A Change for the Better?

If you've been here before, it can't have escaped your attention that we've got a new template, header, etc.. Whilst I felt that a change was long overdue - and what better time to make a change than New Year - I'm still not sure that I'll be sticking with this design in the long-term. I know that this sort of layout with the content on the left and columns on the right is very popular, but my every instinct screams at me that the main content should be in the middle. We'll see. Anyway, I'm not the only one making momentous changes today - the Doctor finally regenerated from David Tennant into Matt Smith (see how I seamlessly segued into that?). To celebrate this event, I published a new Dr Who-themed story over on The Sleaze. Now, in this business, timing is everything. So I made sure that waited to post the story (which had been ready to go for a while), until just before midnight last night, knowing that the buzz about the Doctor's imminent regeneration would be building up on the web prior to this evening's screening of The End of Time (Part Two). It paid off even more spectacularly than I had hoped.

Indeed, the traffic generated by the story has only just begun to subside. So far, I've avoided the usual hate-mail from die hard fans of the series this sort of story usually generates. But I'm sure it will come. Usually their objections focus on the fact that the story isn't true. Well, no shit! What the kind of people who complain about this type of story don't seem to grasp is that such parodies are born out of love for their subjects. Trust me, I've probably been following Dr Who a bloody sight longer than most so-called 'fans'. I go back way beyond Christopher Ecclestone and Russell T Davies. I've earned the right to take the piss out of it. Not that I am taking the piss out of it really. It is the whole fan phenomena which surrounds it which I'm really aiming at. Anyway, getting back to the regeneration, whilst I'm sorry to see David Tennant go, I'm looking forward to the new series in the Spring. I've been through enough regenerations to know that no matter how good the last incarnation of the Doctor was, there's always the promise that the next will be as good, if not better. Different, of course, but possibly better. That's the point of it really, that creative change should be welcomed, as it always holds the promise of renewal and progress. So bear with me whilst I tweak these new layouts over the next few weeks!