The Empty Child

A mysterious bomb-like object no one is allowed to approach; an eerie child clad in a gas mask calling out for mummy; German air raids; a dashing confidence trickster with his own spaceship tethered to Big Ben. As with last week, "The Empty Child" found our heroes once more back in London, but that was where all similarity ended.

I was half-preparing myself for a repeat of "The Long Game/Dalek" factor, i.e. a mediocre follow-up to a series classic. However, "The Empty Child", whilst a very different beast to the scintillating "Father's Day", is nevertheless fine, absorbing Who, and certainly the most frightening of the new series so far, if a little uneven occasionally.

First, the good points. The recreation of Blitz-era London was quite wonderful, and shots of Heinkel 111 bombers were spectacular, not something the old series had the tools to recreate. As in "The Unquiet Dead", the BBC gets a chance to flex its period drama muscles, and the results are excellent.

Ecclestone continues to impress, here showing compassion for the 'little people' once again in his interactions with the homeless children, and getting one or two neat comic lines such as the "has anything fallen from the sky?" line in the nightclub. Apart from the odd blip, such as "Aliens of London" and "The Long Game", he has been compelling to watch and as the series' conclusion draws nearer this viewer is coming to regret his departure more and more. Here he is also a bit more proactive than before, which can only be a good thing.

I must confess I was dreading the introduction of Captain Jack, but he was surprising engaging, and I loved his description of the Doctor and Rose as "flag girl" and "U-boat captain". The supporting characters were also well presented in the form of the haunted Nancy and the dying Dr Constantine, caring for the victims of the mystery plague alone in a darkened, quarantined old hospital. Was it me or was this the same hospital used in "Aliens of London"?

True horror returned to Doctor Who this week; my partner had to watch something else light afterwards as she was quite disturbed by the child, from its first appearance as a silhouette calling out "Are you my mummy?" Hopefully this will not be over-used next week however as it could grow irritating.

I had high hopes for the script, penned as it is by Steven Moffat, writer of the excellent Coupling. For the most part it delivers, although this viewer did wince when the tired old "Doctor Who?" gag was wheeled out. Overall however Moffat did continue the trend of the best scripts being produced by writers other than RTD.

Gripes? Only a minor one, but I was a little disappointed with Billie Piper this week, mainly as I found her schoolgirl-like crush and responses to Captain Jack a bit out of character; although the scenes are well-written in comic fashion, it did seem to clash a little with the overall feel of the episode, which was very much the darkest and most traditionally horrific of the new series so far in my book. And I'm still unsure about Captain Jack as a recurring character, although this could produce some good needle between him and Ecclestone, and perhaps better Harkness than Adam or Mickey. Meanwhile I found the incidental music rather anonymous after Murray Gold's marvellous contribution to "Father's Day". On the other hand, anonymous is better than intrusive.

Good to have a proper cliffhanger, and well done to the BBC for learning from the mistake of "Aliens of London" by giving a spoiler warning before showing the preview of next week's episode. Bet most of us watched the preview anyway though, eh?

Overall, a fine and chilling episode, with plenty of horror and enough unanswered questions to make next week must-see TV. And, for all my misgivings about two or three of the episodes hitherto screened, Doctor Who 2005 has remained compelling watching, and who could ask for more than that?