It's a full life, if a trifle banal

Poor Philip Pullman!

Mr A. remains resolutely unmoved by this episode; I go gooey at Jackie and Alt-Pete meeting. And poor sad Doctor, with no-one to share his triumph.

Bloody Catherine Tate, she'd better not spoil Christmas.

SNIFFLECOUNT: A: 26, Mr A: 27

Mr A's sniffleratio is 1:1. Mine a tad less. Who's the sappiest in this house then?

Season 1: Eccleston doesn't always hit the mark (STOP GURNING!), but nothing will ever be like watching that season was at the time.
Season 2: Two of the most corking episodes of Who ever, but with several scripts that just come across as undercooked even when they're beautifully made.

We hope we have given all you at home an idea of how better to spend your time next Bank Holiday. We now return your friends list to usual traffic.

Poor Chloe. Poor Isolus.

Isn't Huw Edwards rubbish? Apart from him, this is scary and sad. Mr A. wasn't looking forwards to it, and it turned out to be much better than feared. Like Blackadder III. Apart from Huw Edwards, he's rubbish. We may have mentioned that already.

SNIFFLECOUNT: A: 24, Mr A: 27

Poor Jefferson. Poor Ooooooooooooood (again).

What is it about this story that doesn't quite hang together? Even Mr A can't see what's wrong with it. The viola music is great, the lovely images of the Doctor suspended in the void - it should be brilliant.

SNIFFLECOUNT: A: 21, Mr A: 25

Poor old Gran. That's what you get for watching too much TV in one go.

Hmmm...

Not the most surprise filled story, but Maureen Lipmann is worth the price of the ticket. (Mr A makes me buy tickets for the TV. He rules with a rod of iron, like Mr Thingy in this episode. That may be a lie.)

SNIFFLECOUNT: A: 20, Mr A: 25

Poor Don Warrington! There should've been more of him...

wimoweh...wimoweh... You see if we don't.

It looks fantastic but the story is very ordinary. Although this time, the Rose/Dad stuff didn't get on our anatomy - perhaps because we are watching the story as one compressed piece.

SNIFFLECOUNT: A: 19, Mr A: 24

Oh God, poor Sarah-Jane! Poor Mickey! Poor K9 Mk 3!

Hooray for Sarah-Jane! Hooray for Mickey! Hooray for K9 Mk 3! He's a big damn tin hero.

Mr A thinks that the only downside of this great episode is the slightly-too-cartoony monsters. Although they do look exactly like that maths teacher. And we love the shot of Sarah finding the TARDIS, and the music stopping just before she sees the Doctor.

SNIFFLECOUNT: A: 17, Mr A: 19

Poor Chip'n'Pin^H^H^HCassandra!

We love New Earth! We love it! It is all life affirming and textbook enigmatic.

Mr A indicates that it has the best cleavage of the series so far, and holds out much hope for the rest of the run.

SNIFFLECOUNT: A: 15, Mr A: 13

Poor Lynda-with-a-y! Poor Mickey!

So, that's the end of season 1, and proper Doctor Who can begin... (Note: A disclaims the previous sentence. So does Mr A. I wonder how it got there, then? Maybe it is Goddess Rose?)

45 minutes of lovely brave people doing lovely brave things, mostly without names. (Although why is Davish Patel credited only as "Male Programmer"? Eh? Eh? WHY?!)

We like Jackie turning up with a rescue and recovery van. Mr A feels very sad for Mickey when horrid old Rose says there's nothing left for her on Earth.

So, Barcelona! We will break from the approved schedule and push on through with The Christmas Invasion...

SNIFFLECOUNT: A: 14, Mr A: 11

PS Hugotastic! A well deserved 1,2,3 - although, reading our previous posts in this mara-THON, we reckon it should have been 1,3,2.

Poor Egg-Blon.

Mr A's secret favourite in the season. It's a think-piece, about a mid-range band struggling to come to terms with success... oh no, that's Almost Famous. Still, another under-rated episode, mainly because Annette Badland is, like the Democrats, just so funny.

SNIFFLECOUNT: A: 11, Mr A: 9

Poor Nancy.

Damn, that's good. And John Barrowman is just so damn pretty that I'm going to have to keep on watching How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?

SNIFFLECOUNT: A: 9, Mr A: 7