An Algolian Christmas: Doctor Who disappoints, but Wallace and Gromit rule supreme

I wasn't expecting much from Dr Who this year, what with Russell T Davies clearly running out of ideas and giving up the ghost after his bug eyed french spouting Doctor bites the dust next Christmas. It was also clear that the episode was going to involve his lame version of the Cybermen, who have sucked ass in every one of his stories, becoming nothing more than the Daleks, but a little dumber (complete with "Delete" scream, in place of "Exterminate")

Suffice to say, I was not surprised by the result.

Just as with the "will he regenerate?" white elephant at the end of the last series of the Doctor's travels through campspace, the cebtral gimmick of the "Next Doctor" was neither interesting nor exciting. I knew Tennant was around for three more specials, I knew David Morrissey was not going to be involved in them. The vain hope I had after five minutes (when it became clear that this Doctor had no recollection of Tennant's) was that this doctor would turn out to be not the next one, but the first one.

Think for a moment about how cool that would have been...

Apart from a couple of funny little moments (like the watch gag and being pulled around through the window of a warehouse) that occurred in the first ten minutes of the episode the whole thing felt like a sleepwalk through a basic baddies vs goodies plot with no depth and probably the laziest script written for Dr Who so far and probably even Torchwood - containing inexplicable unnatural plot explanations (as you know a personal hatred of mine) an obvious and stupid enemy, an even siller big giant robot thing that we combat using a Balloon which was introduced earlier in another wretched scene of setups for later.

Ack... being a Spurs fan I am used to disappointments, but the continued failure of the Christmas special format is particularly galling since it is crucial to the survival of the show that it remains as dear to the hearts of the watching public as ever.

Another christmas institution, though one more consistent, is the occasional visits of Wallace and his loyal dog, Gromit. Their escapades in dramatic contrast to those of the trenchcoated wand waver are never less than thoroughly enchanting and enthralling, and this year's instalment kept up the astonishing quality standards Aardman have set themselves.

It was a truly brilliant and frequently hilarious way to spend half an hour in the company of what must be the best double act around now that Vic and Bob, Eric and Ernie et al are now infrequent visitors at best to our living rooms.

Even better was the fact we got to see the feature length W&G adventure earlier in the day after our game of Shadows over Camelot had finished.

Ah yes, Shadows over Camelot. Well.... it's a game of cooperation mostly, in which the knights of the round table pit themselves against the forces of evil (read; a nasty black deck of cards) and try and create good in the world. The catch with Shadows is, one of the knights may well be a traitor and suspicion reigns supreme as everyone watches what everyone else is doing in an attempt to expose the turncoat. That's the theory anyway. What happened with our motley band of miscreants is that, quoting Monty Python along the way, King Arthur (me) was killed in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy a siege engine aimed at Camelot's pristine walls and the poor remaining knights had to go on without him. Thing is, once I was gone they did a lot better without me and despite several dark moments when all seemed lost the forces of good emerged triumphant to find that there was never a traitor in this particular set of players.

Anyway.... good fun times had by all I hope.

I trust your Christmas (or Pine Tree Presents day) was as pleasant and that you enjoyed all you did.

Happy New Year to all and sundry.

A