This episode was more like the Doctor Who that we know and love. Less of the endless questions, and more of a self-contained story. It wasn’t quite back on top form, but there was plenty to like about this pirate-themed episode. Lily Cole played a non-speaking ethereal type creature, who would capture anyone with a slight injury. Cue smart little anecdotes about her sending notes before she arrived, the human idea of a curse and “a green singing shark in an evening gown.”

Last week I had to watch the episode twice to figure out what was going on. I probably should do the same this week, but… I just don’t want to. From the start, it made no real sense. We were three months later, the officials were after them, the Doctor was all locked up as insane. Do we know why? Am I just being stupid? Just when I thought I was beginning to follow it, Amy and Canton went to the children’s home, and it all went confusing again.

It’s back! It’s back, it’s back, it’s back. And boy is it confusing. The first time I watched this, I missed at least 15 minutes off the start which didn’t exactly help matters. A second viewing was essential, even if I had already planned to do so to lend a hand with this blog. As with most science fiction series, those involved have spent the off-season suggesting that the new series will be much darker than the first. Boring. Everyone says that. I was far more interested in Steven Moffat’s teaser that this two-part opener was like having the big series finale at the start.

Interestingly, the big “end of the world” reveal didn’t really happen until the start of this episode. In other two-part finales we’ve seen, everything would have been stacked against the main heroes all at once. Here, we had them in personal peril, which was solved by the Doctor just walking straight out to the Daleks and facing them down. Thank goodness for forcefields, that’s what I say.

The start of this episode packs a powerful punch, and not in terms of emotion or drama, but simple amazement. How can they put the Doctor in Big Brother? How have they got the rights to get Davina to say “Please do not swear?” Putting Rose in the Weakest Link and Captain Jack in Trinny & Susannah is less amusing as they are both BBC programmes, but Big Brother is something else entirely.

It’s not usually my style just to post a trailer and go - woo! but this does look kinda epic. I’m in two minds about River Song. Sometimes when mysteries are resolved they turn out to be rubbish (LOST!), and it’s been built up quite a lot. However, it would be awesome to find out who she is, for goodness sake.

An episode that requires a “Previously on Doctor Who…” It was a bit weird. I’ve always felt that the new Who references so much stuff that you either know or you don’t, but each episode/double episode is standalone anyway. I love the domesticity of this episode, because although it could be boring to just watch a couple of people go on a couple of dates, there are a lot of darker undertones to the entire thing.

Following on from the better-than-expected Empty Child, we have the conclusion of the two-parter. Last we saw, the Doctor was trapped in a corner, surrounded by the worrying gas mask people. “GO TO YOUR ROOM!” And just like that, the tension is over and we can get on with the rest of the story. I love the terrible last words line though.

It’s been quite hard to get the enthusiasm up to finish this series off. I’m desperate to get to David Tennant but finding time and motivation for these is hard. However, this two part is written by Steven Moffat, so already I’m convinced it’s going to be an improvement on what we’ve seen so far. The story begins with The Doctor and Rose being bounced around the TARDIS. Rose is a bit peeved at the lack of sci-fi-ness he is displaying. “Give me some Spock!”

“Your wish is my command, just be careful what you wish for.” This is the episode where Rose tries to change history, and finds out she can’t, even though that is what the Doctor does… quite a lot. After building her up to be something super special in the last episode, the Doctor is reduced to calling Rose “another stupid ape” after she messes up the space time continuum.

I mentioned this in my recent Life List recap of 2010, but it bears repeating here. I’ve been finding these episodes of Doctor Who a bit of a struggle to get through. It turns out that I’m really just not that big a fan of Christopher Ecclestone. I still think he was absolutely necessary as the Doctor, and it wouldn’t have worked if David Tennant had just dived right in and started running about in his big, long coat, but still… these episodes don’t do it for me.

I’ve made lots and lots of New Year’s Resolutions before, both on the blog and in my head, and very few of them have worked out. This year, I changed the concept around completely and debuted the Life List - a long-term set of goals and things to aim at. Some are crazy, some are impossible, some are easy and most will take time. I figured a quick review for the year would be appropriate, with some thoughts on what is next.

When they announced that this year’s Christmas Doctor Who would be based on the Charles Dickens novel, I thought that sounded quite interesting, particularly as I knew they would be incorporating time travel and that’s my favourite bit. Then they made a big deal of announcing the name, drum roll please, A Christmas Carol. I felt a bit deflated. That’s not very creative at all, is it? Naming the story after the very book you are borrowing from.

You know, I did not remember this episode at all. The only bit I could recall ahead of viewing was that Rose touched the Dalek and that’s when all hell broke loose. Otherwise, the rest was a blank. Sometimes those are the best ones! Sometimes. The concept of an alien museum is so good. I wish we had one of those. Actually, if the Doctor ever gave up his time-travelling ways, he could make a killing in the museum business. I can’t imagine the stuff he’s got hidden away in that TARDIS.

The conclusion of a two-part story that I started watching ages ago. For once I was grateful for the “Previously on…” montage. There are some excellent Doctor moments in here, starting with his unique ability to escape pretty much anything. I particularly enjoyed him being backed up against a lift and then using it to escape, but that’s because little things please me. He’s also smart enough to know that he can’t convince the people in charge that the Prime Minister is an alien. I imagine he has had this conversation many times before, and no one ever believes him. The only other option is to run!

I spotted this a while ago, but keep on coming back to it - the Adipose Stress Toy. The Adipose made their debut at the same time as Donna Noble, and although technically they are quite gross (born from the fat and yuck of humans), they are also enormously cute. Far from having to squish and squeeze the stress away, simply looking at the Adipose’s toothy grin makes me feel happy.

The first two-part Doctor Who episode of the New Who era, and we are back to London to find out that Rose has been missing. I was slightly confused by the entire introduction to this story. Whilst it was quite revealing to see the impact of Rose’s departure on her family and the friends she has left behind, isn’t the TARDIS a time machine? Once they realised they’d returned a year later, couldn’t they hop back in and hit reverse for 12 months? Problem solved.

You know, I do not remember this episode at all. I must have seen it, and yet nothing stands out in my brain. Although, that isn’t at all surprising. It’s not a particularly good episode, when it comes down to it. The first historical character new Doctor Who introduces, Charles Dickens no less, and it’s a bit of a let down.

The minute this episode started, we got to see more fearless attitude from Rose. As the Doctor was busy trying to impress her, and take her futher and further forward into time, she was happy to say: “Fine by me, let’s go further,” without actually seeing any of the things they were passing. She trusted that he was doing what he said, and she was happy to wait for the better deal.

So, this is how the BBC brought back Doctor Who - to a skeptical viewing public. At the time, it was ever-so-slightly ruined by a certain Graham Norton, but now, watching it back having purchased the series on iTunes, it’s as it should be. It’s fun watching things with the benefit of hindsight, but I tried to go into this with an open mind.

They have recommissioned Sherlock! Fabulous news, although I don’t think anyone expected any different. The intriguing part of the announcement is that it is to be another batch of three episodes, and they will each continue the format of a 90 minute sitting. After the second episode of series 1, I felt that 90 minutes was drawing things out a little, but if it helps them to tell the story, then we will have to trust them. Whilst I would like more than three episodes, I can understand why it is necessary to limit the stories. They must be quite tricky to write, and Moffat will be fitting it in between two bits of Doctor Who (more on that in a moment). Good things come in small packages, apparently. Talking of the man who has taken over the BBC, Moffat says:

This is terribly self-indulgent, and really just an excuse to post a graph, but I wanted to share the Wordpress stats for the last couple of weeks: The big spike at the beginning was my World Cup post, and the second spike in the centre was all about Wimbledon. The two medium spikes on the 19th and the 27th are for the first and second parts of the Doctor Who series finale.

Wow. Where to start? This entire episode was really well written, beautifully crafted, and swept us all along to the finish. Despite there being a lack of action (not a criticism, I think it’s nice the action was loaded into the first part, and the second was about the consequences), there was nothing lacking. I love, love, loved the bits where the Doctor was flying in and out of time. Figuring out that he had the mop, then he needed to block the door, then he needed his sonic screwdriver, and the drink! Brilliant. Stuff like that makes my day. Time travel, how it works, the intricate things you have to think about, that all makes Doctor Who for me.

Oh, just wow. I don’t know why but I really wasn’t expecting much from this finale. Even more so for this week, as the first of a two-part story is normally ridiculously over the top or really rather slow. For the most part, this series of Doctor Who has appeared to be quite low budget, and I think that lowered my expectations quite a lot. Well, I think it’s fair to say they saved a whole chunk of the budget for this episode. Roman camps, thousands of starships, Pandorica’s opening, it was all in there.

I think, like many other people, I was dreading this episode. You cannot move a single inch on this planet without encountering James Corden doing something, and whilst it’s probably not his fault, it’s quite easy to be bored with his rather over-enthusiastic manner. You can have too much of a good thing, and that’s supposing you think it was a good thing in the first place.

This was the epitome of one of those Love It or Hate It episodes. It was all about the people and less about the monsters, but written by Richard Curtis, you could hardly expect anything else. I thought it was okay. It was nice to have a slower episode after some of the fraught stories we’ve seen recently. Things are bound to be ramping up towards the end of the series as well, so a moment of peace is probably a good thing.

As human beings, we are pretty rubbish at negotiating for the future of the human race, aren’t we? The second part of this story didn’t really seem to capitalise on the first episode. There was an awful lot of setup and although I have nothing against the wrap up - it was all a bit formulaic. The humans failed, big style. Some people made some sacrifices and the Doctor managed to save as many people as he could.

Once again, none of us had any idea this was to be a two-part episode because the powers that be behind Doctor Who don’t seem keen on making it obvious. It’s only when it gets to the end and you realise they are still in as much danger as ever that it can’t possibly be solved in the next five minutes. Anyway, what of the Hungry Earth then?

I have mixed feelings about this episode. On the one hand, it was a good romp through an unusual situation with an interesting outcome. On the other hand, it wasn’t even slightly what I thought it was going to be. Firstly, I know that it’s my fault for building it up into something it wasn’t. I’m a big fan of the time travel/flash forward/mixed up universes kind of story, ones where there are all kinds of coincidences and you have to stick with it to figure it out.

The first thing to do, I suppose, is to take a step back from my big ol’ sulk of last week. I still stand by the fact that Doctor Who, for me, is not about the romance. But I got over it. The one thing I would say is that if there’s something I’m unhappy with, usually watching Confidential makes me see it in a different light. It did not help this week. Particularly when they were all “smoochy smoochy time.” Bleurgh.

I never really thought I was one of those fans who got angry about the idea of the Doctor and romance, but there it was. When Amy was wandering around the forest by herself, eyes closed, panic rising, I felt for her. I couldn’t imagine anything worse. Then she went and ruined it by throwing herself at the Doctor and now I don’t really like her anymore.

With about five minutes to go, I glanced at the clock and realised that the episode would be over soon and our heroes were all still in mortal danger. Either they were going to wrap this up quickly or it was going to be a two-parter. Thankfully, it was the latter, although no one I have spoken to knew it was going to be over two weeks. A bit of warning might be nice. Compared with last year, however, a week seems like a reasonable amount of time to wait.

There’s a great post from Steven Moffat on the BBC TV blog, and whilst a little bit spoilerific in terms of the next Weeping Angels episode (no major plot points but some behind the scenes notes), Mr M’s thoughts on Matt Smith are fascinating. I think the thing that has come back with Matt is the idea that The Doctor is a bit silly at times. He’s a slightly silly old buffer in a few ways.

Ah, I know plenty of people have said it before, but it is so good to have regular episodes again. All that waiting to find out what the Doctor was going to do in his next special was not fun. I really didn’t think much of this week’s story. It had tons of potential, Winston Churchill, a war room, Daleks on our side for once. It all got a bit crazy though, and as soon as they started changing colour, I kind of lost interest. As Mr C said:

I didn’t manage to catch this live, which means I’ve already let myself down a little bit, however, it was worth waiting for. A few thoughts on the latest episode of Doctor Who. It very much reminded me of Gridlock - the episode where there were all those car type things stuck on a motorway type thing. The idea of the human race stuck inside, trying to find a way of living without upsetting the beast below. There were thoughts on the last episode that this series of Doctor Who would be influenced by Douglas Adams. I’m not sure about that as I haven’t read or seen anything Hitchhiker related.

With the invention of the iPad pretty much scrapping any chance of me getting a Kindle any time soon, I’ve been starting to look at the concept of reading books on the iPod Touch. My first experience came only from seeing the words Doctor Who on an app in a top ten list somewhere. The Enhanced Editions, er, edition of Code of the Krillitanes by Justin Richards. It’s one of those Quick Read books, designed to encourage new or less confident readers to pick up books and get started.

It was good! I can’t quite describe the relief. I think, really, I knew it would be. How could it be anything less than brilliant with Steven Moffat at the helm? So a few thoughts: The Doctor. He did everything right. From his very first words about apples, to his confident showdown with the alien eye thing at the end. I’m still not impressed with the clothes, but they do suit the character, and seeing that he grabbed them from a hospital at least explains the mismatch.

Doctor Who is crazy popular, and has managed to create an entire universe of TV shows, books, comics, games, and much more. It even has a couple of spin-offs with Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures. Thing is, both of those spin offs are all very well and good, but I can think of a couple of other characters who would be much more interesting. Here’s the game. If you could select five Doctor Who characters to get their own TV show, who would you pick and why? You can’t choose the Doctor, obviously, and the companions are out of bounds too. That means no Rose or Donna, and I suppose it means no Wilf. That’s crazy talk because we all know Wilf needs his own show but alas, for this, he is not eligible.

Doctor Who is returning to our screens on the 3rd April, and there is so much stuff floating about that I need a post to make sense of it all. Firstly, the Beeb have released their press pack for the new series. Yay! I can’t believe it tells us anything we don’t already know, as people have been discussing the debut of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan since, well, forever. The statistics page is quite good, although it’s headed “10 things you didn’t know about Doctor Who” and has a fact for each incarnation of the Doctor. Someone is not good at maths.

I’ve left it a while to write about the last David Tennant episode of Doctor Who because I was trying to convince myself that it hadn’t actually finished, and that he was still floating around in his TARDIS somewhere. I have plenty of questions about the story itself, including why Time Lords would want time to end, who the Time Lord woman is and how she got through when no one else could, why the Doctor had so much time before he regenerated, and where the Master disappeared to.

Here are just a few things that struck me about the latest Doctor Who episode, The Water of Mars. If you haven’t seen it yet, and you are able, it’s up on the iPlayer already. It only finished 15 minutes ago! That is the first time in a long time, if you don’t count F1 coverage, that I have watched live TV - even if I was streaming it on the web. I am slightly concerned about boiling the water needed to make pasta for dinner now. I don’t like the unhinged doctor all that much, although he is an interesting character study. It will make saying goodbye to the character much easier, if they make him slightly less likeable. I am fascinated by the idea of a colony on Mars, particularly the way they had the hub with the branches leading off to the various domes. What was that Ood doing there? I miss Donna.

It’s all about Doctor Who today, naturally, as we eagerly await the second Tennant special that leads up to the two-part festive end-of-doctor-ten story. I can’t wait. While the time drags on, though, I discovered that some of the classic episodes are available to watch for free on YouTube. Full episodes provided by BBC Worldwide (channel no longer available). There are also other series on there, such as Dead Ringers, which has full episodes, and many nature programmes and others that only have clips as well.

I watched an episode of Doctor Who last night, with no real reasoning, except it was on the iPlayer and I needed a Doctor fix. I don’t know about anyone else, but I feel cheated of a proper series this year, and even if these specials are the best thing ever, can they really replace a 13 episode run? Either way, I am one of those annoying people who has only become a fan since the rebirth of the series, and I have yet to get through an entire episode of the early Doctors. Mr Tennant is my favourite, and although I posted previously about being reluctant to let him go for Matt Smith, I’m actually looking forward to seeing how the new dynamic will work. Plus, I hate goodbyes, and I wish it was next year already.

There are only four Doctor Who specials to keep us amused this year, and so we’ve been desperately trying to find news for the first. All we know is that Lee Evans and Michelle Ryan feature, and they’ll be disappearing off to the Dubai deserts. Now, before that one has even screened, we’re starting to get information about the second special. It was announced today that Lindsay Duncan will play the companion in the episode, and she will be “the Doctor’s cleverest and most strong-minded companion yet.”

Matt Smith is the new Doctor Who, facing the daunting task of replacing David Tennant. It’s an unenviable task, especially from someone I’m sure not many people have heard of. I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve seen him in action, but on first impressions alone… he doesn’t look the part, and he certainly doesn’t sound the part. What do you think?

Design revamp for ‘$100 laptop’ I always thought the old one looked like a cartoon, and whilst aimed at kids, I found it quite off-putting. The new one looks beautiful. Twitter: Something Is Technically Wrong Well, I gave up already. Gyllenhaal confirmed for ‘Prince of Persia’ Firstly, I didn’t know there was a film. Secondly, that Gemma Arterton is everywhere right now, and I still haven’t seen her in anything.

Amazon.co.uk: America Unchained: A Freewheeling Roadtrip In Search of Non-Corporate USA: Dave Gorman: Books Buy it, buy it now. Moving on to new projects - Veronica Belmont (link retired) But Mahalo Daily is so good… Podcasting News » Free Skype Call Recorder Where was this when we needed it? Amazon Payments Account Management (link retired) Earlier I told you to buy a book - now I’m telling you how. Cult - News - No romance for Doctor and Donna - Digital Spy

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Doctor Who when it came back. I quite enjoyed the first episode, and watched any others if I was near a television at that time on a Saturday night, but I wasn’t really bothered if I missed any. Not so, this new series. Starring the delectable David Tennant, you are going to have to kidnap me and keep me locked away in a padded cell before I will miss an episode.

…and then ruin it with an annoying Irishman in a ridiculous suit. I’m probably not the only one who’s going to comment on this but I just wanted to mention how funny it was that the BBC finally got their brand new Doctor Who series up and running, after much hype and speculation, and they managed to ruin the tension of the first five minutes by fading up and down Graham Norton’s annoying voice from the previous program.