I completely agree and don't think you're at all unfair but in fact you raise your points well and without the malice seen on some fan sites. I feel I'm swimming against the stream of conventional opinion in thinking RTD a sloppy writer and find the constant return of elements that worked first time round - hey, so good, let's do it again! - to be tedious. God save us from Daleks and Cybermen in series three (I have it on good authority though I cannot name my source that the Sea Devils will be back in 2007). As for your comments about melodrama, spot on - elements of series two were what I'd call junkie TV, all big hit and comedown afterwards when you actually engage your mind in thought rather than just going with the adrenalin rush. x

You contacted me, by the way, via my feedback page about your site changes. I think it looks great but I would respectfully suggest comments are better incorporated into pages rather than as pop-up windows; the design of your comments is great but the box doesn't show them off well. Pop-up comments can also cause problems for users of social bookmarking systems such as coComment (which I use, and is great) and others. I do hope this is the kind of feedback you were after; it is honest and I do like your site. x

I thought you might be interested in seeing some examples of Doctor Who comic art that never made it into the magazine - produced from a six-part Cybermen script I wrote, which was commissioned by John Freeman, then editor, but dropped when he left and a new editor came in. I've posted four images so far on my blog. They provide an interesting insight into how artwork is produced for the comic strips in the magazine. Now I just need to dig out who did the lettering and the artwork... And decide if I want to repurpose the story as something else... x

So, conclusion: I still think RTD is out of his depth.

Who are you to say this?

Hi there,

While I agree that the new series is not perfect, there are afew points that I feel should be said.

Firstly: RTD has created a series that people watch. My partner and child leave the room when I stick on a DVD from the classic series in the DVD player but sit down and actually get excited about seeing the next episode in new Who. This might not seem important but we are dealing with a commercial property here and whatever anyone may think of RTD as a writer, the broader public seem to like it - new Who is a success (outrating Stargate, Smallville, Battlestar etc here in Oz).

Secondly: the 'gun' in Girl in the Fireplace is a fire-extinguisher and explicitly stated as being so. There are plenty of examples from the classic series of the Doctor using a gun and I think the new series has been more careful than some of the Colin Baker episodes for example (Varos, Attack of the Cybermen etc) :) Guns appear in the new series but it is rarely the Doctor toting them.

The best thing is that we have a successful show that people can (and are) spending time talking about.