I started the weekend by watching "Logopolis", Tom Baker's final story, which I ashamedly fell asleep in the middle of. After that I watched the "New Dimension" documentary on BBC1, followed by the dire but enjoyable-in-an-"I-also-like-pot-noodle"-way Paul McGann TV Movie while Graham Bloody Norton introduced his camp and crap dancing programme was on.
Then we get to the main event. The thing that British Sci-fi fans have waited sixteen years for. The twenty-seventh series began. Not with a whimper but with a dirty great, soundbite generation grabbing B-A-N-G!
I was in an IRC chatroom through the episode and a constant presence on Usenet (rec.arts.drwho) afterwards and the majority of comments were positive, with half of them being about how their kids loved it. I spent a couple of hours saying the same thing over and over to the naysayers:
"This isn't the Who you grew up with. The world has moved on and if you want Dr Who to continue, comments like 'my kids loved it' is exactly what we want to see."
I don't think the 45 minute format works. When they decided to split Colin Baker's stories into 40 minute episodes, I stopped watching. There's not enough time to tell a decent story. This is something American TV is just coming to terms with. "Enterprise" is drawing near its strongest series by producing two-and three-part serials instead of 22 individual episodes where everything gets wrapped up nicely after 45 minutes. They've learned the lesson that Russel T Davies is hopefully just about to learn.
"Rose" was great, though. It set up the new companion just right and proved that even after 42 years, with the right attention, a series can be compelling, relevant and fresh.
