So, no Doctor Who this year (quelle surprise!). So how about sharing some recommendations of genre-similar shows to plug the gap until next Spring? If there is a Who connection all the better!

I'd like to kick off with AKA Jessica Jones. Its on Netflix and stars Krysten Ritter (just wonderful) as the title hero and David Tennant as a particularly nasty villain called Kilgrave. I love Tennant in this - everything that made him charming and accessible as the 10th Doctor is turned on its head here and used to make his villain absolutely terrifying. A show that goes slow (but a good slow), minimises the super-heroics in favour of genuine human suffering and makes you feel a little panicked at times when you think everything is going to go wrong. Its also very funny when it needs to be. So that's my starter for 10.

Please share your ideas!

Big Finish's Doctor Who audio dramas, including more from the Gallifrey spin-off series presumably featuring Juliet Landau again as Romana. There is no gap year for Doctor Who if BF have anything to say about it.

Watch Lucifer the pilot was really good.

A very good point. I've not heard any of the Juliet Landau stuff but will give it a go.

Exciting also that Leela is going to be in some of the War Doctor Big Finish dramas. And aren't the 10th Doctor/Donna episodes out this year too?

Vikings
The last kingdom
Bloodline
Bates Motel

Sense8 it's Netflix again, I'm afraid. It's a slow moving (in a good way) and character driven story about an emergent group of 8 individuals who begin to find they are linked telepathically. The 8 are scattered around the word and it has a proper international sense to it. Production values are great and it's visually impressive.

One of the writers is JMS (J Michael Straczynski) and it's a collaboration with the Wachowski siblings who directed many of the episodes. Not labouring under the same restrictions as regular "prime time" TV, it has some "adult" scenes.

The Doctor Who connection is Freema Agyeman who plays the lesbian partner of one of the eight.

It has been renewed for a second season.

The Man in the High Castle Amazon Video I'm afraid. Set in the US in the 1960s of a world where Germany and Japan won the Second World War. Someone is distributing film reels of a world where the Allies won. Slow moving in a good way, it follows two people who become involved with the resistance as they investigate the source of the mysterious film reels. Aside from the context there's no science fiction element. In the course of the story you get to see a US that's dominated by fear and paranoia, and some who are disturbingly comfortable with the new order.

The Doctor Who link is Burn Gorman from Torchwood, who plays a bounty hunter in one episode.

It's also been renewed for a second season.

Continuum A more straightforward, conventional SF series than my first two suggestions. It has some neat twists and better thought out storylines concerning time travel than most TV shows or movies. The setup is that a group of terrorists and a police officer are thrown back in time from 2077 to the present day. She just wants to get back to her family in 2077, but that future is perhaps is not everything it should be.

It ran its course over four seasons and was shown on SyFy channel in the UK.

Personally I will be filling the gap with my dvd collection and any other show I take an interest in. The X Files is back for a new run airing on channel 5 next month I believe, and amongst other things, the BBC have dusted Robot Wars off for a new series as well

I would recommend Season 1 of Wayward Pines ( with Matt Dillon).
Very creepy and mysterious from the start. Twilight Zone/ Stepford Wives vibe

Wayward Pines is an American television series based on the Wayward Pines novels by Blake Crouch. The pilot was directed by M. Night Shyamalan, A second series is coming later this year

The X Files on CH5,

I recently caught up with two utterly barmy series of The Leftovers by Lost's Damon Lindelof and starring our ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston.

I think a third and final series is due out sometime this year... (on SKY Atlantic I think, sorry)

Funnily enough, I mentioned Jessica Jones the other day in the 'should Capaldi stay or go with Moffat' thread when I was saying how great an actor Tennant is and how his success as doctor was down to his acting and not his looks as those who don't seem to like him try to pretend.

I think if you showed someone his 10th doctor, then Jessica Jones, those two roles alone show that the man can compel in any role (quite literally in Jessica Jones )

To be honest he plays Kilgrave as the 10th Doctor a number of times.

I think he just reminds you of the 10th doctor because of the suit and accent. The character pretty much goes against everything the doctor stands for.

At times, he's utterly terrifying as Kilgrave. That scene when yeesh!!

JJ definitely a good show to start with.

Have you watched The Sopranos? The Wire? Mad Men?

Maybe some classic who if you haven't watched that,or some audio book stories.

Yeah made me cringe. also

.

He's such a bad person in it, yet you can't look away.

Although It should be mentioned to anyone who else who is thinking of watching it that is linked to daredevil, and is intended to be watched second (the order they were released) as that is referenced within Jessica Jones and will culminate in a team up series with 2 other characters. So basically also recommending daredevil and saying that it should be ideally watched first of the two.

I want to know more about Doctor who ds forum members, Tell me something about yourself one of you?

There's Do Not Disturb, a comedy starring Catherine Tate (Donna Noble). It is being broadcast on Wednesday 27th.

Even if Doctor Who isn't on this year, there's still plenty of 'Who' stuff to buy and to watch!

On Watch, Peter Capaldi's first series is being broadcast every Saturday. Two episodes at a time.

Also, there is a book about River Song due to be released in June:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-L...rds=river+song

Plus, The Husbands of River Song DVD this week, and the Series 9 box-set in March.

Legends of tomorrow, Sliders

Wait. No ones mentioned Class yet. Funny that...

I think most are casually whistling whilst trying to pretend it doesn't exist

I'm not, I just don't think theres anything to talk about there were already loads of threads speculating a while back but after a while it just stopped naturally, personally I can't wait for Class.

I watched the first 8 episodes of Mad Men. It was like watching paint dry. Got fed up waiting for something to happen. What I would recommend is Breaking Bad. OK, some slow episodes, but when the high points come they are worth waiting for!

Series 9 and Husbands were painful to watch first time round without actually spending money to watch them again!

Supergirl.

Gotham.

Heroes: Reborn.

The X Files.

Elementary.

Lucky Man.