The Empty Child

One word: Brilliant. 'The Empty Child' is the best story of the series so far, and it is easy to see why. The story follows the Doctor and Rose, who arrive in London during the Blitz, trying to trace a time vessel they found in the vortex.

The plot is down to Earth with a sensible vibe that allows for much more padding, which gives the episode the unchallengeable title of scariest episode yet. The spine chilling empty child looking for his mummy is something you can imagine in a horror film, and drives one to ponder the effect this had on the younger members of the audience.

The scenes in the hospital are spooky gold, with a perfectly brilliant cameo appearance by Richard Wilson. Although it is a shame he's not on screen longer, his short-lived role allows the shock of his unearthly transformation to have a far more dramatic impact.

The plot of Jack and Rose is the part of the episode that lets it down. The character of Jack himself is bland, cheesy and generally a disappointment, but does seem to improve within the last few minutes. Perhaps it is just me being a sentimentalist in saying an American just doesn't seem to work in Doctor Who, because of it's British nature and that is they way many believe it should stay. Although the performance was a little OTT, Jack Barrowman tries his best and one is hopeful he will improve as the episode go on, although it would be a little much if he were to stay on for season two.

The acting overall is brilliant, with more strong performances from Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper, but also from Florence Hoath who plays Nancy, a promising newcomer to the world of drama.

The special effects of the episode are strong point, especially the German air raid, but it seems a shame that the opening 'time-tunnel' effect was used again in the episode, the scene was a perfect opportunity from some new space settings.

It was also nice to see the return of the 'classic' cliffhanger, and not having it interrupted by the Next Episode trailer. It was still nice to see a trailer, and proves to work better when place after the title, if only for cliffhanger stories.

Overall, this episode is defiantly the best so far, and there are high hopes for ‘The Doctor Dances'