I'm wondering if we really need Daleks every year. Perhaps a Dalek-free year wouldn't be a bad idea...but the production team seem to think we need them every year and that means an extra special story is required. As the Doctor said during this episode, he keeps defeating them but they always return.

The Manhattan setting is truly stunning, though at least one composite scene didn't quite work blending the real NY footage with a studio shot. But given what The Mill are being asked to achieve, overall they do a fantastic job.

The idea of the Daleks being behind the building of one of the world's most iconic structures is very clever, as is the plan for the antenna atop the Emipre State Building. We still don't know what they are hoping to transmit (or recieve) with that antenna.

So the Doctor and Martha arrive in NYC, 1930...the depression and Hooverville - poverty living alongisde the wealthy with the latter apparently doing nothing to help the former. Politics over with we learn that some of the poor in Hooverville seem to be disappearing. This is classic Who, the Doctor arriving and everything seems OK except one thing is badly wrong...and he must investigate.

Cue atmospheric scenes in dark tunnels, and pig-men. I was a bit worried this might turn out to be as unsatisfying as the genetically engineered pig in "Aliens Of London" but here the pig-slaves are given more personality, explanation, and they get our sympathy. The prosthetic faces are superb.

But the stars are the Daleks, the "masters" behind the push to complete the building almost impossibly early. The cult of Scaro has survived the Doomsday battle and ended up here, where Dalek Sec has decided they must evolve...they can no longer afford to be "pure Dalek" and must meld with the humans.

Whether the 'half man, half Dalek' monster works as an adversary will be seen next week. I have a hunch that this story will be a significant part of the overall arc for this year's series. My suspicion is that the cult of Scaro will be wiped out, but when the Doctor discovers some weeks hence that he "is not alone" I believe we may get Gallifrey back. There's been a lot of talk about Gallifrey lately, the Doctor naming it in th Christmas special, reminiscing, describing Gallifrey to Martha...even some GCI scenes last week. Russel doesn't place references like these for no reason. Indeed we've seen and heard more of Gallifrey than we have of Mr Saxon.

And what of Martha? She continues to be likeable, and very intelligent. I felt she really hit her stride in this episode, somewhere in those tunnels completely won me over.

James Strong, as I expected, did a marvellous job of directing. The tension built up well, even though the Daleks were revealed early on and the new monster was shown in the Radio Times.

8.5/10

Ok, crass title aside, I will put my hand up now and say that all concerned are trying to pull all the stops out. This is certainly a far more promising opening episode to the touch-and-go Rise of the Cybermen of last year, and its pointless parallel Earth approach.

After the surprisingly entertaining and inevntive Gridlock, which seemed to defy all my previous expectations regarding RTD scrips, Daleks in Manhattan seems relatively pedestrian - a sort of Eric Saward riposte to last week's Andrew Cartmel-esque venture. Though at the time I preferred the former, in retrospect I prefer the latter. So that is a thumbs up, for once, for RTD. But then my review of Gridlock speaks for itself: a minor classic in my opinion, and not something I say very lightly.

Daleks in Manhattan is much more traditional Who fodder: a bit of spectacle, some mystery and build up, token rebels, lots of shots of Daleks hovering through gloomy catacombs, and so forth. All very traditional Who, but in a largely good way.

I would have preffered Ogrons as opposed to Pig-Men, as in the same way I would have prefered Sontarans to Rhino-faced Judoon in the facile Smith and Jones. But then, much as he tends towards the nostalgic at times, RTD obviously still seeks to put his stamp on his reinvention of the series. I can understand this to an extent - even if I don't particularly like it.

I do feel though that 'pigs' should be left alone now: a similar concept having previously cropped up in the embarrassing debacle that was Aliens of London, I did feel the old imagination was a bit lacking in this quarter. The prosthetics were questionable also I felt: I couldn't help thinking of how comparatively more convincing the old Rice Crispie-strewn mutant in Revelation of the Daleks and the visceral Lucosa was in Mindwarp.

But this aside - it was quite refreshing to have the Daleks back again with a token new henchmen race, and I think this somehow leavens their presence. As does the quite inspired debut of the evolved Dalek-Human at the end of the episode, which is brilliantly realised, strikingly reminiscent of the last of the Jagaroth in City of Death, but refreshingly more Ray Harry Haussen-esque than the usual CGI-garbage. I also appreciated the way in which this entity emerged from the Dalek in a very similar pose to that of the Cyber Controller in Tomb of the Cybermen.

Is this motif of a Dalek-Human perhaps a metaphorical projection of how we Earthlings might evolve in the future? I think it might be - and it makes it all the more disturbing for that. 'I am your future' - and maybe it is. What an irony it would be if we were to become the next Kaled race. In post-Thatcherite society, this still feels a real possibility too.

As for the rest of this episode: visually this is absolutely top-knotch (apart from the token CGI-lapse re the squid-like Kaled). I cannot fault the production team on any level. The slightly art decco set designs are beautiful; particularly the lift, and its very Dalek-esque eyestalk design. Brilliantly realised. And seeing a Dalek come up in a lift was highly memorable. Design-wise, this is a very classy episode - one of the most stunning ever produced in the cannon. It is faultless in that regard. Though the promised 'art decco Dalek' is so far sadly not forthcoming.

Re all the showbiz elements: fairly nicely done and reminiscent in a way of Talons of Weng-Chiang. The Brooklyn accents are refreshing, if arguably a bit overdone in places. Some of the other American accents are a little embarrassing in places, but can be forgiven.

The chappie from Holby City is convincing in his role - he is a naturally charismatic actor anyway, so can carry it all well (very much, to my mind, a modern day TV Sidney Pottier).

The Doctor is on form here too, continuing his much more subdued portrayal from Gridlock (bar the very irrtating opening exclamation: 'smell that Atlantic breeze').

Having said all this, I do feel Davros deserves an appearance sooner rather than later. But maybe RTD, being a fan who sprung during the Pertwee years, isn't intending on re-introducing that iconic character.

The revelatory evolution theme may just about knock out any necessity to reintroduce Davros, yes. But remember, regarding the seemingly profound twist of the Daleks seeking a more human recourse to 'imagination' in order to better survive - arguably this has already been covered in their preoccupation with The Human Factor in Evil of the Daleks.

But overall, not a bad episode - exceptionally good-looking - but it all hangs on next week's.

6/10

An episode from former script editor Helen Raynor and she gives us a dark love letter to the classic series and the Daleks. The 'ashes and diamonds' tone of the story with its sinister pig-men, Daleks gliding through sewers, musical numbers and Gothic romance immediately take us back to 'Evil Of The Daleks', 'Day Of The Daleks' and 'Talons Of Weng Chiang' for starters. For me there was also the ghostly presence of 'Once Upon A Time In America' and 'The Godfather' (Murray Gold paid homage at least with a score that bounced between Franz Waxman and Nino Rota) with the detailed 1930s New York setting.

And the Daleks were back to their diabolical best, scheming and planning and exploiting the weaknesses in those around them. We haven't seen Daleks plotting away and conversing like this for a very long time and it reminded me of the similar way they were treated in 'Evil Of The Daleks'.

Their appearance also, and very cleverly I think, echoed and reflected the decoration and architecture of the period. Thematically, as Dalek Sec sought to ensure the survival of the race by reconfiguring his appearance, we see the elite of New York building skyscrapers whilst people starve and die. What's the betting that the rest of the Cult Of Skaro don't like the new improved Sec? The betterment of the species above all else fits in perfectly with the times when fascist groups were already prevalent in the US and the UK and Hitler's rise to power was only just around the corner. Also note the references to war in the script with both Sec and Solomon referring to the wars they have respectively participated in. This again reflects the post-war narrative subtexts that the original series often contained up until the mid-1970s.

The Daleks obsession with their genes and racial purity also reflects the debates on Eugenics that many leading figures were engaging in at the time. It was also an academic discipline that was funded by the Rockefellers in the States. As well as nods to Aldous Huxley we also get a big slice of Wells' 'Island of Doctor Moreau' with the Daleks transforming humans into animals to do their bidding. Not only that but we also get a merging of Dalek and human as the climax of a series of transformations wherein animalistic impulses are grafted onto the cold, controlling nature of the child psyche of the Daleks. A final image is of rebirth as Diagoras is devoured by the womb of Sec and then reborn as a Proteus like figure, the conscious being emerging from the dark, unconscious Dalek mind.

Will the other Daleks reject this figure? Can they conceivably have any reason not to? They can't behave like Tallulah who upon seeing the transformed Laszlo does not reject the man she once knew. She embraces the changed man because she can still recognise him beneath the bestial appearance. The episode plays subtly with the animal and human condition, with bestial mindlessness and human reason, with constructed bodies and natural forms. It echoes well the Gothic romance of 'Phantom Of The Opera' and the fairy-tale psychology of 'Beauty And The Beast'. All this benefits from some lovely performances from Miranda Raison and Ryan Carnes as the seemingly doomed lovers.

James Strong's direction is assured, with great pacing, and gets the maximum from the exemplary production design, whether it's the low shots of Daleks gliding through sewers or the sweep through the Dalek's Frankenstein-like lab. The episode exudes tension with a distinct undercurrent of oddness pervading some scenes such as the clever juxtaposition of hordes of pig-men chasing their victims through the sewers with the 'Bugsy Malone' musical number with its 'you put the devil in me' lyrics. The realisation of Hooverville is also very good and Hugh Quarshie puts in some sterling work as Solomon. The realisation of the supporting characters as well as the evocative atmosphere is certainly a great strength to the episode.

Tennant is again on form and has now been consistent over four episodes. His bitter 'they always survive, while I lose everything' neatly reminding us of just how badly most encounters with the Daleks tend to end. He's very in control of his performance now and he's making this series work so much the better for it. Freema continues to build on her fleshing out of Martha and we often see how the character now deals with similar situations that Rose has dealt with in the past. The fact that she has a different take on things is refreshing. Her chat with Tallulah about her relationship with the Doctor tells us volumes with her facial expressions alone without recourse to masses of exposition.

The slight downside is perhaps that there is slightly too much exposition early on between Martha and the Doctor and it's a bit clunky. Some of the effects were variable with some great plate shots of New York setting the scene apart from one of the Doctor and Martha looking at the skyline which wasn't as accomplished. The prosthetics are great for the pigs, particularly the work on Carnes and the pig-man found in the sewer but I wasn't entirely happy with the Sec/Diagoras hybrid. It wasn't realistic enough to be convincing. The digital effects of Sec opening its casing were great as was the CGI Dalek inside and the merging with Diagoras. Maybe they should have gone with a CGI hybrid?

But these are only minor problems. The episode is a terrifyingly dark piece of 'Doctor Who', atmospheric, scary and with well realised supporting characters. New York of the 1930s is beautifully captured and seemed a strangely natural home for our Dalek friends to conduct their bizarre experiments. Let's hope the conclusion is as rewarding.

The current season is a juggernaut where even if you fasten your seat belt you are going to have a bumpy ride. Yet, this is the kind of bumpy ride that any Doctor Who fan enjoys to the max, and all you have to do is just picture yourself rocking and rolling inside the TARDIS with Martha and the Doctor and you'll fit right in with the current season. The fourth episode, "Daleks in Manhattan" successfully delivers what it sets out to do: re-introduce the Dalek menace in a setting previously unexplored. This turns out to be Depression-Era New York City where Hoovervilles fester in the shadow of a looming behemoth-to-be called The Empire State Building, being built as the episode begins, under the direction of an underworld boss who answers to higher powers. 1930's New York allows the producers to go all out with the visuals. The CGI skyline of New York City looks convincing and majestic and the soundtrack sparkles with an Irving Berlin ("Puttin' on the Ritz") tune and a Busby Berkeley musical number that cinematically puts us in the spirit of the era. Likewise, the accents are delivered by the largely British cast in a convincing manner, and if at times they sound a bit stereotypical, just listen to the patter from a screwball Hollywood comedy from the 1930's, and you'll realize that writer Helen Raynor has pinned the patter down successfully.

Thus far, the pairing of the tenth Doctor with his new Assistant seems to be one of the most complex in the history of the series, not just because of the inter-racial reality which accurately mirrors modern British society, but also because this Assistant is the most forward any of them have been about her feelings for the Doctor. Smith and Jones have the potential to be the most sexually-charged duo in the history of the series, and as each show goes by, Martha Jones appears to be less and less reserved about her feelings for her Doctor. Witness this girl-talk exchange between Martha and Tallulah, (played by Miranda Raison) a showgirl with a strident Billy Holiday accent and the kind of spunk that lights up even the shattered lights of Broadway:

TALLULAH: Hey, you're lucky though, you got yourself a forth-thinking guy with that hot potato in the sharp suit.

MARTHA: He's not... we're not... together.

TALLULAH: Oh, sure you are, I've seen the way you look at him, it's obvious.

MARTHA: Not to him.

Arguably, this is the kind of revelation that would have seemed awkward with Billie Piper's Rose with regards to either Christopher Eccleston or David Tennant. Rose's romantic tenure on the show focused on the dilemma involving the choice between Mickey and the Doctor. Martha's path appears to be a little less encumbered when it comes to this aspect of her character. By the way, the above exchange finishes with a cute little coda of a joke which hints at canceling any possibility of a romantic relationship between Martha and the Doctor. After she hears Martha's sad reply that the Doctor is obviously not interested in her, Tallulah answers Martha like this.

TALLULAH: Oh, I should have realized... he's into musical theater, uh? What a waste!

The flame of heterosexual love is kept lit later on in the show, however, canceling Tallulah's suspicions, when the Doctor comes to Martha's rescue, and she turns to him and says "I'm so glad to see you," and the Doctor replies with this forward statement "Yeah, well, you can kiss me later." The follow-up show to this one is called "Evolution of the Daleks," but what we have witnessed in "Daleks in Manhattan" is a clear evolution of the relationship between Doctor and Assistant.

This episode has the makings of landmark status in the series, in a season that constantly surprises us at every turn.

It was back in 1980 during the New York City Transit strike that the newspapers started to use the word "Gridlock" to describe traffic congestion in New York City. Sam Schwartz, NYC chief traffic engineer has admitted the internal departmental use of the word began as early as the 1970's. In GRIDLOCK the BBC's latest Doctor Who offering, we see the Doctor and Martha traveling back to the future to New Earth and rediscovering New New York as any good traveler should - when Martha is kidnapped and the Doctor enters on one of his most perilous quests ever to retrieve her.? GRIDLOCK is a high concept episode that wildly succeeds to entertain, while successfully bringing the "Face Of Boe" arc to a close, and reintroducing, a most unexpected return of a 1960's era Doctor Who enemy.? Riding shotgun in the backseat on a most unusual Doctor Who adventure is once again, the perennial favorite Russell T Davies, who pulls all stops and releases to deliver a whirlwind chase episode that had this fan on the edge of his seat and wondering just how would the Doctor ever be able to retrieve Martha Jones. And so GRIDLOCK begins!

The episode opens almost as a harbinger to the strangeness that would follow in a subterranean area of New New York .No apple grass and gleaming skyscrapers to be seen here.? The sense of d?j? vu that was notable in THE SHAKESPEARE CODE is present once again, only this time, explained away by Davies when Martha discovers The Doctor is taking her to the same places he took Rose. The Doctor and Martha work so well together that it's hard to imagine the Doctor consciously doing this to help him deal with Rose's loss. The Doctor is damaged goods and Martha is beginning to see his pain blistering through the cracks in the wall he has put up between them. Yet his dedication to her, is never in question. David Tennant's Doctor is one who seems to be increasingly angry at the universe and the way things are and he is self-assured to threaten anything that stands in his light. His reaction to the "Mood" dealers him and Martha first encounter sets the tone for the entire episode. There is no attempt to mask the anti ? drug theme of GRIDLOCK, but Uncle Russell's paradoxal script is designed to mask several themes being interwoven at once. The unfiltered anti drug message is perhaps the most noble element of any RTD script imparted as a moral lesson to youngsters and even adults watching the series. Of course Davies liberal left has crept in between the lines of scripts to deliver even stronger messages in a new age and time and once again GRIDLOCK is never as innocent as it seems.

Chris Rea recorded a song a song in 1989 called " The Road To Hell", a song about a never ending traffic jam., an" upwardly mobile freeway " that had become "The Road To Hell"? Chris Rea's "Road to Hell" was much more than just a highway, and Russell T. Davies? motorway beneath the gleam of New New York is a metaphor for something much greater? than just a Gridlock. Martha is kidnapped by Milo and Cheen; two mislead refugees from the motorway, looking to start life in the fast lane. With the Doctor in pursuit, it is here on the motorway where most of the story and much of the action takes place in GRIDLOCK. Entering the motorway, the Doctor, is quickly picked up by Thomas Kincaid Branigan, and his fair Valerie who has just given birth to a litter of very furry felines. The Doctor learns the couple has been circling on the motorway now for 12 years and suspects that something is amiss in New New York.? After realization and coming to terms that he lied to Martha, the Doctor sets out to find Martha amidst the Gridlock of spaced age mini vans in a dizzy, death defying search, leaping from car to car. Branigan and Valerie's remarks that the Doctor is "insane" but "magnificent" sums up Tennant's portrayal perfectly, even on a Wednesday afternoon. The Doctor, leaping from car to car with his sonic screwdriver in hand in the carbon monoxide fog is about as crazy as it gets in GRIDLOCK, and all this is executed very well and takes boldly where no DOCTOR WHO episode has taken us, or the Doctor before.

At first you really don't believe GRIDLOCK can pull it off, but as the Doctor goes from car to car in search of Martha, we are introduced to a carnival of Fellini-esque characters that could only turn up in one of Russell Davies scripts, or at one of his martini parties! Our hasty introductions are punctuated with some light heartened humor as the doctor encounters a nudist couple reading "Hanging Out" magazine amongst an array of strange characters. None stand out more prominently than the Cassini Sisters who are friends of Thomas Kincaid Brannigan, who after 23 years circling New New York have a log book of the journey and a 1930's period d?cor in their hyperspace aged mini van that would give "Old House Interiors "magazine a run for their money. Ironically each car the Doctor enters has a specific personality, from the man with the white suits to the Man in the Bowler hat who helped him get to the lower lanes to discover Ian Stuart Black's 1960's creation, the MACRA, tossing up one of the meanest crab salads ever seen on BBC TV. The characters the Doctor and Martha encounter in the GRIDLOCK are indeed memorable, if only for their brief appearance. A credit here to Mr. Davies, is that you genuinely do start to care about Branigan and Valerie and even Martha's unlikely kidnappers become likeable in their life and death struggle in the Fast Lane. Everyone on this motorway is on his or her own journey and somewhere in this GRIDLOCK Russell T Davies has parallel -parked a thought provoking commentary on the human race.

Davies has taken the threads of the "Face Of Boe' arc and woven them perfectly with a revisiting of "New Earth" as well as presenting to us a dazzlingly adventurous, fast paced story that also serves to hammer out the characters of Martha and the Doctor in the shape of the new series. By the time Nurse Javitt the Cat arrives to teleport the Doctor to the Senate at the request of the Face Of Boe, our minds have been flooded with the tapestry of souls who have been caught in the Gridlock. It is here in the Senate the Doctor learns of the Death of New New York. As Milo and Cheen's? car sits disabled at the bottom of the motor way in the fast lane, we learn a lot about Martha's character? and her resourcefulness as well.? It is unusual to say the least to find a spirituality woven through a Russell Davies script. The man is a self-professed atheist and is very outgoing in his distain of organized religion. THE PARTING OF THE WAYS treaded similar controversial territory but never even blinked an eye even as it bordered on blasphemy. Fortunately, Davies is much softer here than Daleks who discover religion. Trapped in their cars, for years on a freeway to know-where, we discover that the one thing this fellini-esque gathering of misfit refugee's had in common was religion. Faith, songs and hymns for a new age generation. The big difference is in Russell T Davies church of man, Everyone, people of all denominations, species, cats and dogs and men in Bowler hats are welcome, and maybe this is Davies secret message he would wish to bestow on us. In the middle of the GRIDLOCK, I think Russell Davies tried to tell us that whoever you are on a journey, the journey's end is worth the ride!?? When the Doctor with the help of Boe frees the cars from the gridlock and saves Martha from the scissor like claws of the Macra, he tells all the cars to proceed upwards. As the cars rise into the sky, we see the sunlight on the faces of this band of tired New New Yorkers for the first time in 23 years. The Senate scenes and the Doctor's reunion for the third and final time with the Face Of Boe bring all the ends of the story together perfectly. While the Macra in the story was a total hands down surprise, Boe's final words have been buzzing the blogs and forums for months now, with some speculation that Boe may very well be the Doctor himself. In fact, being billions of years old, he may very well have been the creator of the universe and as such, his death would be considerably more difficult to accept.? His death still left a lot of mystery still unknown about Boe, but what an enjoyable thread through the series he has been.

This episode was executed perfectly and once again; you cannot dissect the story without gaining a profound admiration for Russell T Davies and his unique ability at constructing literary vehicles capable of delivering so much without sacrificing believability and entertainment value. He is a true alchemist whose scripts elevate the characters portrayed in them. His one major failing lies in his inability to free his scripts from modern day pitfalls. Davies takes great pains to make the motorway journey of Milo and Cheen, believable- he does it with science and technology that will long be outdated by the time New New York is built. But then again, not everyone is Isaac Asimov either. It was indeed a funny moment when Martha was chewing on a cracker while being told the waste along the journey is recycled back into a food product.? His ability to revisit past character, places and stories successfully is never more apparent than in this particular story.? The Doctor's explanation to Martha about his home world and him being the "last" of the time lords smacks a bit to similar to Chris Eccleson's Doctor's soliloquy to Rose in the First Season.? When Martha offers her solace that he has her and maybe this is what Boe meant in his final words to the Doctor, the Doctor is too quick to steely deny this. His coldness to Martha is surprising-almost as if he is defending his heart.? Again however, it is going over ground already established in season in a far too similar way.

The Doctor leaves New Earth and New New York with "just what every city needs?. cats in charge" and once again another strong outing for Russell T. Davies that leaves one wondering if Janis Joplin is ever going to want her coat back!

Well, it seems like pigs are finally flying as for the first time since Tooth and Claw I have something positive to say about one of RTD's episodes. And I am surprised as anyone else who may be familiar with my normal stance on New Who. But in spite of the sporadic irritating RTD tokenisms sprinkled here and there during this episode, Gridlock to my mind is not only the best episode of Series Three so far, but also by?RTD's best written episode since Tooth and Claw way back near the start of Series Two. In fact, in terms of its almost classic Who-style 'oddballness' (strongly reminiscent of the likes of The Happiness Patrol and Greatest Show in the Galaxy - and their better aspects at that), it is actually more distinctive and interesting than Tooth and Claw's gripping but rather hackneyed gothic horror approach. What I mean to say is, Tooth and Claw, excellent in places though it was, played things safe - whereas Gridlock, at least on first viewing in my eyes, does push out the boat more and risks some possible stylistic misinterpretations because it is, at last, an example of RTD trying to offer something a little bit different to the usual banality and predictability of his other episodes.

And I am willing to stand up and say that RTD has pulled it off this time. In many ways, and on paper, he shouldn't have, as this episode does contain some rather ludicrous aspects and is, let us not forget, a kind of sequel to the atrocious New Earth: cat people, the return of the Face of Boe, incongruously retro and old-fashioned clothes and accoutrements in an implausibly far flung future (5 billion years hence)... and so forth. But this time, finally, it actually just about works. And the reason for this is impetus: this episode has a plausible and fairly imaginative plot which sustains itself pretty much throughout, while making possibly for the first time from RTD's pen, some pretty astute polemical comments on our contemporary society: in this case an hilariously extreme satire on overt car use and congestion, in which the scenario imprisons its protagonists in decade-long traffic jams. Here RTD finally manages to get to the crux of true satire: painfully prophetic humour. Light years away from the shambolic literalism of Bad Wolf - and in terms of thought, imagination and scripting, several giant leaps on from the utter banality of last year's finale, Army of Ghosts/Doomsday.

Gridlock has that same inimitable self-confidence and drive that only Dalek and Impossible Planet have so far displayed.

But most importantly: by and large it really felt like Doctor Who. It was a scenario which no other science fiction series could pull off with as much integrity and energy as Doctor Who can. For me, it harked back, in a good way, to some of McCoy 'oddballs' as I previously mentioned: we even had one driver dressed in a pinstriped suit with a bowler hat just like John Normington's literalistic bureaucrat in the deeply misunderstood Happiness Patrol. Yes, I know I have previously accused RTD of fluffing up in his other episodes with literalist satire, but the image of the pinstripe and bowler is far more generic and inspired (in a sort of Lewis Caroll sense) than such ephemeral and periodically- specific - and specious - motifs as Britney Spears and Big Brother. Here RTD seems to be picking up again on the classic series' more intriguing oddball facets. And I hope he continues to do so. We even had the ludicrous though endearing depictions of the two old lady sisters sat in what could easily be a lounge in the mid-late 20th century, inside their car, with impossibly old-fashioned - for the year 5 Billion - decor replete with frilly lampshades and so on, strongly reminiscent of the less eerily depicted 'Ressies' in the imaginative but appallingly directed Paradise Towers. But here RTD gets the balance just right (and the director more importantly) - not something I say every day.

What we have here is a very kitsch, retro version of the future, which works far better than any other previous new Who depiction. This is arguably the first true oddball episode of new Who so far, and in that is a very refreshing change. The kebab-kiosk-style touters of 'mood drugs' scenario is very well realised and quite witty; it's not over-done, and is a good comment on the likes of Ecstasy and so on. This concept of selling 'moods' to people could so easily have backfired, but strangely didn't. I liked it. This whole grotesque dystopian scenario worked in the same way that the likes of Carnival of Monsters did back in 1973: implausible and in-your-face, yes, but imaginatively and wittily so. Gridlock's bizarre scenario works - because for once there is sufficient scriptural leaven to hold it all up to close scrutiny.

And onto the final icing on the cake: the belated return of the Macra! I think this was a really inspired move. The Macra Terror has always been one of those lost stories that has intrigued me the most, from having listened several times to a hissing audio copy of it. The idea of a futuristic holiday camp being nightly stalked by giant crabs who feed off its incumbents like foxes?off a pen of chickens has been a long-enduring plot-ghost in the cannon. And what RTD has done is take the frankly banal scenario of a future alternative Earth, as introduced in the facile New Earth of last year, and drawn from it something far more imaginative, interesting and entertaining than anyone could have possibly predicted: New Earth's population some time on is decimated by a virus, most of its surviving inhabitants trapped in a perpetual traffic jam deep beneath the surface, imprisoned in immunity, but imprisoned perpetually nonetheless (this episode really convinced with its claustrophobia in this sense). And then, quite plausibly, the heavily polluted 'motorway' is infested by the Macra, who thrive off the gaseous emissions there. This is a far more convincing and substantiated return of an old foe than was managed with the Autons or Cybermen. I take my hat off - for the first time ever - to RTD for this. An inspired choice of past foe. Crikey, it's been roughly 41 years since the Macra appeared in Who - and it is almost moving in a sort of autistic way (which only classic series fans will appreciate) that such a distant one-off but highly memorable monster should be resurrected so far on in time. I would argue that the Macra, a bit like the Nestene in Rose, are slightly underused in this story - however, what we do glimpse of them is reasonably well done, especially the first shot of the lit-up eyes coming through the smoke, and then the first sight of pincers and crab-like bodies. The Doctor's slightly flippant reference to these particular Macras having degenerated over time into sort of pale, unthinking, mutant versions of their Troughton-era predecessors, is perhaps a slight flaw in that it is an excuse not to examine the monsters and their motives too closely. But the juxtaposition of said-creatures capitalising on the flaw of a human dystopian society fits in well with the Macra's mythos and is, as I say, quite plausible.

We also had a nicely pitched inclusion of the well-realised Face of Boe, who played a very important and - again - convincing part in the plot. Some tantalising hints from his worryingly static lips regarding the Doctor 'not being alone' - well, I think we all know where that is leading. But his scenes were well done, and the sets were very impressive too.

Criticisms: well, not too many for once, I have to say. Obviously the token 'rebound' soap regarding the Doctor and Martha is still to my mind inappropriate and tedious, but when an episode is as imaginative and energetic as this, I can just about ignore it. The almost consciously retro look of these futurists' clothes was slightly irksome and reminded me of all the Satellite Five rubbish of Series One a bit, but frankly I could forgive it this time as it oddly fitted with the generally eccentric style of this particular episode. The inclusion of the Welsh hymns was utterly bizarre and incongruous too of course - and more than a hint towards the producer's nationality and the Cardiff-centricity of the series as a whole - but again, just about came off given the special surrealism of this episode. The Father Ted-veteran as the cat pilot just about avoided the sort of irksomeness I had previously predicted. The kitten children was a rather ludicrous and frankly sexually disturbing concept - but again, I can forgive it due to the drive of the whole. Obvious chances for sheer silliness were blissfully missed throughout - something which both writer and director deserve to be congratulated for, as they had many a potential opportunity to send it all up.

Finally, I think this was the most satisfactory and least-jarring performance David Tennant has done as the Doctor since, well, probably Tooth and Claw ironically. And this was almost symbolised by a slightly shorter and flatter hair cut.

Certainly this Season is unpredictable - it is going to be a slow-burner: this episode, one which I was dreading for all the RTD ingredients it promised, is something of a revelation. It is the first episode since The Impossible Planet which has genuinely surprised and entertained me, chiefly by its deviating from my gut instincts for how it might turn out and pleasingly impressing me in where it went. It is one of the most classic-Who style episodes of the new series to date. And it is the first episode of Season Three which has truly entertained me, and which I may very well watch a second time. That certainly says something.

Gridlock is an episode which gets the post-modernism of new Who just right, and the first to provide true wholesome satire.
An enjoyable, witty, imaginative and surprising episode. We need more like these. So keep them coming. 7/10.