Nelson Galaxy

******SPOILER ALERT******

I must say that I am happy that Doctor Who is back. I become afraid when a new series begins because I worry it will be a massive disappointment. Series three saw some amazing episodes, such as Family of Blood and Blink, but was let down by its silly Master-arc series finale (the turn-back-time plot device is such a cop out).

Two episodes into the fourth series and I am very much enjoying it. So far Catherine Tate is proving to be less annoying than expected and the special effects seem to have stepped up a notch. The effects house, The Mill, have hired one of the major FX people involved on Lord of the Rings, and you can tell.

However, I do feel that the show is becoming a little formulaic. The season opener always introduces a new assistant and her family, is set on modern day earth and includes lots of running around, especially down corridors.

My predictions for the forthcoming series: We can expected an historical episode (Pompeii), famous literary person (Agatha Christie as played by Felicity Kendal), classic Who villains (Sontarans). I bet there will be an episode set on a space station, the appearance of Captain Jack, there’ll be one which is Doctor-lite and the best episodes will be written by Steven Moffat (the two-parter set in a library is one of his).

We will see a brand new alien race called The Hoff and the Ood will return in next week’s ‘The Planet of the Ood’. Let’s just hope there aren’t any Cybermen with their ridiculous flared metal trousers, or Cyberwomen, as seen in the worst ever episode of Torchwood. But the big bad of the series is going to be one Dave Ross, the evil Hitler-type leader of the Daleks. This will be played by Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley.

I’ll tell you what though, that Dave Ross really put the willies up me when I was a little boy.