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Friday, 25 November 2005 - Reviewed by John Williams

The anticipation for new Doctor Who since the airing of Series 1 has been huge. With reports that the Children in Need special could be anything from 3 - 15 minutes long everyone was hoping for the latter. Despite the speical only being around six minutes long I found it difficult to complain. At first I thought that the anticipation of the event had covered up a lack of content, but on repeat viewings I found the mini-episode to be just as good.

The untitled special starts with a brief recap of some of the events that took place in the series one final - The Parting of the Ways. With the Doctor now regenerated, Rose has problems trusting him. She is unsure whether the man standing in front of her is really the Doctor. The Doctor attempts to convince her but in the end sets a course for Earth. True to the classic series the Doctor has problems with his regeneration and loses control. He speeds up the Tardis and sets it for a crashlanding. The episode clearly leads directly into the Christmas special.

My impressions of the mini-episode are on the whole positive. David Tennant is superb as the Doctor. He has great screen pesence and is full of energy. Billie Piper is also excellent. In the space of just a few minutes its easy to see the screen chemistry that these two actors have. The script by Russell T. Davies is brilliant and the effects are particularly good for a charity special. Apart from the length I can't find anything negative to say about this episode. It left me anticipating the Christmas special even more.





FILTER: - Television - Charity - Tenth Doctor