TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
4x03 (9/8/13 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]


Doctor Who
1x10 The Ordeal

In their review for The Television Companion (now available on the official BBC episode guide at the link above), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker assert the following:

One of the potential problems with [The Daleks] is its length. Nation had a job to sustain the action over the full seven episodes... The master-stroke was to ensure that the only way of approaching the city for a final covert attack was to do so via a lake of mutations, a pipeline going up a sheer cliff-face and a dangerous cave system, helping to ensure that the story remains watchable and interesting throughout.

These sequences are not merely padding, though; rather, they pay homage to the Jules Verne school of science-fiction storytelling... in which an arduous trek through a series of strange and hazardous environments is typically not just an interlude in the story but is the story.

Despite the story being seven episodes long, this "arduous trek" that is "not just an interlude in the story but is the story" lasts... an episode and a half. Hm. Nice concept, but there's plenty of padding-padding in The Daleks to make it a full seven episodes, not just the journey for the final attack.


Suburgatory
2x05 The Wishbone
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]


Veronica Mars
2x12 Rashard and Wallace Go to White Castle