Dr Who Off to a Great Start...

Watching the start of series thirty four of Dr Who on Saturday we were a little nervous. Excited and nervous in fact. Excited that the show was back for another thirteen week run but nervous as to whether new assistant... sorry, companion (Catherine Tate's Donna Noble) would actually be any good. Tate's comedic characters are so strong in her eponymous named show that we couldn't believe that we'd be able to get them out of our heads and be able to take her seriously. Because the actors really have to take sci-fi drama seriously otherwise is just doesn't work (OK HHGTTG and Red Dwarf aside).

The diet pills story itself was a tad lacklustre to be honest (the Russell T Davis penned stories so often are). Alien babies made of fat? But we were suitably wowed at the right points, we laughed at the script (sorry, with the script) pretty much throughout and we were suitable impressed by the special effects (didn't we see that space ship in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind?) So with a mixture of relief and indeed more than a little joy... we have to say... we loved it. It was great. Catherine Tate was a bit of a revelation. And it looks like at least 8.4 million other people agreed with us.

And a nice little twist at the end too. We spent a lot of time at various birthday parties and other events over the weekend discussing the significance of the final few seconds of the episode. Hmmm...