OK, Doctor Who...

I imagine that if you are reading this then you know me to some degree. I therefore imagine that you know that I am a big fan of the Doctor and his time travelling adventures (though not as big a fan as some) and have been since I was a kiddie. I therefore extrapolate that you will already have worked out how dissapointed I was with the first installment of the new series, which, not to put too fine a point on it, was bloody awful. Confused, badly plotted, stuffed with unsympathetic characters and bad SFX, it was exactly the start to the new series I had been dreading. It seemed that in a rush to please the series' new foreign investors/fans, every last ounce of charm and wit was erased from the characters and script, leaving us with he kind of unimaginative mulch that passes for so much Sci-fi television these days.

The sudden transformation of the plot into a pointless, zombie filled running-fest left a hell of a lot to be desired. I don't want Doctor Who to turn into a series of tributes to genre movies. Yes, in the past there have been zombie-esque episodes, as well as vampires, ghosts and lots of other kinds of things that go bump in time, but they were always handled with an element of originality (check Charles Dickens battling gas-powered zombie ghosts in the last series for a cracking example). When the Dawn of the Dead tribute money shot occured (y'know, lots of deadites pressed against glass and groaning) I nearly threw my glass of Merlot at the screen, and I do not waste wine lightly. So all in all a very bad start.

So, to Saturdays episode. I had spent most of the day preparing myself for dissapointment, by getting as sloshed as possible on cider (c'mon, it was a hot day) and I arrived at the house of my host for the evening a little worse for ware. My alarm bells were already ringing after seeing preview shots which featured what looked like a load of Ninja monks indulging in some "Bullet time" action (NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!) but I was pleasently suprised. Not suprised enough, I should add, to set my fears entirely at rest, but, on the whole, the script was wittier, the scares more suprising and Tennant's performance more convincing than I had feared.

I have a feeling that Tennant is going to take a lot of flack over the new series dip in quality (and, even after Saturday's werewolf fest, there is still a dip in quality going on here). I don't think that's entirely fair. Yep, he's no Chris Ecclestone, but he has a manic-edge that's very Troughton-esque and might just take a bit of getting used to (he's not very good at "doing angry" though). I remain to be convinced, but some of my previous fears have been assuaged slightly. I mean what the fuck do I know? I'm going to see Silent Hill tomorrow and really looking forward to it so, critical facultys: not my strong point.

Plus; Cybermen. Lookin reeeally cool. We shall see. More soon I'm sure.