I agree on your comments on Heroes and I think it will improve. I heard that the reason for the decline in quality in the second season was that they experimented with a new writing technique and it wasn’t working out - so the writers’ strike was actually a good thing because it allowed them to regroup. Mostly my problem with the second season was that it felt like nothing was really happening for the first half. I seem to recall that I really liked episodes seven and nine. The last one I found extremely annoying because there were several really dumb things that didn’t make sense in the final “fight”. I can suspend my disbelief enough to allow weird unlikely mutations to happen, but when those mutations are used in stupid nonsensical ways, that really gets to me…

Yes, Do Who is cheesy, and I adore it. I started watching it as a child. While I saw some Hartnell (1st doctor) episodes and occasionally remember fragments of particular episodes or characters if I get to see a repeat I have seen before, my earliest clear memories are Troughton-era (2nd doctor), and I had become solid fan by the Pertwee-era (3rd doctor).

I watched it fairly solidly right through to late Colin Baker (where I missed some episodes through frustration with some of the writing) and in the Sylvester McCoy era they took the show way down in age bracket and (I felt) treated it rather badly, I skipped whole stories. It was no suprise (after what they did to it) that it was cancelled.

I saw the McGann movie (McGann was good, the movie was meh, what they did with the Master was terrible), and have happily watched every season of the new series with enjoyment (which has been relatively cheesy for my taste given they’re aiming for an older audience). A few episodes have been too silly for me to enjoy, but on average it’s been fun. Now my kids are a bit older, the whole family watches it together. Blink was probably the first one we all watched in entirety, which is among my favourite episodes of any season of Dr Who.

Torchwood - I watch and enjoy this show, but I don’t disagree with what you say about it. I think the average quality of episodes does go slightly up over time, but from the sound of how you feel about what you have seen, probably not by enough to satisfy you. The level is a bit up and down - some stories are very good, some are really not. I enjoy both aspects of Jack’s personality (the brooding Torchwood one and the playful Who one), and he does lighten up somewhat in some later episodes, but to my mind Gwen is the central character of Torchwood (at least in what I have seen so far) and I suspect part of Jack’s broodiness there arises because of the feelings he has for her (though thankfully they don’t abandon what I see as a central part of his character). In Torchwood, Jack has major responsibilities, (often with the lives of millions depending on him; and always of those working with him), while in Dr Who he is basically a companion.

I thought season 1 of Heroes was wonderful and basically stood just fine on its own, but it seemed to lose its way somewhat with season 2 (some vaguely spoilery comments edited out). I have hopes that it improves significantly.

I enjoy BSG enormously and really like House as well, but I think I’ll leave it there.

I don’t know that I’d want to recommend anything - taste is a tricky thing.