Russell's Out of Control

I know I'm not meant to think, let alone say, this... but, isn't Doctor Who becoming rather, well, bad?

Supposedly we're now supposed to look on the festive specials as the main Christmas treat (in much the same way Only Fools and Horses used to be thrust upon us), and indeed, last year's effort was rather good. This year's, however, was rather poor.

Which makes me angry for two reason. One: I really, really, really want to love Doctor Who and become absorbed in new and old episodes - I'm a geek and I would love to be geeky about British sci-fi. Secondly: I've always argued that it's impossible to make a bad piece of TV if Sarah Parish is involved.

Please could someone reign Russell T Davies in. Slapstick can be good, but only if it's balanced with real drama and a sense of danger. I want to be the tinsiest bit scared and have my brain challenged just a smidgen. The first series of the rebooted Doctor Who was smashing, but there's a sense of complacency now which really needs to be eliminated. And while David Tennant should be the ideal Time Lord, he's just turned into a gurning know-it-all. Following the loss of Rose, we were promised the Doctor would be in a 'dark place' and it would have been great to see a dark, disillusioned Doctor in this episode, struggling to care about humankind. And let's not even start on Catherine Tate's performance...

Come on series three, please be really good. I want to be proved wrong on this one.