C3PS, the Series 5 Dalek story you speak of - Victory of the Daleks - is without question the worst episode of the season. I certainly wouldn't recommend skipping it (unlike Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks, which is the worst Dalek story ever written and contributes nothing to the Series 3 arc), but be prepared for it to be pretty bad. Every other S5 episode is pretty fantastic, though (with the possible exception of The Vampires of Venice).

Also, Matt Smith will grow on you. He's my favorite Doctor next to Troughton, and Series 5 is my favorite season of the show since it returned in 2005.

And I have to echo Bingowings' sentiments about Rose. She was good, if not the best, in Series 1, but she pissed me off so much in Series 2, and was absolute ridiculous action-hero-y rubbish in Series 4. I hope to God we never see her again.

Martha was a great missed opportunity - she could have been one of the best companions ever, but Davies wrote her as the "I love you Doctor, but you're hung up on Rose so I'm going to always be mopey" type. Similar thing happened with the Doctor that season - all mopey and "I miss Rose, I want Rose back, here Martha, I'll take you to all these places I already went with Rose."

I hated Donna in The Runaway Bride, and that hate carried over for the first half or so of Series 4. By the end of the series, though, she became my favorite 2005+ companion by a long shot.

Amy's hot, but her dialogue is all quips and she's too smart for her own good when the story requires her to be, and much dumber than she should be when the story requires it as well.

Rory, on the other hand, is fucking awesome. He should have joined the Doctor in The Eleventh Hour, not Amy. :-(