It’s New Year’s Eve, which makes this the last comic of 2009, and a perfect time to drop in a joke about the annual plot-in-a-blender that is the Doctor Who Christmas Special. At the time of writing only the first part has been shown, with the dénouement scheduled for New Year’s Day. Hopefully it will be a fitting send-off to the tenth Doctor, but based on part one I’m not too hopeful.

Russell T Davies has done some great things for Doctor Who, not least of which was bringing it back to our screens in the first place. And on the whole I’ve enjoyed David Tennant in the role. But I can’t help feeling that something of the old charm of the programme has been lost in the move to single-episode plots with lots of running and VERY LOUD NOT-SO-INCIDENTAL MUSIC. Yes, change is necessary and inevitable, but the modern incarnation does seem to lack the drama, mystery and subtlety of the multi-episode plots of the past. Perhaps it’s just my rose-tinted glasses… I’m sure the new sonic screwdriver must have a mode to fix them.

So thanks to RTD and to David Tennant, but I’m definitely looking forward to a new era. Steven Moffat has undoubtedly written some of the best Who stories of the current incarnation (and has proved that you can still do drama, mystery and subtlety in Who, even in a single episode). Hopefully he’ll carry his knack for storytelling and his sense of the dramatic into his new role as producer.

So here’s to 2010, another new era for Who, and a second year for The Greys. Happy New Year!

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