"End of the World" will forever go down as the first New Series episode to polarise fan opinion. It's an odd, and somewhat ironic situation that while the rest of the UK (well, all the people that arn't on Rupert Murdoch's grudge payroll) were saying "that'll do nicely", a clear fraction of those that have spent the last twenty years begging for the show's return were quite venomously disapproving.

But I don't want to go down the road of criticising people for their opinions; bizarre as it is to hear Doctor Who fans complaining that these £2 million effects weren't good enough (following a lifetime of burbling that they didn't matter to the old show), I suppose it's good that at least people are being honest. And it should be clear by now that we all view these things in different ways. I can't say I've ever disliked a Who story on first viewing - there have been obvious favourites of course, and I can distantly remember getting bored with a few Davison adventures as a child (but then, most of them did last a month, rather than today's effortless 45 minute weekly serving), but generally I seem to be able to gloss over faults and foibles first time round. I was blown away by the TV Movie when I first saw it - despite the lack of plot, The Kiss and the Americanism. There's something in me that's so excited just to have Doctor Who back that I can forgive anything. Last week, at the back of my mind I detected a few niggling problems with "Rose", especially the way it seemed to start neatly wrapping itself up before it had barely got going. This is a sign of the times that I know I'm not the only one struggling to come to terms with, and it deserves more in-depth discussion later. But this is new Doctor Who here - I wasn't about to let a few gripes ruin the action unfolding on the screen. My brain quietly tucked those worries away in a box and sealed it up like a Sarah-Jane bound K9, dormant and waiting to be explored again much later.

I accept that other people are different; to some, the situation works in reverse. New Doctor Who is a chance we don't often get, to evaluate and pore over a brand new episode. Perhaps this explains why some pick up on the loose ends and trailing doubts that hide within the cracks between the pages of the script straight away. Some considerable comment has been aimed at the fairly lightweight idea that the Earth has been reverted back to how it was billions of years ago for no proper reason in "End of the World", and to unlock just one of my own mental red flashing lights, for the second episode running this one was resolved by a "magic key" plot device, here the convenient (or conveniently inconvenient) big 'off switch' that can save everyone.

It is, though, a matter of balance and there was far more in this episode to cheer about than to lament: the gorgeous and imaginative monsters, the sniping Lady Cassandra (interesting how the one 'human' point manages to be the most alluring, backing up RTD's assertion that this link to ourselves should always feature somewhere), Rose's 'phone home' moment... but am I alone in wondering if the most inconsistent element in the mix was the Doctor himself? Glib and cruel (taunting Rose about her planet being "roasted" makes the Sixth Doctor in "The Mysterious Planet" seem compassionate) followed by tearful and just. He's going to be a very complex character - unless he leaves after a season before we can explore him, in which case he's just going to seem like a nutter. But how likely is that eh?

One hopes that although we're all taking different roads to enjoying this new brand of our show, Doctor Who, the reason we are here, we shall all meet up at the last fence eventually. Those that were happily blind to its faults in the sparkle of its newness may find more to break apart and inevitably chastise much later, whilst those who sat uncomfortably through it last Saturday will get the DVD out in years to come and maybe think that it wasn't quite that bad. Doctor Who fandom has never really changed at all has it?