Who'd have thought it......

Running about, witty one-liners, moments of drama and aliens that always seem a bit rubbish...

Yes, Dr Who is well and truly back.

I'm not a crazed fan, before you wonder. I loved it as a child - some would say the required age so as to be able to suspend cynicism and allow belief to carry the story through. I've no long scarf or cardboard cutouts, no posters or old DVD's - but when it's mentioned my ears still perk up to listen. Growing up at the right age it was required viewing and somehow avoided the geek tag it would have had if it had started now.

I'll grant you that it may mean a lot less to you if you are younger than a certain age or if you live somewhere that never picked up on it back in it's prime. Recent incarnations of the Timelords adventures were, by pretty overwhelming agreement, a nice attempt but little more than that. All the pieces but not assembled in the right order. A pastiche of a copy of a version.

This time, based on the first of the 13 episode new run, it's got it nailed back to the days of being a kid and a Dr Who mattering to those who hid behind the sofa when the cybermen, daleks or whatever came on.

It's not Shakespeare, there's holes in the plot the size of the inside of the Tardis, some of the music jars a little but, underneath it all, there's the same heart that classic Who had but with recent fat trimmed out to leave a 'just the meat' 45min run. Too short to allow filler, long enough to fit enough in.

Prime reason I've just really enjoyed watching the leaked first episode (some couple of weeks or so before launch) is for the truly inspired casting of Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor.



He has that air of fun, that ability to really know what he's in and to play to it's strengths. He's a great deliverer of a one-liner (even a groan inducing one) and can still turn out a serious line for full effect when needed. Let's face it, in a first episode featuring living plastic in the form of shop dummies with built-in shotguns and wheelie bins that kill you, an actor could flounder so badly if played with the wrong feeling. Stand there delivering lines like Apocalyse Now and you're going to look very silly indeed.

Billie Piper (yes, that pop muppet of years gone by) seems like she may just be shaking her past off nicely. Again, it's only on the back of one episode, but she seems to be a good foil for Eccleston's northern quips and total lack of empathy for "the backward apes" on earth - she's strong, from the 'sarf' of London and seemingly able to actually help things rather than just fall over and/or out of her dress. Maybe her recent well received work in the TV adaptation of a modern day 'Canterbury Tales' was no one-off - bigger shocks have happened, I guess.



If the Beeb can get this right it may well bring the series back into the current age with a subtle nod or two back at it's creaky past. By all reports, some of the other stories in this run are by turns sillier and darker - again something classic Who had.

You may laugh at the note of excitment in my voice but I make no bones about it - I'm glad they seem to have got this back on track. This is now series 27 (yes, that's twenty seven !) and it's a nice thought that a second wind can occur this far down the line.

I'm 37 years old and if it can make me feel like a kid of 8 for around an hour on a cold and rather dull Sunday afternoon then I'm all for it. I'm off to have some fun with my one piece of merchandise - the almost blog-famous foot tall Dalek.

Reading this back before posting it puts one thought in my head.

I can say "enjoy" and "Dr Who" in the same sentence without a single note of irony or sarcasm and that in itself should be applauded.