Gridlock

Well, so far the new series of Doctor Who has in turn made us laugh and cry, but with the episode that beat Star Trek's total number of episodes, it also knocked all other competition into a cocked hat by making something truly beautiful. With this third series, David Tennant speaking Russel T Davies' words encapsulates Doctor Who perfectly. The collaboration between these two men is now at its zenith. And what a wonderful place it is too - I just hope that said zenith lasts as long as possible. Ably assisted by the brilliant Freema Agyeman, the series really is striding confidently through the television schedules, and much like the good Doctor himself, scattering chaos in his wake as he shows what British television really can do.

The central idea - a perpetual traffic jam in which people are born and die and live there for years and years without seeing daylight or hope - is a brilliant one, and one that will strike a chord with anyone who has spent a whole afternoon trapped on the North Circular in baking heat and smog. A lesson there for all us, perhaps. The fact that there was nobody outside the gridlock of the title to save the trapped motorists really is the stuff of nightmares. And, in true Doctor Who style, there are monsters below to boot...

It is the mark of a series when it crams in so much thematic and particular incident that its difficult to take in all on the first sitting. In this day and age, that can only be a good thing. Doctor Who, probably like few other programmes on the box, will be picked apart for years on end by the fans and rewatched by casual viewers on Sky Plus, so that can only be a good thing. So, not only did we get CGI'd up return of a classic series monster in the giant crab like Macra, but the Face of Boe and Novice Hame too, to complete the very loose trilogy of the year 5 Billion.

The effects of the Macra and the vast traffic jam were nothing short of brilliant. The Mill seem to have gone really to town of late, and it shows. The prosthetics, too, were nothing short of astounding. Ardal O' Hanlon's cat make up, and that of Hame's, were utterly convincing. Not that iI want to think too much about the birth of the kittens...

And then there was the death of Boe, the sad coda to the end of this story and his prophetic words: You are not alone. The look on the Doctor's face said it all, matched only by the lump in my throat that returned with the release of all the travellers and the Doctor's heart rending admission to Martha as he describes the long gone Gallifrey. Smashing stuff.

This is Doctor Who at it's best. We've never had it so good.