In 2005, it didn't take me long to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with the all new Doctor Who-series and the ninth incarnation of The Doctor, who I started out loving as much as The Doctor I grew up with (Four), and then cranked it up a notch, or two. I cried when he regenerated, and mourned his loss for weeks after. I hoped that I would come to love his tenth incarnation equally as much, but sadly, it wasn't to be. Ten has his moments, but on the whole I find him a bit over-zealous, a bit over-shouty, and frankly, a bit annoying really.

Three episodes in to this year's series, my opinion of him hasn't changed. I kind of like his new companion, though. But the writing's on the wall as far as this fandom's concerned, I think -- what else could it mean if out of three episodes aired, I totally forget to tune in for the first (and only took the trouble to download and watch it days later), forget to tune in for and miss the first half hour of the second (and still haven't caught up with the bits I missed), and then forget to tune in and miss the first ten minutes of the third?


And oh joy! it's Ardal O'Hanlon, who only ever does Ardal O'Hanlon in whatever role he's playing...and I'm not keen on Ardal O'Hanlon. Gridlock, if the majority of the part of my flist that watches Doctor Who with me is to be believed, was a superb episode. Personally, I wasn't convinced. The Face of Boe's final secret, after having lived billions of years, the thing he can only impart to another exalted being like him/herself (RTD may have forgotten about it, but wasn't the Face of Boe said to have been pregnant in End of the World The Long Game, or is my memory going?) is 'You're not alone'? Big fucking deal! Is that what we've been waiting to hear for two years? And, he/she was smart enough to keep the Lower City powered up for 24 years, but he couldn't instruct his cat nurse to connect a few wires and flip a lever -- he had to wait for The Doctor to show up again?

And those cat people -- they're actually born as kittens? Then at what time do the skeletal changes to their pelvisses and back legs take place to allow them to walk like humans? Or do they have to have countless operations to achieve that?

And I think I missed what happened to the giant crabs at the end -- did the sunlight kill them? And shouldn't the miasma of the Lower City have risen up and enveloped the Upper City when the roof of the tunnel opened, before being carried away on the wind and poisoning the atmosphere, blocking out the sun and causing a new Ice Age to come into existence?

Overall, I'd vote a big fat 'meh' on this episode.