Man, you and I have polar tastes in Who. Which, is cool. But, where you like the silly, superheroic, and light moments....I enjoy the more serious aspects and emotional gravitas. Eccleston was, indeed, the "dark" Doctor. He was the wounded, and scarred incarnation. Racked with survivor's guilt, the torture of his life finally catching up to him. I loved that. That was a genuinely unique way of portraying the character. It didn't repeat past molds in the least. It gave you an entirely new aspect to the character.

Tennant, though, took me a bit. Mainly because, while he injects his own brand of whimsy and humor into the role, he also plays heavily at times on past aspects and incarnations. With The Girl in the Fireplace, I was able to glimpse the more mature, and serious nature of this incarnation, and how Tennant chose to portray that. It was those aspects that have won me over with Tennant, and the 10th Doctor.

The Christmas Invasion, New Earth, and The Idiot's Lantern were all quite bad. Silly, campy, goofy, bad pacing, you name it. It wasn't so much Tennant that turned me off, but, the script. And while I genuinely love School Reunion, I reserve it in my heart as a nostalgic love letter to the original series. But,as an original, intelligent, witty, and emotionally gripping story, The Girl in the Fireplace beats it out no contest.

That's just me, though...