Fascinating Ada

I don't know about all this "actually crediting Dame Diana Rigg in the end credits" business. There seems to be an unspoken rule that you don't use actors' titles in credits, theatre programmes, posters etc, like you're not making a fuss - Ian McKellen didn't get credited as Serena last Christmas. I wonder whose idea it was to bung the title in the credits. Maybe someone on the production team wanted to show off about the show securing a Dame. I hope it wasn't Diana Rigg herself, I'd like to continue thinking she's awesome, not the female version of Sirben Kingsley.

"The Crimson Horror" by Mark Gatiss, directed by Saul Metzstein. Spoilers after the cut.

Well this was like the quintessential Mark Gatiss episode, wasn't it? A Victorian penny-dreadful, set in Yorkshire, black comedy, a monster that looks like an inflamed bell-end, a Tegan call-back and a touch of social commentary about the cold heart behind people preaching the moral high ground. And very good it is too. Rigg's an amusingly mental baddie and Rachael Stirling as Ada is the abused Victorian victim with a happy ending. Although I'm not sure this episode will do anything to stop people saying Matt Smith looks like Frankenstein's monster.

For the first half of it at least this is the Doctor/companion lite episode, or is it a backdoor pilot for a Vastra/Jenny/Strax spin-off? It does feel like the loudest voice I've heard demanding more of them is The Moff's, but they are widely liked as far as I can tell, and they certainly wouldn't be a bad choice for a spin-off now that Merlin's over and each Doctor Who series gets spread out over a couple of years; especially if Gatiss had time to contribute to a series.

The funniest Doctor Who episode for a long time as well; although I thought the human SatNav gag worked well enough without having to spell it out with the Thomas Thomas line. Other route planners are available.