The Empty Child

This is the Doctor Who episode I have been waiting for since ( I could say it all began, but I was only born in 1967) I remember watching it. For all the time periods that the Doctor has visited, he has never dealt with any machinations of the Second World War. The nearest he has come to it is in The War Games but that was WWI and soldiers transported no another period and Curse of Fenric but that was set after.

And as far as I am concerned the best "ghost" stories have elements of WWII in them, saying that only Sapphire & Steel's 100 part Second Adventure (actually it was eight, but t seemed it went on forever) springs to mind. So this story already had a heads up in my view. And it didn't disappoint.

The precredit sequence was one of the better of the series. I have find these to be hit and miss affairs. Just another nod to the theme tune which I love (another request for a fast release on CD)

The Doctor and Rose land and it's straight into the adventure. The chills start almost immediately with the "child" constantly calling "Mummy" and the incidental music assisting. I've already got chills up my spine and I'm 38 and it's daylight at 6.30pm. Rose finds a rope and is pulled up into what HAS to be the best special effect sequence (ever -- well, bar Star Wars episode III opening battle) These scenes of the blitz surpass anything I have seen in Pearl Harbor and the like. Already Rose is in peril and the clever thing in this opening escapade is that what I expected to be the cliffhanger of the story (Rose falling from the rope) was handled in the first 20 minutes.

Her eventual rescue by Captain Jack is great with her doe-eyed look and fainting pure comedy. In fact there is quite a lot of comic moments in this episode considering the very dark and sinister nature of the plot with a special note to the most unforced "Doctor Who?" line in the whole Who history. Going back to Captain Jack, which I could again and again. His bisexual tendencies have been mentioned in the media and I initially thought this might be unnecessary overkill on a theme (there have been frequent gay references through the new series so far) the throwaway line was quite minimal and funny too. In the event I hope this thread is continued.

The child actors were superb; again, British kids can perform creepy better than anyone. The child stalking the city was just plain shit-scary even just with his hand through the letterbox. Richard Wilson as the "other" doctor had limited screen time and I hope there is more of him next week but he certainly commanded his brief scenes. However, this is Chris Eccleston's best performance to date, eerily subdued but again with a huge amount of humour coming across very "human". Billie Piper again has her best role in this "Hello, Hello" - faint "Doctor Who?" etc.

As mentioned the effects were outstanding and it's a long time that I have found a cgi/special effect to send shivers up my spine. That happened during Doctor Constantine's transformation. But as I said before, it's got that WWII ghost story/gas mask voices in the air creepiness that I adore.

Finally I was really happy that they had abandoned the trailer of the next episode as I don't think they should be part of two episode stories (it was on after the end credits, but my tape switched to Confidential before it finished so I didn't see it). hopefully this will be lost altogether for cliffhangers.

Stephen Moffat shoots to the top of my list with this story and although I agree the "guest writers" have written the better stories, those badmouthing RTD should take a step back and take note that his stories are just as good and I'm sure he has had the most input in the story arc which I find the most interesting. With respect to the other producers and heads of BBC, he brought Doctor Who back successfully to our screens.

So, Empty Child heads my list beating The Unquiet Dead (finally off top spot), Father's Day, Dalek, The Long Game (purely for Simon Pegg's performance), Rose, AoL/WWIII and The End of the World.