It’s over, finally, and I’ve seen every episode, which means I can stop hiding from spoilers. Hooray! Also, Steven Moffatt’s debut season of Doctor Who has delighted me beyond all reason.

Here is a list of things about the new show which I have loved:

1. Matt Smith. Just generally, Matt Smith. His performance is raw and endlessly good, and I never get bored when he in on screen.

2. The Eleventh Doctor. Character arcs for the Doctor are nothing new – we had Nine girning his way through post traumatic stress disorder, as a manic war veteran learning to forgive humans (well, mostly Rose) for being there when the Time Lords weren’t; and we had the many personal development stages of Ten including smug married (Rose) oblivious (Martha), cruel and bigoted (Jack) pleasantly platonic (Donna), lonely traveller, Time Lord Victorious – but I am really enjoying the way that this Doctor seems to be actively trying to find a different way to handle companion/human interactions as a response to how badly he screwed things up when he was Ten. I see his relationships with Amy and Rory as being direct attempts to not end up creating more damaged soldiers as a side effect of his lifestyle.

3. Amy Pond. Bright, funny, Scottish, fashion tragic, brave, and not that needy. She has changed the face of Doctor Who companions – and in particular I love the creative choice to make her mysterious rather than showing us everything we need to know about her in her first episode.

4. Young Amy. Where is my AU manga series where Amelia and the Doctor go off on adventures when she is this age?

5. Every second of the Eleventh Hour. But especially the first ten minutes or so.

[there follows many many spoilers, many many, for the whole fifth season]

6. Liz10 – “basically, I rule.” Yes, luv, you do.

7. “Pond.” It sums up the relationship between the Doctor and Amy so beautifully and makes me happy every time he says it.

8. Churchill’s “Ironsides”, especially the one with the teatray.

9. “Hello, sweetie.” (my Doctor comes when he’s called) River Song’s elaborate set up to gain the Doctor’s attention, up to and including blowing herself out of an airlock in high heels and a shiny frock.

10. “There’s something in your eye.” The creepy, creepy image of weeping angels caught on film, their pursuit and invasion of Amy, and just about every ramification of that. Including the Doctor biting her on the hand.

11. River rescuing Amy, using a teleport system that the Doctor said would be pointless to fix. Because he doesn’t get everything right. That’s what companions are for! Also just about everything else about River and Amy’s interactions. Next to Rose & Jackie, this is my favourite relationship between two women in the show and I particularly love the lack of jealousy between them.

12. The Doctor jumping out of a stag night cake, and the fact that he knows so much about the nice girl who was supposed to.

13. Venice, beautiful and creepy and a “vampire” queen who drips danger and sadness while flirting with the Doctor. A Doctor who miraculously knows how to flirt, possibly because for once he’s not talking to a human. I adored this episode for its sheer sense of style.

14. Rory’s ponytail. Hours of fun for the whole family.

15. Old people moving very slowly, which you have to hit with blunt objects. Honestly, it’s because they’re evil.

16. The dyslexic kid quoting Sherlock Holmes from an audio book, while he and Rory investigate grave robbers.

17. Nasreen, who must be added to the Sally Sparrow Memorial List of awesome companions who never got to be actual companions but totally blitzed the audition.

18. Vincent, and Tony Curran’s portrayal of him, from beginning to end.

19. The astounding art direction of Vincent and the Doctor, which created a world by working backwards from a bunch of paintings.

20. Bill Nighy raving about Van Gogh and saying “You were nice about my tie.” Because yes, by this point bow ties actually ARE cool.

21. This Doctor looks much better straight out of the shower than Jon Pertwee. Jus’ saying.

22. The Doctor being astonishingly awesome at football despite not knowing the rules.

23. The pre-credits sequence of the Pandorica Opens, tying all my favourite supporting characters from this season together. It took my breath away.

24. ROMANS

25. OMG AUTONS, AUTONS WHO ARE ROMANS

26. Every time we see River Song, she gets more interesting.

27. The whole scene in which the Doctor has not yet noticed that Rory is a centurion. Cheesy but awesome.

28. The reveal of who is in the Pandorica and why – plus the chorus line of villains ganging up to rid the world of the Doctor. Such a marvellous scene, and one that contributes so much to the epic history of the show.

29. By the way, best cliffhanger EVER. The Doctor is imprisoned, River & the Tardis are exploding, and Rory has shot Amy. Seriously. How do you top that? How will they get out of it?

30. The return of young Amelia and all sorts of lovely other reveals in another fabulous pre-credits sequence for the Big Bang.

31. “Come on, ponds.”

32. The loyal centurion. Man, does Moffat know epic love stories or what?

33. All. The Bits. Falling into Place. Such good plotting over the whole season, it hurts a little. For the last 15 minutes of the whole episode I was bouncing in my seat, going ‘aha!” and squealing. My honey can confirm this. There was squealing.

34. Amy’s wedding, and the power she has to bring him back. “Something old, something new…”

35. And finally – omg YES. Amy can have her cake and eat it. She can marry her lovely Rory AND travel with the Doctor. And Rory can come too. Because life does not STOP when you marry the person you love.

On the whole I’ve adored the new series. More delighted even than the high moments of season one. I love it so much. And there is more to come next season. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Tags: amy pond, doctor who, eleventh doctor, watching