I'm sorry, I really have tried to find something other than Doctor Who to talk about, but let's face it, right at this moment all I want to do is stop people in the street and ask them if they've seen the trailers (I don't of course - if watching Doctor Who has taught me anything, it's that people who stop other people on the street and ask them absurd things often end up incarcerated for most of episode three, and I like to think it's a lesson that's stood me in good stead over the years). Si's column on the subject of the trailer was a real pleasure to read, because really it says it all - he's right about the console room, he's right about the Doctor, and he's absolutely right to say "Bring it on" because I think that right now we're all just so ready for it.

I first saw the Eccleston trailer on Tuesday evening at 9:00 and it was seven minutes before I could stop grinning. I then emailed my brother to let him know when it was going to be on again in case he'd missed it; I videoed it at 10:00; I videoed the slightly longer version at 11:26; and I watched them both again before going to bed. By now I'm humming the new arrangement of the theme, with its insistent beat, and am getting goose pimples at the very thought of Victorian Gothic suggested by that brief sighting of a hansom cab. And if I even allow myself to think about the fact that there was A DALEK in the trailer, I shall probably lose it entirelghurotpwoipwejlkjlkjgsldkj..... Ahem, sorry about that.

I did briefly toy with the idea of not watching the trailer, in view of my previously-mentioned attempts to keep myself, like the Kaled race, pure. But at the end of the day, a trailer and a spoiler aren't the same thing (I can tell you're not convinced by this paper-thin flimsy argument, so moving swiftly on) and to be honest, not watching it would have been a real pity since (to quote Douglas Adams - oh indulge me this once, I'm excited) it was exactly the sort of thing I have been looking for all these years. And having seen, and avoided, an awful lot of message board threads with titles such as "Episode 11 - Spoilers" and "If you don't want to know Rose's middle name look away now" I'm still confident that there's a lot of information out there which I have very diligently kept myself away from. So I really (honest guv) don't see the harm in cranking up the excitement by seeing the new Doctor running down a corridor (what a reassuring image), or a spaceship hitting Big Ben, or seeing the new console room, or even a bloody Dalemmmgsdgufygdghdkjgdkgnd.... Ahem, sorry about that. Again.

But it really is exciting isn't it!!!

Isn't it?

When I saw the trailer on Tuesday, and even now watching it again (and again) I can't see how anybody can watch that trailer and not find it almost unbearably exciting. There's so much going on - ghosts? the end of the world? hansom cabs? spaceships? Big Ben? Big ears? A little green blob in bonded polycarbide armour (don't say the word, just don't say it, OK)? But it's my sad duty to report that, alas, it isn't an unequivocal fact that this trailer is THE most exciting thing since... well, since I don't know what, but certainly in quite a while. Trailer-wise, I suppose these are the most exciting and tantalising trailers since the ones they showed for The Five Doctors in 1983. Those of you who were there will know what I mean when I say that - and those of you who weren't, well, you missed out then, so make the most of it now. But all this tantalising trailer tittle-tattle is looking at it from the point of view of a fan. Hard to believe though it doubtless is, there are still people out there who will always find the idea of an ageless, time-travelling hero who lives in a police box, totally unappealing, even ridiculous.

And two of them live at Curnow Towers!!

Mrs C, and indeed Little Miss, has made it clear that she doesn't intend to be either on or behind the sofa when Rose (that's the title of episode one by the way, in case anybody who's reading this has avoided even more spoilers than I have) airs on Easter Saturday. Not in a nasty "if I had my way I wouldn't even give it houseroom" sort of way, but actually out of consideration for me. Her reasoning is that if she watches it with me, she doesn't think she'll be able to avoid making some comment about it, and since that would annoy me she's instead going to clear the immediate vicinity and give me the TV (and the VCR of course) to myself.

I do appreciate the sentiment, I really do, and her reasoning is probably spot on (both in terms of her not being able to help herself from saying something unflattering when Rose herself appears, and in terms of my getting irritated by that) and yet in an ideal world I don't actually want to watch Doctor Who on my own. It's a rather strange realisation, and has really brought home to me how very different things are this time around.

I mentioned my brother earlier, and the one thing that will be really different this time (aside from the lack of frock-coats) is the fact that we won't be watching Doctor Who together. There have been episodes in the past which we haven't both watched as they aired (Time and the Rani part one, The Happiness Patrol part three) but only because one of us (usually bruv) was out - but even then, he would watch the video when he got home, giving me the perfect excuse to watch the episode again. Even when the TV Movie aired in 1996, we both watched it together. Actually having said that, I did watch it alone first time, in a hotel room in America, when it went out on Fox on 14th May... and when I got back to England the following Sunday, and rang home to say I'd arrived safe & sound, the first question bruv asked was what the Doctor Who film was like. Please don't take that as heartless - not only is it exactly the sort of thing I would have wanted to know if our roles had been reversed, it was also the best possible reassurance that I was actually home! Within a few days, my brother had bought the video of the movie, and by the time it aired on Bank Holiday Monday we'd already watched it more than a little...

...but this time there won't be any of that. Oh of course we'll discuss it - if there's one thing that exasperates both our wives (and I suppose it's possible that there might actually be more than one thing) it's the fact that whenever we get together we always discuss Doctor Who. For a long time it was limited to the contents of DWM, what new books we'd got, and what was on UK Gold. But now that we have a whole new series to rave about - we've already had fevered email correspondence this past week, and that's only been over the trailer!! And in one sense I suppose it will help make the whole 'new Who' experience last beyond the confines of just those forty-five minutes each Saturday, since it'll be something we can then talk about the next time we meet up.

Yet there is, I suppose I'll have to get used to saying there was, something very comfortable about watching Doctor Who with another fan. Not in an OTT sense, not so that we could babble incessantly about it for hours afterwards - but more just the general sense of knowing that if you're watching and enjoying a particularly good bit (the climax to Remembrance of the Daleks say, or the big reveal in part thirteen of The Trial of a Timelord) that there's somebody else enjoying it, revelling in it, without needing to say so.

That's not to say that Mrs C is completely ignorant of all things Who, far from it - as well as knowing most of the choice lines from the quotable treat that is The Talons of Weng-Chiang, she was also reduced to hysterics last week when I gave her my impersonation of Nimrod from Ghost Light ("the fang of a cave bear!"). She even, and somewhat disturbingly, seems to have a bit of a crush on Sylvester McCoy, especially when he allows his consonants full rein with such delights as "The Gods of Rrrrrrrrrrragnarrrrrrrrrrok" - and she even gets the joke when I tell her that she must have enjoyed Battlefield and McCoy's mighty arse.

But, for all the fun we have telling each other that our daughter is asleep ("she been smoking pipe of poppy") or impersonating Tom "Shadaaaaaaaa" Baker, watching Who alongside another genuine fan is just something special. Mrs C groaned with exasperation when I told her I'd actually taped two trailers, whereas bruv was excited by it - indeed he'd already gone one better, and taped Newsnight last week with its item on the new series (two rather lovely clips included).

It won't ruin the new series for me, of course not, but it will be a rather different experience, watching brand-new adventures in Time and Space and Cardiff, on my lonesome. Quite possibly, the moment when I know that the show really, genuinely, is back won't be the airing of Rose, but when me and bruv get together afterwards, to compare notes. Arguably, it won't even be until the new stories become part of our everyday lives - since 1996 my brother has thrown the phrase "Planet Earth 1999, He's Back - and it's about time" (the tagline, of course, from the McGann movie) into conversation (when he isn't doing his deservedly renowned impersonations of Li H'Sen Chang or Varsh that is). I can't imagine it'll be that long before he starts to give us his Eccleston - indeed, I wouldn't be at all surprised to discover that he's already started prefacing every family car journey by announcing that this will be "the trip of a lifetime".

So, with little over a week to go as I write this, here's to Who fans everywhere - but especially my brother!! And can I just say now, in case it becomes important later on, that he had short hair, and a leather jacket, long before Christopher Eccleston was even cast...