It's Spring, so it must be time for a new season of Doctor Who.
(How cool is that? To know that Doctor Who will return, instead of the ennui of the Long Hiatus?)

Spoilers? Well, I've put in an LJ cut for subs to the syn but the rest of you will just have to avert your eyes...

Oh, go on. He is kinda foxy, isn't he? Not weasely like some of those fanboys say. Foxy.

(image from Alexandra Leaving's LJ icons because I can't find any screencaps yet)

I liked large chunks of New Earth. The pacing was far better than the early episodes of season 1, with none of that over-prolonged climax business which marred Rose etc for me. The Doctor as a slim action-adventurer is slightly strange but curiously works well, I think because it is offset by very Doctorish moments like fiddling with the TARDIS and getting answers out of people. The business with the medical stuff doesn't hold up to serious scrutiny but as it meant we had a soaking wet tenth Doctor not once but twice, I'm willing to overlook it. It's not a great episode in the sense that you come away thinking "wow" (unlike Dalek, or the Empty Child/Doctor Dances last year) but it was a fun romp illustrating that this is how the Doctor is going to be now.

Tennant is very much playing it as the Casanova Doctor. Not in terms of the snog (which was initiated by Cassandra-in-Rose's-body), although I loved the high-pitched "eep!" he let out after it, but in terms of delivery. Lots of repetition, quirked eyebrows and appraising glances. Having seen Tennant in other stuff (I've just been rewatching Blackpool on DVD), it's clear that the Casanova persona isn't his only one. Is it wrong of me to be glad he's using it, though?

There are deliberate echoes of the season 1 opening episodes. Rose is re-established as a regular girl from an estate who's hooked on the adventure. The Face of Boe and Cassandra serve to firm up the future, and to reassure kiddies that this is the same show, just with a new new Doctor. I think the way in which this Doctor treats Cassandra is meant to be a contrast to how the ninth stood by and watched her die. Of course, giving her a second chance goes against what he said in The Christmas Invasion ("No second chances. I'm that kind of man.").

Billie Piper as the posessed Rose was brilliant ("I don't Adam and Eve it") although, obviously, a posessed companion snogging the Doctor is allowed because it means it doesn't count. There's deniability there. Not that you'd believe it if you read some of the posts on Outpost Gallifrey, in which it is the beginning of the end, not suitable at teatime, a desecration of all that is good about Doctor Who etc etc. It's a decade since the McGann Doctor - of his own free will - snogged Grace a couple of times: you'd think fans would be used to the idea by now.

I am stupidly excited about next week's episode but will, annoyingly, be travelling. I've got a back-up plan, having asked someone to tape it - and the following week's episode - for me in case my VCR or digibox misbehave.

I love Doctor Who, me.