new Doctor Who (series 3)
"The Shakespeare Code": much better than The DaVinci Code. Or so I suspect - I've not actually read the latter!
Anyway, the second episode of the new season is pretty fab, particularly if you're a fan of the Bard (a reference Will wouldn't get, at least according to Gareth Roberts) - a huge number of Shakespearian references jammed into a fun witchcraft-based romp (of course!). Shakespeare is as brilliant & witty & flirty (actually, smutty!) as anyone could have wanted - even the Doctor has a touch of hero-worship ("doting Doctor", teehee). The set & costume design & incidental music are terrific, with as much whiffiness (even Shakespeare has bad breath), piss, shit, vomit (kind of), and bad teeth as any Blackadder fan could want, and even a visit to Bedlam. And it turns out the Doctor pissed off an English Empress centuries before Victoria... Not as moving as the best DW stories can be, but extremely enjoyable.
Much better than the first episode, "Smith & Jones", which was a good intro to Martha Jones, the Doc's new med student companion, but not particularly memorable otherwise. Martha's family is another split & vaguely dysfunctional family, with the eldest daughter the most nature person there, and again like Rose's there's a cross-racial relationship. I like how new Who routinely makes London into a multi-ethnic society, with uncommented-on examples of relationships between black & white individuals, & ethnic variation across all classes & not just in working class people -- it's such a contrast to most of UK TV (& pretty different from my experience of middle class London fandom, DW & otherwise!). But I like DW's idealised London - it's the kind of place you can understand the Doctor looking fondly on.
More, please!