Even in the bad old days with its occasional dependence on things like plastic dinosaurs that looked like they'd been nicked from a pound shop (Jurassic Park it was not) Doctor Who was always informed by a public service broadcasting intent.

As current writer for the series and long-time fan Paul Cornell points out, the show had a recognisable morality expressed in the shape of that rare thing, a TV hero who abhors the use of guns. It had a ready appeal for people like Cornell who feels that "Doctor Who became for us a metaphor for outsiderness. He was our hero.

Somebody who doesn't get the girl after he saves the world."

But as Cornell admits now it seems everyone loves Doctor Who. No longer the preserve of lonely geek boys everywhere it even has respected cultural commentators mining it for lessons on everything from existential loneliness to US foreign policy. Jane Tranter, commissioning editor for BBC Drama even claims that it has the ability to talk to us about the nature of the human condition through "entertaining sci-fi escapism". Rather lofty ideals for a children's drama series. But certainly a more admirable starting point than wondering how you can get a Z-list celebrity into a vat of green gunk for the delectation of the masses.

Of course lofty pretensions alone are not enough.

Paul Cornell puts it into perspective, when he states: "I would say it has a mainstream Saturday night drama agenda primarily. It has to be accessible to all the family, it has to move at a tremendous pace. But also the fact that the show is intelligent, and also that it has a different way of looking at the world, presenting a hero for whom the unknown is not something to be feared but to be embraced. I think the fact the show doesn't have to be as intelligent as it is, I think that's where the real challenge, the genius of it comes in."

Intelligence, genius, accessibility, entertainment . . .

an all too rare mixture, and not one we would have expected in the bad old days of Saturday night television when we had the annoying smugness of Edmonds and Beadle battling for viewer supremacy. Now Doctor Who is back for its third series, squeezed between celebrity ice skaters, Lloyd Webber wannabees and annoying Geordie twats. ITV have responded with their own sci-fi series Primeval, a new family-tailored version of Robin Hood is also being shown by the BBC.

Something strange is happening and it seems we're returning to the old fashioned values of drama the whole family can watch. The BBC have unashamedly come out and are touting Who as their flagship programme, unseating the institutionalised misery of Eastenders in the process. The cross-generational magnet that is Doctor Who has become a shining example of dedication to first principles and a concrete expression of public service broadcasting values. In an era when our own national broadcaster serves up Hollywood imports punctuated with ads for pizza as the mainstay of kids Saturday night entertainment it's all very encouraging. (RTE please take note). It looks like Auntie Beeb has rescued some small part of Saturday nights from the blandest of fates. The future looks bright . . . so long as nobody finds it in their hearts to forgive Noel Edmonds and offer him a prime-time Saturday slot then it should all be plain sailing.