10. If At First You Don't Succeed, Keep Trying Until Something Works
In the first episode of
The Thick of It, new head of the Department of Social Affairs Hugh Abbot intends to begin his tenure by announcing at a special press conference a brand new policy to better British society. When the policy is dismissed by Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) as ridiculous, the four-person team at the DoSA has less than an hour before the press conference to come up with a new policy that will be sexy, catching, free, instantly applicable, and universally popular. They spend the rest of the episode running through every conceivable scenario before finally settling on one. While the Department of Social Affairs is not painted in a particularly flattering light, they do stumble upon a not-entirely-terrible principle. When faced with the fact that their chosen plan of action was not going to be acceptable, they rolled with the situation and tried something(s) new. As good and entertaining as
Doctor Who is, the show is not without missteps. A show that has been running off-and-on for the past half century is bound to have a few clunkers. Hopefully,
Doctor Who will be able to channel
The Thick of It and move past any missteps. Progressing on to new and exciting arcs has the potential to be so much more satisfying than dragging out and calling attention to past mistakes. Assuming, of course, that there's no involvement with the Snooper Squad.