Even if it creates slightly imperfect Time Lords now, all he seemingly has to do is tinker with it a little bit and it'll be up and running at full veracity in no time, bar some biological weirdness (cue 'symbiotic nuclei' guff from The Two Doctors/Big Finish) which can't be so easily dealt with. But, y'know, he's the Doctor – he can sort that out, no problem.

In script terms, it was on a par with 42, Persephone, you're right, but it didn't have the direction quality, really, so I downgraded it to Evolution levels.

* I think someone calculated that 70 is about the minimum number of people needed to create a suitably genetically diverse colony. Depending on the number of chromosomes in Time Lords, it might be a greater or fewer number than that.

Anyway, I'm sticking my neck out here but I was happy right through this: heck, you may not have liked it (and others too have been critical, e.g. on Behind the Sofa) but I thought Tennant was playing a blinder this week with reactions that felt wonderfully Doctor-esque in sourness and melancholy [knowing you, you probably would put that down to wind causing his expressions...]

I have to admit at this point that although Fear Her isn't top of my rewatchings it isn't bottom either: so shoot me. I think it's because I can't disassociate the episode from recalling the huge number of screen caps someone did from 'Fear Her' of all the Doctor's hand movements... Tennant has incredibly long fingers...

Anyway. Sure, by crappy pseudo-science babble the Doctor spawned Buffy [RTD, we get it: you wanted to be Joss Whedon]. Yep, the science was akimbo in so many obvious ways [even the commentary couldn't bluff its way past a fish drowning for F*cks sake]. And of course there was the underwhelmingness of Martha with almost nothing to do in a 3 for 3 non-hit of being under-used and poorly written in this season, last season and in Torchwood [and Freema, you're sweet but don't ad-lib direction with a little ring tugging to hype up the "Invisible Fiance of Invisibleness" - as my friend Persiflage accurately identified Tom.]

But though JennyWho wasn't nearly as brilliant a character as we may have wanted from the start, we - like the Doctor - grew to care for her. Yes, I know anvilicious RTD drops prediction clangers everywhere [travel far? you'll scarcely get out the episode; be with him forever? I don't think so my dear: Rose said that and look what happened to... erm... yes, well...] but I was rapt throughout this episode and as far as I can tell from my circle of friends so were they and their kids. And whilst JennyWho was clearly a spin-off made in production heaven, I didn't mind as she rocketed into space: I truly didn't.

I respect your views entirely MediumRob, and you always make me laugh in agreement even when my heart/head come to a different conclusion to your response. But I'm more with Anna this week.

The commentary pretty much spends its time with RTD and David Tennant echoing my questions and not being able to work out the answers ("So why's Nigel Terry older than the others?" "Maybe he was an earlier generation. Except he can't be. Or there's a low power setting on the machine. But…" "We realised it was just like the Master at the end of Last of the Time Lords. So we wanted to do something different so we had him pick up the gun. Of course, you know he'd never use it...") If they're having problems…

I thought Tennant's acting was good. I thought Georgia Moffet was good. I just thought the script sucked immeasurably. I mean we can all say "Who cares about the plot? It's sci-fi!" But if it makes literally no sense whatsoever, we'll end up with McG's Charlie's Angels for the small screen, with a series of unconnected scenes thrown together because they seem good, not because they're logical. It'll be fun – for a bit. But it won't last.

But giant wasps and unicorns next week, so who cares? I've already forgotten this week's episode. What was it about again?

That's pretty much all I can counter all the well-thought analysis with but dammit it's enough for me.

And wearing eyeliner.

Absolutely rubbish aliens that reminded me of Pertwee Sea Devils...
The war-in-a-week felt like a six-page 2000AD Futureshock, but not as well thought out...
The Martha subplot was terrible (and how did she know the sacrificial fish's name?)...
It was obviously the same theatre as Evolution of the Daleks, which brough back bad memories...
Since when is Martha an expert in Gallifreyan/Time Lord physiology?

And other quibbles.

But I don't think it was quite as bad as Evolution. Tennant was good, the Tennant/Tate partnership definitely works, and Georgia Moffet is very cute. And she's going to be back at the end of the series, obviously.

The return of Jenny might be on the cards, but might not, since they were originally going to kill her off, but Stephen Moffat told them that that was a very dumb idea indeed. So they'd have had to rewrite their original season plans to adjust. Not exactly impossible, but not a cert either.

Georgia Moffet is probably cute, but she's just a little too young for me to even countenance thinking about whether she's cute or not without feeling a little dirty.

Sorry, feeling a bit queasy now. Must go...

coughcoughnewshowrunnercoughcough

Fish language? What bloody fish language? They blew bubbles! They didn't even use sign language!

Honestly, it's enough to make you want sashimi for lunch.

Hopefully that's the rubbish bit of the season out of the way - but somehow I doubt it.

My (fairly similar, tbh) review is here for those with too much time on their hands...