Bad Wolf

This episode was excellent. Doctor Who in 2005 has proved beyond doubt the durability of the series as a social metaphor and modern-day myth. I hope it runs for another 27 years.

‘Bad Wolf’ triumphantly combined the surrealism of 60s episodes like ‘Celestial Toymaker’ and ‘Mind Robber’ with the ironic self-reflexion of the McCoy era and beyond. I also thought the starting had echoes of ‘Inside the Spaceship’, when the characters wake up and don't know what's happened to them, and the interior of the Dalek spacecraft was subtly reminiscent of the sets used in the 60s serials.

The strength of the series has always been its versatility, and this episode moved effortlessly from comic satire to sci-fi horror. The first scene and Eccleston's line before the titles were some of the most flippant and self-aware of the season, but the last scene was one of the most dramatic and exciting cliff hangers of the whole series.

The reality and humiliation TV sketches were great - the four guests are good sports for taking part. The social commentary was nicely tied into the development of the story. Anne Droid's laser comes from her lips, a deadly ray of verbal abuse. Trine-E and Zu-zana promise to give somebody a make over, but really want to kill their character. And Big Brother contestants are vain or insecure victims who equate unpopularity with death.

What’s more, this episode was scary. By taking very familiar names, images and voices and making them covertly threatening, the programme makers have pulled off a neat trick. Trine-E and Zu-zana are some of the best monsters of the whole series, a post-modern combination of Tabby and Tilda and the Candyman. I only wish Jack hadn't been able to dispose of them quite so easily before they got to work.

My previous reviews have questioned the portrayal of the Doctor as a useless, emotional and vindictive character who gets things wrong far too often. This evening's episode finally answered the questions that have been piling up for too long. The breakthrough came in the last ten minutes when the Doctor tooled himself up with the biggest gun he could find, only to throw it away at the critical moment. Then, having bungled so many times in the last season, often leaving others to get him out of a mess or pick up the pieces, he finally took responsibility for what was happening to Rose and pledged to do something to stop it. I could almost see something of Hartnell's Doctor in Eccleston as he stood up the Daleks. There was something noble and brave about it - self-important without being arrogant - that called to mind the first Doctor and his confrontations with the creatures.

The arrival of the Daleks was also great. Having complained before that a Dalek on its own just doesn't work, because fascism is a social doctrine, I was excited to see so many Daleks reciting their racist cry. That’s what's frightening about them. When you look closely enough, it is possible to see in them the human horrors that blighted the twentieth century by brainwashing the individual into a philosophy of obedience and hate. And they're back at last.