So David wishes people would stop going on about Dr.Who, because he's never been able to understand the attraction, eh? Well, fair enough, he's entitled to his opinion, and to state it here and on the podcast, of all places. Proprietorial privilege, and all that. But, for the love of all that's holy I wish HE would stop going on about it! Look, David, have you heard of the classic debating blunder known as "argument by incredulity"? Essentially, it consists of arguing that something cannot be true, on the grounds that you can't believe it's true, ergo it can't be true. Realising that this argument is nonsense is sort of pre-Analytical Thought 101. Given the sheer volume of the viewing figures for Dr.Who; given that its position in the Saturday evening schedule is pretty clearly a "family entertainment" slot; given that you seem pretty keen elsewhere in the podcast on the notion that sometimes the most important function of an entertainer or entertainment is to ENTERTAIN; given all of these, then clearly Dr.Who is doing what it's supposed to do, and doing it very well. And the fact that you've never seen the point of it may indeed be a faintly interesting snippet of information about your personal tastes, but it has nothing whatsoever to tell us about the quality, or lack thereof, of the programme. It's very successful. It's very popular. Get over it, David, move on...

I do feel the revived Dr.Who has been somewhat over-hyped in other quarters. As a slice of early-evening Saturday entertainment, it's not bad, but not particularly great either. As Matt said, though, its undeniably great achievement has been to partly revive "appointment TV", and the water-cooler moments which became a rarity once everyone went off watching different things and the common talking-point was lost. I'll hold my hand up as a lifelong SF fan (not sci-fi, puh-lease!), but I agree with David that schience fiction films and TV can't even begin to hold a candle to written SF. All the inventiveness, weirdness, complex plots and memorable characters get reduced, inevitably to SFX-fests and slam-bam action sequences. Interesting to hear you harking back to Charlie Murray's defense of SF on the grounds of the rich metaphors for modern life it offered, etc. That's pretty standard defensive tactics, I suspect. Like saying that car chases are a metaphor for the hectic, out-of-control rush of modern urban life, when really you just like seeing fast cars smashing stuff up. Me, I just like the aliens!

Doctor Who is really, really good. I haven't heard this podcast yet, but I feel compelled to defend one of the best programmes on terrestrial television. It's fabulously written, wonderfully acted - Catherine Tate: who knew? - and just, well...good. You don't need to be a sci fi fan - I'm not, particularly - to enjoy it, and it bears about as much relation to the creaky TV programme of the 70s - which, again, I was never really interested in - as My Ding A Ling does to the rest of Chuck Berry's recording career. I cannot make this clear enough: the programme since 2005 is completely different from the one that carried the torch for forty years before that. One was boring people talking about boring things while being threatened by unconvincing monsters made out of swimming pool covers; the other is top notch television - 'family' or otherwise - for anyone who has a heart.

Good call, Lucas. She's been by far the best thing about this latest series. I'd always enjoyed her comedy shows, but didn't think of her as an actress. Now I'd like to see her ditch the comedy and play more dramatic roles!

I , having reached a size where it appears I no longer have a waist, more an equator , would happily sport a t-shirt sporting the "sound of young Islington" . During my residing in Peckham ( the early 80's ) we used to call it the Brixton two step .

There is something terribly endearing about Mark's reaction to being informed about genres (spoken songs ect ) whose existence simply passed him by .

Hurrah for the return of the HORA ! . I still believe that any musician on that plane would believe the only way to reestablish their rock credibility is to die in a plane crash thereby forever linking them with some Rock Gods of history .

One was boring people talking about boring things while being threatened by unconvincing monsters made out of swimming pool covers; the other is top notch television - 'family' or otherwise - for anyone who has a heart.

Having tried reasonably hard to fathom the new version of Doctor Who (I've watched three tortuous episodes), I think Lucas' description of the earlier series can be applied to the new as well. To me it still looks cheap, the acting is atrocious, and the story-lines may as well be actually written in gibberish for all the sense they make. I find it altogether hopeless, and get the feeling that it's only the peculiar British affection for slightly camp, undeniably amateur drama that guarantees its continued success. So there you go.

*ducks as Andrew Harrison throws porcelain Dalek across room*

Dr.Who, with Christopher Eccleston, but find David Tennant's face-pulling, eye-popping style of acting irritating and distracting. Plus it all gets a bit 'Eastenders' when the families of his assistants are involved in the action. And of course the BBC, typically,have gone overboard with the promotion, merchandising, spin-offs, Radio Times coverage etc etc.

I enjoy Doctor Who. Maybe not in the same way that I enjoy The Wire or that Wensleydale cheese which has bits of ginger in it, but I do enjoy it.

However, the season four finale was complete nonsense, with numerous plot points being resolved by the characters blurting out meaningless techno-babble at twice the speed that those two annoying women on The Gilmore Girls communicate.

There is hope for improvement. Steven Moffat who has so-far been responsible for one or two genuinely creepy episodes in each season (all written with the admirable goal of terrfiying small children - this is how we will solve juvenile crime and silence the sound of young Islington forever) is taking control of the show in 2010.

...particularly the 70s Jon Pertwee/Tom Baker years, and I'm not remotely interested in sci-fi. The 80s ones I've seen are very hit and miss (ranging from the great to the unwatchably awful!). The more recent series are similarly hit and miss in quality but when it hits the target, it's terrific. Sadly, I would have to say that the 4th season that's just finished was easily the weakest of the revival thus far- the final episode was very weak stuff in my opinion.

...was in faux-Avengers/time-travel shenanigans 'Adam Adamant Lives!'. I watched it a few years ago due to my love of 60s/70s cult TV series and it wasn't terribly good.

in my house for his relationship with Sarah Alexander out of "Coupling" who was 42 years younger than him. Doffs cap...well done sir!!

Heppo's comment that he's sick of hearing about Dr Who has got everybody talking about it once again....

My current job is post-production for a series of Doctor Who audio CDs. These could well be classified as spoken word, and I may have hmphed slightly at the podcast this week.

Sorry to bother you all, but I seem to be stuck in podcast-that-starts-with-the-Wikipedia-bit hell.
That's all I seem to be able to hear on the podcast page, and the play box on this page is empty.
Can someone with a bigger brain help please?

... the play box is always empty lately.

I ended up having to download it onto my PC to hear it.