Quite so. She also has ‘whingey, crying cockney’ down to a tee. And I hear she can do comedic old women, too. Here’s hoping the series finale is her pulling an Adric.

*hangs head in shame that he didn’t spot ‘T K Maximus’*

Still, the writing of the Pompeii episode was very strong, especially around the idea of the Doc’s predetermined position in Time (and, yeah, that deserves an uppercase T), and rather I like the idea of him as Benthamite: it shows his remove from humanity and demonstrates his alien viewpoint.

Also, the name gags worked for me - but then I studied Latin at school. (Caecilius est in horto etc.)

If this is as bad as it gets then we can rest easy. The series so far has been nowhere near as disappointing as I had expected, and that’s only got to be a good thing.

Looking forward to Billie’s return…

Loving the latin gags. lovely to see Caecilius in action: hopefully it inspires some kids to take the Cambridge Latin Course and parse those secondon declension words. ;O) For the uninitiated: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Latin_Course

Great acting from Phil Davies and Peter Capaldi among others.

Catherine Tate is rather good. (Quam clarem?)

Yes, Sue and Sam, messianic isn’t really really quite right is it? The Doctor is rather more godlike.

And, again, a bit more set up for the return of Rose. Incidentally, spotted Billie Piper drinking in a pub in Putney on Friday. I was as giddy as a schoolboy. Obviously.

But: “T K Maximus” and (especially) “Caecilius Petrus Dextrus” - you can forgive RTD a lot because of those.

MHO is that in ‘Second Coming’, RTD tapped into the zeitgeist of that time - namely that the human race had ‘outgrown’ its need for religion*. Now he’s just replacing them with an all-purpose, scientific messiah (possibly 2 if Rose really is coming back). Out with the old & in with the old.

But then that’s all my baggage. Nonsensical, rambling baggage, too. RTD - please Don’t Listen to the Fans - especially this one.

* Other TV shows had a similar message eg ‘Babylon 5′ in which angels & devils are there to wean us & can ‘get the hell out of our galaxy’ once their job is done. Or better yet, ‘X-Files’, where our potential saviours turn out to be an even bigger set of ruthless industrialists than the US government.

Amen.

The good guys developing godlike powers to fight off invincible enemies at the end of series’ 1 & 3 struck me as RTD writing himself into a corner & as somewhat unimaginative for it to happen twice. Not to mention the Doctor flying through the air flanked by angels off to save Kylie, etc, etc, etc. This from the writer of Second Coming…

“Let Tennant Act More”

Double amen & several genuflections. The Doctor becoming human had to be an all-time highlight for me.

And I’d like to add -

Remove Torchwood from the mercy of writers better suited to Hollyoaks.
I can see what he’s trying to do - a sci-fi series with adult relationships (ie Farscape with worse acting) but everyone running round convinced they’re ‘in love with’ - as opposed to fancying slightly - virtually everyone else they work with & anyone they come across who doesn’t have a fish for a head doesn’t constitute ‘adult’ relationships. Farscape worked because the plots came first & the characters developed around them, not ‘Tosh & Jack haven’t snogged yet, let’s come up with an excuse to make that happen’.

I hate Russell T Davies beyond telling and I will NEVER forgive him for what he just did.