Politics aside, if there is a better line anywhere on telly this year than “There’s an escaped fish!” I will be very happy. Also, and this is one for the geeks amongst us (and I’m looking at you here, Marcus), weren’t the tentacles just like the Blast Pit level from Half-Life? Gave me a little nerdgasm I can tell you.

What I’ve enjoyed most about these two episodes is the feel of the show, rather than the actual stories. I think what we’re seeing, so far at least, is a very happy fusion of the RTD era’s modernity and gloss, with the eccentric charm of the classic series, and long may it continue.

And next week is Churchill! Daleks! Spitfires in space! Written by one of the League Of Gentlemen! There’s no way this can go wrong, is there?

Hang on a minute….what about Amy’s video message? When was that sent then? Too egregious to be a script flaw. That’s deliberate. I think we’ll be returning to that later.

Also enjoyed the great montage of previous doctors at the end, the jerry built Tardis console, the shift from an urban to semirural setting, and best of all, the promise of a companion with no annoying family (although I reckon the disappearing aunt won’t be left hanging for long). That said, if they can bodge in some kind of elderly male relative that could be played by, ooooh, I don’t know, Bernard Cribbins?, I wouldn’t complain.

So in general, very good, but you’ll notice that none of my positives up there included the actual story. It was only okay. Pretty slight I thought, good enough as an engine to introduce the new set up but not much more. And didn’t we see the shapeshifting alien causing havoc in a hospital thing in Martha’s first episode? It also seemed to be a potted version of Stephen Moffatt’s greatest hits – little Amelia wasn’t unlike the girl from Silence In The Library (but wasn’t the bit where she packed her case and went to wait for the Doctor totally heartbreaking?), all the “out of the corner of your eye” stuff was a bit “Blink”, and the whole “appearing to a girl at years apart intervals” was TOTALLY “The Girl In The Fireplace”. The CGI for Patient Zero was a bit naff as well – hope this doesn’t indicate a lower budget for the whole season.

Darkness will fall,eh? Think we’ll be hearing that again throughout the series. And did you notice that the display on the Tardis scanner was very very similiar to the pattern of the crack on the wall? Cue ominous rumbling.

a statue in central Bristol

Watched Pontypool last night. Really interesting, one of the best low budget horror movies I’ve seen in a long time. It’d be unfair to say too much about it, but if you’ve seen it, you’ll know why I got a little shiver when I started reading China Mieville’s short story “Entry Taken From A Medical Encyclopedia” this afternoon, less than 24 hours after watching the film:

“Those present during the nonsensical “grandiloquence” of a murrain sufferer report that one particular word – the wormword – is repeated often, followed by a pause as the sufferer waits for a response. If any of those listening repeats the word, the sufferer’s satisfaction is obvious. Later, it is from amongst these mimics that the next batch of the infected will be found”

Also, while browsing Pontypool online I found out that the director, Bruce McDonald, has also made a film based on one of my favourite books, Michael Turner’s Hard Core Logo. That’ll be straight on the Lovefilm list, then.

As far as I can see, Panda Z is all about giant robot pandas being driven by smaller real pandas that sit in their heads

Sisterhood