Dr Who Summary

I'm getting in there first with the Dr Who thing this week.

The Cyberpersons double-ep was pretty good - though I did wonder about this alternate universe where zeppelins roam the skies and the land is ruled by minor characters from sitcoms of the 70s and 80s. Rose showed signs of being a bit of a needy minx - especially when she discovers that Alternate Rose is a Yorkshire terrier. Lovely Mickey met Alternate Mickey. Alternate Mickey dies, and Lovely Mickey takes his place in the fight for freedom, alongside a really irritating children's TV presenter who turns out to be quite a good freedom fighter. Kudos to the casting folk for working in this nice little twist. The writing was a bit clunky in places, and David Tennant's wacky doctor schtick does wear thin over two episodes. He's still better than Christopher Eccleston's well-meaning social worker, but it's almost like he's trying too hard.

This week, Mark Gatiss writes and Maureen Lipman is a baddy! It's 1953 and everybody in Muswell Hill wants a telly to watch the Coronation. Only these tellies suck your face off and stick it inside a Bruce Naumann-style installation while Maureen yells "HUNGRY! HUNGREEEEE!" in her best BBC voice. Billie gets to wear pink patent heels and the Dr looks like a young Clint Eastwood in his quiff. I kind of lost interest when Maureen's minion manages to get past security at Alexandra Palace, but the Dr has to prove he's King of Belgium or something. But anyway, he reverses the polarity and everybody gets their faces back.

I did wonder about other things that might be different in the Cybermen alternate universe. Like, do they have Big Brother?

Mark was spot on about Shahbaz, who walked. We were both spot on about Dawn, who threatened to walk and was chucked out on some trumped-up charge that would have been laughed off if she hadn't a) worked out the premise of BB so early; and b)decided not to go along with it. Richard is a bit of a bully. And I was wrong wrong WRONG about Pete. He's lovely and he punctuates his sentences with "Wanker!"

The rest of them can be divided into The Beautiful People - leaping in and out of bed like Strict Baptist freshers on their first night away from home (believe me, I've heard stories...); and The Others. The Others interact politely with The Beautiful People, but all the camera action is whether or not Sezer will finally get into Imogen's pants; or will boring posho George get rid of self-obsessed Nikki or will Mikey...oh, you know something? I don't give a monkey's fart.