> It feels odd that they're obviously re-tooled the show to accommodate the lead actor, though.

It's not just for him, though, surely? Davies is deperate for a break - it'll be four years flat-out on Who, with Tochwood on the side - so this kinda suits everybody. Plus it saves them having to find a new showrunner (if he DOES leave) quite so soon - they can take some time over the search, rather than finding someone who suits an imminent deadline.

Love the attempt to put a positive spin on there being LESS Who, though. I mean, I'd have been fine with a full break, but the quotes kinda scream "Look, there's loads! How can it be less! It looks like more, doesn't it? Please don't notice!" :-)

>theater work

I've never heard an American with such a pronounced Yorkshire accent.

MULTI DOCTOR SPECIAL MULTI DOCTOR SPECIAL

This makes up for a Moffatt-free year, if it happens. I hope they do a feature length episode, that'd be great.

So RTD is writing all the specials?

Grumble Grumble Grumble

Glad that David Tennant is sticking around though. Even the crappy stuff that he's occasionally given ("Who you gonna call?") can't dent the fact that he owns this show.

Is a "special" one-hour long?

The three specials are pretty much guaranteed to be on Easter Sunday (perhaps the Saturday), August Bank Holiday and, of course, Christmas Day. And no doubt they'll be hour-longs. Even though they say Tennant will be starring in them I think RTD has the opportunity to give us an 8th Doctor outing. Would anyone object? No.

>The three specials are pretty much guaranteed to be on Easter Sunday (perhaps the Saturday), August Bank Holiday and, of course, Christmas Day. And no doubt they'll be hour-longs. Even though they say Tennant will be starring in them I think RTD has the opportunity to give us an 8th Doctor outing. Would anyone object? No.

But wouldn't the 2009 Christmas special be part of the series 5 production block?

Unless they're going to film the specials together and use the extra time to get rid of the Doctor-lite S5 ep.

> But wouldn't the 2009 Christmas special be part of the series 5 production block?

Maybe so. As RTD is penning the three specials (he's set himself quite a task there) and he probably isn't doing series 5, that could suggest there will be 3 specials plus the Christmas episode introducing the new Doctor.

>Unless they're going to film the specials together and use the extra time to get rid of the Doctor-lite S5 ep.

After the last one, I'd gladly have 13 of 'em.

There's no way future Doctor-lite episodes will be as good as 'Blink' unless Moffat is involved again.

Well, no.

But is it wrong that I consider this to be the finest Doctor Who episode I've ever seen? (Ok, I haven't seen many...but still). Actually, it's probably in the top 5 things I've ever seen on TV.

It is a bloody good episode that's for sure. Directed by Hettie MacDonald who I believe is the first ever female director on Who, am I right? She certainly knew what she was doing, as did Moffat (although that wasn't really a revelation, we expect greatness from him). The thing is, every time I watch it I become somewhat mesmerised by a certain Carey Mulligan aka 'gorgeous girl' Sally Sparrow. Sweetness incarnate.

It was alright, but it was definitely the weakest Moffat episode so far. That's a bit like describing something as the least shiny of the 3 shiniest diamonds in the world, thouhg.

I disagree, I thought it easily had the measure of The Girl In The Fireplace, because it wasn't weighed down by any of the minor flaws of that ep (which is still an episode that I love dearly like a child, the child it makes me want to have with Sophia Myles).

It doesn't quite edge out The Doctor Dances, though, for me, as the best thing on telly in god knows how many years. Only by a gnat's chuff, though.

Also, to whoever complained about RTD writing the three specials, I have one thing to say : he wrote fucking Utopia. I'd argue that he's at his best, in fact, when writing "event" episodes. Rose, the Parting of the Ways, Doomsday, Smith & Jones, Utopia... if it's a biggie, he's got the sense of scope and grandeur to pull it off. And the specials will all be biggies, I'll guarantee you that. No filler of the likes of New Earth here, oh no.

> Only by a gnat's chuff, though.

My year living with you has been a success.

The Runaway Bride was eventy, but largely bobbins. As was the last season finale, rather.

I see your point about The Girl In The Fireplace, but Moffat gets The Doctors dialogue and characterisation right more than any other writer on the new series, and as lovely an episode as Blink was it suffered by comparison to something that had such wonderful moments as the horse jump, "....ME! HA!" etc for me.

>Also, to whoever complained about RTD writing the three specials, I have one thing to say : he wrote fucking Utopia.

That was me. Utopia was pretty great, but mainly because of the last ten minutes. Shame he then resolved a great cliff-hanger in the lamest way imaginable.

Wikipedia tells me that he's written 20 episodes. Of them, the only ones I'd describe as good are: Boom Town, The Parting of the Ways, The Christmas Invasion, Doomsday, Smith and Jones, Gridlock, Utopia.

So, with a hit ratio like that, it looks like I'll enjoy 1 of the specials.

Moffat has written 4 episodes, one a 2-parter, and he only had to focus on getting his own contained episodes right, where Russell has had a much more difficult task over the three series'. As well as overseeing the show he has co-written/revised many of the episodes. I say bollocks (that's right, bollocks) to anyone who thinks RTD is a crap writer and that only Moffat can get the Doctor. RTD on form writes great episodes like The Parting Of The Ways (maybe still his best script), The Christmas Invasion, Gridlock, Smith & Jones. None of his scripts are bad.

I didn't say moffat was the ONLY decent who writer, jut the best. i dont argue that RTD has produced some cracking scripts (the christmas invasion in particular is just, flawless) or that his job is difficult but why shouldn't i be allowed to point out that he has written some of the shoddiest episodes of the new series, and made some really terrible decisions in selecting other writers? it certainly is a difficult job, but it's also probably the BEST JOB IN THE WORLD, so i imagine that's some comfort to him. that and the hordes of fans willing to ignore his every mistake. just to clarify - i dont think he's a shit writer, i just dont think he's good enough to sustain a level of quality over the amount of episodes he writes. i also find his specific, personal take on the series more or less fine when tempered across the course of a series by moffat et als episodes, but i think the other writers should be allowed near the event episodes now and again. the knock on effect could onyl be an improvement in quality in the other RTD eps of the series, and less overt similarities between each season finale. so there.

> (the christmas invasion in particular is just, flawless)

What? I'll agree with everything else you said above if you can just convince me of this once thing.

Well, personal preference and all that, but I love The Christmas Invasion to bits. The scale of the threat is well handled, there's a nice balance of the knockabout humour with genuinely terrifying imagery like the people standing on the edge of the building, Tennant is fucking brilliant in it and having him asleep for half the episode makes for a really satisfying finale, I personally found the family stuff enjoyable (I can see why people who don't like that stuff would be turned off the episode but having The Doctor have a family of sorts to look after him I found quite heartwarming), Harriet Jones is a cracking character, there's a SWORDFIGHT on a SPACESHIP, UNIT, The Doctor picking his new outfit - there's so much in it that it barely has time to drag it's feet the way RTD's episodes often do. I find in particular that his episodes conform far too much to twenty minutes of talking and then twenty minutes of legging it about corridors, and while both Christmas episodes have attempted to change up that formula for something bigger, Runaway Bride did this mostly by having a whole hour of running through corridors, resulting in the viewer being mostly tired, bored and confused by the end.

The Runaway Bride was great, if you disregard the main story with the Empress of Racnoss, which IMO was a bit crap. Stuff like the motorway chase and the reception scenes were great. There are some brilliant scenes between Donna and the Doctor, once she stopped shouting. That's why I'm glad Catherine Tate's coming back, the chemistry between her and Tennant is perhaps the best out of the three companions he's had.

I still wish The Christmas Invasion had featured Eccleston. Same goes for the majority of season 2. Having to introduce a new Doctor messed up the flow.

I increasingly think that you're completely on crack every second of the day, you know. The whole of TCI is pretty much geared around the regeneration and the introduction of the new Doctor - how would you do that episode with Eccleston? Have him get a really bad flu and wake up in the mood for a change of clothes? Yes, you're right, that would have been GRATE.

As for The Runaway Bride, you're more or less right - if you disregard certain elements, it is an episode of great moments. But the pacings all fucked, there's a scene of Doctor Who LAUGHING ON A SCOOTER, it was lit like a school disco, using the pilot fish again made fuck-all sense and was just dead annoying, and there was absolutely nothing Christmassy about it all. With TCI being so much about family / togetherness and whatnot, there was the potential to make an episode about the flipside of that, spending Christmas alone. But instead we get an episode with no real thematic resonance whatsoever, firing off in all directions like a mad cock, with last years santa costumes draped over the baddies just for the sake of it. The Racnoss Plot is one of the few bits of the episode I don't mind - but it was an idea that had been knocking around for ages, and it's a bad fit for a Christmas special.

Another example of something I don't like that RTD does an awful lot - the idea of Capt. Jack rebuilding the inherently morally suspect Torchwood organisation from the ground up as a tribute to The Doctor is brill, and retrospectively makes the series Torchwood look a bit better. But it was one line tossed away in The Sound Of Drums - the actual series itself didn't see fit to give Jack any such motivation, preferring instead to have him simply make confusing sexual references about Iantos stopwatch. There's too much of this in RTD's stories - using dialogue to paper over the cracks that a proper second draft should have gotten rid of. Forcing such exposition into his characters mouths breaks up the flow of the dialogue, which is usually the one thing you can rely on an RTD episode to be alright for. It's his skill for dialogue that made something like Boom Town watchable, because it's an episode where fuck all actually really happens. But as his ideas get grander, the internal logic of the episode goes out the window, and the characters walk around trying to explain to eachother whatever the fuck is actually going on, as if they don't get it either, and then nobody wins. NOBODY. Except you, because you'll have your RTD IS DOING A GREAT JOB UNDER UNIQUE PRESSURES baseball cap on too tight, squeezing all your critical faculties out of your ear and onto the floor.

Ever considered therapy?

Yeah, actually. I did about 9/10 weeks of therapy quite recently. It was good. It was also completely irrelevant to this conversation because hitting caps lock and calling you a crackhead doesn't mean I'm ACTUALLY teetering on the brink of an insane rage. As you well know. I'm actually eating a lovely bit of chocolate cake, and the cats asleep on my foot. I COULDN'T BE CALMER. Ever considered not wriggling out of a potentially interesting discussion with rubbish, snide insults?

>Ever considered not wriggling out of a potentially interesting discussion with rubbish, snide insults?

Ooh, BURN.

I'm sure Russell had plenty of excellent ideas for a TCI featuring Eccleston (face it, there would only need to be some dialogue changes and simply having the Doctor ill from absorbing the Time Vortex rather than suffering from post-regeneration trauma). Perhaps the regeneration makes the story more interesting, but I would still liked to have seen Chris in the episode and indeed the whole of season 2. The Billie/Eccleston chemistry was the best, and seeing their relationship play out in season 2 rather than the characters going off all over the place (which is what happened) would have been far more interesting.

Incidentally I really DO (there's that caps lock button, or did I just hold left shift...? You'll never know...) rate Tennant as the Doctor. Post-Rose I felt it finally became his show. I'm sure it helped that the writers had his performance in season 2 to look at so they could pen dialogue accordingly (can you seriously imagine Eccleston saying 'timey-wimey'?).

> As you well know. I'm actually eating a lovely bit of chocolate cake, and the cats asleep on my foot.

And here's me thinking you were eating a triple fried egg sandwich with chili sauce and chutney whilst allowing your pet poodle to lick out your rectum.

Nah. The Doctor being ill wouldn't be anywhere near as good - the sense of him being at any actual risk would be completely nullified by the question "why doesn't he just regenerate?", wouldn't it? Most of the sense of danger in the episode (for the viewers and for Rose) comes from The Doctor as we know him being gone, and The Doctor that *is* there being unproven and largely unconscious. Due to the nature of the character, it's nigh on impossible to find a way of convincingly taking him out of play (see the Season 3 finale for details) and the regeneration is one of the few things that provides a perfect window to do that. Having him wake up and save the day at the end is mostly as rousing and stirring as it is because it's the first time you're really seeing DT in action. The regeneration doesn't just "make the story more interesting", it is what makes the episode great and event-y. That the Sycorax and the Unit stuff is so well handled is a tasty bonus, but you could swap it for a million other things without losing that appeal. Without the regeneration, it's just another episode, but The Doctors asleep for most of it. That's not really my cup of super-heated free radicals and tannin.

For someone who wants to gargle RTD's balls, you seem very annoyed at the way the series handled the change of Doctor - which is obviously not something that they chose, but I think they did it very well. "Messed up the flow" how, exactly? When The Doctor nearly tells Rose he loves her in The Satan Pit, it had a real emotional weight (for me at least) most of which was earnt by Eccleston. I think they did very well to carry over the relationship rather than starting over from scratch (see also "PEOPLE ARE DYING AND ROSE WOULD CARE", and compare to Colin Baker waking up and looking like he's never seen Peri before in his life).
I don't actually have a preference between S1 and 2 - I like them both better than 3, but the Tennant/Piper chemistry didn't irk me as much as some, and I think TCI provides a perfect bridge between the two. Fair enough you miss Eccleston, but the whole episode is a reaction to him leaving, and saying it'd be better with him in is like saying it'd be better if when people got shot in films, they just got up again and put their hat back on and went to their own funeral.

And you think it'd be better because you're "sure Russell had plenty of excellent ideas"? That's such a weak argument I don't know where to start, so I won't.

I think you're right about them learning to write for DTs Doctor by S3, though. Dialogue-wise, anyway. I like the romancing, cavalier, "lonely-god" Tennant a bit better than the new Tennant, who is essentially Tom Baker but with a worrying tendency to try and make friends with his most fearsome enemies. It's nice to not have him burst into impromptu renditions of Ghostbusters or have novelty, one-episode hairstyles, though.

Does anyone else still hate the blue suit?

THE GHOSTBUSTERS BIT IS STILL FUNNY AND YOU'RE ALL WRONG.

> THE GHOSTBUSTERS BIT IS STILL FUNNY AND YOU'RE ALL WRONG.

Yeah, what he said.

I'd like the blue suit a lot more if he ever actually WORE the bastard thing - I just love the maroon Converse (mainly because, erm, I own a pair - then again, I've got a pair of series 2-style cream ones, as well), and think the whole ensemble is rather snazzy. But I'm struggling to think of a single episode in series three where he actually wore it for the whole thing. Booooo. I hope we get a new suit for series four, though.

And I still don't like the Ghostbusters bit. I like it in theory (mainly because, well, I like Ghostbusters), but I *still* maintain that it should have stopped at him going "Who you gonna call?" Nice moment, makes reference to both the ghosts and the fact that his gizmo looks a bit like a proton pack. But Billie shouting "GHOSTBUSTERS!" and the "I ain't afraid of no ghost!" mugging just overcooks it for me, and makes me cringe.

You may well be right. It's just that I'm usually laughing so much at the first line that I don't notice the rest of it...

The Scooby Doo impression baffles me completely.

At the risk of 'gargling RTD's balls' some more I'm gonna guess that he only wrote the line 'who you gonna call?' and that Billie and Tennant put in the rest (also, I refuse to believe that there was a stage direction saying do it in Scooby-Doo's voice). I'm so glad Russell's penning the three specials.

The most annoying part of that whole stupid thing is the way the incidental music kicks in as he's doing it, as if it's some kind of important moment, when it's actually the low point of the whole revival thus far. And the music for that episode is such a total shameless rip off of Clint Mansells score for Requiem For A Dream (one of the most unflinchingly grim and disturbing films ever made) that it just feels somehow utterly wrong and horrid. I do think that Army Of Ghosts, that aside, is a fucking corker of an episode, though. I genuinely had no idea the Daleks were going to pop out of that giant malteser.

I think the blue suit just looks sort of cheap, it doesn't go with the overcoat, and I thought one suit and a variety of ties etc was a nice balance between the Doctor dressing how a real person might and having a signature costume. I'd like it if the next Doctor put on Colin Bakers outfit in the Tardis dressing room and laughed at himself in the mirror.

Also, right, you say RTD has a difficult job because he has to oversee everything that makes it to the screen in Who, and then you say you don't mind the Ghostbusters line because of an unfounded assumption that he probably didn't write it himself. I reckon he did, but it doesn't matter either way, because he undisputably allowed it to remain in the edit, didn't he? Don't get me wrong, I think it's sweet that you love him so much, but you're contradicting yourself trying to justify it. Billie and Tennant *might* have improvised it, but they don't have final cut. YOUR HERO HAS LET YOU DOWN.

> I'm so glad Russell's penning the three specials.

Has this been confirmed, though? The news item on the site just mentions him in his capacity as head writer, presumably to let everyone know he'll be sticking around after series 4. He can still be a head writer and only write one or two of the specials. In fact, in my perfect world, I'd want him to take 1 and 3 and leave 2 to Moffat, so he isn't taking on too much.

That's my problem with RTD. He's the mastermind behind a revival/ retooling (it's much more accessible these days) of a much-loved TV show...but he insists on writing so much of it. He's spreading himself thin and the show suffers as a result. Hogging half of the episodes is just, well, a bit greedy.

I think also he takes commissions from crappy soapy writers with the intention of polishing them up himself, which is increasingly an odd way to do things as established Who-writers like Paul Cornell churn out spectacular scripts. And you're right, he spreads himself so thin that an RTD episode isn't a highlight the way that say, a Whedon episode of Buffy is. I think that guy who wrote The Shakespeare Code was a good hire, though. I look forward to more from him. It seems that when RTD can't write one of the eventy episodes - like the return of Sarah Jane and K9, or Daleks In Manhattan, he entrusts it to one of the crapper writers to give himself an excuse to tinker with them, something he wouldn't have cause to do if Moffat had written those eps, for example. It does come across as greedy. I'm posting a lot today, aren't I? Sorry everyone.

RTD isn't being 'greedy', it's HIS series (for the moment). BBC series' are usually penned by one person or a small grouo of people together (e.g. Moffat's Jekyll, Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer writing The Young Ones, some cult show about a robot, a vampire and a red pencil in space penned by Grant Naylor). Who is just the same except it's a 13 episode season, which RTD obviously can't handle alone. If the seasons were 6 episodes we would probably only be getting one penned by another writer, if that. Who knows, maybe RTD will write an episode per series when he leaves as show-runner. I'd love that (because I obviously live up his arse).

I'm sure Cornell and Moffat wouldn't be as good if they were 'spreading themselves thin'. Jekyll had plenty of weak moments in it. If Moffat becomes show-runner there's no way it's going to be gold all the way. It must be more difficult to pen a masterpiece like TGITFP when you're busy trying to piece an entire season together.

> I think that guy who wrote The Shakespeare Code was a good hire, though. I look forward to more from him.

I don't. TSC felt like it was penned by an over-excited fanboy. The 'joke' of Shakespeare taking lines from the Doctor should have been cut completely, it reminded me of the annoying 'not amused' running-gag from Tooth and Claw. Just let things like this die, for the love of god, it's so knowing and smug you want to slap the actors across the face. The Harry Potter reference was just about acceptable until 'expelliarmus' was used. There is such thing as fucking subtlety. Seems Gareth Roberts is unaware of that.

Let's not forget the first series was intended to be two 6-episode series, and when it became apparent that it was going to run in one long block, Russell had to speedily pen a few more episodes to fill the gaps. All the other writers were already in place. Because Doctor Who just *is* something that's written by a lot of people (dyou remember when it was on for 30-odd years and had approximately one gazillion writers?), and RTD has repeatedly gone on about what a large influence series' like Buffy and Angel were, shows with huge teams of writers. And Torchwood has loads of writers, too. So you're talking pubes again.

My problem with his "greediness" isn't that he pens so many episodes himself (though as I've said I wish he bloody wouldn't) so much as he commissions scripts from writers with experience on Holby City which are obviously intended for him to substantially pep-up himself, which results in sub-par episodes that any number of other people could have turned into something much better. If he's so into Buffy, he should realise that Whedon was happy to let other people play in his sandbox. People other than Chris "Fucking Bloody" Chibnall, too.

This is most in evidence in S3, I think. In S1 you've got important parts of the character development/introduction and series arc given to Rob Shearman, Paul Cornell, Steven Moffatt. RTD let other people introduce the Daleks AND Captain Jack! S3 contains marvellous episodes by two of those writers, but they're in an isolated little lump that has little to do with the rest of the series, and comes on the tail of a solid run of 4 shit episodes. All the important arc stuff in S3 is handled by Davies, either in his own episodes or the one's he's rewritten by hacks like Greenhorn. Even though some of those episodes are pretty good (Utopia, Gridlock), they're rarely as great as what came before, and S3 is the series I have the least desire to rewatch. To be honest, I wish they were taking that year off now, not after S4.

It surprised me that along with Moffat, RTD named Roberts as one of the writers whose scripts he never touches - if that's the case, he must have decided to entrust the Shakespeare episode (obviously an important one, given the budget) to whoever he could rely on to write an episode that closely resembled one of his own. But I thought the guy showed a lot of class in terms of structure and set-pieces. The Harry Potter reference was well integrated into the episode, rather than being some throwaway reference there for the sake of it. I quite like the pop-culture references when they're handled this well - if The Doctor can talk about Ghostbusters or Harry Potter without turning into Scooby Doo or doing a queer little dance, the idea conjured of him sitting in the Tardis watching the DVD or reading the book is quite charming, and exactly what you'd expect DT's Doctor to get up to in his spare time, I reckon. William Hartnell used to watch The Beatles on his big daft telly, which cracks me up, and I think Harry Potter will probably be a similarly enduring cultural touchstone. It's not as if he's talking about The Queens Nose or something transient and forgettable. As for the using-Shakespeares-lines, I think they were well chosen enough to rise above the level of a cheap gag. "The play's the thing!" was ace! Certainly better than Rose trying to make Queen Victoria laugh, but what's so bad about that anyway? I thought it was quite in character for her.

> William Hartnell used to watch The Beatles on his big daft telly, which cracks me up, and I think Harry Potter will probably be a similarly enduring cultural touchstone. It's not as if he's talking about The Queens Nose or something transient and forgettable.

Just as I wish companions were not so frequently "current day Earth people", so I wish cultural references could actually be rather more incongruous, since the Doctor is a time traveller. I hate the way he's always keyed into the time that we happen to be watching the series.

> The Queens Nose or something transient and forgettable.

Incorrect as I have not forgotten it. Nor her older sister who I fancied. Is she still acting?

Well I hadn't forgotten it either, because I have similarly lustful feelings towards Melody and Harmony. Don't know if they're still acting but someones been putting episodes online on UKNova the last few days...

The younger one was a bit too young in the Queen's Nose but then she got a bit older later on in something else so PHEW that was okay! The older one was the best. She can be a Doctor Who companion, I don't mind if that means she has to be a present-day Earth person.

Both of them turned up in Jonathan Creek. What a fascinating piece of trivia.

I think I was younger than her when it aired. She was deffo fitter than her big sister. She didn't have her hair in a silly bob for starters.

> The younger one was a bit too young in the Queen's Nose but then she got a bit older later on in something else so PHEW that was okay!

She never seemed too young to me, although I'm guessing I was around the same age as her when I used to watch that fantastic series! I agree though about Melody...good lord she opened up all three of my eyes. I'd like to watch The Queen's Nose again just to see if it was really as good as what I thought it was at the time.

> much as he commissions scripts from writers with experience on Holby City which are obviously intended for him to substantially pep-up himself

So, going off that logic, Cornell should never have been hired.

I AGREE with you that series 1 worked better because we had great writers penning episodes integral to character development (and introduction) and overall story. The whole series was simply much better planned, despite the apparent rush to extend it to 13 episodes (it's fairly easy to guess which are the extra eps - World War III, The Long Game, Boom Town, possibly The Empty Child would have been one episode).

By series 3 they had slipped into a horrible pattern of having hacks like Chibnall and Greenhorn (Chibnall and Greenhorn...Greenhorn and Chibnall...Greenhorn, Chibnall, Chibnall, Greenhorn...wait a second...Greenhorn IS Chibnall...Chibnall IS Greenhorn! Greenhorn is a MAN! Oh my GOD!! ahem...apologies) fill the middle of the season with utter bollocks and bullshit. I watched '42' again today...I am now officially putting it in my bottom 3 episodes of the series revival, despite the effects shots. It's just the most horrible new Who can possibly get, surely?!!? Terrible acting, directing and writing all thrown together. Ouch. Episode 6 of series 1 was 'Dalek'. Episode 6 of series 3 was 'The Lazarus Experiment'. Series 3 was SCREAMING out for another 'Dalek'.

That's the last I write about Who. I'm boring myself to death with my own negative shit. Here's something more positive -

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/radio/a75471/smashie-and-nicey-make-radio-2-comeback.html

Staggeringly, it looks like we're drawing this discussion to a close by actually agreeing on things. Except - Cornell was surely hired more for his background writing New Adventures than his work on Holby City? I've no problem hiring people who know Who and have made a quick buck penning prime-time wank, but that's not what I meant.

While I was disappointed with episodes like The Long Game at the time, looking back they're infinitely better than 42 or The Lazarus Experiment or Daleks In Two-Tone Brogues. Mostly just because they lack the production sheen that makes those episodes feel so soulless - even though The Long Game is fairly hokey piss, it at least feels intrinsically like Who ought to. Even in S2, it was a bumpy ride, but I was excited to tune in every week, whereas I approached a number of episodes of S3 with nothing but dread and a feeling of "let's get this out of the way, then".

From Gridlock onwards everyone was just waiting for the Cornell episodes.

>> That's the last I write about Who. I'm boring myself to death

> Staggeringly, it looks like we're drawing this discussion to a close by actually agreeing on things.

Arf.