However after the point being hammered home several times and not least tonight, I have come to the conclusion that , whilst RTD can do Earth-bound 20th Century stories, he has no real concept of the phrases "alien" (as in strange) or "future" as in totally and radically different from the now. The worst offender was when a story was set 5,000,000,000 years in the future and yet Blade Runner (set at the latest in the 25th Centrury) looks more futuristic.

RTD chucks out fantastical notions and grand concepts and then brings them crashing to earth by his inability to actually write something that doesn't jar massively with the basic conceit. And tonight a bunch of travelling aliens who want to visit Earth but needn't have bothered because it was no different to how they live just emphasised the point.

I am just going to have to reign in my expectations I suppose because its perfectly clear RTD just doesn't get it.

without an alien invasion of London. Brilliant! And robots... only this time dressed as angels (cos it's Christmas, after all) rather than Santas... and who also resemble Autons and the acclaimed statues from Blink. Fantastic! But what about a big, bulky, RC-action-figure-type villain that will only survive this one episode?? Don't worry, we've got that too! Check, check, and fkn check. RTD is creatively bankrupt?? Fuck you haters - this was brilliant, original and inspired TV!!!

Sure, my 8 year old Doctor Who loving nephew got bored half way through and started to play with his noisy new toys but what does he know?? He's just a kid! It's not like he's the shows target audience or anything. And the revamped theme tune? Oh man, how I LOVE early '90s techno!!!

Plus, the series 4 preview looked amazing! Catherine "Am I bovvered?" Tate, 2 clips of Sarah Lancashire in a business suit, and lots of running around. I'M FKN THERE!!!

Let's hope the rumours are false. We don't want some imaginative, creative and talented hack like Moffat running the show. Someone like him will only get this consistently superb show cancelled.

guess that's what google is made for..

I thought this episode was great! I like how there are robots every Christmas and an invasion in the UK. The empty streets were a nice touch. I almost thought it took place in the future. I wish they kept Kylie around a bit longer though. Especially in that outfit!!

I can't wait for season 4!!

the rest of the special was kind of... meh.

I can honestly say that I liked that short with davison and tennant better then this.

Fury over ‘Fuhrer was a timelord’Dec 24 2007 by David Powell, Daily Post

DOCTOR Who boss Russell T Davies has created a storm after suggesting Adolf Hitler could be a timelord.

The producer and writer, 44, from Swansea shocked fans when he spoke after a preview screening of Dr Who’s Christmas special Doctor Who: Voyage of the Damned.

The answer was meant to be a joke which did make some guests laugh.

Asked who from the past would he would most have liked to play the role, he replied: “Hitler. He was stern and strong. He would be great.”

But others were horrified and thought the jokey comments were in bad taste.

One disgusted fan said: “Hitler carried out some of the world’s worst atrocities. He ordered the killing of millions of innocent people. I don’t want my kids thinking Hitler and Doctor Who are in any way the same.”

The current Doctor Who David Tennant seemed slightly stunned by Russell’s answer.

When he was asked the same question he seemed almost speechless as he declined to answer.

And yes, Moffat should definitely take over as showrunner as of Series 5. His recent win over Paul Cornell and RTD in the Best Writers category of DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE's 2007 poll is a good indication that fans would definitely support the change.

People need to calm down. Tate won't be permanent. She's getting a few episodes, and then Martha's back. Chill. To those of us on the other side of the pond, Tate's unknown and we can only judge based on her Doctor Who performances, and thus far, the one she's had has been decent. Not great, but certainly not the horrible thing everyone seems to be bent over about.

I liked this episode, although it was a little schmaltzy. Frankly, I could have done without Minogue (she was hot over a decade ago. Today? No so much) and I was a little bummed that almost everyone died, but I did like the unconventional choice of having the old codger "win" this episode in the end.

And yes... They can quit with the robots in the XMas shows now.

No, Peri was just fine as companion, but the scripts didn't do her justice. And yes, she had the best rack of all the Doctor's companions to date.

As for Catherine Tate: apparently has no ability to display charm on screen.

Oh yes - and I told you so, way back at the beginning of Series 3. Hee hee.

VOTD? Poseidon Adventure in space. Which, as I recall, wasn't a sci-fi movie. So WHY rewrite it s a Who story without making significant changes to allow sci-fi elements to become important to the plot? Because he's RTD, and he doesn't fucking care about the quality of this show anymore. Assuming he ever did to begin with.

Though the fat couple made me wonder once again: Why are there NEVER any black couples on this show? There've been TONS of black people in romantic relationships on Who since it restarted, but they've almost ALL been interracial. The only black character I can recall who has a spouse/lover of the same race is Martha's brother (maybe — his girlfriend had dark skin, anyway)... and I think they were onscreen together for 3.2 seconds all of last season! Watching the show, you'd think that black people simply don't WANT to date or marry one another and just want to hook up with whites.

Mickey dated Rose... Martha wants The Doctor... Martha's dad left his black wife for a blonde... Martha's sister wanted her employer (before he turned into a human scorpion)... Sally Sparrow was chased after by a black cop who, after getting flung back to the 60s, simply found ANOTHER blonde named Sally to marry... annoying Catherine Tate with her black fiance... the overweight couple on Titanic...

Has anyone else noticed this or am I crazy? I mean, the rate of interracial couples on Dr. Who is what... 95%?

Being black, it kind of stands out to me... and I find not only a little annoying, but kind of insulting. Do the writers think all blacks have a terminal case of "Jungle Fever?"

Great filler, funny and very touching... made me tear up a little watching it. :)

Oh, yeah... and it's written by "Blink" writer Stephen Moffat!!!

Judging from Dr. Who, am I to assume that black people in the UK really DON'T date each other? And if so, why not??? I am American, but I really find that odd. Don't UK blacks find each other attractive? Or is it simply — as I suspect — political correctness run amok, purposely ignoring any sense of reality?

And while you claim that "We just don't see a need to forcibly plant deliberate inter racial couples in tv dramas just to placate some box ticking rule," the very fact that virtually ALL of the multiple black relationships in Doctor Who are exclusively interracial says the exact opposite!

"If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Like how life should be." True... but if it were true for the writers in Doctor Who, then you would expect to see at least SOME instances of blacks dating/marrying other blacks, just like they do in REAL LIFE (because, you know, we DO actually date and marry one another from time to time), not just blacks seeking out white people for romantic relationships.

As I said before, I find the implications of it all more than a little insulting and pretty condescending.

I'm just spitballing here, but I wouldn't compare THE X FACTOR to truly amazing family entertainment such as ET; I wouldn't compare the SPICE GIRLS to music's true populist greats such as THE BEATLES or ELVIS; and I wouldn't be loudly proclaiming - to anyone unfortunate enough to read your confused reasoning - that audience figures (or sales) equals quality writing. The one thing on BBC1 that beat VOTD was the Eastenders Christmas Day episode - a cheery little Yuletide tale of families at war, one family almost homeless, another going broke buying dodgy cars, and the heartwarming fable of a father fucking his son's wife for a year - being found out by watching evidence on a DVD edited by his youngest daughter. Which the whole family watched on Xmas Day. Classy.

Bottom line: VOTD was hyped by the Beeb to be THE thing to watch on Christmas Day. Which, in the end, turned out to be a lazy rehash of THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE in space, with gaping plotholes you could sail a ship through, which was still soundly thrashed in the ratings by an hour of misery and despair from the nation's favourite soap opera.

Still think VOTD was the pinnacle of Christmas Day entertainment?

Because even the Extras Xmas special was beter than VOTD, and I fucking HATE Ricky Gervais. THAT'S how bad VOTD was. Fucking unforgiveable.

The question is: do the way that interracial relationships and homo/hetero/bisexual relationships are portrayed feel organic to you, serving the needs of the character and of the script in new WHO, or do they feel like good old Aunty Beeb trying to be "fair" (read: PC fascists) by ticking all these boxes and demographics BEFORE considering the needs of the script? My feeling is the latter, which is a shame as it's hamstringing some of the greatest writing talent of the UK by forcing quotas and box-ticking on them. "Moffat! We love the idea of the Weeping Angels and everything, but we need one of the characters to be black. So as, you know, not to alienate the black viewers. What? They might feel insulted and condescended to by having to be obviously portrayed this way in every episode? They should be grateful it's not the 1970s!"

Just my fevered imagination. But there DO seem to be too many inter-racial relationships in new WHO for it to be coincidental in the writing. ~And there's always the RTD comment on PRIMEVAL Season 1 to remember: "I watched that programme and thought, I've never seen such a white cast!" (I think it's from the magazine SFX).

Says it all, really. The Beeb are making new Who by consensus, by quota, by PC fascism and by trying to appease every minority in Britain in the most inane and condescending way. Which is why, in its fourth season, it can only get worse.

As for my opinion... there seem to be a lot more people on these talkbacks agreeing that VOTD was a disappointment than agreeing with your "it was AWESOME!" appraisal of the programme. We are disappointed because episodes like "Family Of Blood/Human Nature" and "Blink" show us all how great new Who CAN be. It's up to the showrunner to ensure that the series remains to a standard that the showrunner sets and maintains. Unfortunately, RTD is such an insecure and jealous writer that the moment another writer does something great for the show that RTD hasn't thought of or initiated, RTD throws his toys out of his pram - mainly because he knows, deep down, that he can't measure up as a writer to the likes of Moffat, Gatiss or Cornell. Add to that his rantings at a woman at a party about his "mission", his disparaging comments about BLINK and FAMILY OF BLOOD (about how the series wil "never go that dark again", etc etc - see the SFX magazine website) and his equally disparaging comments about his competitors (about PRIMEVAL: "I've never seen such a white cast in a sci-fi programme before!"). This is a man who puts political correctness before plot, who puts his personal views about sexuality and politics above those of others, instead of considering all opinions as equally valid, and who cannot stand competition from more talented writers as he is afraid of how transparently talentless he has become as a writer these days. From exceptional drama like THE SECOND COMING to overblown, plot-hole riddled, frankly senseless dreck like LAST OF THE TIME LORDS, RTD has seriously lost his way.

There's a point, Avon. You're not actually RTD, are you? >:D

Do you REALLY believe that if more people watch something, then it must be inherently of better quality? So if more people watch the Eastenders Christmas Day special than, say, the last episode of Life on Mars (which I believe is actualy the case, comparing audience figures) then Eastenders is automatically the better piece of work of the two? Better written, acted, directed, produced? Seriously, you believe this?

Because if you are the insider that you're alluding to being, you'll know that the vast majority of the audience - ie Mr and Mrs Average, not film and tv obsessives like you, I and everyone else reading this site - are swayed by advertising. They'll watch something they saw a teaser or trailer for. Vastly superior movies with minute budgets go by unseen because they can't afford to let the viewers know that they are there - while every summer blockbusters of miniscule intelligence and questionable quality bring in billions of dollars in revenue (I'm thinking of SPIDERMAN 3, SUPERMAN RETURNS, THE GOLDEN COMPASS etc) because their advertising budgets are huge. Sites like CHUD are invaluable because they spot the rare gems of quality among the very small budget movies and bring them to our attention - without CHUD I wouldn't have seen EQUILIBRIUM, REIGN OF FIRE, HELLBOY, PAN'S LABYRINTH, STANDER, and several other movies of quality, because they couldn't afford to stick TV spots up every five minutes on all major UK channels.

Bottom line: audience ratings indicate what most people were watching that day, and what they said about it. Since they were probably not aware of 80% of what else was available for them to watch - because most small scale productions don't get to advertise themselves in prime-time slots, as the BBC did with VOTD - they couldn't exactly make fair comparisons. VOTD was more promoted by the BBC for the main event on Christmas Day than anything else. It follows that most viewers will watch it as it's the one thing they're being told about than anything else. This is not rocket science.

Because something was the most watched production of that day, doesn't automatically make it the best production of that day. By that rationale, BIG BROTHER is one of the greatest things ever shown on British TV, judging by its humungous viewing figures. Case rests. Your witness.

All I ask, like you, is not to be taken out of a fun and involving story by PC preaching and sexual prosetylising. RTD's capable of this - why doesn't he do this?

Truly, truly awful.

Fuck TORCHWOOD. Although it may well enjoy that.

Really. It's kind of embarrassing when the spin-off show is better than the stuff written for the flagship show BY its staunchest champion and head writer. So very, very embarrassing.

The main problem I have with RTD's finales is the hige reliance he puts on some great big Deus Ex Machina to come in and save everything. Take LAST OF THE TIME LORDS (spoilers alert!!!).

So Martha goes round the world saying something to people that we viewers don't hear. The Doctor is now Dobby the Time Elf (though from age 1 to 902 he seems to remain human, so why turn into a house elf with the addition of x number more years? Gaah!!!), and the Master rules the Earth. And we all know there's going to be a great big reset button go off somewhere. No jeopardy there then.

So Martha's plan kicks in, and everyone round the world starts chanting the Doctor's name. This then creates some weird effect which reinvigorates him (hard to believe, or indeed understand) but also gives him levitation and forcefield powers (probably the fucking midichlorians at this point) and enables him to change his clothing and melt the cage he's in (now I'm completely baffled). And then he goes back to Tennant 902 year-old age, and logic itself leaps shrieking from the window.

I can almost hear, in my head, maybe the meek voice of Phil Collinson, or possibly the Tennant, saying "But Russell, why would he be able to levitate?..." "Oh, it's SCI-FI, dear boy!". "So why does he go younger again?" "Oh, it's SCI-FI, dear boy!" "And the superpowers?" "SCI-FI, my friend!" "And the whole, plugged himself into the Matrix (did he say Matrix?) psychically? How does that work? 'Cos psychic intermission with machinery would've enabled Eccelston's Doctor to turn off the fans remotely in END OF THE WORLD and Jabe wouldn't have had to die..."

"It's fucking Doctor Who, boys! It doesn't have to make sense! IT'S JUST A STORY!!!"

I can imagine conversations like that. Because that's what the edn result looks like to me: written by someone who sees the plot holes in his own inconsistent script but doesn't give enough of a shit about the programme to give it enough respect to write decent, logical, fucking coherent scripts anymore! AND THEN HE DISSES THE DARKNESS OF CORNELL'S AND MOFFAT'S SCRIPT! GAAAAAAAHHH!!!

It's real simple for me. RTD has fucking lost it as a writer. But you guys are all entitled to your own opinions. Which is why I've just inflicted mine on you. Mwah ha ha ha haaaaaa!!

So if they get Tosh and Martha to fuck in the next series, it will tick practically every box the BBC feel they have to tick to be PC (I know they're missing "disabled" but there's time yet). Then the writers and producers can sit in a corner at the wrap party wanking themselves into a frenzy about how right-on they all are. Pathetic.

I just realised I used the term "right-on" in a post. I am SO Ben Elton, circa 1980.

But no. In RTD's Doctor Who, if it isn't "sexy" (as if sexy and sci-fi have EVER been really comfortable together) it doesn't work. Presumably he also thinks Davison's Doctor was fucking Adric.

The new Who is being hamstrung by these attempts to be contemporary. Mr Copper would've been a great temporary Companion: shame the Beeb don't have the vision to see these things - which is why Sally Sparrow will never be a Companion. More's the pity.