Ok, it's hands up time.

Last week I gave a very negative review of AoL .. mainly down to my inability to see past fart gags ... but as the week progressed and I watched the episode a few more times it definately grew on me, so I was curious and eager to see WWIII.

And my, was I wrong last week.

WWIII is a Russell T Davies tour de force. The plotting, the acting, the deliscious, edible dialogue are at their height. The Slitheen - who I was really not convinced by - were wonderful: funny and dangeorus and very, very Doctor Who. The use of UNIT without going into detail, but seeing it lovingly reproduced on Mickey's computer was a lovely nostalgic twang. The whole thing was directed with a buoyancy, a bubbliness and a vigour and the special effects were one hundred percent wonderful.

In the acting front even the Slitheen actors seemed to have calmed down this week, and were all the more dangerous sounding for it. The look on the female Slitheen's face whilst trying to hold the Doctor's gaze was fantastic.

And then we come to the Doctor. My, was this not perfect. Christopher Eccleston should be mourned greatly when he leaves, because this was classic Doctor Who. No actor, even on their best day, could beat this performance. Everything he did oozed "Doctoriness". There was the manicness of Colin, the madness of Tom, the authority of Jon .. everyone was there in his face.. and not a little of McCoy, as Time's Champion rose up again to take control. Amazing, wonderful and intoxicating. Given a few years Eccleston would have been everyones favourite Doctor.

Again, I made a mistake during Rose to criticise Noel Clark .. here Mickey is brilliant and the acting superb. Although I'm not convinced in the soap opera style part of the show, RTD does it withaplomb and the actors are clever and understated and real.

So, a reviewer putting his hands up - not once but twice and saying he was wrong. Is that a first?

Straight to the point - I disliked Aliens of London (AOL), many of the component parts were strong, but overall it was poor. As a result WW3 gave me concern and I doubted that I would have anything positive to say.

The first ten minutes of WW3 carried on in part where Aliens of London left off. Notably with juvenile running aliens straight from a Benny Hill sketch, pointless farting and the aliens popping in and out of the human’s skins to continuously use the Beeb’s latest special effect.

Then something most unexpected happened, I started enjoying it. The plot seemed to run out of the effects of the production teams enforced eight cans of red bull and everything started to calm down. With the change in pace the quality of acting by the regulars shot through the roof and the storyline started to appear well thought out and provided clever twists. The fact the Slitheen were a family and not a race was a cunning plot that the show had not before offered, in truth this almost explained some of the silliness from AOL.

For someone who hates soaps I am finding the relationship between the Doctor, Rose and her family an interesting storyline and one that brings a new side to the role of the assistant. Christopher Eccleston, who at times looked lost in AOL, again settled down as the Doctor throughout WW3. Christopher’s superb treatment of hatred of one on ones with Rose’s mum, his off – on relationship to Ricky (sic) and his subtle displays of the Doctor’s inner feelings and loneliness gives the ninth Doctor an interesting new, but yet identifiably old, persona.

I will never rate AOL/WW3 as one of my favourite Doctor Who’s but the WW3 element ensured it rose above the Underwater Menace / Paradise Towers concerns I held last week.

Bring on the Dalek my faith in Doctor Who has been restored.

Well I thought Aliens of London was great but this was immense!

World War III had everything from Penelope Wilton becoming Britain’s first non-Dalek woman prime minister to Mickey saving the day by firing a missile at Downing Street. (Good tie in with the BBC website, I was wondering how to get the password to the UNIT section!)

Plenty of character development too as the Doctor makes his peace with Mickey and Rose finally cuts the apron strings to commit herself to a future with the Doc.

The comedy in the episode (the look on the policeman’s face as he bursts in on the Slitheen) was well balanced by the drama as the Doctor wrestled with his conscience about putting Rose’s life at risk.

There was nothing in this story about the Time War, so I hope to hear more about this in the coming episodes.

Finally a word about the numerous complaints about Russell’s style, listen carefully, IT’S 2005 NOT 1975. Fans who remember the Doctor from twenty years or more ago have to accept that television and audience tastes have changed over that time. RTD had to completely reinvent the format in the same way Philip Hinchcliffe did to move it on. He has given us a rather insecure and damaged Doctor but these are insecure and damaged times and as we watch the story develop over the coming weeks we will hopefully understand more about why he is behaving in the way that he is.

I would much rather see a flawed hero like Russell’s Doctor that any number of bouffant buffoons and vapid vellour clad bimbos in Trek or such like pap any day.

In any event, BRING ON THE DALEKS.

When this episode finished, I felt "Its back!". I felt like the show I've loved for nearly all my life had returned. After watching episodes 1-3, I'd thought, in the words of Roy Walker [Catchphrase], "Its good but its not right". "Aliens of London" was promising with a complicated plot and "World War Three" was even more complicated. I think the new series has finally found its feet. And I do apologise for saying RTD can't write good sci-fi - this story has caused me to eat my words!

The plot about turning the earth into one giant piece of real estate was a very original way of concocting an 'invasion' story which in the end wasn't about an invasion at all. Brilliant stuff. Even at the last few moments, we were stil guessing what the hell was going on and how the Doctor would get out of it. The finale had echoes of 'The Seeds of Doom' [which, coincendentally, is my fav DW story] but the Doctor was, as in the aforementioned story, out of real options. A very satisfying episode to a great story. The finale was not quick but was allowed to breathe. I'm beginning to believe the series should all be 2 parters but that may not be practical. Plus there was hardly any farting so that was nice - seeing my sole quibble virtually airbrushed out.

The acting was good also. The PM reminded me a lot of Paul Whitsun-Jones from 'The Mutants' and 'The Smugglers' but the actor in this case was better. Mickey improved too. I felt that as the Doctor got to like him more, so did I. He's not so bad. Christopher Eccleston's 'promise' to stop the Slitheen was powerful and I loved the line "Mickey, you were born in the dark!". Penelope Wilton was a good character also and I'm almost sorry that the Doctor didn't join Rose and her mum for shepherd's pie. Well done all.

I still think the Brig should have been in it. DW Confidential did a whole documentary on him and still there was no sign of him. Why do the documentary and have him not even comment on the new series? Please bring him back RTD! It's not fanwank - the Brig is the best. UNIT weren't fanwank were they?

And I was slightly quizzical about the nuclear codes protocols thing. I know the UK relies on its nuclear arms technology from America but does it really hand over its codes to the UN? Surely not!

Overall; brilliant. I'm pleased. Seriously thinking of sending a thank-you card to RTD. Daleks are next and there seems to be hints of 'The Space Museum' and 'Jubilee' so I hope its not a carbon copy of those. However, I've heard good things about the episode and you can always rely on Rob Shearman to do us proud!

The new series is finally settled. Hooray! Roll on the rest!

I sat down to watch World War 3 hoping Russell Davies would redeem himself, the question is did he?

Well kind of, lets face it could it have been any worse? The fart gags weren't as cringe enducing as last week, more to do with expecting it than by accepting the need for it. The reason for the farting may have been explained but it doesn't make it any less annoying. Davies can do humour, the weapons of mass destruction that can be deployed in 45 seconds was genuinely funny, though I accept many ten year olds wouldn't have got it.

The Slitheen themselves weren't as menacing as I hoped, though I much preferred them out of their human 'skins' than in them. It was interesting to note that for the second Davies story in a row the motivation for the bad guys was a financial one and I was disappointed because I'm still waiting for the traditional alien invasion - I don't really rate 'Rose' as an invasion story.

To me the best elements in this episode was the interplay between the Doctor, Rose, her mum and Mickey. Davies's best writing is in the interplay between these characters, Jackie's concern over Rose is understandable and it makes it interesting to see the Doctor uncomfortable with the guilt he feels at taking Rose from her mum.

The one problem with adding in all these new elements regarding Rose's life on Earth is that they detract from the traditional elements. As many i have spoken to have said the mix of all these elements is not quite right. I would also point out that the episode so far that has had the most positive reviews is The Unquiet Dead, the only episode with no elements of Rose's home life at all.

My biggest surprise in this episode was Mickey, a character I previously found to be the most annoying thing in Doctor Who since Bonnie Langford's scream. Mickey was actually very good and crucial to the resolution of the story. He never seemed like ridiculous comic relief in this episode, perhaps because he was given something to do at last. My only problem was with him holding the phone to his ear while the Slitheen was breaking through the door. I'm afraid that no matter what was being said to me on that phone I'd be concentrating more on where the first swing of my bat was going to go and would have given the phone to Jackie.

ll in all an improvement on last week, still a bit too sily in places, a lot of corridor chasing, very Scooby Doo-ish and the Doctor seemed to get out of sticky situations with a quick joke and then taking to his heels. Oh and those must be the quickest closing lift doors in the world.

Looking forward to nect week and the first new Dalek story since 1988.

Oh yeah, I was sad that there wasn't any more pigs, I felt so sorry for that poor wee pig.

It improved dramatically from Aliens of London. Once again the Doctor took lead role again and calmed down a bit over his treatment of Micky, realising he's not a bad kinda guy and who knows, might someday end up doing good. Even the Slitheen improved when we found out what their real agenda was. you could say this was Russell T Davies best script so far, but then that's because I appreciate the anti war message that he was saying and the satire on the false Weapons of Mass destruction 45 minute claim but most important of all was how gung ho the humour race can be when faced with war. IE Blow them up, thus bringing the educational factor back into Doctor Who

However I was somewhat surprised that Micky after using his computer skills to save the world didn't want to go with Rose and join the Doctor in his adventures. Mind you though there's always the 2nd series. Perhaps RTD might include Micky as a future companion. On the whole World War Three provided a balance from the silly childish humour seen in Aliens of London. It was good to see the Doctor once again solving a problem and saving the world. Christopher Eccleston was serious for a change and not being his usual patronising self and if he keeps this up he'll be well respected even though he only did one season.

I also appreciated Penelope Wilton's scenes as Harriet Jones MP. You could really feel for the character and hope that in the future British Politics does have a better woman Prime Minister than Margaret Thatcher who ruined the lives of so many people.

Three Cheers for RTD. Let’s hope he gets nominated for the Nobel in 2005.