Steven Moffat's 'The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances' two-parter is widely regarded by many as the best last season had to offer. For me, 'Dalek' and 'Father's Day' perhaps shaded it a little, but story. High expectations, then, for his season two offering.

The premise of 'Girl' is possibly the most boldly sci-fi the new series of Doctor Who has attempted so far and it's a doozy. Future spaceship inexplicably tied to 18th century France gives us the opportunity to to visit two very different and beautifully-realised locales. It is also an immensely clever way for Moffat to write a piece that seems epic but actually makes use of very few sets, one pretty visit outdoors notwithstanding.

'Girl' has a rather odd tone - the first third or so has a distinctly camp feel to it, peaking in the cringe-worthy moment when the Doctor staggers around the imperilled Mickey and Rose sporting a quite hideous combination of tie-bandana and shades which make him look like he has stepped out of The Young Ones. Unfortunately, the normally-reliable David Tennant plays the scene in exactly this manner. This was the one single moment I have wished Chris Ecclestone was still around to play a scene. It is to a deep sigh of relief, then, that it is revealed the Doctor is merely playing drunk and from hereonin the episode picks up immensely.

Reviews of the previous episodes of season two have often stated that the 45-minute format has constrained the stories too far. Up until now I have not really felt this to be the case, but 'Girl' positively screams for more time to develop. Extra time to witness the the burgeoning relationship between the Doctor and Pompadour would have elicited a much more natural empathy from the audience, where the single-episode format here speeds events along at rather too brisk a pace.

Still, come the end, the Doctor's sense of loss is still very palpable - made all the more important in Rose's growing realisation that she is far from the only girl in the universe for him. Her arc this season is developing in a surprisingly dark manner, adding welcome levels to the Tenth Doctor who would otherwise be a little too jolly all the time.

Enjoyable, clever but lacking the tightness of Moffat's orevious tale (the Doctor's mind-reading is a bit contrived, the fireplace parting at the end feels a little forced and the name of the ship only kind of explains why everything has been happening), 'Girl' is yet another change of pace for a season which is demonstrating remarkable variety thus far.

Cybermen to come, hopefully accompanied by some real scares next week.

Like many, if not most, of the Doctor Who fans I am livid at this episode. The new series has always hinted at the Doctor having a physical relatinship with various females but has until now left this open to the discretion of the viewer. Sadly the series has decided that this is a part of the Doctor's life whether the fan likes it or not.

In previous episodes, such as the Empty Child, The Doctor Dances and School Reunion the story was written in such a way that there could or could not be a physical relationship between characters, thus appeasing the loyal fan base that believe the Doctor does not engage in sexual activity with those he meets. With such intelligent script writing all quarters were satisfied, fans both old and new had a Doctor they could identify with.

Now that's it. Officially the Doctor is a being that has intimate physical relationships with people that he meets, and let's not forget he never met his French filly for more than a few minutes at a time. All of a sudden the character we have spent so much time with is no different to the average 'Eastender'. Frankly, Mr Moffat and RTD should be ashamed of themselves for bringing our ALIEN hero down to such levels.

The story itself may have been a good one, I do not know, it was so frustrating to watch a character I have grown up with butchered so. Tennant's great performances in the last two episodes gave me great hope for the future, sadly tonight's episode wasn't the Doctor I know. It saddens me that a fan of the series as Tennant is would accept this new trend of the Doctors. Were I the fan playing the part I would not have allowed this.

The only bright spots were with Rose and Mickey who kept us in check with the story line. In all honesty the storyline wasn't terribly good anyway. There was great potential but it was wasted on the Doctor having a 'romance'.

However the most insulting element came in Doctor Who confidential. The writer, RTD, and the various other elements actually took the piss out of the Doctor Who fans that prefer their hero to be non-sexual. Does RTD's arrogance extend so far that he forgets the very people that kept the series alive throughout the 90's?

The alternative universe Cybermen appear next week. I can only hope that Doctor Who gets back on track after tonight's travesty of an episode.

Well now- I know IВ’ve been saying that weВ’ve been seeing the restoration of the Doctor as the central figure this season and the consequent downgrading of the significance of the Rose character but the hitherto asexual Doctor becoming so infatuated with an (admittedly attractive) French aristocrat so as to potentially abandon Rose,and Mickey,Sapphire and Steel like,in space forever?Hmm.So there you go,broad-minded and generally supportive as I have tried to be about the new era perhaps I am just an old fart after all and becoming,according to my friend,more like the hardcore every day-I think I know what he means by this.

However,the fact that I struggled with this,and some other aspects,such as the graphic snog,which made the New Earth kiss positively boring by comparison(poor old Rose has even got upstaged on that by Madame Pompadou),and the DoctorВ’s silly pissed routine(mind you it was for a reason and sometimes Doctors do silly things for a reason,like PertweeВ’s disguise in the Green Death,say)cannot detract from some superb elements which comprised what was essentially an adult fairy tale likely to be of limited appeal to younger viewers.Visually the episode was stunning,and some children will be genuinely frightened by the clockwork robots(nods to the Mind Robber there) which were superbly realised,though the voices were rather bland.Clocks ticking,old fireplaces,time portals,horses on spaceships(if we can have sailing ships in space in Enlightenment,thereВ’s no reason why we canВ’t have horses): all good stuff,and the idea of the Doctor appearing at various stages of PompadouВ’s life,not growing old as she does,is a poignant continuation of the Doctor/Sarah discussion in School Reunion.

ThereВ’s no doubting Steven MoffatВ’s brilliance as a writer but boy does he seem preoccupied by sex!References to it permeate the Empty Child/the Doctor Dances where dancingВ’s just a metaphor for sex and here references and hints are abandoned altogether in favour of full-on lust.Still,this season is proving itself capable of great variety if nothing else.

Despite my struggles with some aspects,this was an intelligent,visually flawless story proving that new Who isnВ’t some sort of juvenile CBBC pantomime not worthy of comparision to the classic era as some I assume still believe.On the contrary,it seems a little too adult at times.Probably a notch down though from the brilliant Empty Child/Doctor Dances due to time constraints.

Ahh, the Doctor in love. How sweet. Can't complain as its been done before (William Hartnell: The Aztecs). I did think it was a bit rushed though. Was it love or just a sudden infatuation? Who cares?

I really liked this episode when I watched it at 7pm last night. When I watched it again this morning I felt a little... disappointed. For the first time this season, actually. All the other episodes have had their faults but have generally been satisfying slices of New Doctor Who. The Girl in the Fireplace had a lot of great elements but just didn't quite achieve the depth it seemed to be trying to reach. Don't get me wrong, great acting, direction, costumes, effects (apart from the horse/mirror thing), scary robots etc etc. But it all felt a little inconsequential.

The relationship between the Doctor and Madame De Pompadour was a nice idea, him becoming her guardian (at least in her eyes) throughout her life. But the idea that, having not seen him since she was 7 years old, her 23 year old self would snog him seems a little unlikely. An extra fifteen minutes might have allowed us to have seen him reappear more often in her life, which would have made her reaction more plausible.

The robots were excellent. The masks were truly terrifying. The threat was exciting. But they didn't actually do anything. Which made them a rather redundant threat. The whole "we don't have the parts" idea was beautifully gruesome, particularly when connected with Rose and Mickey's earlier comments about someone cooking and Sunday roasts - but it was glossed over too quickly (musn't scare the kiddies too much). The modern Doctor Who feels a little castrated to me. The Doctor Who I watched in the Seventies and Eighties wasn't afraid to get down and dirty every now and then but 30 years on and we can't see blood, we can't see a human kill another human, we can't do black magic, religion or witchcraft either (seriously, they can't - BBC guidelines) which pretty much rules out them ever repeating old Doctor Who doesn't it?

And what happened with Rose and Mickey? Sidelined for the entire episode, Mickey's first trip in the TARDIS was bugger all of an event for him really. Rose seems to have forgotten her grumpy attitude at the end of School Reunion when the Doctor invited him to stay and equally seems quite unconcerned about the Doctor's romantic interest in MDP despite having practically decimated Sarah Jane a week ago for daring to breathe the Doctor's name.

I understand what they were trying to do, and Tennant and Myles worked beautifully together, the scene where he comes back to find her coffin being taken away was particularly touching. But all the "lonely angel" stuff was beginning to grate by the end and I can't believe that the Doctor would unthinkingly leave Rose and Mickey stranded on the spaceship, knowing they can't operate the TARDIS. When he realised he was stuck in France for 3000 years, he didn't mention them once. That was sloppy writing (or editing?).

I have tried very hard not to mention how spectacularly good The Empty Child was last year and how it was my favourite story from Eccleston's run because I wanted to let The Girl in the Fireplace stand on its own merits. Unfortunately this was an episode that truly qualifies as style over substance and although it was an enjoyable 45 minutes and I will definitely watch it again - it just won't be very often. 3/5

Things I Loved: The droid under the bed, "we have no parts", David Tennant (still amazing), Noel Clarke, Sophia Myles, the design, the direction, the dialogue, the revolving fireplace, the central idea, the name of the ship (beautifully done), the Doctor's last scene in the TARDIS...

Things I Didn't Love: the inconsequential nature of it all, being left with a feeling of "so what?"

Dear sweet lord what a mess of an episode.

Last week was great fun, a romp perfectly suited to the 45 minute format. The Girl In The Fireplace suffered massively from it, feeling like a 2 parter butchered into one episode, robbing its most important scenes of any weight whatsoever.

Let me give a little perspective before you start flaming me in the forums. I love Doctor Who. I love what RTD did to bring it back to our screens, and I adore all the hard work that BBC wales put into every episode, which is why it's such a shame that so much is rammed into each episode that all the hard work and detail goes by in too much of a flash. This had the potential to be incredible, just as Moffat's two parter in the previous season was. The Girl in The Fireplace had some beautiful, poignant moments that would have been legendary had they been given more time to play through, but alas 45 minutes was all we got, and back we go into gung-ho territory. A story of filmic proportiions reduced to a jumble of quick cuts and soundbytes. Another snog. Another mention of the phrase 'Doctor Who'. Thankfully no Torchwood pimping this week, but hey, it probably got lost with half the plot during the edit to get it down to 45 minutes.

The tenth Doctor appears to be lacking any noticeable character in the episode, and as the tale went on, he seemed less and less like the Doctor in any way. Some huge moments of stupidity, a stream of romantic goo and at the end of it the Doctor, of all fictional heroes, gives up and seems ready to take the long route through time with madame de Pompadour, which completely contradicts not only last episode's gorgeous speech about leaving people behind, but the character's history since the beginning! He is coming across as incredibly lightweight and silly, and if it hadn't been for School Reunion I wouldn't be tuning in at all any more. This isn't very Doctor Who at all. Yeah, that'll get me some nasty comments, but it's not even along the same lines as the last series! The Doctor has always had a childlike element, but at the moment he's more of a gibbering toddler.

*phew* deep breaths, its only a TV show, its only entertainment. I know this, but it's been a big part of British culture for over 40 years now and its sad to see it eschewing its unique flavour for hackneyed romantic subplots. I sell Doctor Who (and other SF) merchandise for a living and spend all day every day pimping the new series to kids eager for something unique. So far, this series isn't it.

I really hope next week's is better. The Cybermen 2 parter had better be amazing or I for one will lose all interest in how the series turns out, and that'd be a shame as I was really looking forward to it. Of course, this is just my opinion. I watched TGITF with my band mates who loved it, so each to their own. If you enjoyed it, I'm really pleased as it means the series will continue. I just wish it had got the Doctor in it somewhere.

Roll on next week. Keep me watching.

ItВ’s difficult to sit and write a review of something you adored, because you run the risk of simply gushing out a list of everything you liked about it, which quickly becomes very boring for the reader. If they agree with you then youВ’re simply telling them things they knew anyway and not giving them any reason to carry on reading the review. If they disagree with you then your constant in-your-face trumpeting of everything they disagree with is also going to turn them off very quickly.

Which is why it is a little hard for me to sit here and type this, because I absolutely loved The Girl in the Fireplace. I suspect most of you will either agree with me and stop right there, or wonder how I can possibly hold such an opinion of such a terrible episode not worthy of the diamond logo, and also stop right there. This episode is going to turn out, in the long-run, to be a bit like the film Moulin Rouge, or Apple Macs В– those who love them adore them and canВ’t shut up about them, those who dislike them think theyВ’re a complete waste of time. ItВ’s divisive, IВ’ll give it that, but Doctor Who has always been a series that rises to the occasion when it tries something a bit new and a bit different. And this is certainly rather new territory, Doctor Who as a romance.

LetВ’s get the love story angle out of the way first, then. I say В“out of the wayВ” as if itВ’s something soiled and dirty, which is wrong, not only because itВ’s the very heart of the episode but also because itВ’s rather touchingly written, especially as itВ’s made to seem not all that out of character for the Doctor. I will hold my hand up and admit I am not generally a big fan of love and romance in reality or in fiction, and certainly not in Doctor Who, but with Steven MoffatВ’s skill as a scriptwriter it just seemed to rise rather beautifully out of the situation and fit very well.

This is mostly to do with the main guest star this week, Sophia Myles as Madame de Pompadour. IВ’d never seen Myles in anything before watching this episode, but sheВ’s clearly an excellent actress, and she really makes you believe that this woman is something quite special and remarkable В– somebody the Doctor would be prepared to trap himself in the eighteenth century for. ItВ’s heartbreaking that she doesnВ’t get to see the stars with the Doctor, and only reinforces what he was telling Rose in last weekВ’s episode about human lives being so fleeting, how they pass so quickly and yet he lives on alone.

HeВ’s left alone at the end here, reading her letter in the TARDIS, and curiously for such a modern and up-to-date example of the series in terms of style and execution, I was reminded of the end of The Aztecs, which featured one of the DoctorВ’s previous, somewhat less obvious, romantic attachments, to Cameca. At the end there the Doctor seems about to discard the brooch she gave him, then cannot bring himself to do so and takes it with him into the TARDIS. A subtle and doubtless unintentional thematic link, but the scenes did seem to echo one another to my fanboy eyes at least.

ItВ’s very much, perhaps, the DoctorВ’s episode, and David Tennant is well up to the task. The only time I wasnВ’t completely sold on him was the pretending-to-be-drunk sequence, which wasnВ’t as embarrassing as it could have been but still undermined some of the authority the character usually conveys even in his lighter moments. IВ’m more than prepared to let that pass, however, for some of the nice character moments we got the Doctor. My particular favourite was Reinette reading his mind. IВ’ve probably said more than enough times in my reviews of various episodes that I enjoy it when thereВ’s a bit of mystery and enigma about the Doctor, the suggestion that we know very little about him really. I suspect that Moffat enjoys, or is at least intrigued by, the same sort of ideas, as having Reinette comment on his lonely childhood and the enigma of his name nicely dangles some questions hopefully never to be fully answered.

Unlike last week, however, the appearance of a significant woman in the DoctorВ’s life doesnВ’t take over the entire episode at the expense of the plot. Whereas School Reunion suffered from being purely a vehicle for some В– admittedly excellent В– scenes between the Doctor and Sarah and an exploration of the DoctorВ’s attitudes to love and loss, here similar themes are explored and characterisation created in tandem with the plot, without overloading it or making it suffer. ItВ’s a real step up in quality as a result, and while ReinetteВ’s fate will likely never be as moving for the hardcore fans simply because she lacks the associations of Sarah Jane Smith in our affections, for the general audience I suspect this may well have been even more satisfying.

One of the reasons that Steven MoffatВ’s scripts are always so enjoyable, aside from their sense of fun and his grasp of characterisation, is the fact that the plots always seem to slide so beautifully together. He is obviously a man who takes a lot of time over his storylines and has a great attention to detail which pays off. Purely in story terms, I would say that this is by far the strongest episode of the second series thus far. It just all seems to work В– the reason for the clockwork droids being obsessed with Madame de Pompadeur, the time windows, and organic repairs to the ship. It all comes together and just clicks.

If there is an element of the script that can be criticised, it is probably the sidelining of Rose and Mickey, which does seem a little unfair on poor old Noel Clarke given that this is his first episode as a bona fide companion. Rose gets one great scene with Reinette and MickeyВ’s initial wonder at arriving on the space ship is well conveyed by Clarke, but apart from that both he and Piper are pretty much on a hiding to nothing as they are overshadowed by the Doctor and ReinetteВ’s love story. Which, I have to say on a personal level I didnВ’t mind as I found the story far more interesting than Rose and Mickey, but I can see how shoving two series regulars off to one side could be a little off-putting. But as long as you donВ’t do it every week, I think it can stand to be done, although it is interesting to note that Rose seems far less central to many of the episodes than she did during the course of the first series.

All this appreciation and IВ’ve not even started on the contributions of those behind the cameras other than Moffat. Euros Lyn proves just what a multi-talented director he is, following his hand-held, visceral style of Tooth and Claw, with lots of lovely, traditional BBC period drama swooping pans here. The design was lovely too, across the board В– the space ship in CGI exterior and the construction of the interior sets, the French settings and the exterior they found to represent Versailles looked suitably gorgeous too.

IВ’d better stop, or else there is a danger I will just carry on gushing about how much I enjoyed this episode for far too many pages. There was just so much to love В– the story, the performances, the dialogue, and the knowledge that itВ’s the type of thing only Doctor Who could have done. Where else do you get a Lord of Time riding to the rescue of his 18th century French girlfriend on the back of a horse, crashing through a mirror on the other side of which is a 51st century spaceship.

Barmy. But brilliant. And beautiful.