SFX article on "Doctor Who"'s third season

If you were a particularly good writer, you might decide to write a play featuring a woman named Victoria, who ruled the British Empire in the nineteenth century. And, since the writer is god in his or her own little world, you might decide to portray her in a Metallica T-shirt, ripped jeans and bovver boots, with her hair bleached and spiked out and a safety-pin through her nose. You might have her come in swigging Carlsberg from a can and stride up to Mr Gladstone with a cheery "Eh up, duck, 'ow's it 'angin'?" And if you were a *really* good writer, your play might be very funny if a comedy, or very dramatic if a drama, and it might win critical acclaim and prestigious awards, and people might say how refreshing it was and how much nicer your Victoria was than the stuck-up old bat one usually sees in such plays. It might be all these things. What it would quite definitely not be, by any rational definition, is a play about Queen Victoria.

The jury is still out on whether I'll be watching the third season of what SFX felicitously calls NuWho (a perfect name for it, with all its connotations of tacky-plastic-imitation and change-for-change's-sake). I said David Tennant would do, on the basis of The Christmas Invasion, and I watched the second season, because, you know, I'm an sf fan, it's an sf show, and there are loyalties to be considered here. And parts of it were excellent. But, my gods, they're doing their level best to put me off.

I will not quote any of the spoilers here. Anyone who wants them can read the article in SFX for themselves. Suffice to say, if you welcomed the way RTD "reimagined" the series, you will not be disappointed in the third season, and I'm honestly very happy for you. Whether I can watch another thirteen episodes of something that's so almost-but-not-quite what I've loved for so long...well, we'll see.