I posted this down below

Woochifer

Don;t know if you had the chance to see the first episode but I saw it tonight. Though I wasn't overly thrilled with it - it could take stride as the series goes on. Having about 45 minutes as a pilot is not so great so it felt rushed. It's getting some poundings in the press which I suppose part of which I agree. The new Doctor seems like a James Bond take in black leather (to be honest not too Doctorly) and i understand he has said he will quit after this season. There will be a Dalek epiode -- maybe the 5th or 6th show.

The Companion is solid surprisingly and the effects are much superior than they were but still seem to lag behind popular U.S. sci-fi shows...I was also not impressed by the interior of the Tardis but they can write alot of that out as the Tardis seems to have a number of engine rooms.

I think the main problem was the pacing which seems to go very fast with little time for plot or character develepment -- accents are stronger here as well and that alone probably killed it for the US market.

This show will need to greatly improve howver because it's on par with the 1996 McGann film -- the Doctor needs that charisma that Tom Baker had or the dignified elegance that John Pertwee posessed. For a show like this to work it is so critically actor dependant. Billie Piper held her part so Eccleston is going to need the lighter touch.

If the show is going to have to tell it's whole story arc over 45 minutes then the show is dead...all the shows in past were four to six 25 minute segments and heck some of those felt a bit rushed.

I bought the 6 key to time boxed set recently and so maybe I'm being too hard on it because I've just seen the master (Who Pun) in Tom Baker. Then again maybe I'm not...would like to hear your thoughts on it if you get a chance to see it.

You're more into the statistical stuff of popular support and this is how the first episode Rose worked out "The Viewing figures for the first episode of the New Doctor Who series have been better then expected. Rose got an average viewing figure of 9.9 million with a peak of 10.6 million viewers and 43.2% audience share."

For what it's worth the second episode was a lot better than the pilot - the effects are on probably similar to the show Andromeda or Babylon 5 and FINALLy they explain why everyone speaks English -- the Tardis alters the brain pattern to allow communication LOL -- I love sci-fi. It's bright and colorful -- and a much darker Doctor --- Ralph Fiennes would also have been a good choice for a darker Intense Doctor.

Still the replacement is likely to be an actor by the name of David Tennant http://members.aol.com/actorsite3/add00/dtindex.htm He's a Scot with quite the strong accent.