The time of arising is at hand

That's a hand in that picture. It's kind of hard to see.

Anyway, TONIGHT Doctor Who returns to BBC One! I'm wearing my hipster-store-bought Doctor Who t-shirt in celebration, which even a few years ago would have been met with the utmost derision and a lot of "What does that mean?" Now Matt Smith stares back at me from the side of New York City buses! Sometimes I have moments when I forget that new Doctor Who is being made and then I remember and it's awesome all over again. We in the Rest of the World will have to wait a short while until someone posts it on YouTube (though if you have access you should watch it again when it's on BBC America or whatever station is showing it in a couple of weeks). Until then, here is a recently-released clip from what will be Episode Six of the new season, "Vampires of Venice" (31.6). Okay, before you ask why it's 31.6 and not N5.6, Moffat was apparently advised that Series 5 sounds like an aging brand, and so has said that this season should be referred to either as Series 1 ("exciting") or 31 ("awe-inspiring"). I have my doubts about this (if the fifth season is an aging brand, what is the thirty-first?), and hope everyone will just call it the 2010 season. But for the purposes of the blog numerals, I'll use 31. Because, let's be honest, it's true. If you disagree, let's argue about it in the comments like good little fanboys. Anyway, for some reason, Blogger won't show the clip if I put a break in, so you'll have to see it "after the jump" as they say.

Suck it, James Cameron

See, there's this movie. A quite popular movie, actually. You might even say that a lot of people went ape-shit over it. And years from now, historians and Wikipedia-surfers alike will wonder what the hell was going on when the 2009 Golden Globe for Best Picture was awarded to this film. I think it's safe to say that none of these future wonderers will, although they should, turn to their companion(s) and say: "But why, companion(s), was Avatar showered in so much praise, when 1963-4 Doctor Who serial The Daleks (1.2) was clearly so much better?"

Yes, lots of things are better than Avatar - brushing one's teeth, Attack of the Cybermen (22.1), this - but the reason I compare it to The Daleks is that, in a way, they're similar. (And I just watched The Daleks.) Our protagonist(s) travel to a distant planet, where concerns over resources are forcing the encounter between somewhat peaceful, scantily clad people who live in a jungle teeming with dangerous alien life, and xenophobic, militaristic technocrats who hide in their city. There are other things too. The protagonist(s) meeting the city people first, and being told that the jungle people are terrifying and horrible, and finding them instead to be sexy. The baddies' need to destroy lots of things in order to get what they need. And, of course, a big battle between sticks on one side and "travel machines" on the other.

Narratively, here's why The Daleks is better. As should be obvious, The Daleks is about nuclear war, and (this may come as a shock to you, but)