ruthless about it. Into The Dalek proved that.