Doctor Who, and what I think

Doctor Who's season has just finished. The whole of the last series has been, for me, a highlight in television this year, and a massive improvement on the seasons written by Russell T Davies. I thought that the villains, The Silence were well designed and menacing, and the use of foreshadowing was brilliant.

But it seems there is some debate among Who "fans" as to whether this is correct. And please note I speech-mark fans quite intentionally. Complaints have arisen over the complexity of the narrative, and the fact that the story-arch continued each week, making it difficult for "casual viewers" to hop in and hop out at their leisure.

Doctor Who should be something for everyone to enjoy, they say; a children's show that parents can sit down and watch. But that is where I think they are wrong. See, maybe in its original incarnation Doctor Who was a children's show that adults could derive some pleasure out of, but now those children have grown up and still love Doctor Who, and there is a whole generation of young adults who like Who too. These days Doctor Who is an adult show which children can derive some interest in.

And as for the concept of hopping in and hopping out of the series on a whim:
they might say: "I like to be able to sit down and just enjoy a one off episode for what it is. I don't want the complexity of a story arch which I don't understand".
But this is just lunacy.

You don't pick up a book and read the 4th, 7th and 9th chapter, and then expect the final chapter to make sense. Why would you expect it from Doctor Who? And more to the point why did you just read the 4th, 6th and 9th chapters in the first fucking place. It's not actually that hard to sit down and watch the fucking TV.

Perhaps you'd prefer a return to the past? Perhaps you'd like to be able to simply sit down on the occasional Saturday night and enjoy 45 minutes of excellent, self-contained entertainment. Well, you cant. It would be impossible for even an exceptionally talented writer to pull off, unless you were also looking for Teletubby-like simplicity in the plots and character development. In fact you probably are looking for that level of simplicity, so undoubtedly our argument can only end here.