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Like I said: Doctor Who isn't Sex and the City. Nor should a writer attempt to make it such.

And Sarah Jane was a companion to the third and fourth Doctors.

I'm also hearing talk that the K-9 spin-off isn't going to be produced by the BBC and isn't going to be regarded as canon. But I need to do some more looking around to confirm that.

She was with the third and fourth doctors. More here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Jane_Smith

another enjoyable episode this week, Dr.Who is definitely more FUN than it used to be, moving with the times as all re-vamped programmes should, and next week we get to see his grapple with some old adversaries blaugh

On The Girl in the Fireplace - which I could've talked about for considerably longer than I actually did:

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We're back in the past with Stephen Moffat at the exact same point as last series, and it all comes back to dancing and bananas. Again, I get a strange sense of deja vu.

Lovely use of the classic childhood fear motifs in the first timeslip: darkness, clowns, not hanging anything over the edge of the bed because you don't know what's under there... I wonder how many of the younger viewers got a good night's sleep on Saturday night. smile

As with last week, on an emotional level, this packed a wallop - in fact, moreso after last week, because the episode seemed to be a microcosm for everything that last week discussed.

For a while we as an audience were looking at human life as the Doctor sees it: just a brief flicker, after which he just has to pick himself up and amble off again.

Reinette made a good foil for the Doctor, with the amount of sophistication that Rose and Mickey generally lack and that it's easy to imagine a character with his experiences being drawn to.

As a character, she was largely underplayed, but it made a change to see the Doctor dealing with a woman with enough confidence and intellect to pose a challenge.

In that respect, seeing her secretly lusting for decades after an "imaginary friend" who she's seen a number of times she could count on her fingers just didn't make sense, and yet again a two-parter might've made more sense, even if would've diluted the Brief Encounter vibe.

Perhaps it was because of the genuine chemistry between David Tennant and Sophia Myles, but the emotions came across as something easy to empathise with. I suppose you could look at it as a couple of different types of nobility: the Doctor's being the classical approach with the white charger and Reinette's being the willingness to show him the fireplace again after - having visited his time - she realises that he doesn't belong in hers, and when she knows that she may never see him again. Classic stuff.

I wanted to believe in the romantic elements - but the fact is that watching the Doctor apparently lose his head on an infatuation level over a woman we see him find and lose in forty-five minutes just seemed odd.

Given his reaction to the revelation of who the strange woman who'd just kissed him was, I couldn't help getting a sense that if the Doctor has a bedroom squirreled away somewhere on the TARDIS, it's had at least one portrait of Reinette in it somewhere for years.

He came across as such a drooling fanboy initially that it's possible to wonder if she's a woman he's admired for years, and if he was able to slide into a relationship with this idealised figure from the history books that he's had time to create in his head as much as the pretty trinket actually in front of him - the ultimate bit of memoribilia collection, if you will.

As much as I can't fault "Arthur" on his permformance and I do appreciate what the writers said later about a horse wandering around a space station being a random element to keep people's attention, the part of me that likes a tight story can't help resenting shoving the completely random element of a horse onto a space station apparently just to let the Doctor do his knight errant routine in the grand confrontation, and give Moffat that big scene he threw such a hissy fit about.

And that's the one part of the story that I really do want to see consequences for, because I can't square it very easily: the Doctor was willing to leave Rose, Mickey, the TARDIS and his entire life, and trap himself on that "slow path" that he just said last week scares him so much that he tends to throw humans away before they get a chance to lose their lustre.

And all for just one of the "stupid apes".

(I want to imagine the few missing seconds between the Doctor debating how to save the day and finally crashing through the mirror involving the Doctor reminding Rose how to take the TARDIS home and giving her a few assorted instructions; but that's just me.)

The personality may be different; but this is still the character who's spared entire species on occasion for nothing other than the benefit of future generations, and he seemed purely focused on either his usual fascination with "beautiful" new things, or just plain lust.

It is more plausible to see him flitting between humans because he seems to treat them like curiosities or pets - but to give everything up like that just doesn't seem to work with what we know, even with all of the soul-searching that's been going on since this series started.

What I can't decide is whether or not this is adding a layer of complication to the character and something that's going to come back later, or just plain sloppy writing.

(And the closest we get to a Torchwood reference is a mention of the 51st century. I can live with that. smile )

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Other than one Jack reference if you turned your head sideways and squinted slightly. smile

Although I have a more general question.

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A friend of mine reckons that he's seen that sort of plot (the clockwork robots' reason for the whole thing, rather than the specifics) used in either a book, movie or series before, is at a loss as to where and is asking for help with remembering. I had the same feeling, and it's irking me that I can't bring anything to mind enough to remember titles.

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Thanks for discussing this stuff! I'm dying to see some Tennant stuff.

Oh, and as for the K-9 spin off not heing canon - I really, really hate canon. I think it can really choke the life out of a series (particularly a fantasy spin-off series) if you gotta glue yourself to the "continuity."

The spin-off is about an interesting or entertaining character or premise from the core series, so why can't it go in it's own direction? Any references to the original series can just pop in there to be to spice things up or as an in-joke to those who liked the original.

So, anyway, if I get to see the k-9 spin off, I'm not gonna be too disapointed if things don't match the rest of Dr. Who. That's really more fun.

i missed this week's episode as i was watching X-men, just saw the very end...DELETE..DELETE..DELETE.. eek
but i shall be able to catch up next week xd

This week's episode was definately a bit more dark than I've ever seen Dr Who become before. I mean wow. And yeah, that song has a very different effect on me these days also.

I guess occasionally there can be a traditional Dr Who cliff hanger ending after all. smile Waiting for the rest...