First one I'd seen too and I thought it was utter bobbins.

Re: alien technology being adopted by Humans, I like the bit in Men In Black where Will Smith asks Tommy Lee Jones how the Agency is funded and is told they've commercialised a load of technologies they picked up from aliens: "Things like microwave ovens, velcro, liposuction..."

The whole 'last of the timelords' thing is part of some bigger story arc that hopefully will be explored in some depth later in the series. At the moment it does seem strange that as a timelord he has met up with previous versions of himself but now is alone in the universe. Couldn't he just meet up with a past or future version of himself?

Awww balls. I've been waiting for 3 hours for all the episodes to download, and you go and tell me they're shite when the downloads at 96%.
Tits.
sorry, I meant, gadzooks.

A little unfair to blame Chris Ecclestone, when the person who really deserves credit is the writer, Russell T. Davies.

Please, here is an appeal for some sanity and context.

How old were you when you saw the original Doctor Who ? Did you question and analyse it back then as you did now ?

The same problem existed for legions of Star Wars fans when Episode I was finally out and universally derided. These were people who had previously uncritically accepted rock hurling teddy bears overpowering heavily armed Imperial Stormtroopers.

Look at this through the eyes of the target audience, reconsider.

My little son enjoyed Episodes I and II a lot ("It was really cool coz Yoga (sic) was fighting and stuff"), when I saw Episode I and those familiar credits rolled up the screen I was transformed into a 13 yo again, and I loved every minute of that film.

The "farting aliens" Doctor Who episode was aired in my partner's household with all four of our sons (ages 4 thru 12) lined up literally behind the sofa That's enough proof for me.

Agreed with your criticisms entirely though, the last time Doctor Who beat up the Daleks was with a transmogrified baseball bat and Ace and her wonderful nitro, I sure the local SAS could have done a bit better.

>>The same problem existed for legions of Star Wars fans when Episode I was finally out and universally derided.

You are ignoring the most important thing - Episode I was really, really, really, dull and Jar Jar Binks was evil.

I fail to see how it's unfair to blame Eccleston for his atrocious acting. I blame the writer for the atrocious script.


> How old were you when you saw the original Doctor Who ?

That's not the point. Firstly, as I wrote, the Paul McGann episode was far, far better. I was an adult when I saw that. Secondly, grown-ups loved the old Doctor Whos; they weren't only for kids.

I didn't mind The Phantom Menace. Its main fault was a lack of banter, but that's always going to be a problem if your main characters are stiff-upper-lipped Jedis and a queen.

As for Gungans and Ewoks, I may have to blog about that.

Oh; I already did.

Despite my gripes about some politics the previous two episodes were good, honestly.

Actually you are too harsh on this one. It was straightforwardly exciting. That's a huge plus. The Dalek was dalekky even when going soft, a difficult trick to pull off. And Billie Piper was good.

Time travel is a problem. Taken too seriously it's hard to see why the Doctor should ever have endured any tense situations at all, since he can always go back and sort it out before it happens - or if that's not allowed, at least bug out, have a good think and get some equipment ready and then come back and sort it out.

Maybe the Time Lords were extinguished in supra-time?

Exactly, timelords and daleks have been eliminated from space-time by the 'time wars'. Well, thats what I assumed anyway.

There is plenty of scope for Daleks to pop up later on. Dr Who thinks they all perished in the "time wars" he doesnt know that. One Dalek survived so others can be alive elsewhere - the universe is a big place.

Worringly killing off the Timelords is akin to the senior judges being killed off in the Judge Dredd movie - for what reason?

Natalie: "Time travel is a problem. Taken too seriously it's hard to see why the Doctor should ever have endured any tense situations at all, since he can always go back and sort it out before it happens"

Of course, this is impossible due to the Blinovitch limitation effect.

Michael, I am out-geeked. Is the Blinovitch limitation effect something from a past episode that passed me by, something from your own imagination, or some development in real life physics that has come up since I stopped knowing what's going on in physics?

No need to answer. I temporarily forgot the existence of Google.

I actually read an interview with one the creative people from Dr Who in the early 1970s (or did I actually hear him in person at a convention back in the days when I went to them?) say that the very question you asked was something of a problem, because if you took it seriously the entire premise of the program collapsed. Therefore they had Jo Grant ask the question of the Doctor, he replied that it was because of the "Blinovich limitation effect", and was interrupted before he could explain further. I think the scene is a fine piece of deadpan humour.