Okay, so I love the new Dr. Who. Russell T. Davies does it again. Much joy.

What I'm wondering is can a Buffy-informed community like this take a sci-fi show that's simply accepting exactly the gender stereotypes Joss set out to subvert? (In the opening scene, I kept expecting Rose to pull out a stake. Later, they found the bad guy in the sewer. Next question: is Joss a Dr. Who fan who pulled those elements from previous Doctors?)

I know I'll keep watching-- the whole family will be-- mostly for the laughs (I concur about RTD, btw), but also to keep spotting the influences (next week's episode trailer shows that it'll start with the world exploding. Familar to British sci-fi fans at all? )

I thought it was great. It absolutely hit the right balance between honouring the legacy and striking its own new tone. Ecclestone was perfect and Billie Piper didn't even annoy me that much. Loved the evil wheelie bin and the schtick with the London Eye.

Gender stereotyping here or there; the Doctor has always been an Alpha Male, I couldn't imagine him any other way, and his female companions haven't all been wimps. Rose looks as though she'll give as good as she gets.

Didn't I read that Joanna Lumley played a female Doctor once for Comic Relief or something? That would have been interesting to see.

On edit: the one thing I didn't like too much was how they'd messed with the theme tune. They sort of stuck it all on a synthesiser, so the depth was lost. Nothing can beat the Radiophonic Workshop original, I'm not sure why they didn't just use that one.

Didn't I read that Joanna Lumley played a female Doctor once for Comic Relief or something? That would have been interesting to see.

She did, in The Curse of Fatal Death. Though it was a short appearance. The primary actor playing the Doctor was Rowan Atkinson. (Richard E. Grant and Jim Broadbent also got a turn.)

The one homage to the past that I could have done without was the cheesy special effects. Considering the amount of effort the Beeb seemed to put into it otherwise, you'd think they could have stretched the budget a bit on something so crucial.

Here's a brief quote from an Observer article on the new Doctor Who:

However, it's not the contemporary values that make the show. It is its clever imitation of US hits such as Buffy and Angel : a mixture of smart, ironic humour and creepy horror. 'That won't last,' says the Doctor, peering at a couple posing for the pages of Heat . 'He's gay and she's an alien.' And Rose has some equally sassy gags. Told that an Evil Intelligence is going to bring all the world's plastic to life, she gasps: 'What, even breast implants?'

Fiona, I totally agree with your whitefont. Jars, which bits of the special effects seemed cheesy to you? I was expecting the plotline to be a little on the cheesy side, but I was pleasantly surprised by the technical quality of the special effects.

Gender stereotyping here or there; the Doctor has always been an Alpha Male, I couldn't imagine him any other way, and his female companions haven't all been wimps. Rose looks as though she'll give as good as she gets.

In terms of witty lines, she certainly did in this episode-- and she did go looking for information rather than sitting back and waiting for him to turn up again. I don't think I'll stop watching because of the gender issue, but it stood out so strongly to me I felt that was my first thing to comment on.

On edit: the one thing I didn't like to much was how they'd messed with the theme tune. They sort of stuck it all on a synthesiser, so the depth was lost. Nothing can beat the Radiophonic Workshop original, I'm not sure why they didn't just use that one.

I guess it was another attempt to make it clear that this was a new version, not just a copy of the old. But they probably could have done a better job of it.

I think the Observer is quite right aout that-- and it may well be that's part of what made the stereotyping thing stand out so strongly, that in a show that used lines like that I was expecting Whedon-style reversals as well.

I thought the only sub-standard effect was the killer wheelie bin scene. However, the direction and/or acting of the scene contributed to the poorness of the sequence. Moreover, it did seem silly that Rose never noticed her boyfriend had suddenly turned into an overgrown vibrator but I'm happy to cut them some slack on that score, since it ended up being a fun scene.

Probably the most effective scene was with Rose's mum at the shopping centre. When conspiracy man got shot in front of his family it was particularly chilling. I also expected Rose's mum to bite the bullet and was surprised when she lived to shop another day .

Jars, which bits of the special effects seemed cheesy to you?

Just like evil jimi, I thought the wheelie bin bit was just a bit crap. Ditto the London Eye as transmitter bit.

Also, I didn't get how the mannequins managed to have guns in their arms. I thought that the Consciousness thing was just controlling plastic that was already on Earth. Or had it been producing plastic products for years and I just missed some of the exposition?

Now that's interesting, because general concensus in my family was that the wheelie bin bit was the best bit. We've been saying for years that they looking sinister, mind you, so maybe we were conditioned to expect it to be good. On the other hand, I do agree about the London Eye Transmitter part.

With regards to the mannequins having guns in their arms, no, that wasn't really explained in this episode, to my knowledge. I think it was only there because the Autons had guns in their arms the last time they did Autons .