I almost always prefer frock to gun and this episode was not for me, but I am a base-under-siege Grinch and know my limitations. This is my second-least-favorite RTD2 episode after Empire of Death, though I am thoroughly enjoying this series, even more than the last.
askryan
Yeah, frankly I think this says more about broadcast television than about Doctor Who. It was in fourth place for the day, with News at Ten, Casualty, and Blankety Blank above it - I think it's rather clear what the demographics are for broadcast TV.
I like this chart for comparing the current series' performance to past ones, because it relies on seeing it against the wider television landscape rather than just as abstract numbers. Doctor Who may be getting lower over-the-air ratings, but everything is - its been pretty impressively stable.
I'm especially excited for Inua Ellams' episode - I really hope it works, because in addition to quite liking his writing, he's exactly the sort of writer whom I was hoping they'd recruit for the show: someone who's loved Doctor Who their whole lives, for whom Doctor Who is extremely meaningful, but also willing to put the Doctor in a very different story - temporally and narratively – from what we've seen before.
I adore how campy this looks, but I'm so frustrated by the constant shoehorning of Kirk into the show. Maybe if the performance were interesting or there was something compelling about him it would be different, but he just seems to drag down the show whenever he appears (outside of the episode with La'an, but really, she was doing all of the work in that one).
I'm not sure that Sarah Jane sleeps from Planet of the Spiders all the way through Revenge of the Cybermen, so Belinda has joined an illustrious club! Donna also has a shit day all through the 60th specials.