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 .

Agree about the guns.

I didn't think the London Eye as transmitter bit was good, I thought the interplay between Rose and the Doctor beforehand was good. As was most of their interaction.

Also, it wasn't necessarily the wheelie bin effect which was good, but the build-up and the idea (classic Dr. Who making do with simple things).

Just so that nobody thinks I only like the crap bits....

The Wheelie Bin Thing was fairly obviously a joke. It's hugely Buffy-influenced, as Davies has acknowledged - and as for stereotyping did you not notice that Rose was the hero who saved the Doctor when he was being a damsel ?

And yeah, the trailer for next week was fairly frank about the Adams influence. What I love, though, is that they've pitched it right; it's a kids show. They haven't made the mistake the McGann version did of shooting for the XFiles audience.

Yeah, Jim, I agree-- and when you're reading the Wheelie Bin Thing as a joke, the special effects don't matter so much-- though I'm still going to stcik with being reasonably happy with their quality, even if the idea is a bit goofy.

(And it must say something about the Wheelie Bin Thing that we're putting it in whitefont all over the place.)

That's a good point about the stereotypes-- there was that rescue bit. I'd sort of focused in on the Doctor treating Rose like a kid and telling her to run away in the shop (which really was a sensible instruction in the circumstances) and missed that, or not looked at that in that light, anyway.