Okay...lets get the elephant in the room out of the way first..
I LOVE DR WHO! so it is had to be unbiased.....
BUT
This series was choppy.
Maybe its because we have to wait a week to get the show on TV!
I am in two minds about the series. Some series, the episodes "follow" each other and you can enjoy the episode madly picking up clues and having a right roaring discussion about it later. Other series the episodes could stand alone and still be joined. This was neither one or the other right through.
As much as I love Dr Who I would hate to exclude the casual viewer (after all there are only the Dr Who devotees and those ABOUT to become devotees) and a series where you have to know the back story is horrible.
My teen was at my ex's for the first part of this series and he wouldnt let her watch it (pure evil as he is a Dr Who fan and watched it on his computer) Just a way of taking away something she loved and knew it was something she connected with me.
Thing is.... she found it hard to catch up on the back story and didn't enjoy the series this time as she has in the past. Sad.
And a huge thank you to Bouncy for sending some of the missing episodes she had missed

Muwahs.
The best "new" series was where the Master was made Prime Minister of England. In that series the episodes stood alone AND continued to a full series all neatly tied up.
And why do we need a "cliff hanger" as a last episode? Its not freaking "Neighbours"!!!
The Collective Brain: The synoptic serendipity that comes when interesting thoughts from interesting and interested people get together. And the whole is always more than the sum of its parts.