I don't agree at all-- if anything I think this season has been one of the most consistent since the show's return. Season one rode in on a tide of unprecedented goodwill-- I think everyone expected it to flop so we overlooked it's faults at the time, and a breakout performance from Billie Piper alongside the great Christopher Eccleston didn't hurt either. Aliens of London, World War Three and the Long Game have all aged badly and are not nearly as good as anything from season 4. Season two is possibly the most wonky of the four, with David Tennant initially faltering in his portrayal of the Doctor before finding his feet in later stories. There were some pretty bad cheap filler episodes too. Season three set the bar higher with some true classics like Human Nature and Blink, plus it took the show out of twenty first century London a bit more. Season four hasn't quite hit the high notes of last season but it hasn't truely sunk to any of the revived show's previous lows yet either. Every episode so far has felt like an individually produced movie-- you can't deny that the scope and ambition of the show has expanded a great deal since season one. In 2005 we rarely ventured further than the Powell estate, and in this season we've had visits to ancient Pompeii, 1920's England, four alien planets and a virtual reality dreamscape.
I just get the feeling it's the same old British disease we're having that once something-- a TV show, a band, a personality, anything-- gets too sucessful, it's time for us to arbitarily start knocking it down. Why do we do this?
