I waited with baited breath for the sneak peak of the start of ‘The Eleventh Hour’. Alas, the clip proved a little on the underwhelming side. I don’t know… I got it into my head that we’d be getting a minute, so I must have read that on the site somewhere. However, in the end we got 35 seconds, of which only the last half seemed to feature the Doctor and only hanging off the lip of the TARDIS door, struggling to get back inside. I like a bit of CGI excitement as much as the next fan, but this didn’t really get my juices flowing.

Anyway… I suppose we only have a week left to wait.

We have a healthy dose of time travel to come, with ‘Ashes to Ashes’ series 3 starting on Friday and ‘Who’ on Saturday. We finally have a time – 6.20PM – but that very detail worries me, because twenty past any hour feels like a time likely to change. The BBC did it with ‘Merlin’ – and I could have sworn that series does quite well, like ‘Who’. I hate it when you can’t predict the air time of a series from one week to the next. You don’t have to worry about ‘Newsnight’ or ‘The One Show’… unless there’s some charity or key sports event on, you know they’ll be on 10.30PM or 7PM, respectively. So, why treat Saturday evening prime time family entertainment with so little respect? I don’t see ‘Newsnight’ providing much of a revenue stream through character merchandising or spin-off media!

Shouldn’t you treat your cash cows with a little more reverence?

‘Tooth and Claw’ provides an excellent story, packed full of excitement, energy and classic elements aplenty. Heroism and deceit, violence and innovation, fear and elation. We know that Queen Victoria can’t die, mustn’t die, and yet we see the peril she faces and the people who give up their lives in her name.

However, the incredible episode really shines in the conclusion. If you want to have a model for your adventures, look here for how to handle your ending. Yes, you want resolution, the chance to set the world right again and put an end to the plans of the villain – and yet… There should be more. The ending of an adventure should provide threads to continue on beyond the bounds of the current story.

In ‘Tooth and Claw’, we have the obvious introduction of the Torchwood Institute and the implications of a British Empire aware of aliens threat. Also, Queen Victoria suffers an injury at the hands of the Lupine Wavelength Haemavariform, leading to the possibility that down through time the cells of the werewolf might surface again within the Royal bloodline. Further, what repercussions might Victoria’s banishing of the Doctor have. While we know that Torchwood will later seek him out, what impact might it have on later adventures – as any time spent in Victorian England after 1879 might attract the attention of people aware of Victoria’s edict.

Less obvious perhaps, but we also have the thread that Prince Albert and Sir Robert’s father clearly had their own understanding and theories about the werewolf. Given Prince Albert’s meticulous preparation of the Koh-i-Noor diamond it would not be too much of a stretch to suggest something like an occult gentlemen’s club might exist, patronised by the Prince. Similar to the London-based Ghost Club, of which Charles Darwin was a member, such an organisation might seek to gather knowledge about matters of the Unknown and look to arm itself against it.

It’s a great episode – and by following it’s example you can create adventures that provide a great gateway to future encounters.

What chance do you have of getting something at Easter time that isn’t either cheap chocolate or otherwise bereft of any real meaning associated with the event? I mean, these days Easter has become yet another focus for commercialisation that simply means ‘another occasion when you should go out and get a gift for all those people who will give you a funny and slightly hurt look if you don’t’. What hope for rejoicing in new beginnings, new hope, rebirth?

Well, funny you should mention that! I mean, I’m sure the timing isn’t meant to have Doctor Who coincide with another famous return from the dead… However, Matt Smith and Steve Moffat will be spearheading a new beginning for the renegade Time Lord. More than just new actors and crew, I daresay we will also thrill to the new logo and a variant theme tune, as well as a somewhat altered TARDIS. What better way to spend Easter than this (aside from spending a little time in church should your personal beliefs lean you in that direction)?