Cheshire's Shopping List

Yesterday, I aired my dirty laundry about things I hope are avoided in the upcoming series. Tall orders, some of them, but worth mentioning as it seems to be echoed largely by the massive fanbase*. Today, I'm looking for the things I think many of us hope to see in the upcoming episodes. Things that haven't been visited since the old series, or seen very seldom in the revival, or never touched on before. Some of this was tough to come up with, but I got through it with a little help from my friends (my wife being one, a coworker being the other). So here it is:

- Cheshire's Shopping List -

Things We Hope The TARDIS Doors Open On To

1. TARDIS Interiors We already know that a new console room is on the way, and intrepid web travelers can find images of the new look pretty easily. But what about the rest of the TARDIS? The old series never shied away from exploring the depths of the ol' Type 40. We got to see the Zero room, the secondary console room, crew quarters, gardens, conference halls etc. In the new season? We've seen the closet. So let's see what the rest of the TARDIS has to offer. That alone opens up plenty of story possibilities.

2. Doctor-centric Horror Stories Running around saving the planet/ship/colony/all-of-creation is to Doctor Who like wet is to water. Those stories showcase the heroism of the Doctor to a tee. However, how often have we seen the Doctor fight for his own life? Since 2005, too few by my count. Blink and Midnight were brilliant, and I think the show could do with more like them. We've touched on these types of stories barely in the revival, but they were a mainstay of the old series, my favourite being The Brain of Morbius, a tale about a scientist trying to resurrect an evil Time Lord and thinks Four's head is perfect for the cause. Great story from a great era of the show. I think we're due another.

3. Timey-Whimey Stuff It's all well and good to be going back and forth to different destinations in time, but how about seeing the "cause and effect" being adversely affected? Blink and Time Crash hit the mark, but how about some more mind-bending wibbly-wobbliness? That Back To The Future stuff can be lots of fun, so why not go down that path again?

4. More Locations It seems like every story takes place in a single locale. One planet, or one ship or one city. It'd be nice to see the Doctor do some planet-hopping, like was done in the animated serial The Infinite Quest. It's not an often-used mechanic for story telling, but since the TARDIS can travel in time and space, wouldn't it be cool to have a universe-spanning romp to seek out new life and new civil... oh, sorry, got carried away. But you get where I'm goin', yeah?

5. Longer Story Arcs The new format has been a departure from the old 4-part story arc, in that the majority of episodes have been stand-alone stories, with the exception of the occasional two-parter. Granted, the old series episodes were only 25 minutes long, so a 4-part story translates to the revival's 2-part stories. But why not have, perhaps mid-season, a 3 or even 4 episode story-arc? Or perhaps a number of episodes that are linked by a common element, much like the E-Space Trilogy?

And that's where I'll leave it. I'll tell you, this list wasn't easy to come up with, as Doctor Who delivers on so many levels. It's easier to find fault than it is to offer solutions. I tip my hat to the creative team at BBC Wales for all the great stories they do come up with. Hopefully my suggestions flesh them out even more.

* Speaking of which, the folks over at Nerdage reported that The End of Time broke BBCAmerica's ratings record, which points to the growing popularity. Always a good sign.