Russell T Davies and crew have given us an astounding gift in the wake of losing Billie Piper and the character of Rose - THE ABSOLUTE GREATEST DOCTOR WHO ADVENTURE EVER FILMED. Why should I mince words. In 2005, the current production team had taken a dismissed tired format and reworked the physical elements of the show to appeal once again to a mass audience, yet continuing to serve the loyal fan base that has kept the show alive all these years. In the resurrection of DOCTOR WHO, Russell T Davies kept the core spirit of the original show and everything that was laid down about the character of Rose and the souls who populated her universe, her mother, Mickey and the memory of her Father are finally brought together with "DOOMSDAY" in such a fascinating and entertaining way. One of the hallmarks of the new series has been its sheer entertainment quality and its product ion values. This is why the series is a critical and cultural success in England as well. DOOMSDAY, isn't so much a story about a battle between The Daleks and the Cybermen, it is the story of Rose, Mickey and her Mother and Father. ARMY OF GHOSTS has proven to be the primer for the setup of the century - armies of Daleks and Cybermen clashing for the future of Earth . This was more than just a story of earthly and universal domination, more than a fan's "dream" episode, and despite it hitting the high marks on all those levels as well, it proves that RTD and the talented professionals who put this show together every week populate it with wonderful characters you care about. Russell T Davies has cleverly woven the threads of those characters into many of the episodes over the past two years and DOOMSDAY succeeds on the most intanigible and untouchable level imaginable - the human soul and spirit of Rose and her disjointed family. Uncle Russell had this beau tiful vision for the Doctor and Rose - A Doctor who had been hardened by the Time War and softened in the end by the hand and touch of Rose Tyler, who actually became the most important entity in the Doctor's life and universe.

DOOMSDAY is without a doubt the fulfillment of that vision. Over the past two years we have seen unfold one of the greatest love stories ever filmed. When Rose and the Doctor meet, they are both damaged goods with gigantic gaping holes in each other's lives. While that relationship did work better with Eccleston's Doctor, and proved to be more strained in the hands of Tennant, Season Two did show different sides to the characters and explored further deeper aspects of the relationship. DOOMSDAY brought together all those elements and brings the story of Rose and the Doctor to a close. In DOOMSDAY, we see Rose , get everything she ever wanted to have in "FATHER'S DAY" , yet losing the most important thing she could ever had hoped to find in the Doctor. Throu ghout Season Two, Rose is faced with eventually losing the Doctor, and vowing within her soul never to turn away.And she stands by her Doctor's side until the inevitable and inescapable happens. In the end, the character is very realistically forced to accept everything that cannot be changed. Sometimes the hero doesn't win, and sometimes, like all of us, you must face your reality. When the Doctor was forced to close the door on the two colliding universes in DOOMSDAY, he ultimately closed the door on one of the absolutely, fantastically best eras of Doctor Who ever. Many Tv series have tried what Doctor Who has succeeded in doing in trump cards - noteably the X-Files, when the story has to deal with two characters that have fallen in love with one another, unknowingly and unintentionally. The final scenes between the Doctor and Rose on the beach in Norway where an unexpected treat especially since no further words were necessary after seeing the Doctor and Rose, standing Face to Face in separate universes with the unmoving and eternal void separating them...forever. These scenes were the most spectacularly emotional scenes ever filmed in Doctor Who.....And that single tear streaming down the Doctor's cheek....... Oh, this was DOCTOR WHO at its ultimate best folks, and cudos to the production team for pulling all this off. Everything in this episode worked so beautifully, I won't even attempt to suggest it could have been done better, because frankly, I don't think it could have. Graham Harper has proven once again he is one of the most prolific directors in the history of Doctor Who and British television, taking the show to adult levels without excessive campiness, his episodes seem to be the most "balanced" in the season two, and it is under his direction Tennant's character flourishes and exceeds expectations. Let's hope this balance becomes the "blueprint" for all future episodes to follow.

DOOMSDAY is also a story about the Daleks trying to revive the "Genesis Ark" and colliding quite beautifully with the Cybermen's vain attempts to "upgrade" another earth. Their goals are so pure and uncorrupted when you think about it. The Daleks want to dominate physically and externally exteriminating everything in their path, and the Cybermen in Season two seem more motivated to "upgrade" and relieve the human race of their emotional baggage by internally subjecting their brains to an emotional "cleansing" never more horrifically realized until the past season of stories. The Daleks and Cybermen could never form an alliance because they defeat each other from the outside in, and so the battle begins. If something was missing from RISE OF THE CYBERMEN and THE AGE OF STEEL, I think DOOMSDAY has made those episodes even more powerful in hindsight , thematically linking them though characters and concepts to almost create a continuing story. DOOMSDAY is burgeoning with one classic moment after another, but never more classic than the Daleks opening the Genesis ark when it astoundingly is revealed to be a timelord prison ship filled with millions of Daleks. Only in our wildest dreams! This episode also served to introduce the full blown TORCHWOOD concept to the series , and I was hoping to see an ongoing rivalry between the Doctor and TORCHWOOD and it remains to be seen how the two different tv series will progress from this point on, and cross reference each other in future episodes. Only time....will tell. I tend to enjoy the concept of the Doctor on the outside, looking in. The character is a revolutionary anarchist at heart and while season two has seen his earthly presence turn into an internet cult noticed by a few overzealous misfits like we saw in "LOVE AND MONSTERS", the character still and should al ways remain an outsider. I think TORCHWOOD will soon be moving away from being a "people" organization and tighten its grip into a fist. More so after the loss of its director who went to her death "serving Queen and Country" only to steal a scene in a triumph of humanity as a crimson tear falls from the Steely metal face of the Cyber body she found herself imprisoned in. A reminder once again of the victory of the human spirit over the steely cold mechanisation of encroaching technology! Once again, DOCTOR WHO, at its finest!

It’s almost inconcievable actually that DOOMSDAY succeeded so omnipotently on as many levels as it did. The story should have been literally ripped apart in having to serve as many purposes as it did, including going back to Season One and tieing up loose story arcs from the Time War through to FATHER'S DAY and even "BAD WOLF", ultimately bringing Jackie and Peter Tyler together and healing Rose's dysfunctional fragmented family. Everybody wins here....except the Doctor and Rose , who lose each other forever. In celebrating the best of DOCTOR WHO, we forever must deal with the loss of one of the best companions ever to grace the TARDIS.

Of course the possibility of the impossible will always exist in Doctor Who and the Production team leaves behind enough possibilities for a reunion - we have not loss Rose Tyler forever. Perhaps there are other chapters still to play out and concievably, there is plenty of room for the BBC to imagineer a Big Screen theatrical venture reuniting Chris Eccleston with Billie Piper as "a space in time" revisited. It is apparant that the story of Rose may have been in Russell Davies head from the moment she stepped out of that department store and into the TARDIS. Of course , now, the series must totally recreate itself once again, and it will be interesting to see the direction that will be taken with Freema Agyeman's Martha Jones character when the third season begins. Thank you to Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner,Phil Collinson, Billie Piper, David Tennant and the entire cast a nd production crew for making the second season a wonderful and entertaining ride through space and time.............Shine on you crazy diamonds!

Since the start of the year there have been two television “events” I have looked forward to; the World Cup and the second series of Doctor Who. In many ways my experience of one has mirrored that of the other: I felt slightly let down by the footy, and not just because of England’s typically early departure. The football on display was easily the most mediocre of my lifetime and the final was decided by yet another penalty shoot-out – exciting to watch but an unsatisfying conclusion to the world’s biggest sporting event.

I was hopeful that Doctor Who, which like the World Cup had been patchy in parts with only the occasional moments of brilliance, would redeem itself with a barnstorming finale to make up for the mediocrity of “New Earth”, “Tooth and Claw”, “The Impossible Planet/”The Satan Pit” and “Fear Her.

Happily, after the intriguing events of its immediate predecessor “Army of Ghosts”, “Doomsday” came along and instantly made me forget the many things that have bugged me in this series – the Doctor and Rose’s laboured “chemistry”, the rubbish acting from all concerned in “The Impossible Planet”/”The Satan Pit”, the smug in-jokes and cringy hug in the latter episodes and a great deal of Billie Piper’s acting in every episode – for, well, a while at least!

“Doomsday” was an example of the Russell T Davies era Who at its very best – epic storytelling involving the world in danger combined with strong character development for several of the players, particularly the Tylers and also Tracy-Ann Oberman’s Yvonne, who it transpired was more a misguided patriot than an evil fascist.

The episode continued, logically enough, where “Army of Ghosts” left off, with the dramatic realisation that the Daleks, and not the Cybermen, were responsible for bridging the gap from the alternate universe of “Rise of the Cybermen”/”The Age of Steel” to ours. The malevolent pepperpots were desperate to protect something called the Genesis Ark from enemy hands at all costs – we know this because they helpfully said to Rose and Mickey “We must protect the Genesis Ark at all costs”.

Rose managed to blag the Daleks into thinking she was too important to kill by convincing them she knew loads about their history, and the new, cannier Mickey, fresh from three years fighting the Cybermen in an alternative reality (as you do), followed her lead. Sadly, the bloke from Eastenders who played one of the much-maligned members of the Ferreira clan (appearing here as a Torchwood scientist) was not so lucky, and was plungered to death in a gratifyingly grisly scene.

The Doctor and Jackie, meanwhile, were trapped upstairs with the Cybermen, who were also busy explaining away their plans – is it any wonder that both the Doctor’s biggest foes consistently fail in their world-domination schemes when they can’t shut up telling him and his mates what they have in store for them? Schoolboy error.

Anyway, the whole point of the opening scenes was to provide an excuse for the Doctor’s two great enemy factions to confront each other, which they promptly did. Anyone who had a fiver on the Cybermen to win would have been gutted, as the Daleks’ guns proved to be more than a match for their effete looking wrist lasers.

The Daleks, incidentally, were given some cracking lines in these opening scenes. When warned by the Cybermen that the two sides were now at war one of them cockily replied: “This is not war, this is pest control!”. It added: “Cybermen are superior to Daleks in only one way; how you die!” and boasted that four Daleks were enough to take on the millions of Cybermen who were now present on our Earth.

Sadly, the Cybermen did not reply: “Oh yeah? You and whose army!”, but if they had done they would have received an emphatic response – the Genesis Ark (remember that?) was actually a Dalek prison ship stolen from the Time Lords. Inside were millions of the little buggers, kept in such a small device thanks to Time Lord technology i.e. it was bigger on the inside.

To be honest with you I got a little bit lost after that but I do know that Mickey’s new Geordie mate Jake popped up along with the alternate Pete Tyler to help save the day. The Doctor concocted some scheme or other that would conveniently send both the Cybermen and the Daleks to the Hellish “void” between the two realities. The only downside was that all of his companions, including Rose, would have to permanently relocate to the alternate Earth.

Rose predictably rebelled and ended up staying to help the Doctor. She looked like she was going to fall into the void herself but was then saved at the last minute by Pete, who took her to the alternate reality and out of the Doctor’s life. The end – except for a poignant epilogue where the Doctor managed to use the TARDIS to project an image of himself to a beach in Norway, which in no way looked like the Welsh coast, to say a final goodbye (and to learn from Rose that Jackie was up the duff, thanks to a quick moving alternate Pete).

This episode offered a fitting end to the second series and to the Rose-era as a whole. It wasn’t perfect – there were gaping plot holes: why did the Yvonne Cybermen still have a free will? The Daleks apparently needed the touch of a time-traveller to open the Genesis Ark but how did they know they would find one on our Earth (or did I miss something here)? Also, how thick must be the Cybermen be if they cannot crack reality-hopping technology when even that Geordie fella off CBBC can do it via a handy device that fits into the palm of your hand?

I liked the direction and the effects were mostly OK, even if the Cybermen’s guns seemed to be not much more impressive than the weapons you get at your local Laser Quest. The use of music seemed to be less obtrusive than in previous episodes; I particularly liked the mellow tune used in the epilogue, when Rose followed the Doctor’s voice to the Welsh, sorry Norwegian, coast.

Humour was used sparingly and to good effect, such as Mickey smirking that a battle between a Dalek and a Cyberman was like “Stephen Hawkins versus the speaking clock”. The meeting between Jackie and the alternate Pete was funny and poignant; especially amusing was the look on Mickey and the Doctor’s faces when Jackie said there hadn’t been anyone else since her own Pete died! I loved Jackie telling the Doctor to shut-up when his convenient parallel universe spiel was over-shadowing her and Pete’s moment. Compare this to the unfunny opening scene to “The Impossible Planet” when Rose jokes that they could simply go back to the TARDIS and leave at the first sign of danger, and her and the Doctor collapse with laughter – this is how you do knowing self-parody without appearing smug.

Remarkably, the dramatic finale to the Doctor-Rose story arc managed to overshadow the Dalek-Cybermen aspect to such an extent that you were almost glad to see the back of the old villains so that the emotional denouement could play out. Maybe that has been Russell T Davies’s greatest achievement since he brought the show back, to create characters you actually care enough while placing them in ever more ridiculous situations each week.

Either way, I’m hopeful for the next series for a variety of reasons: David Tennant clearly has the potential to get even better in the role, the prospect of new material, including Stephen Fry’s postponed script (imagine how mad that one will be!) and – sorry to harp on about this – no Rose. Hopefully, the script writers will take their queue from Tennant’s vastly different portrayal to Christopher Ecclestone’s and write Martha as the anti-Rose: not so touchy feely and maybe even prone to disagreements and antagonism with the Doctor (after all, the chirpy Dick Van Dyke routine would get on anyone’s nerves after a while, no matter how big the TARDIS is).

It is easy to ignore the fact that in todays easily taken forgranted world of multi channels and the internet, we are probably in the middle of a sci fi/ fantasy film and tv golden age.

Any comic or cult tv fan should be doing cartwheels at the moment as all those ideas which only ten years ago were the stuff of dreams become a reality.

These past few years have been saturated with new Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, sci fi and superhero films. Now not only are we enjoying a full second series of Doctor who but we are also getting so many wish lists ticked: return of Sarah Jane, Cybermen and finally that ultimate fan boy dream: Daleks v Cybermen.

It may seem an obvious idea and it may seem curious now that such a thing doesn’t ever seem to have been seriously considered in the past, but that is most probably because it is a very dangerous idea in that it promises much more than it can probably deliver. Really apart from a good shoot out, there isn’t a whole lot of mileage in the idea, much as the Alien V Predator film proved, its hard to tell a story about two protagonists who are both bad guys. But you cant blame the production team for pulling out this particular trump card and for the most part the Daleks V Cybermen scenes came across as very well executed, but probably really in need of an extra episode and a feature film budget to do full justice to the scale of the idea. Really though the Daleks and Cybermen were pretty much the background story, the real star of the show was Rose and Russell T Davies did us proud with a beautiful exit for this most special of companions.

The story in essence touched many of the same bases as last years Parting of the Ways 2 parter (sic), we had the slightly frivolous opening, followed by a slowly building mystery, all out war and finally the revelation that the Doctor and Rose must once more be parted to save the world. Thankfully the BBC’s publicity department can be congratulated on this occasion for keeping Billie’s departure under wraps for sufficient time, thus allowing her departure to carry its full dramatic weight and not be diluted over 13 episodes of anticipation and speculation as Eccleston’s was last year.

In her final appearance Rose bowed out with one of the best departure scenes ever written for a companion, it is astounding to think how casual the exits of many previous companions have been, and Russell showed how to do it properly. It was unashamedly emotional and anyone out there with a heart who has enjoyed Billie’s performance must have been struggling to hold back a tear. I must admit I have not been totally convinced Billie’s heart has been in it this season, in some stories you got the impression she was marking time a bit, but for her exit she was back 100%. The whole Tyler family reunion thing could have come across as a bit twee and convenient, but it worked and I think brought everything full circle in a most satisfying way. While I have sometimes accused the new series Doctor of being perhaps a little too human, here I could quite happily make that concession and allow him those tears as we realise that the two friends will never see each other again and the Doctor must once again continue his lonely voyage. It was one of the most heartbreaking scenes I have ever witnessed on television and was impeccably scripted and played. Although I am sad to see Billie go, I hope that the character never returns as any future cameos will only tarnish this great exit.

I was vehemently critical of the Rise of the Cybermen 2 parter on these pages several weeks ago and I am glad to say several parties involved in that story redeemed theirselves here. Firstly the superb Shaun Dingwall got some material finally deserving of his talent. Father’s Day was my personal favourite of season 1,due in no small part to Shaun’s portrayal of Pete, I was so disappointed then when Age of steel gave him very little to do and he seemed to walk through the story like a spare part. In Doomsday he got to show some real grit and while much more weary than the old Pete, he got to once more play the hero as we saw the scene when Rose rescues Pete in Father’s Day mirrored as he too snatches his daughter from the jaws of death.

I had also found Graeme Harper’s direction on the first two parter a bit lacklustre and at times amateurish, but this story was much improved and more in line with the work of his new series contempories. The Cybermen weren’t at their best in ROC/AOS either and came across as very clunky and toy robotish, while I am still not totally won over by the new Cybermen, their movement was a lot better in this story and the way they were shot gave them much more physical prescence. The biggest drawback on the new Cybermen however is the voice and the light up mouth, they are big hulking creatures, but the voice for me at least goes against that impression and weakens them. I know the production team are trying to evoke the whole sixties thing, but to me it feels laboured and the monotone delivery is too similar to the Daleks. They also came across a bit like cannon fodder for the Daleks. The story really did need that extra episode after the genesis arc opened to portray the full extent of the Dalek Cybermen invasion/war and its effect on the planet as a whole. We were still denied the Daleks actually being seen on terra firma. The shots of the arc opening and the Daleks flying over London were terrific stuff, as were their brief face offs with the Cybermen, but we really wanted to see much more. The battle had barely begun before it was time for the denouement.

And what a denouement it was, there were some liberties taken with logic particularly in the notion that thousands or millions of Daleks and Cybermen could be pulled into the breach so tidily with the Doctor and Rose hanging feet away from them and not even getting nudged, but the epic edge of the seat nature of it made that easily forgivable. For a moment as the realisation that Rose could possibly die for real seemed a possibility, we saw the full extent of the Doctor’s emotional anguish. David Tennant’s characterisation has at times been a little too flippant for my liking, but in these final scenes he proved he has the full dramatic range needed to portray a really great doctor and I hope he will tone down the smart arse aspect of the character down a bit in season 3.

And so that was it, another 13 weeks of Who gone far too quickly, and while a backlash against the series seems to have developed in some quarters, hopefully this episode will silence any critics, far from running out of steam as some seem to suggest, this story proved that when they put their minds to it Doctor who can still weave that magic. The season hasn’t been perfect, but has built on many of the strengths of last year while discarding some of the weaknesses. There hasn’t been any episode anywhere near as embarrassing as Aliens of London or Boomtown, and even some of the quieter stories such as Fear Her or Girl in The Fireplace have been far more memorable than the likes of The Long Game. The season arc has also payed off better than last years Bad Wolf and while the Torchwood references were sometimes a little overbearing, one can see with hindsight in stories such as School Reunion or the Girl in the Fireplace that the signposts were there for the Doctor and Rose’s parting. I think next year possibly needs to see a move away from earth, I have started to hear a lot of comments made that a series about space and time travel seems to end up on present day earth with alarming frequency. Impossible Planet proved it could be done, so more alien planets please.

I wasn’t quite what to make of the ending, obviously it was designed to surprise the audience who probably expected the episode to go out on a melancholy shot of the Doctor. It certainly did its job in providing an unexpected twist, but somehow fudged the cliffhanger with the puzzled exchange between the Doctor and the Bride not quite hitting the mark. We all know now that Catherine Tate is not the new companion, but I wonder how many people would have fell for the idea, if they had kept the announcement of Freema Agyeman back for a bit longer.

So all in all a hearty well done to all involved in this story, and particularly to Russell T Davies who when he pulls out all the stops can create some truly astonishing television, he is not too great at atmosphere or plotting , and has a sensibility which veers too much towards camp for my liking, but when he imagines Doctor Who as a sweeping blockbuster epic with action and emotion to match, nobody does it better.

Just to get it out of the way first, despite my instinctive dislike of the interminable Doctor-Rose love arc, I have to say that Billie Piper's performance in the rather bleak denouement of Doomsday was very touching and believable and drew out my sense of sympathy for a character I have otherwise found increasingly irritating. It also, ironically, inspired Tennant's best moments yet as the Doctor: brooding, slightly detached, paternal and visibly moved. But my irritation with Rose has not been so much to do with Piper's acting, which has mostly been of a high standard compared to many former companions (just compare her with Victoria, Jo, Adric, Peri and Mel and it's clear Rose, despite her annoyingly 'chavvish' aspects, is generally played pretty strongly by Piper), but with her characterisation and the intrusiveness of her growing infatuation with the Doctor. Well, it had to come to an end sooner or later, and I'm glad it has. Having said that, Piper's emotive performance on saying goodbye to her Timelord in shining armour - her convincing stuttering out of 'I love you', cringeworthy and absurd though this implication is, especially considering the Doctor's an alien - was impeccable. Having said this though, for me still this was all out of place in this programme; not so much her infatuation with Him, but the further implication that the Doctor requited it in some sense. And this was implied here though thankfully the Doctor didn't get to finish his verbal recipocration of Rose's sentiment. Thank God. But his tears afterwards say it all anyway. Maybe ultimately this was a direction the show had to go in eventually, in order to 'grow up' in a sense, but then, Doctor Who isn't and was never meant to be Star Trek or - much as I love it - Blake's 7: that is, the pivot of Who is the seemingly asexual, alien nature of its main protagonist, and RTD's humanisation of the character has been mostly lazy and feckless, arrogant and ill-conceived, and only really on this occasion has proved to work dramatically, with the Doctor's palpable sense of loss and lonliness on the final farewell to the most emotionally demonstrative companion he's ever had. I know RTD can't be entirely to blame for sexualising the Doctor as this was tragically first manifested in the appalling 1996 movie - which also heretically implied the Doctor was half-human - but that's still little excuse. The fact remains, in a far more sexually literate culture than when the series was last on our screens in 89, RTD, his finger ever on the pulse of zeitgeist, felt it was necessary to bring romance into the TARDIS. But the inevitable effect of this move is the dilution of the central character's enigma and alienness. This, in my view, has generally been damaging to the drama of the series. I wouldn't have been quite so prudish had the Doctor requited an infatuation with a Time Lady (as, let's face it, the implication was often there, though infinitely more subtly, between the Fourth Doctor and the second Romana - cue City of Death and the Doctor's mournfulness in Full Circle, after her departure the previous story). Hartnell's flirtation with Camica in The Aztecs aside, there's never really been any other hint of the Doctor's amorousness; even the Fifth Doctor's bond with Tegan seemed pretty one-sided on her part (cue Enlightenment), though, again, he was visibly emotionally drained at her sudden departure in Resurrection of the Daleks.

So what now then? Rose has apparently gone, though the likelihood of her returning one day is left open by her existence in that oh-so-difficult-to-return-to parallel Earth. Time will tell if RTD and the boys will decide to move on from this rather infantile preoccupation with the Doctor's capacity for human romance, with the dawning of the new companion next season: if the same sort of relationship is developed again with a new companion, I will really give up all hope on the new series ever fully rising above the level of sci-fi soap opera. This said, the appearance of Catherine Tate as an Essex-style bride in the TARDIS at the end of the episode was not only totally misplaced after the torrid farewell to Rose, but also I predict indicative of a fast-approaching abomination of a Christmas episode. With a title like The Runaway Bride, I feel Christmas day may be spoilt somewhat by a possible pantomime episode. I reserve judgment till Doomsday.

Talking of which, this episode itself. Well, my love of Who has always been much more down to the scripts, characters and concepts rather than the monsters. The essential theatricality and verbosity of the classic series is what drew me in in the first place; the detail of plots and scripts; the effortless imagination of scenarios; the absorbing, often intellectually-tinged escapism of it all; the suggestiveness of concepts and plot elements rather than always trying to visualise them, often mainly to do with lack of budget. New Who, for the first time, has the cash to show us practically everything suggested, but in a perverse sense this, for me, detracts from the power of the drama dormant in the show, and ironically cheapens it all in a way, to the level of Hollywood or US sci-fi. I think it also makes the writers much lazier, being able to rely more than ever on special effects etc. Doomsday is a good example of this techological complacency in the new series - the only consolation is some well-pitched battle sequences between the Daleks and Cybermen, the kind of scenes I would have loved as an eight year old but that now as an adult I find rather tedious and comic-strip. Doomsday's impeccable visuals (though the flying Daleks I thought didn't look that great) and fast action pace in no way distracted me from a fundamentally facile plot and conceptual laziness. In short, this episode, despite a truly emotional ending, was a big let down after the build-up of Army of Ghosts.

What we get really is one big winding up of the Tyler family saga/parallel Earth Tyler saga in an implausible implosion of scriptural laziness and plot conveniences: now, apparently, it's possible for the parallel Earthlings to simply hop back and forth by pressing big yellow medallions. Just like that. Yes, the Doctor points out how impossible such technology is. To which we get a hackneyed, non-falsifiable explanation from Jake that the parallel Earth has its own Torchwood but that the people's Republic found out what they were doing and seized on it. Mmmm. Ludicrous. As is the fact that their new President is called Harriet Jones. Come on. The Whoniverse has contracted massively under RTD: we now have an almost continually Earth/London/Cardiff-bound TARDIS, a future in which the Earth is controlled by the National Trust (why not International, for crying out loud?), a previous Doctor who has a consciously Salford accent ('All planets have a North'), a series of alien menaces that prowl around the same South London estate, and now even an impossibly parochially related parallel Earth where there's an identical Tyler family and Micky etc. Talk about suspension of disbelief. But I won't go on.

Other criticisms: the cop-out of the Genesis Ark arc, very disappointing - it would have been nice to have had Davros back finally - obviously not going to happen - but instead we get a vague thing about it being of Timelord technology (which even the Doctor finds vague for goodness' sake), and the Ark is basically a sort of TARDIS prison from which inevitably ejaculate millions of CGI Daleks swarming around Canary Warf (my, MI5 have been busy - or should that be MFI). Meanwhile the Cybermen are getting rather clumsy, falling over all and sundry to the Daleks' exterminators like so many empty suits of armour. I've decided I don't like these new models much: they seem to cumbersome and too robotic, the essential menace of the old ones being their obvious organic element. Basically these new ones are robots with human brains. The production team (and possibly Harper) have overdone their stomping noises to the extent that they're actually a bit embarrassing. Their voices are good and quite Troughtonesque, but there's something essentially lacking from them and I can't put my finger on it. At least, not as easily as on a parallel Earth transmat medallion. The focus on the moral and dehumanising aspect to the Cybermen is a brave and fruitful development in the new series, which I applaud; however, the shot of the Cybernised Yvonne shedding a tear of patriotic pride was implausible and clumsy, a perhaps irresistable play on the tear-duct design of the Cybermen's eyes. I hate to say it, but Harper has delivered the kind of direction in this episode and debatably the previous three that seriously poses the question: did your stunning talents die out with the old series? Rise of the Cybermen and Ghosts/Doomsday are not a patch on Harper's classic efforts (two of the best directed stories of all time); only Dalek from last season showed similar flair to Harper's old series' classics, but that was by a different director.

On the good side, there were a couple of scenes which shone in Doomsday both scripturally and directorially: first was the scene of the Cybermen rising again to the chanting of 'We will irradicate all class, sex, race' etc. 'and make everyone the same, like us' - a possible chilling comment on the misguided idealism of Communism?; and the shot of the Doctor gloating through the Dalek's vision, saying 'No wonder you're always screaming'. Doomsday needed many more scenes like these, but sadly, it didn't.

Doomsday was a disappointing climax to the second series overall, though with an affectingly emotive farewell scene. But it was full of cliches, plot-conveniences and cop-outs, and seemed to try and mimick the superior (though over-rated) Parting of the Ways finale to the previous season, but failing ultimately due to lack of believability and originality. Doomsday was the climax to the Tyler soap opera and the Doctor-Rose arc, and so was inevitable, but I do feel it could have been pulled off much better than it was, without so many continuity intrusions from the previous two series and frankly, without the Daleks, who seemed generally superfluous to the plot and weren't done full justice. Is it just me, or are the Daleks rather boring without Davros?

5/10 - on a good day.

So much happened in Doomsday (in truth, maybe TOO much happened) that it’s hard to know where to start this review. The beginning is usually a good place - even though, technically, that was also the end, with Rose’s “this is the story of my death” message being reprised before the opening credits.

An example of how much had to be packed into this episode could be gleaned from the pre-credits sequence – surely the briefest we’d had, and an indication that there was no time to waste!

That was why writer Russell T Davies quickly wrapped up the contributions of the surviving featured Torchwood key personnel (those from this Universe) – although it was a nice touch to later bring in Cyber Yvonne, complete with female voice – I’m assuming that was Tracy-Ann Oberman, and that Nicholas Briggs’ talents (and ring modulators) haven’t quite enabled him to perfect a gender voice change.

The main business of the early part of the episode was the match of the day which everyone wanted to see – the clash between Cybermen and Daleks, which had been set up by the thrilling arrival of Skaro’s finest at the end of Army Of Ghosts.

It’s a question which has been debated by Doctor Who fans throughout the 40 years that both have been part of the public consciousness. Cybermen or Daleks - who would win in a fight? It’s never been a contest for me. The Cybermen are wonderfully large and menacing but they are, by definition, men – and women! – in rubber (or the 21st-century equivalent) suits. The Daleks are more alien and, since they were given “wings”, infinitely more deadly. When a Cyberman first appeared in Army Of Ghosts, it was a thrill – but nothing compared to the Daleks arriving on the scene. That’s still always a move-to-the-edge-of-the-seat moment, and these are few and far between in TV watching.

That longed-for first meeting between representatives of the two great armies – in a corridor, where else? – was an exciting moment but, of course, there was never any question of the Daleks allying themselves to an “inferior” monster – and nor should they, even at a numerical disadvantage of five million to just four!

Even the Dalek voices are greatly superior, much more clearly defined and easy to follow. As in Rise Of The Cybermen/The Age Of Steel, I have an issue with the Cyber voices. A dedicated fan would have no problems deciphering them, as they’re concentrating deeply, and used to the variances in alien voices. I’m sure many more-casual viewers – the vast majority, without whom there would be no TV Doctor Who – would have missed several lines of Cyber dialogue, not that there was much. It’s rare that I can categorically say I prefer one aspect from the old series to the new version but, for me, David Banks’ Cyber Leader voice is greatly superior to Nicholas Briggs’ version.

It’s a little surprising that Briggs was voicing both Cybermen and Daleks – although, to be fair, you certainly couldn’t tell they were the same man. Perhaps Briggs’ Cyber voice may grow on me given time, because I should add that I love his interpretation of the Dalek voice – and the different affectations he brings to each one.

Plot-wise, I thought (and, as always, you have to take the episode time constraints very much into the equation) Doomsday worked really well, though there was no massive surprises, apart from the Daleks’ arrival. From ’way back in Episodes 5 and 6, the widowing of the alternate Pete Tyler meant a “reunion” between him and “our” Jackie was a fairly-obvious route for Davies to take. Pete and Jackie’s meeting wasn’t my favourite part of the episode. I didn’t really buy the leaping into each others’ arms, and this was one of the sufferers of trying to cram too much in, though it was acceptable in terms of plotline. Being a “boy”, at the time, I was rather enjoying the Cybermen-Daleks skirmish and wanted to see more, and all this human stuff rather butted in! Obviously, it would have been great to see extended monster fight scenes, but I suspect we’re talking budgets here, and the money ran out. So we had to make do with a couple of token zappings.

The Genesis Ark being a dimensionally transcendental (or should that be transcendentally dimensional) prison ship for millions of Daleks was a decent idea, and the sight of the Dalek army flying through the London sky with the Cyber army below certainly gave the impression of an epic encounter. However, with the flying Daleks, there was a sense that we’d kind of done that in The Parting Of The Ways, and there was more than a few moments of déjà vu with that great season finale as this year’s denouement grew closer.

That was certainly the case as The Doctor again opted to send Rose away from danger, this time to the parallel Earth to play Happy Families with Jackie, Pete and Mickey (due to time constraints, sadly little more than a bit-part player here). Choosing The Doctor over her mother just emphasised the depth of Rose’s love for him. This time, she didn’t need a series of Bad Wolf messages to find her way back to her Doctor – and that led to the dramatic (as opposed to emotional) highlight of the episode, as our dynamic duo clung onto life by their fingertips (literally) as the monster armies were sucked back into the void, apart from The Black Dalek, of course . . . guess who’s coming back for Series 3?

Although I’ve always felt that Rose wouldn’t die in the conventional sense and would probably end up with the others in the parallel world, it did cross my mind for a moment that Davies was going to allow her to be sucked into the void, and her “this is the story of my death” message was sent from there, where she was trapped for eternity. Killing off Rose in this way would have been an incredible piece of TV, but Davies has said this wasn’t an option. And he was right. The viewer has travelled an incredible journey with Rose and, despite the emotional sledgehammer of a companion’s death, the way she has been written out leaves more than a glimmer of hope that one day she will return . . . and one day, she shall, she shall! If you can get in and out of a parallel world once, you can do so again somewhere down the line in time and space . . .

Rose losing her grip, and letting out a chilling scream as she slid towards her death was as dramatic a moment as I can remember seeing on TV, never mind Doctor Who, for a long time. It really was big-screen stuff. “Daddy” Pete suddenly appearing to rescue her, just as she’d done for him in last season’s Fathers’ Day, was also a perfectly-acceptable exit route.

Outwith death doing them part, this was really the only way Rose could leave her Doctor, and made for some emotionally-charged scenes, with them pressing their faces against each other from opposite Universes especially touching. And I preferred that moment to the “projection” of The Doctor to Rose in the parallel world. Again, this idea was too similar to The Parting Of The Ways, but you could forgive Davies that (could forgive him anything really – the man is a legend for bringing this great show back to us!) as it offered further opportunity to tug at the heartstrings some more, as the final goodbyes were said. And, though the two lead actors didn’t need much help, Murray Gold’s score really accentuated the moment once again. It was another tough writers’ call whether The Doctor would say the “l” word after Rose had and, again, Davies got it right – though the tears of a Time Lord said more than any little word ever could.

The only thing about the episode which really totally surprised me was the closing scene, and I wonder how late a decision the inclusion of Catherine Tate was, in what was effectively a trailer for the Christmas Day (as it almost certainly will be) episode. My instant reaction was “wrong call” and that it spoiled the moment but, thinking about it, leaving the series on a question mark rather than a full stop might have been a smart move. A difficult one to assess.

The natural ending was The Doctor alone in the TARDIS, devastated at the “loss” of a loved one, although that was pretty much the conclusion to The Girl In The Fireplace (for a different blonde – one who actually did die!). In fact, in retrospect, Steven Moffat’s excellent episode might have been better moved to Series Three. There were too many similarities between The Doctor’s reaction to Reinette and Rose’s departures.

None of the supporting cast got much of a look-in here, but there was plenty of good stuff from David Tennant and Billie Piper. Both probably had their best episodes of the series.

I thought Tennant was superb in Doomsday – especially in terms of an emotional acting performance. Totally believable, his “projection” scenes were not quite as iconic as the ninth Doctor’s hologram when it appeared before Rose after sending her back to Earth in The Parting Of The Ways, but it was still moving. The TARDIS is in safe hands, and I can’t wait to see how he deals with life after Rose . . . and runaway brides!

And then there was Billie. What can one say? If she didn’t get a BAFTA last year, she probably won’t get one this year, but Rose has been an amazing character (probably the best-ever in Doctor Who, and I say this as a Sarah Jane devotee) and Billie Piper has brought her to vibrant life from Day One.

In many ways, this whole show could easily have been called Doctor Who and Rose Tyler – because it’s always been a team of two equals. From that very first eponymous episode of Series One, Rose has been just as central to proceedings to The Doctor. So many great moments – being chased by Autons; that “run for your life” first meeting with The Doctor; displaying her gymnastic prowess to save the Earth (for the first time) from The Nestene Consciousness; kissing Mickey goodbye and running into the TARDIS; watching the Earth about to die from Platform One; her first encounter with a Dalek; kneeling by the side of her dying dad; hanging from a balloon in the middle of an air raid during The Blitz; dancing with Captain Jack atop an invisible spaceship beside Big Ben; looking into the TARDIS and the TARDIS looking into her; turning the Daleks to dust as The Bad Wolf; being chased by gun-toting Santas and a spinning Christmas tree; her “my monsters were bigger than your monsters” tete a tete with Sarah and the realisation that she hasn’t been The Doctor’s only companion; being trapped inside a TV set by The Wire; being split up from The Doctor on The Impossible Planet; being attacked by a giant scribble . . . and then there was Doomsday!

If ever a scene epitomised how much Rose has developed since that first episode, it was that eye-to-eyestalk encounter with The Black Dalek, as she told it why she and her friends should be kept alive, and faced the monster with no fear. She could have been The Doctor in that moment, and Piper played it to perfection.

I think she has an extra gleam in her eye when she tackles these heavyweight scenes, and she certainly relishes the action scenes, such as being gradually sucked into the void. She also “does” emotion, and her tears at the end were thoroughly believable. It was a rather-extended goodbye, but very worthy of the character and the actress.

She won’t be a hard act to follow, she’ll be an impossible act to follow. Sometimes, you don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone, but Doctor Who has survived the loss of great characters dozens of times before, and the show will go on. As it always has done.

Although it didn’t quite match the promise of Army Of Ghosts, mainly because of all the plots strands having to be hurriedly tied together, I still greatly enjoyed Doomsday, and I’ve loved this whole series. Having written this review – as all others from the new series – on one viewing of each episode, I’m looking forward to watching all 13 again to see how it all dovetails together. And to see if how much analysis I’ve got wrong!

Russell T. Davies and his team have done it again. “Doomsday” encapsulates everything that is good about the new series. My Dad will hate the mushy stuff, but with 95% of the episode nothing but top-drawer action, this episode truly has something for everybody. Quite simply, it is magnificent. Flawless, even.

So how can you top last year’s masterpiece, “The Parting of the Ways”? How can you go one better than 200 Dalek ships – that’s half a million Daleks – invading the Earth of the far future, the departure of a companion and a regeneration? You do the only thing you can – you take one of your own childhood fantasies, and you make it happen. Daleks vs Cybermen; “Stephen Hawking vs. the Speaking Clock”; whatever you want to call it. This kind of episode is exactly the sort of thing that fans have always dreamt of; the sort of thing that casual viewers of the show automatically assume has happened before, but in reality, even in the ‘expanded universe’ of books and audio dramas, has never, ever occurred*.

The Cybermen’s idea to form an alliance and “…upgrade the universe” together is quickly rejected by the Daleks, who interestingly come across as the bad baddies, if that makes sense. If you have the Doctor vs the Daleks or the Doctor vs the Cybermen, then it’s easy, a story of good vs bad. When you have (as the show’s unprecedented FIFTH** Radio Times cover of the year proudly proclaims) Daleks vs Cybermen, then it’s heel vs heel. Baddie vs baddie. Who’s side do you take? Many people choose to go for the underdog, but even with millions of Cybermen against four Daleks, I’d still class these relatively newborn Cybermen as underdogs any day of the week. The Daleks just electrify every scene that they are in; they raise the bar just that little bit higher; and, in “Doomsday,” they absolutely kick ass!

“This is not war! This is pest control!… You are superior in only one respect. You are better at dying!”

The banter between these two cybernetic races is a joy to listen to. From the Cybermen’s mockery of the Daleks’ “…inelegant design”, it’s very difficult to believe that there isn’t just a little bit of human emotion left inside them. The Daleks, on the other hand, are always emotional – genetically bred blobs of pure hatred. That’s why they come across as more evil than the Cybermen. Because they are! Cybermen are just automatons, doing what they have been programmed to believe is right. Of course, one could argue the same point about the Daleks, but at the end of the day Daleks can feel.

And the Daleks aren’t the only ones kicking ass. In her final episode, Billie Piper gives her best performance yet as Rose. In just forty-five minutes she shows just how far she has come since we first met her as a bored teenager in “Rose.” In the opening moments of the episode, she saves the lives of Mickey and Raj (at least temporarily) by making her knowledge of the Daleks and their Time War immediately clear. In the same vein, we get to see Mickey – an older, wiser, braver Mickey who has crossed the void (something the Doctor said was impossible) - try and save the Earth. Arguably, he has changed and grown even more than Rose has since we met them both. I knew that “The Age of Steel” wouldn’t be the last we’d see of him; he may have found himself a happy home with his alternate Grandmother, but with things left open with Pete Tyler and the Cybermen there were simply too many loose ends that just had to be tied up, and inevitably Mickey would have to play a part in that. So I called that one, but my prediction/hope about the resurrection of the Time Lords was wide of the mark – but only just. As the Daleks wheeled out “…all that remains of the Time Lord homeworld…” – a device they call the “Genesis Ark” – I thought I’d been blessed by some strange prognostic power, but alas, it was not to be.

“If these are gonna be my last words then you’re gonna listen... The God of all Daleks, and I destroyed him!”

By this point I thought Rose was a goner; gunned down by a Dalek Supreme. Once again, I was wrong. My fiancée could have been forgiven for thinking that there was something wrong with our sofa – I wasn’t behind it, I was on the edge of it, constantly jumping up and down. It was like England vs Portugal all over again, but whereas with watching England there’s always a winker like Ronaldo to spoil things, you can always have complete faith in the Doctor to save the day. Well, almost always. Just as things couldn’t getter any bleaker for Rose; for Mickey; for Earth, the Doctor waltzes in and has a bit of a chinwag and a catch-up (much to the Daleks’ annoyance) and then goes on to reveal a few important facts. Firstly, the Doctor doesn’t have a clue what this “Genesis Ark”, which is a bit of a worry.

Secondly, it is confirmed what many fans suspected – the Doctor was actually a soldier in the Time War, out there on the front line. The Doctor actually put his moral scruples aside and fought. Whether this was the eighth or ninth Doctor we still don’t know, perhaps we never will – a little bit of mystery never goes amiss in this series!

“I was there at the fall of Arcadia… some day I might even come to terms with that.”

As I mentioned in my review of “Fear Her,” the writers have been much braver this year about acknowledging the show’s past, not only on TV, but now it seems, the books too that got us through the 90s. Russell T. Davies could have made any old planet name up and stuck it in that sentence, and either way ninety-nine per cent of the audience wouldn’t have been any the wiser, but he didn’t – he wrote Arcadia, and put a few smiles on the faces of Doctor Who readers worldwide.

Thirdly, my ears weren’t deceiving me in the opening minutes – “Dalek Thay…” – these Daleks have names! According to the Doctor, these four Daleks form “the Cult of Skaro” (the first time the Dalek homeworld has been mentioned in the new series!); Daleks whose mission it is to think like the enemy, so much so that they even have names. Now this small part of the episode – which to be honest, didn’t affect the plot at all; these could just as easily have been four generic Daleks – opens up so many storytelling possibilities, and will no doubt form the subject matter of many a future novel, audio or even TV episode, especially considering the Dalek Supreme’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it “emergency temporal shift” before his army is sucked into the void.

“Doomsday” is certainly an appropriate title for this episode; “Armageddon” could have been another. The scenes of destruction, especially when seen from the Doctor’s purview in Canary Wharf, are absolutely staggering. When the Daleks actually open the “Genesis Ark”, and millions of the blighters come flying out of that old Time Lord prison ship (“ahh… so that’s what it was”), the Mill manage to top last year’s epic finale, at least in terms of the visual effects. Millions of Daleks flying through space is one thing, but flying through the air above London? Swarming around Canary Wharf like insects? The visuals are simply mind-blowing, and in terms of the storytelling, the stakes have never been higher. This isn’t some far off invasion in the distant future. This is here and now. This is war on Earth. Today.

“Cybermen will remove sex and class and colour and creed. You will become identical. You will become like us.”

I mentioned earlier that I think Daleks are more evil than Cybermen, as well as much more dangerous. Whilst I believe that to be the case, I think that the Cybermen are a much more frightening monster than the pepper pots from Skaro. Why? A Dalek will just gun you down, or maybe ‘mind probe’ or torture you a bit first if you’re very unlucky. Cybermen, on the other hand, take you, dissect you, remove all that is human, and turn you into a unthinking, unfeeling monster. It’s the whole Darth Vader / Borg kind of idea, only the Cybermen came first, and the Cybermen are worse. In “Doomsday,” we experience the horrors of Cyberconversion through Tracy-Ann Oberman’s character, Yvonne Hartman, the despicable face of Torchwood. Her ultimate fate is superbly written and portrayed. As she is taken for Cyberconversion, you can see the mortal dread on her face, and it’s made worse by the fact that she knows exactly what they are going to do to her. “Oh God. I did my duty! Oh God!” – you almost feel sorry for her. In the end, when she actually overcomes her Cyber conditioning to gun down her fellow Cybermen and give our heroes that little bit of extra time, you’re practically cheering her on as she bleeds an oily tear from her cybernetic eye.

“How rich? I don’t care about that. How very?”

I knew it was coming, but it didn’t make it any less dramatic. The widowed Pete Tyler is back in our universe, face to face with the widowed Jackie Tyler. Had they not ran into each other’s arms for a proper, cheesy, Hollywood kiss the rules of poetics would have needed seriously revising. Even this absolutely epic, dramatic scene – a scene that has been in the making since “The Age of Steel”; no, earlier, since “Father’s Day,” really – is infused with just that little bit of humour. “There was never anyone else,” says Jackie as the Doctor, Rose and Mickey all bite their lips and try not to laugh.

“What is it with the glasses?”

Davies rattles off the exposition about “void stuff” in about thirty economical seconds and the die is cast – everyone goes back to “Pete’s World” to live happily ever after. Mother, father, daughter, daughter’s ex. Only daughter isn’t happy about that. Daughter immediately pushes the button and sends herself back to our world – she is willing to lose her mother and her father - who have miraculously just been reunited after years apart - to stand by the Doctor. To stand by the man she loves.

“…the last story I’ll ever tell.”

The explosive end to “Doomsday” gives ‘edge-of-the-seat’ a whole new meaning. Watching the Doctor and Rose hang on for dear life as the Void sucks in Daleks, Cybermen, as well as everything and everyone touched by the “void stuff” is gut-wrenching in the extreme.

“This is the story of how I died.”

They couldn’t...? To kill her would have been bad enough, but to send her to Hell with a million Daleks and Cybermen would have been much too much. But for a minute there… David Tennant and Billie Piper both deserve a BAFTA on that one scene alone! Their faces. Their blood curdling screams as Rose’s fingers slip and she is sucked into… the arms of her Dad. Pete Tyler makes the last minute save. Rose survives. But…

That touching, soulful new composition by Murray Gold plays and the Doctor and Rose each find themselves staring at a plain, blank white wall – a whole universe between them. A whole universe that, thanks to the sealing of the breach, can never be crossed again. Rose is inconsolable, but at least she has her family. She has Mum and Dad. She has Mickey. She even has Mickey’s old Gran. If, at some point before she met the Doctor, somebody told her that she would be rich beyond her wildest dreams, living with her Mother and her long-dead Father, with a baby brother or sister on the way, she’d have thought them mad – but she’d certainly have wanted to believe them. The Doctor may have been cruelly ripped away from her, but she has everything else that she could have ever wanted. As for the Doctor; as for the lonely God…

And so we come full circle. There’s a beautiful symmetry in Rose sitting up in bed, just as she did in the first scene of “Rose” way back when. Only this time she’s had a dream. She has to follow a voice.

“Here I am at last, and this is the story of how I died.”

My sister called it right – a metaphorical death it was. Satan lied. Officially dead in our world, Rose begins her new life in another as she stands in Bad Wolf Bay, staring across a beach; staring across a universe at the fading projection of the man she loves, who is ”…burning up a sun just to say goodbye.” As always, Davies’ dialogue is beyond perfect. Rose asks the Doctor if he can come through to her world, and he bluntly replies, “two universes would collapse.” Rose says, “So?” It just sums it all up; Rose and the Doctor… love in general.

“I love you,” says Rose, overcome by emotion.

“Quite right too,” says the Doctor with a smile on his face, doing his best Han Solo impression. “And I suppose, if there’s one last chance to say it, Rose Tyler…” and then he’s savagely ripped away by the currents of our universe. Heartbreaking! The Doctor stands in his TARDIS alone, a single tear running down his cheek. He never told her. In Doctor Who terms, “Doomsday” is the King of all tearjerkers. It is quite simply, the end of an era.

“Will I ever see you again?”

“You can’t.”

And then suddenly, the Doctor looks up and a strange, disgruntled woman (Catherine Tate) is in the TARDIS wearing a wedding dress. Once again, humour crops up even at the most dramatic moment and rounds off the season in a much more upbeat fashion. Rose and her family may be gone, but the Doctor will go on, just as he’s always done. The same old life.

And what about us, the fans? Life after Billie? It’s almost as daunting as thinking about life after Eccleston, but look what a star David Tennant has proven himself to be. I hope he stays in the role for years and years and years. He’s superb. The world of Who marches on and we have “The Runaway Bride” to look forward to at Christmas, and then Freema Agyeman’s new companion Martha Jones next spring, along with the return of the Ice Warriors, Shakespeare, and I’m sure the Dalek Supreme will turn up again at some point. And if I remember right, the Face of Boe still has a secret to tell…

* I’m 99% per cent sure! I still haven’t quite got through all the books yet!

** Including “The Christmas Invasion” cover in December 2005.