"I'm waving at fat!"

The Doctor is also "devastated" by the Torchwood finale

He's back! David Tennant was on fine form as the Doctor in the opening episode of the new series of Doctor Who entitled Partners In Crime. He had some wonderful scenes, the silent reunion with Donna being a highlight, but one of my favourite moments was when he begins explaining the Adipose necklace only to look up and remember the TARDIS is empty. Awwww, bless his heart, he needs a mate.

You aint mating with her sunshine! Fine by me

She's back! Catherine Tate reprises her role as Donna, and she was excellent. Most of the laughs in the silent reunion scene were down to her wonderfully over the top miming. She handled the serious scenes brilliantly as well, her relationship with her grandfather (played by Bernard Cribbins) is probably the best familial relationship of this new family orientated Who.

But what of the plot? Fairly run of the mill Doctor Who series premiere stuff really. Lots of running around, an exciting lift sequence, over-use of the sonic screwdriver. The fact this is a light season opener, the social commentary about diet pills seemed a little under-developed. Still, it was good fun, and once you realised that the Adipose monsters weren't actually villains, their cutesy look worked fine. After all, they aren't the evil Spidery children the Doctor killed at Christmas, these are innocent kids, fair enough the manner of their birth kills people, (In a fashion that wasn't nearly as gruesome as it could have been...damn you 6:20 timeslot!) but that's more the fault of the sinister Miss Foster.

Look, seriously, Doctor Who is a legitimate grown up entertainment show okay?

Foster was played by a not too bad Sarah Lancashire, not quite as menacing as she probably should have been, and the bit where she was beamed up was quite frankly laughable. Still, it was entertaining enough, and the "friend" dynamic between The Doctor and Donna is so refreshing, and I think it's going to be a fun 13 weeks in the company of these two.

Unlike previous series, Rusty hasn't crowbarred an "arc-word" into the episodes. This series he says that an element from each of the episodes will be brought forward to the season finale. And this episodes element featured a character we haven't seen for a while interacting with Donna. The room I was in erupted, primarily because we didn't expect them so soon!

Next week: The Doctor and Donna visit Pompeii on Volcano Day, will they alert the locals of their impending fate? Will Davros show up? Will the BBC stick it on at a decent hour? And is it seriously going to be flanked in the schedules by two John Barrowman shows?

The Doctor: Its a new show where John Barrowman pits kids against adults!
Donna: Isn't that Are You Smarter Than A Ten Year Old?

Oh, quick notes about last nights Torchwood season finale. Whilst being very dramatic and emotional, with the deaths of no less than two of the regular characters, the plot and supporting cast didn't really seem to warrant such a crushing blow.

Eastenders should fucking sue

The evil brother gambit is such a tired television cliche, 24's critically derided sixth season featured one, and in last years Who finale, the Doctor shakes off Martha's suspicion that the Master is his brother with "You've been watching too much television..." So why, pray tell, did Upper Boat decide to give us one in Torchwood? And, why, pray tell did they hire such an absolutely atrocious actor to play him? He just didn't seem threatening in the slightest, making his devastating actions against Cardiff and the Torchwood Hub a little "meh". And James Marsters! He acted Barrowman, Myles, and the guy playing Gray right out of the park and would've been the best thing in it if it wasn't for the fantastic performances by Burn Gorman and Naoko Mori.

There, Torchwood's over until next year, and now we have some proper Who-niverse based entertainment!