There seems to be a growing trend to knock the Time Team in DWM, mainly on the basis that apparently they don't seem to like anything. In the latest DWM that should ahrdly ocme as a surprise: the two stories under review were Time-Flight and Arc Of infinity, neither of which are classics, or even terribly good. However, in the previous issues, I don't see that excessive negativity that some seem to find there. I've just re-read all the Time Team entries covering the JN-T era. Here's what I found:

Only one of the team actually enjoyed The Leisure Hive, while the others hated it. Meglos received similarly negative reviews, with the Team hardly interested enough to even watch it. However, even within those reviews there were various elements that were singled out for praise. Full Circle perked the Team up considerably, as they all seemed to absolutely love it. There is hardly any criticism of that story apart from the toy spiders. State Of Decay was enjoyed as a very traditional story in a so-far un-traditional season, although Adric's arrival as a companion was not greeted warmly.

The weirdness of Warriors' Gate has them all so gripped they reportedly only just had enough comment to fill the article. Only Jac had some concerns about the suitability for younger viewers of such a strange story.

The Keeper of Traken is generally liked but the writing is criticised, in particular the emphasis on building technobabble machines while major events like the Keeper naming Tremas as his successor and the Melkur offering Kassia a chance to save Tremas happen off screen and we hear about them later. Logopolis is heavily criticised (mainly for the plot, which is, until they actually get to Logopolis, rather nonsensical anyway), but even after all that the summing up indicates that it was largely enjoyed. The review of the first year of JN-T's reign is mixed, with many unsettled by the direction the show is taking but seeing some potential there. The Fourth Doctor himself has praise heaped upon him in bucketloads, even in such a short article as this.

The new TARDIS crew is not impressing the team much when they get to Castrovalva, but they all like the story and the new Doctor. The only truly harsh criticism on offer here is the move to obviously designed costumes for the regulars rather than outfits. Four To Doomsday gets mixed reviews, but Kinda is loved by all, it seems, with even the snake at the end not really bothering them. With The Visitation we're back on mixed review territory briefly before we get onto the well-received Black Orchid and Earthshock.

So where is all this negativity that I've seen people complain about? Quite often in that series of articles you find the four have different opinions, but are they expected to edit out all the criticism and just keep the praise? Must they keep silent about obviously cheap sets or poor dialogue? Are we worried that viewers who come to the magazine from the new series might see the original series being criticised and decide it's not for them?

What, in short, do people have against this regular feature of DWM?