With millions of viewers dematerialising, it's only fair to ask - has Doctor Who gone off?
This week's episode, the Idiot's Lantern, attracted 6.3m viewers, the lowest of the year to date.
I'm sure it is no coincidence that it was also the worst episode of the year thus far - a satire of the brain rotting properties of television set in 1953 during the Queen's coronation.
It exhibited all the worst attributes that have been turning the series into a smug pantomime. Count 'em up:
Witless injokes. This week the brain rotting creature lurking in the tekevisions was attacking families in in Florizel Street, the original name proposed for Coronation Street - geddit?.
Too many soap opera storylines about lurve. Billie loves the Doctor, the Doctor loves Billie, the Doctor loved Sarah-Jane but had to give her up, Mickey loves Billie but realises that the she loves the Doctor, etc, etc. Too many storylines set on Earth. There is a great big universe out there. Explore it!
Far, far too preachy. Tommy's lecture to his bullying dad on the evils of fascism. Ugh! And the racism of 1950s Britain had magically disappeared so representatives of the Empire could all celebrate the coronation in one big happy street party. Double ugh!!
Evil monsters/villains/baddies that can't stay evil. If it's not soppy Daleks pining for their mates, it's menacing Cybermen getting back in touch with their emotions.
At least the villainous Wire on the weekend, played by Maureen Lipman, was a proper evil baddy, in the episode titled the Idiot's Lantern written by League of Gentleman co-creator Mark Gatiss, but the plot was pretty thin, with no time to develop - another major problem of the modern series - everything is so rushed.
While it's pretty clear David Tennant is a better Doctor than Christopher Eccleston ever was, the series redeeming features are in danger of getting swamped by self indulgent, self satisfied output that suggests that the production team is producing the show for their mates and not the audience.
Maybe success has all gone to their heads.
