Who had a good Christmas… and yes, I’m two months late saying that. I know, I know. We had the excellent The Runaway Bride – with one of the most memorable chase scenes ever, with the TARDIS chasing a taxi down a dual carriageway. Pure Christmas Who (yes, I know we have only really had two Christmas Who episodes like this up to now.. but, it’s setting a certain standard for itself).

To add to the mix, I thoroughly enjoyed the musical evening of Who televised over the Christmas period on BBCi. Great stuff. I ended up watching it three times on the same day. I still love the mournful theme from the end of Doomsday.

And then The Sarah Jane Adventures – the most brilliant spin-off from Who so far. Forget Torchwood – this thing has so much potential it hurts… and it’s for children. I mean – no fair. I don’t care how old Sarah Jane might be – she’s a fox! It could so easily have been really cheesy and bloody awful, but it worked brilliantly. Even the glimpse of K9 maintaining a vigilant watch upon a threatening blackhole in deep space. More, more, more!

Isn’t it great when by pure chance you come across something you didn’t expect. I hadn’t seen the reference to this short story on the Doctor Who site… I just happened to get the Sunday Times because, well… it had a picture of the Doctor on the front.

Paul Cornell (who I met in the early 90s at a book signing session in Leeds) writes a fine short story about the Doctor who chances upon a 4 year old boy under inexplicable circumstances. Short, enjoyable and with a poignant ending that seems to suit the current Doctor’s mood perfectly, I’m very happy to have got it!

Wonder how much this little keepsake will be on eBay soon!

Like Love & Monsters (from second series Doctor Who), this episode followed a normal person – by and large – getting involved in things out of the ordinary. I felt it worked for all sorts of reasons and the larger-than-life characters make it all the more accessible. It was a blessed relief to watch an episode that didn’t involve sex in all the wrong places. Instead, we concentrated on Eugene’s obsessive belief in aliens and the extraterrestrial origin of the glass eye in his possession.

Perhaps I could criticise the story for the indifference of the rest of the Torchwood team, right up to the last moment. I can’t quite figure why Jack would be so dismissive – though perhaps it emphasizes how focussed the team can be to the point of dangerous ignorance. Torchwood intends to save the world to the exclusion of all else… but sometime, those who need saving reside far closer to home and might not have world-destroying plans or dangerous otherworldly powers.

The ending? Perhaps we’ll see Eugene again? Given the reference to death and the afterlife in the last episode (Suzie: Do you want to know a secret? There’s something moving in the dark and it’s coming, Jack Harkness, it’s coming for you…), it makes you wonder whether we’ll see more of the dark world beyond.