A lot of people really don't like watching the fall.

Yeah, that's me right there. I want my fun sci-fi show back!

I know that (and I'm about to get personal here) a great of my willingness to watch that sort of thing is because I know misery and depression very intimately.

I'm sorry that all happened to you. :(

Because I've had a lot of people in my life tell me that I should be able to just be happy. And it doesn't work that way, yeah?

Yeah, like you've just got some sort of switch you can flip. Oy.

But I think that the show is showing us that hope exists -- in Martha, in the words of the Face of Boe, for Tallulah and Laszlo, in the way that Dalek Sec changed. The Doctor isn't ready yet, but the universe will be there for him when he is.

I think for me, I'm going to need to see something more personal for him, instead of hope through other people. His pain and loss is so at the core of who he is - the Time War and Rose - that I really want to see hope that directly relates to him. And soon.

Basically, when I look at the Doctor this season, I see something very familiar to me. I can identify with him this season, where it was always much more of an effort before.

And for me, the more he goes down this path, the more distant he becomes to me.