6:20pm BST April 3rd 2010: not counting at all

I tried to make myself NOT do this, but here I am counting down the minutes and pleading with the lovely Neil to cook tea tonight.

Why?

Because I really do have an inner geek that isn't that far beneath my surface.

A geek who is ridiculously excited at the prospect of ANOTHER series of Doctor Who.

A geek who has her copy of DWM - a regular fixture in this house for quite some time now - and who can't bear to read anything on the pages about the new series until she has at least seen episode one in an effort to keep herself as unspoilered as is feasible in this modern age.

Neil and I were just talking about our past joint Who experiences: sitting on the bed in our second rented house in Wolverhampton (the first was a hole of supremely damp student exploitation conditions) and positively squeeing with delight at the 1996 TV Movie. Yes, I know, it is also deeply flawed, but we still delighted in it. By the time the 2005 series started, we were utterly primed and were suitably 'NOOOOO!' about the Graham Norton voiceover screwup on first episode 'Rose'. The pair of us sat there grinning like goons throughout the episode, cheesy bits and everything. Eccleston was a quality lead to balance the series' inherent entertainment values.

And then they made Casanova the Tenth Doctor and all hell broke loose.

The Doctor had been many things over the years, but as Caitlin Moran declared, this was the first Time Phwoard. Bless. Poor David wasn't always best served by the material, but there remained much that was glorious about his incarnation.

What I have found so interesting is that as the series hit such heights of popularity - and for its lead actor as well - an astonishing number of people found an impetus to release their inner geek, reacquainting themselves with the 1963-1989 episodes.

Now, as the series reboots/stays the same in a different way (like The Fall - 'always different, yet always the same'), we can move on from the underlying urge to murmur 'holy heck of hotness' and refocus on the series in a different way, perhaps more akin to those pre-Ten days.

For all kinds of reasons - because when it was good, it was very, VERY good; because David Tennant can make even the most ridiculous of stories present at least one beautiful, funny, moving, scary emotional moment; and because, hell, he was already undeniably on the 'oh-oh, another hot Scottish actor' list for me - the Tenth Doctor will have a special place in my heart forever. He displaced Tom Baker as the top Doctor for me though because there was something brilliant and compelling about this incarnation.

And now we have the young alien form of Matt Smith - not feasibly fanciable (not to this mid-40-something anyway), but suitably curious and weird. And with the Moff at the helm, we can't help but be excited. Heck, the transfer to the Moff-years was even enough to tempt Tennant himself to waver in his decision to move on from the 'best job in the world'.

Will series fnarg/1/5/31 be good? Well, I hate to come across as someone who has no critical faculties, but I know I will let it be good. I will enjoy it because I want to - and this time will be able to brush off all those dismissive commentators who declared that current viewers were only watching for the geek loveliness that was David Tennant. Because the series has been there, on and off, throughout my life in one form or another. If not even RTD at his most destructive could drive me away from the programme, then neither will the terrifyingly young new Doctor/companion pairing.

It's gonna be the ride of a lifetime. Geronimo!