Billytea, how old was Ryan when he started watching.

Tricky question. Ryan gradually eased into watching Doctor Who, and isn't really done yet. The first full adventure he watched was Day of the Doctor, at which time he was four years old. He did have to vacate the room at one point for reassurance cuddles.

He's progressively got better at coping with the scary stuff, but he's very cautious about that, and there are still many adventures he's not willing to watch (like Blink, Midnight or The Doctor's Wife). It's really the last year or so that he's been ok with the scare level in your typical Doctor Who, so from eight or so.

On the other hand, I was watching Doctor Who religiously from five years old at the latest.

Thanks. ltc just turned three. So maybe I'll try next year with some of the less scary episodes.

I liked the smaller scale, and the production values felt like a short feature film rather than episodic television. Maybe it was the mostly location shoot and lots of night time scenes, but it felt more real than Doctor Who usually does to me. I'm interested to see if it keeps that quality moving forward.

I found the dark feel to be a bit grim, and I'm not sure what it was in service of; but I do agree about the realism, and am pretty certain that'll continue. With Rose (and to some extent with the subsequent companions), Russell T Davies basically mashed Doctor Who with a British soap opera, with real people with a life and relationships outside of the Doctor. That was not a trick in Moffat's toolbox, his world was always more insular and turned towards the Doctor.

Last night felt like a return to having fully realised characters. Not that they're quite fully realised yet, it's been one ep and there's quite a lot of them. But they're people grounded in real relationships and having their own dramas completely outside the weirdness the Doctor brings. Per Broadchurch, it's central to what Chibnall does well, so I'm pretty certain that'll continue.

Thanks. ltc just turned three. So maybe I'll try next year with some of the less scary episodes.

I think that'll work with her. Ryan is a particularly cautious kid. I'm pretty sure ltc is going to be bolder in her Doctor Who-watching habits.

Incidentally, a couple of weekends ago Ryan had a playdate with a classmate and his younger brother (I think about seven). They both have been watching all of new Who, without skipping any episodes, and apparently are loving it. (I made the younger brother's eyes bug out when I told him I owned over 110 of the classic series adventures.)

Graham (stepdad) looked familiar, and I looked at his acting credits, couldn't place him. Then I checked the credits under "Himself" and realized I'd seen him as the host of a British game show. I would not have thought, "And next step, Doctor Who companion!"

I am glad for the new vibe, not Man Doctor and Female Companion.

She is more cautious about TV than about real life things.

She is more cautious about TV than about real life things.

With Ryan, I find that's quite helpful in deciding what he watches, because he's not about to try to take on more than he can handle. If something is too much for him he'll give it a wide berth off his own bat, so I don't need to police it so much. (On the other hand, his grandfather was quite happy to have him watching violent Chinese dramas set during the Japanese occupation with him, so there may be other family members who warrant a touch of policing.)

It's amazing the things kids will do with their grandparents that they'll never do with us. ltc won't actually say something scares her, but she'll start walking around and saying, "I don't like this. I want another show." '

It's amazing the things kids will do with their grandparents that they'll never do with us. ltc won't actually say something scares her, but she'll start walking around and saying, "I don't like this. I want another show." '

When Day of the Doctor got too much for Ryan (the Zygon design is really quite unsettling), he announced that we had been watching too long and we should turn it off because it was bad for our eyes.

When my nephew was three, he told me that he was going to hold my hand as a scary scene was on (Lion King). He assured me that HE wasn't scared but he didn't want me to worry.