You may have already seen this, but in the event that it passed you by, here is the prequel for next week's new episode The Bells of Saint John.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IROtC6cAT4]
The Doctor takes a break on Earth, despondent that he can't find Clara.

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So the Doctor is mooning over someone he barely knows yet has some deeper meaning because he keeps bumping into her... so he spends some time at a public park on a swing (like any self-respecting guy would) and has a random conversation with a little girl who... wait for it... IS THE PERSON HE'S LOOKING FOR! A doughnut has more of a twist than that, Mr. 'Hugo Award Recipient' Moffat.

I hate to review something as silly as a prequel but... this was just rubbish and also perfectly captures my opinions of New Who in general. It relies on cute kids, it's self-referential, it has nothing to do with the Doctor and everything to do with the companion and/or the writer's 'clever idea' that is actually not clever at all.

And Matt Smith is fab. I mean he really is.

The first genuine eccentric in the part in decades, he exudes charm and drips with personality, so much so that he can make a dippy little scene like this that adds nothing to the series aside from 'oooooooh, there's more to the Souffle girl than we thought!' nonsense that he has already done twice before. If I have anything nice to say at all, it is to once more shout my praise for Smith to the hills.
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I am not looking forward to the second half of the new series as we have finally lost two plot threads (The Ponds) that took over the program for two and a half years only to get a new one with Clara Oswin Oswald.

What precisely is the problem with just writing a solid adventure that stands on its own, uses the Doctor well and is not built on the back of a gimmick (we've already been told that this one is meant to make viewers scared of WiFi... adding it to the list of things to be afraid of; statues, the dark, shadows, meet-up groups, cupboards, running water, getting fat, school dinners and marriage)?

Does anyone have anything positive to add? I'd really like to be in good spirits for this series but as it stands I think we are in for more of the Mary Sue phenomenon that we have endured since 2005.

Bleach.... I hate sounding like such a grouch.