If you don't care about the new Doctor Who, stop reading. If you haven't seen it, and avoid spoilers like the plague, stop reading.

I'm overjoyed to see Doctor Who being made again. I was thrilled to see a Dalek again, and that its last remaining handicap — the lack of dexterity inherent in a toilet-plunger appendage — has been overcome. And the new Dalek weapon effects are quite nifty, too.

But for crying out loud, could the writers please spend more than thirty seconds thinking up the plot? A Dalek regenerates itself because it sampled the DNA of a time traveler? Now, if it had been The Doctor's DNA, that might be at least easier to swallow, as Time Lords possess regenerative capabilities. But the DNA of a human who just happens to accompany The Doctor through time? (And what foresight the Daleks had to build DNA samplers into the outer shell of their head casings! I guess when they want to sample a creature's DNA, they normally just pick it up and drop it on their own heads?)

Still, its updated looks were snazzy without deviating too far from the originals (it'll be fun to model in 3D!), and it was so much more crafty than previous Daleks; it played Rose like a Stradivarius.

And as big as the plot holes were, it was light years beyond the crappy 1996 pilot for the American Doctor Who. Which brings me to the thought that Christopher Eccleston shouldn't be the Ninth Doctor, but the Eighth. Not only was the American version about as bad as Highlander 2, and thus just as worthy of being ignored, but if Peter Cushing doesn't count as an official Doctor, neither should Paul McGann.