Doctor Who 29.3--"Gridlock" by Russell T. Davies

"You have your faith...I have the Doctor."

Before I begin, I have a rather indulgent question. Do you guys actually enjoy reading these? I've gotten pretty much no feedback thus far this year, even when I've asked what I'd thought were some vaguely interesting questions. I know only a few of you are reading beyond the spoilers, but for those who are (or for those who might look back on these sort-of reviews once you've seen the episodes), are you interested?

All right, sorry, self-indulgence over. On to this week's episode, which was quite good, though not quite great. There was a lot to like and one thing to...well, to bug me, which will obviously be discussed in the spoiler section. By the by, yes, this was a return to New New York, last seen (well, a bit of it was seen) in the first episode of last season, "New Earth." And yes, there are definite ties to that episode; in fact, I'd go so far as to say this was, barring slam bang season finales, the most continuity-heavy episode of the new Doctor Who. Which is certainly not a bad thing, though it's surprising from the publicly continuity-hating RTD. (Still, almost all of it's his creation, so I guess it gets a pass.)

Comparisons to "New Earth" are inevitable, but I'll say in pre-spoiler space that I thought this one was by far the better of the two, partially because of the newer Martha, rather than the old-hand (and very different) Rose, but mostly because it was a better script with characters that felt more real and less, well, camp. (Not that there's anything wrong with camp, but.)

Ok, before I get to the spoiler-space, I wanted to give a shout-out to someone I don't mention as much as I should: Murray Gold's music was, as always, wonderful. This season, he's done a very fine job of treading the line between too little and too much, and this episode was possibly perfect, as far as incidental music goes. Cheers to Murray!

All Righty. ( Time for spoilers. You know the drill. )

Next week: Old New York in the Depression! Accents reminicent of the Gunfighters! (in the preview, anyway.) Showgirls! Big Piggies! Doctor Who's first American location shoot ever! And....an old enemy returns in part one of Helen Raynor's two-parter, "Daleks in Manhattan!" (not very subtle, are they?) ;-)

So, just watched the "Drive" pilot

It was....ok. Honestly, though, I'm not sure how well they'll keep people's interest. I mean, yeah, there can be all kinds of intrigue and missions and things, but it seems like a series with a built-in end point that the producers will try to spin out as long as they can...and I can see the show getting thin.

Of course, I had similar thoughts when I finally saw the "Lost" pilot....though "Lost" had more interesting characters and better writing.

Anyway, I guess time will tell.