Whilst "Doomsday" may have bled straight into "The Runaway Bride," the first episode of Series Three feels much more like a clean sheet. Firstly, "The Runaway Bride" is given a stand-alone DVD release, separating it from the third series. Secondly, "Smith and Jones" begins without a pre-title sequence ? the first episode to do so since "Rose". And it makes sense. The Doctor makes jokes about having spent "fifteen years as a postman", and although I would only take that with a pinch of salt, there is no doubting that "Smith and Jones" is set long after the events of "The Runaway Bride".

THE DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor.
MARTHA: As far as I'm concerned you've got to earn that title.

Companions rarely impress right from the word go, but Martha does just that; Freema Agyeman does exceptionally well in this episode. Not only does she look much more beautiful ?in the flesh' (as opposed to in her publicity stills, which I don't think do her justice), but she also portrays the character with such confidence that the viewer feels like they really know Martha within just a short few minutes of screen time. Driven; forceful; intelligent. A plethora of ?girl power' adjectives spring to mind, but they are not the same ones that I would use to describe Rose. Martha is a career girl. She is more academic than Rose; she's a professional. She's also a cut above her peers in almost every sense ? "Smith and Jones" skilfully demonstrates how she differs from those like Julia and Morgenstern. When they find themselves stranded on the moon, Julia turns into a gibbering wreck whilst Morgenstern gets delusions of heroism without actually taking any action. Only Martha has the presence of mind to try and reassure the patients; think logically about the hospital not being pressurised et cetera? In short, she has her head switched on.

Russell T. Davies recycles many elements that he first used in "Rose" ? not just the obvious and necessary ingredients, but things such as the whole ?holding hands' "Run!" sequence. A hospital corridor may not be as cinematically epic as Westminster Bridge by night, but in a Doctor Who sense I suppose it is at least a bit more traditional!

"Do you remember the Zygon gambit with the Loch Ness monster?
Or the Yeti in the underground?"

In the past, I've criticised the new series' umming-and-arring and about whether or not the people of contemporary Earth are ready to accept the knowledge that they are not alone in the universe. In Torchwood, Gwen was initially under the impression that recent global events, like those depicted in the "Aliens of London" two-parter, were the result of sort of terrorism. After all the Doctor's spiel about a "?brand new planet Earth?" in "The Christmas Invasion," Stephen Cole's novel "The Feast of the Drowned" confirmed that population had gone back to believing that the Sycorax and the Slitheen etc. were no more than high-profile hoaxes. Martha, however, knows better. She lost her cousin in the Battle of Canary Wharf (Ah. So that's why?) If the twenty-first century is when it all changes, then Martha is ready. And the Doctor appears to recognise this from the off.

This means that the Doctor doesn't have to waste time trying to convince her that aliens exist. Of course, when she looks out across the surface of the moon and sees a platoon on intergalactic alien stormtroopers heading straight for her, she'd have a hard time denying their existence.

The Judoon landing isn't the first stunning visual in the episode. The hospital under the black cloud is a simple, but striking image, as so eloquently described in the script: "like in a cartoon where a man has a cloud over his head". Moreover, I have always thought the Cybermen marching across the surface of the moon in "The Moonbase" is one of the most enduring images of the Patrick Troughton era ? it is certainly up there with the Cybermen coming out of the sewers near St. Paul's Cathedral or emerging from the Ice Tombs of Telos. And whilst I doubt very much that in the future the Judoon's moon landing will be held in such high regard, for me it completely hammered home just how good Doctor Who is in this day and age. No suspension of disbelief is required ? the Judoon look like they mean business. Their spaceships may look phallic, but the standard of the C.G.I. is outstanding. The prosthetics on the Judoon leader are even better. A rhino in a leather centurion's skirt with the silhouette of a Sontaran? How does Russell T. Davies do it? Even their native language sounded awesome ? it is completely alien, yet in an all-new and extremely amusing way. All those O's!

Unsurprisingly though, the plot of "Smith and Jones" is not head-scratchingly complex or fascinating. I do think, however, that it is a damned sight better than the science-fiction plots in both "Rose" and "New Earth." Basically, there is a Plasmavore hiding within the hospital where Martha Jones works. The Judoon ? an intergalactic police force ? are called in to arrest her. However, in order to do so, they have to transfer the hospital to the moon ("neutral territory") because under intergalactic law they have no jurisdiction over Earth. The second problem the Judoon face is that plasmavores can disguise themselves; their very nature means that they can easily absorb the blood of another species so that they may pass themselves off as, in this case, a human.

"You're quite the funny man, and yet I think laughing on purpose, at the darkness."

Anne Reid as the plasmavore is terrific. She's got that lovely little gimmick ? a straw. Just a normal, everyday straw and yet this show takes it and turns it into something menacing. Watching her exsanguinate Roy Marsden's consultant is very nasty - it will certainly put little kids off wanting to visit their grandmothers for a while!

I also though it was refreshing that the Judoon weren't just portrayed as baddies per se. Obviously they aren't goodies - all the "justice is swift" stuff and all that ? but nevertheless their apparent amorality makes them a bit more interesting than say, the completely immoral Slitheen. They also inject a lot of humour into the episode; there is a delightfully comic moment where after giving Martha a thorough (and, one would imagine, very uncomfortable) scan and determining that she is in fact human, they immediately doll out "compensation!"

"Forgive me for this, it could save a thousand lives; it means nothing."

Which brings me to the kiss. Just like all the uproar about "The Parting of the Ways" and "New Earth," it was all just a fuss about nothing. The Doctor Who production team are certainly very shrewd about how to garner media interest. Stick a fleeting, sensationalist snog in there for the most tenuous of plot reasons ("That was a genetic transfer!"); cut it into about a million trailers; stream in online; stick it in The Sun; and you've got ten million viewers on Saturday night! A Cynical, but smart move that I cannot really fault. And to be fair, it doesn't spoil anything. At least not for me - I quite like to see the Doctor getting about a bit in his old age. Besides, I don't think that anyone can argue with the emotional resonance that episodes like "The Girl In The Fireplace" and "Doomsday" have. A bit of romance simply helps tell a better story.

"I'd rather be on my own."

However, this isn't romance. This isn't a manly tear on a beach. This is attraction ? one-way attraction, according to Davies on Confidential. Like poor tragic Charlotte Pollard before her, it seems that Martha Jones is destined to be the victim of unrequited love. Her quips about the TARDIS being ?intimate' and the Doctor wearing tight pants certainly imply that she is attracted to him, but equally, the look on her face when he says "good" in response to her statement that she isn't ?remotely interested' in him speaks volumes.

"Your spaceship is made of wood."

In many ways, this episode has much in common with "Rose" in that it inducts Martha Jones and all her crazy family (who look brilliant, by the way. Especially her Dad and Annelise!) into the world of the Doctor. The key difference is that "Smith and Jones" does not also have the job of introducing a new audience to the Doctor. The new audience knows him now. This means that we can share the Doctor's amusement as he mouths "bigger on the inside" in perfect synch with Martha. In fact, the entire ?welcome to the TARDIS' scene has a whole new dynamic for the audience. The Doctor has seen the reactions of countless companions to the TARDIS interior and by now, even the new audience have seen the same thing about five times. Naturally, Davies ensures that although repetitive, the scene if far from boring. Martha's feisty comebacks to the Doctor's cryptic statements range from discerning to amusing.

THE DOCTOR: [I'm a] Time Lord.
MARTHA: Not pompous at all then.

Martha is without doubt a world away from Rose; if anything, her kick-ass attitude is closer to that of Lucie Miller, the eighth Doctor's companion in the recent BB7 radio series. Martha's got the brains though, too.

She's the full package.

There is so much more to enjoy about this episode ? that lovely ?time travel' trick with the tie; Murray Gold's stunning score that includes "Martha's Theme" (a soaring orchestral waltz); David Tennant's madcap performance as he tries to expel radiation through his left shoe! There's even the odd line to get the internet forum's buzzing tonight ? "Vote Saxon? Mr. Saxon was right about aliens?" and "?we were together?", the Doctor says, talking about Rose. Together how, hmm? "Do you have a brother?" Martha asks the Doctor. "Not anymore!" he says with a grin and a wink. That's a new ?un?

More negatively, the Slabs were a bit of a rubbish monster ? they were just two blokes in leathers and motorcycle helmets! In any other episode they could have looked quite sinister, but next to the Judoon they just looked like cheap miniatures! Furthermore, the way the Doctor stopped the M.R.I. overload ? unless I've missed something crucial ? was also a bit disappointing. I thought to myself, ?they've got rid of the sonic screwdriver, so he's going to have to something really clever to get out of this one.' Then he seemed to just fiddle about with some buttons, unpull the odd plug and turn the damned thing off! Boo!

On the whole though, my first impression of Martha and of Series Three are profoundly positive. I had my concerns when I first saw the rather lacklustre teaser trailer at the end of "The Runaway Bride", but this episode quashed any nagging doubts that I had. It really is "the same, but better."

Martha is just so real, and I'm sure that with her onside and with his "brand new sonic screwdriver" (there's a novelty hit single if ever there was one) in his brand new suit pocket, the third series has the potential to be even better than the last. "Smith and Jones" is certainly the best opening episode of the new series to date, leaving the exposition-crammed "Rose" and the distinctly mediocre "New Earth" in its wake.

I ended up in a quite a foul mood after enduring the witless dross that was 'The Runaway Bride', so I approached the new series of Doctor Who with caution, especially since the opening episodes of the two previous seasons haven't been terribly good and were also written by Russell T. Davies. This being the case, 'Smith and Jones' was a very pleasant surprise, an enormously fun, solidly written romp, with which to introduce the new companion. ?

There isn't a great deal of subtext or social commentary going in 'Smith and Jones'; it's simply a straightforwardly told efficient and entertaining story, which given Davies' frequent lack of subtlety when it comes to such things is more than welcome. Beginning the new series with a hospital on the Moon makes for visually striking and novel episode, and it also makes the series feel refreshingly less Earthbound, even if in Doctor Who terms the Moon isn't actually very far away. We get monsters too, in the imposing shape of the Judoon, who are utterly two-dimensional as alien species go, but effective nonetheless. The fact that they are policemen for hire who just happen space rhinos is actually quite nice. They aren't exactly villains, although their "justice is swift" stance and execution of the man who attacks one of them with a vase gives them a dangerous edge (especially when the Doctor suggests that they might find the hospital guilty of harbouring a fugitive and sentence it to execution), as does their imposing physical presence. The special effects team does a good job on them too, and they look great, albeit a bit like Sontarans from behind when they've got their helmets on. The story's actual villain, the Plasmavore, is just as two-dimensional and ends up ranting in an embarrassingly over the top fashion at the end, but since this is primarily Martha's story anyway she, like the Judoon, fulfils her role within the plot reasonably well. Actress Anne Reid makes her sufficiently nasty when the script calls for it, and the fact that she is a diminutive old lady juxtaposes nicely with her murderous tendencies. The straw however is a mistake, suggesting that Davies thinks he's still writing for Sarah Jane Adventures. ?

Davies also gives us some strong supporting characters, which he seems to have struggled with in previous single-episode stories, presumably due to time constraints. The gently sarcastic and patronising Mr. Stoker is quite likeable, especially when he's standing stunned in his office and trying to cope with what's going on, noting that his daughter is still at university and that he'll never see her again. Roy Marsden is a great actor and gets the most out of his dialogue, especially when Stoker reflects, "Two more years I thought, and then retire to Florida." The young doctor who nervously tries to help the Judoon and stop everyone else in the hospital panicking, is also very believable, especially when he ends up self-importantly telling a policeman about his role. The general panic of all the hospital staff and patients also convinces without veering into the realm of annoying histrionics?

The big question here of course is how does Martha Jones fare? Rose was enormously popular with the viewing public and the media critics, so stepping into Billie Piper's shoes was always going to be a challenge for actress Freema Agyeman, and her short role in 'Army of Ghosts' and 'Doomsday' didn't really give her enough screen time for me to form a strong opinion about her acting abilities. Happily, Agyeman is great: she immediately establishes a rapport with David Tennant and is immensely likeable as Martha. Her delivery of two lines ("It's beautiful" and "That was nothing?") sounds stilted, but that is a very, very trivial criticism that at worst suggests that she is still settling in to the role at this point. Even better from my point of view however, is the actual character of Martha herself.?

I rather liked Rose, in general, during series one, but her transition from companion to groupie during series two began to be come spectacularly grating and it didn't help that I'm not predisposed to tolerate a companion who is a pig-shit thick chav. Martha by contrast has a brain and uses it, whether working out that the air supply will be limited, or realising that the Plasmavore has unwisely assimilated the Doctor's blood and exposing her to the Judoon. Basically, her character works very, very well: she seems genuinely excited to be on the Moon, whilst everyone else panics, and deals level-headedly with Judoon, Slabs, and Plasmavore alike. There are some great moments when she first starts getting to know the Doctor, such as when he warns her, "We could die!" and she calmly replies, "We might not", and when she tries to reassure him by telling him, "I promise you Mr Smith, we will find a way out." This being Russell T. Davies' Doctor Who, we inevitably get some flirting with the Doctor, but at this stage it seems more playful than puppy-eyed and therefore is less irritating. I only have two criticisms relating to Martha: the first is that revealing that Adeola was her cousin seems horribly contrived, a fan boy means of justifying recasting Agyeman so soon which frankly isn't necessary, although since I read 'Made of Steel' before 'Smith and Jones' was broadcast I was already expecting it. The second is that given that she's obviously intelligent and has already discovered the Doctor's double heartbeat, and refers to the Slitheen spaceship, the Sycorax spaceship, Cybermen, and the fact that she's surrounded by Judoon on the Moon, it takes her a long time to accept that the Doctor is an alien.

Unfortunately, Davies' insistence that Doctor Who needs kitchen sink soap opera garbage to appeal to the lowest common denominator in the audience means that, like Rose, Martha comes with dysfunctional family in tow. However, at this stage, whilst Martha's father, a comic buffoon who is renowned for dating much young blonde women, is a ridiculous clich?, none of her family members seem especially irritating, and none of them are played by Camille Coduri. In fact, although both are very specific character types and therefore not remotely original or interesting per se, I do quite like both of Martha's parents, largely due to the performances of the actors involved. I've no doubt that we'll be seeing Martha's family again, so we'll see which way this goes later in the series, but for now at least none of them are as annoying as Jackie Tyler and at least two of them provide genuine amusement ("No I didn't, I said "orange"").?

After an occasionally uneven performance during his first season, David Tennant starts the new series on fine form, with a performance that is slightly more restrained than in previous episodes and therefore much, much better. He gets the eccentricity right, especially when he's casually discussing helping Benjamin Franklin. The scene of the Doctor shedding his shoes unfortunately reeks of ham, but this is more the fault of the script than of Tennant. Best of all, here we get a Doctor who outwits the villain with guile and cunning, rather than standing around issuing ultimatums via pompous speeches, and who risks sacrificing himself to save the world. The Doctor playing with time for the sake of "cheap tricks" to convince Martha that he can travel in time is also quite nice. ?

Overall then, 'Smith and Jones' is a strong start to series three and a promising introduction for Martha. Davies seems to be improving his game, and there is some nice humour on display throughout, such as when the Judoon Captain gives Martha "compensation". It is disappointing that the loss of the Davis ex Machine was temporary, although as it transpired the Doctor saving the day by unplugging the MRI scanner was acceptable, given that the Plasmavore had quickly rigged it up anyway. There are occasional lapses of logic: it doesn't occur to either the Doctor or the Plasmavore that they could hide from the Judoon by finding a black marker pen and drawing a cross on the back of their hand, and whilst hospitals do have emergency generators, the smooth running of lights and computers even after the hospital has been transported to the Moon is deeply impressive.?

Finally, we also get a reference to someone named "Mr. Saxon". The endless Bad Wolf and Torchwood references in series one and two rapidly became deeply irritating: however, if the rumours about who Mr. Saxon actually is are true, I'm likely to be far more tolerant of this series' story arc?

I thought it started really well and that it was going to better Army Of Ghosts (4/5), which I loved and rate as RTD's finest work to date. But alas Smith And Jones just went further and further downhill as it progressed.

Positives:
+ Superb dialogue at the beginning with the junior doctors and patients
+ Very good introduction to Martha, the Doctor and the TARDIS
+ Martha appears to be an intelligent companion who can look after herself (something good that RTD has brought to Doctor Who)
+ Fabulous effects (although this is something RTD appears to rate more over storyline. One american critic wrote that the new Who has great effects but the old Who had the great storylines)

Negatives
- More of that annoyingly cheesy, 'operatic' music
- Over the top screaming by people when the hospital lands on the moon (and some dreadful acting by extras), which is just a poor device by RTD to make us like the non-screaming Martha and Doc more
- Aliens that just happen to look like rhinos. Does the new Who team have any imagination?
- The straw - leave it in Red Dwarf please, where it would be funny
- David Tennants stupid dance, as if he could send all the radiation into his shoe. I'm sure an intelligent child would find this embarrassing aswell
- The colossal power required for the plasmavore's device at the end (how?)
- The continual use, by RTD, of major alien happenings on Earth (like the battle of Canary Wharf). Doctor Who is supposed to be on our Earth and in our time (I'm sure RTD would agree) yet such monumental things would change our culture, society - did you see a huge alien ship over London last christmas on the news(The Christmas Invasion - set in 2006)? I didn't - this is why Earth invasions in the classic Doctor Who were mainly covert operations, so that it was feasible
- Martha's family appears to be trash straight off of a Trisha show (not again!)
- Worst season opener to date
- David Tennants stupid dance, as if he could send all the radiation into his shoe. Have I put this one in twice? And rightly so

I have finally lost faith in the new Doctor Who. Even last season had some good episodes but I fear this one wont have any at all. It isn't even Doctor Who anymore, he doesn't appear alien. The only way we know he is alien is because he mentions it often ("I'm a Time Lord", "E's got twin 'earts!"). I'm quite angry as well and I hope RTD leaves as soon as possible to let someone in who has quality control (and doesn't rate soap operas and big brother - and isn't scared of critics. Hmm I wonder why that is Russell?).

I was not, I have to admit, looking forward to the start of a new series as much as I should have been. Previous RTD start of season scripts had been...how to phrase this politely? Lame. Amidst good jokes and ideas the episodes sort of hobbled along trying to get the science fiction out of the way as much as possible in case anyone fell asleep, before plunging with all the enthusiasm of an Pro-plussed toddler into the shallow end of the 'How to resolve all your plot threads' pool, before being asked to leave for splashing too much. This time, RTD has got sci-fi ideas that are fun, rather than the rather dull but worthy Human farms of New Earth and generic invasion of Rose so that while we get to know the character of Martha better we can also have a rollocking good time. Oh yes. So we get talking rhinos as policemen and have an alien race who are presented in a more interesting way that merely generic bad guys, which is always a good thing. Then we have Anne Reid playing a creepy old lady with a straw. This is a delightfully squeamish idea for adults, and an excuse for younger brothers who like annoying people (Yo) to run around trying to suck their elder sister's blood out of their neck with a bendy straw. Whoever said Doctor Who had to scare the crap out of children week in week out? Giving them some respite for a week, THEN scaring the bejeezus out of them works just as well.

The straw however, has proved contentious. Many people have objected that a straw could not in fact be used to drain someone of blood. So, based on this, these people will have to object to the fact that spaceship doors and walls in Doctor Who are often made of lightweight wooden or polystyrene materials, which wouldn't stand up to the rigours of space travel. If they object to this, saying it isn't obvious that the walls are wooden, have they ever seen one being blown up? The shards of pre cut balsa wood fly neatly over the set and the bad guys march on through, usually. It's obviously not real. It requires the use of imagination. Say that in the future a way to make ultra light yet immensely strong materials used in spaceship manufacture is invented, and due to the nature of its structure it happens to look like MDF or plasticene when an immensely powerful alien device (ie. A box with a lightbulb on the end) is used on it? Or that a lightweight plastic material is developed with a special sharp end with a metal tip (transparent aluminium anybody?) enabling penetration of the flesh and enough heat to be applied so that no blood escapes the end of the straw? If people are going to insist on thinking about these things rather than just watching it and accepting it, why stop at 'Oh that doesn't work, the episode is ruined for me now!'? Why not continue thinking about it until you can come up with a scientific explanation for it? That's what Doctor Who does.

Anyway, rantette over with, RTD wrote a script with a simple agenda ? to make the show as much fun as possible (Of course there is such a thing as overdoing it). I thought the balance was just a bit too much on the side of the wacky but got away with it through sheer breathless enthusiasm. However I can see how some people may have wished David Tennant (who now looks as if he could play the Doctor in his sleep, probably because he has been for the past twenty years) would stop hopping about and just get on with it, and didn't Jon Pertwee's Doctor die of radiati ? oh hang on was that a different type? It was? Good, that's alright then ? but anyway he should hurry up and stop goofing around *arms folded, glare at TV screen*

Martha's family did not come across very well in this episode, but I think it'd be unfair to cast judgement on them just yet. If they're still annoying in series four though, then we know something's gone wrong. Hands up anyone who thought they'd miss Jackie Tyler after Rose? Exactly, so I'm prepared to wait for their characters to develop beyond this cursory introduction. Martha herself feels like she's been there for years. And it is a slightly different character arc to Rose, in that the Doctor is too busy getting over Rose to really fall for Martha (or at least that's what we've been led to believe), however this is missing the big question over the relationship between the Doctor and Martha, which is this: Is anyone else hoping the Doctor will say that he used to have a tattoo on his shoulder as well?

He so should.

NB: Anyone hoping for an in depth review which goes into great detail about the minutiae of the episode will hopefully appreciate the dramatic irony in not getting one.

Yes, kids, we've finally made it. After months of rumor, speculation, spin-offs of varying degrees of success, and HYPE HYPE HYPE, we're at SEASON 3 and thus, by default, the return of the ONLY REVIEW THAT MATTERS.

So. Martha Jones. Well, right off the bat we know we're not going to be having chummyish visits to the family like we did with the Tyler clan. Or at the very least there's going to be a lot more kvetching and sniping. But enough of that. What we have here is a strong female character, a little bit more take-charge than Rose. Maybe more like Ace or perhaps even Liz Shaw? Hard to tell from just one episode, of course, but then she seemed more than just a little unfazed by two hearts, ending up on the moon, the TARDIS... Sure, she was a little taken aback, but she wasn't screaming in a fit of despair and madness unlike most of the hospital. Which was, incidentally, a pretty reasonable reaction to suddenly being relocated to the moon. But now we have a companion who was a bystander to the Slitheen hoax, the Sycorax, Canary Wharf... her society is becoming a stranger one, and she's trying to embrace it. Or at least, not let it freak her out.

Meanwhile, contrary to popular fan belief, I don't think the Judoon were "supposed" to be the Sontarans, despite some visual similarities. Mind you, my first thought, when seeing the publicity pics, were the Pnihr from the EDA novel Trading Futures by Lance Parkin. But no, their biggest influence is even in the name, kids. These were Judges, the dredd-ful kind if y'all catch my meaning. "Justice is swift" indeed. Maybe a bit one-dimensional, but then, they didn't really need to be much else.

Hey, wow, ANOTHER euphemism for vampire! Well, it was an interesting twist, although not sure about the whole straw thing. And it was nice that they didn't muddy the Doctor's waters further by adding some big Vampire/Time Lord backstory thing. I think going psychotic at the sight of ONE set of villains is good enough.

And just how batshit WAS Tennant in this episode? Definitely a lot more...quirky now than Eccleston's, or even from last season. But hey, he's been through a lot lately. And what was with the circa-2002 Beckham hair anyway? Like the new suit tho. He's still a horrible liar tho. "I prefer to work alone" my arse.

A much steadier, and better, season opener than last one, for sure. And as for next episode, well, I'm calling it now: the Shakespeare + witches episode will make SOME reference, before the ending credits, about how this inspires Macbeth. LOCK IT, YO.

The one thing that screamed at me from the screen during Smith and Jones was CONFIDENCE. Doctor Who is walking tall and proud, and from the very outset of this Series Three opener, it was evident that the show has got into its own stride with coat tails flapping behind in the wind. It's as if the production team from the three producers downwards have sent round a memo saying, "OK, we know what we're doing now, let's just do it." And they have, and it shows.

The writing is brisk and clever and witty. RTD, previously a little shaky from his usual top notch form in series openers (and I'm in no way denying it's an easy thing to do by a long chalk), seems to have relished the "reboot" of having a new companion in Martha. From the off, it seemed like a completely different show with new compelling characters in the busy lives of the Jones clan. And that's no bad thing. Change is good, change is exciting.

Once the action kicked in and the hospital was transported to the moon, the confident pace picked up and we were delivered with the kind of writing that made Doctor Who great in the first place. It had a subtlety to it, the Who humour that slips under the radar, but becomes an integral part of the show and the key to your enjoyment, never undercutting or sending up the scenario, but pulling your emotions this way and that. The wonderful lines about compensation and Zovirax really did it for me and root this version of Who squarely in the modern world, as it should. Not only that, RTD has really nailed the Doctor in his writing, which brings me to DT.

Caitlin Moran in The Times said that "David Tennant is getting periliously close to becoming definitive," and she's right. He bats between utterly serious and completely barmy in a way we haven't seen since, well... Tom Baker. He nails the Doctor completely, from foot-jiggling dance to get rid of his shoes to the jokey, cheery banter as he tricks the baddie into sucking his blood in self sacrifice to save a thousand people. Not once during the episode, did I think of him of anything other than the Doctor, and in this cynical day and age, that's some acheivement. Today's kids are very very lucky. RTD, DT et al, are all old hands at this now and their enjoyment shines out. But what of the new girl?

I wouldn't like to have been in Freema Agyeman's shoes, but my dear God, she pulled it off. She was utterly convincing as Martha, the medical student caught between her fracturing family. I feel like I've known people like her in real life, but I can't quite place who she reminds me of. Of course, that's down to the wonderful collaboration of a good actress delivering a good script. Her role is identification and she succeeds. The thing that really struck me was this - I think Martha will truly be the Tenth Doctor's companion, rather than Rose. This is not to diss Billie Piper in anyway, I mourned her leaving the show along with the rest of the country, but I always thought of her as the Ninth Doctor's girl having to cope with a changed man in Series Two. Maybe what the Tenth Doctor needed all along was his own girl? Anyway, we'll soon see as the Series progresses.

The Judoon and the supporting cast were nothing short of brilliantly realised in the only way DW can; by playing the utterly ludicrous (rhino police in a hospital on the moon??) straight down the line and to the best of it's ability. Anne Reid was just marvelous as the Plasmavore and her straw, too. And did you notice the little Saxon references? Of course you did.

Having seen Smith and Jones, I am looking forward to what may be the best of the new series yet. It just brims with confidence and panache as it revels in it's second hey day. A time well earned, too. Why was it not like this when I was a kid, eh?

More please.