Go and catch a falling star

I think this whole year of specials idea for Doctor Who has been a terrible one, especially with the weird spacing.
Why?
Because I, an avid (one might even say rabid) fan of the new series, am having a hard time remembering to watch the newest special, despite the fact that half of my lj icons are Who-related, my desktop is covered in Tennant, and my external is called the TARDIS. It probably has something to do with the fact that the last special aired in April, and I have had time in the interval to do things like watch all of Eureka and NCIS. If Gwen hadn't been reminding me periodically about the upcoming 11th Doctor, I would have forgotten that the 10th still has some screen time left in him. I understand they didn't want to leave an empty year while DT was off having a career outside the show and all, but the way they've chosen to resolve that problem leaves a lot to be desired. The Waters of Mars should have aired months ago, while I was still waiting with bated breath (and lots of free time). If it's kind of a cliffhanger for the 2 part Christmas special, so what? That would have kept up my enthusiasm for them. As it is… Waters of Mars. Eh. Maybe I'll see it before the other two have both aired.

I should really watch this week's episode of Torchwood. But I'm not. If I'm really lucky, I'll get around to it by the time the next episode airs… maybe.
The problem with Torchwood, of course, is that I spent almost the entire second half of the first season waiting for the end. That was it. I was waiting for the Tardis to show up and take Jack away.
This season, I really need to be motivated to go to the trouble of downloading it, precisely because the first season was such a trial. The first episode I watched because I had just finished the Doctor Who Christmas special, and was willing to watch pretty much anything to tide me over until the spring. The second episode I watched because the first one was actually interesting and managed to not quite be composed entirely of sex and violence. I was repaid by there being no gratuitous sex whatsoever, and did a little dance of joy. Then I watched the third episode, and found out I'd done my little dance too soon. It wasn't that there was gratuitous sex (I didn't get all the way through it, so I can't vouch for that). It was that it was a retread of Out of Time, with Tosh and some kid from 1918 instead of Owen and some chick from the 40s. Tosh getting all dolled up at the beginning? Sure, cute, fine. But after that, it kinda felt… stale. They could have done better.
Now, for all I know, the next episode could be the one where Martha shows up- and oh how I long to see her freed from the constraints of "I am in love with the Doctor because duh all his companions are, and I want to be Rose *whine pout*". She could totally rock in Torchwood. Could. I really, really want her to kick ass and take names and possibly steal Ianto from Jack. But even more than that, I'd like to see Torchwood be consistently better than it was last season. It has the potential for awesome, cool stuff to happen, especially if they could just eschew the fast-and-sloppy character development. The whole "show, don't tell" is one of the biggest clichés of teaching writing, but it's true. The Torchwood writers keep trying to tell us about the characters, without showing us any of their actual depth. They almost all come off feeling a little flat, even Jack and Gwen, who I generally find to be a bit better realized than most. That's a big problem for me in such an episodic show. If there are no story arcs to follow, the characters should make you want to watch more. As it is, they sometimes make me actually want to watch less.

I think it might be a little sad that I recognize so many actors and actresses from Doctor Who… I walked downstairs while my parents were watching this week's episode of Pushing Daisies, and went, "Hey, that's Cathica!"
And they said, "…wha?"

So yeah. The chick who played Cathica on Doctor Who ( 1x07 The Long Game) was on Pushing Daisies. Her name, it turns out, is Christine Adams. Unfortunately (kinda), whenever I see her in something, the first thing I think is not going to be, "Oh hey, that's Christine Adams." It's going to be, "Cathica! Yay!"

Ok, so we all know that my Doctor Who OTP is 9-and-all-Doctors-thereafter/Rose.
But if there had never been any New Series Doctor Who, I think I would have shipped 4/Sarah Jane when I finally discovered the awesomeness of this series. Because seriously, they are just that sweet. That and the curly-hair-toothy-grin-ness of Tom Baker is totally adorable to me (I'm not the least bit biased, why would you say a thing like that?).

Also- Gwen, it is all your fault that I started thinking about whether my icons might constitute spoilers for the end of Series 2.

"Hello."
"STOP THAT!"
Captain Jack Harkness walks into the room and says hello. Yes, he is hitting on you.

I realize I didn't post anything about Evolutiuon of the Daleks, but here's my( Lazarus Experiment spoilers and commentary. )