Series Fnarg Wrapup

The latest series of Doctor Who has ended. I really liked it. My interest in NuWho had completely waned over the course of the gap year. It rather backfired in that regard. But once I saw The Eleventh Hour I was rehooked. Here are a few things I liked about the past three months. Spoilers ahead. Geronimo!

• Watching The Eleventh Hour with a group of 500 odd people. I have always maintained that Doctor Who is best when watched with others. I was lucky enough to catch a preview showing at Wondercon. Waited in line about two hours and struck up a lovely conversation with a woman with green hair. The air inside the room was electric! And when the Doctor stepped through the hologram...we exploded!
• And The Eleventh Hour itself! I think it's the strongest debut for any Doctor since Spearhead from Space and the best season premier since Rose.
• Bowties are cool. My girlfriend may not be partial to them, but they are.
• Plot being favoured over spectacle. It seemed, especially towards the end, that RTD had his 'iconic moments' in mind and didn't care how the story lined up to get there. Don't get me wrong, there were still some things over the course of this series that made absolutely no sense, but they were fewer and far between.
• Matt Smith! Has playing the Doctor been this absolutely effortless since...I dunno, Tom Baker? He inhabits the character. He isn't an actor, he is the Doctor. Rapidly climbing my personal favourite list...
• Time travel. For a show about it, Doctor Who rarely plays around with it. The Big Bang was verging on Back to the Future territory. And as those are probable the best example of time travel and causality in pop culture, that's not a bad thing at all. Still waiting for the Moff to adapt Continuity Errors, perhaps the greatest Who short story ever.
• The use of colour. RTD was lush. Lots of reds and strong colours. The Moff has gone for a more subdued look, so when something is bright it really pops out. The Daleks, for instance, or the sunflowers in Vincent and the Doctor.
• Alex Kingston has been a delight. I liked River when she first showed up, but now I love her. Gone far beyond the simple smugness of the character in Silence of the Library.
• Being slightly cuckolded by Matt Smith, and no I'm not going to explain that one.
• Rory and Amy's relationship. It could have veered so easily into Rose/Mickey territory. But no. It's a real relationship. Would any other companion's SO stuck around for 2000 years? Clifford Jones? Andred? I don't think so, although I suppose technically Andred could actually do that. As I friend of mine put it, 'No one else would have had the balls.' Rather ironic as his were made of plastic at the time. Of course, now Rory is a companion in his own right. We haven't seen that since Ian and Barbara. 
• Talking to people about the show. A lot of my friends at this point are Doctor Who fans. But I've been talking to more and different people about this series then I ever had in the past. Running up to someone and squeeing at them, 'DIDYOUSEETHISWEEKSEPISODE?' I was in a play this past month. The director was also a big Who fan and we always started rehearsal late on Sundays because we would talk about the show! Wonderful!