The hoo-ha has begun to simmer down, and the dust is beginning to settle, thank God. I've been admitted into hospital recently, with something nasty that made me go a horrible shade of yellow. I was naturally panicked and distraught. How bad was this thing, this thing in my body that made me go this funny colour? Then the doctors in their natty little trousers suits told me I was to stay for a while longer. The discharge date began to run away with itself, as though it hated the thought of my freedom as my bodily functions continued to do their own impression of the colours of the rainbow. To be honest, I was petrified. The discharge date was edging ever closer to March 26th. Someone up there hated me - it was obvious. Nine years waiting, hoping, for new Who, and here I was banged up in hospital with the dreaded lergy ... and yet again would miss that blasted TARDIS.

Just as I was thinking of bribing Gloria the nurse, they let me go. A whole 24 hours before the start of Rose. Not only that, they gave me a sick note. I'm sure it said something about my illness in there somewhere, but all I saw was ROSE, THE END OF THE WORLD, THE UNQUIET DEAD and ALIENS OF LONDON. I would not have to go to work on Saturday night for a whole month. Think about it. Nine years waiting for a month off work to watch the new series. Someone up there is laughing their head off at this sad little man.

This week, I returned the promise to come see my parents in the wilds of Yorkshire at the same time as my brother and his fiancee. We all ate dinner (lasagne), then as usual, sat in front of the television to watch Doctor Who. My Brother and Jo sat on the sofa together with a half-wry smile and chuckled at a couple of the Doctor's jokes, Mum went upstairs as she's never been one for being scared, and I was comedy-glaring everyone who made the slightest of noise. Bloody Hell. This was not Christmas 1869. This was Christmas 2005, surely? I thought afterwards, the ten year old inside me still alive with the ghostly Gelth. My family, altogether, with Doctor Who on the telly. That bloody illness was worth it, just for this 45 minutes of sheer happiness, enthralled in a good old Victorian ghost story Who-style. And what a story. I've heard criticism that these episodes are too slight, but like Charles Dickens may have said, a good story is a good story, regardless. Had this been made in the 70s instead of Talons of Weng-Chiang, it would have been elongated to maybe six episodes with more chases, a secret lair and a few more murders thrown in. But this is the present day, and television story-telling may have changed, but it still serves the production teams who know the tools of their trade, and all involved with The Unquiet Dead so obviously did. Old British traditions like the telling of short ghost stories are alive and well, and still entertaining families, over a hundred years after they came to popular appeal.

Here we have the risen dead, a cadaver animated by ghostly apparitions who strangles her mourning relative, bursts out of her coffin and takes to the streets. Hot on her heels are the undertaker and his servant with the second sight, and not long after, a mysterious stranger and a girl from far, far away. As she wreaks havoc at Charles Dickens' reading and the crowd flee in terror, Rose is kidnapped as all around them, horses pull carraiges through the shadows as the snow falls on gas-lit streets. The whole desperate situation culminates in a seance, then our heroes being trapped in the morgue by the unquiet dead as their time runs out. This, my friends, is pure Doctor Who. We're all fans here, lets skip past the interesting culture now, much of the plot (as it will already be seared onto your brains like a pattern in a circuit board), and the acting of third zombie but one. Never before has this reviewer been constantly on edge with Who moment after Who moment. Basque with me for a while. The corpse rising from the coffin and strangling Redpath. Same manky old woman lumbering towards the screen, only shutting her mouth so we can catch the full evil-ness of her eyes. The Doctor standing away from the main conversations, interjecting only when he could turn everything on its head. The Doctor suddenly appearing in a doorway - was he always there? The conversation with Dickens in the cab. Rose being kidnapped. Allusions to the real nature of the Doctor during a seance to raise aliens. The time travelers trapped in a morgue full of zombies. Saying farewell to Dickens, and saying something that perhaps shouldn't be said. Charles Dickens laughing out loud at the very end.

Yes my dears, Christmas came early this year. One sad little man is very, very happy indeed. And still has Aliens of London to come.

After two fairly frenetic episodes with little or no time afforded to characterization and depth of plot Mark Gatiss has provided a pacy yet in-depth victorian ghost story certainly on a par with the creepiness of Ghost Light, or the Talons of Weng Chiang.

Fresh from their ordeal in the far flung future (after a brief stop for chips) The Doctor offers Rose a journey into history. Plucking a date from the air The Doctor proceeds to program the TARDIS back to Naples 1860 for the simple reason that he wants to see what happened then. Throwing Rose straight into the action of piloting the TARDIS (you wonder how he coped before meeting her) they materialise on snowy streets. 

As usual the TARDIS is a little wide of the mark...i guess Rose needs some extra TARDIS tuition. Snow not being prevalent in Italy The Doctor examines a newspaper to discover that in fact they have arrived not in 1860 but 1869. To top it all they aren't in Naples but Cardiff, a fact the Doctor seems to resent. 

Of course all is not well, it wouldn't be much of an adventure series if it was and the cold opening is an ample replacement for the show's previous famous cliffhangers. The re-animated dead are genuinely creepy despite not being overly gory. And the gas creatures which inhabit them have a wonderful victorian parlour game look to them. Ok the CG doesn't really gel with the live action but i think a healthy suspension of disbelief can be afforded in this case as straight from the appearance of the re-animated grandmother at Charles Dickins story telling the viewer becomes so entranced with the fate of all characters that any niggles are chiefly redundant.

As with some of the better Doctor Who stories there is a relatively small cast. It benefits from being a later episode as we are now familiar with the Doctor and Rose and the script can concentrate on supporting characters. 

The supporting cast are actually treated as main characters rather than window dressing which "The End Of The World" and "Rose" seemed to fail on. One certainly feels more empathy with Gwyneth when she sacrifices herself for the rest of the world than we do for Jabe. Perhaps this is because she is saving the human race rather than a selection of overly rich aliens, but it seems more likely that the viewer is more sympathetic to a character who influences the plot rather than fills out a crowd scene.

The Unquiet Dead is certainly the best Doctor Who story i have seen for a long time, although i still have a few reservations about the 45 minute running time. While american shows have succeeded in this format i believe that Doctor Who set itself aside from other Science Fiction programmes by taking time over situations. Setting up plots and characters and not relying on a solution to present itself a mere five minutes from the end. Maybe the show would benefit from an hour long running time similar to other BBC Drama serials.

A final comment the Time War arc is shaping up pretty well having been alluded to in two episodes and introduced in the previous but i hope that it will not be the defining feature of all the Doctor and Rose's adventures as it is a bit hard to swallow that every new (or old) race they meet has been affected in such a way.

Having been subjected to intense and prolonged mockery from my wife before March 26th about how useless Doctor Who is and how pathetic I am for being excited about it, the tables have now turned to an almost paranormal degree. There was hardly a squeak out of her for the entire 45 minutes of 'Rose', and we have both now been forced to agree that 'The Unquiet Dead' is the best thing we've seen on TV for a long, long time.

As other reviewers have pointed out: malfunctioning TARDIS, spooky Victorian setting, duplicitous aliens, famous historical figure, frights and atmosphere. In a sense it WAS Who-by-numbers -- but I think older fans needed a dose of that, and this was the right point in the series to do it.

I appreciate RTD's attempts to pep up the Doctor, but I think he's gone too far, and I think Eccleston went too far in the opening episodes. Mark Gatiss's script, on the other hand, was both new enough and Who enough for Chris finally to become the Doctor, 100%. For the first time, I'm actually sad that he's leaving rather than just a little miffed. Here he was occasionally manic, but also grave, with that sense of unbreakable moral fibre that marked the best of the Tom Baker era.

The Ninth Doctor's morality, though, hides something deeper: guilt. Others have already noted that earlier Doctors wouldn't have fallen for the Gelph's deception, but the present incumbent clearly feels he has reparations to make for something (he almost got clobbered by the Nestence Consciousness for the same reason). Here his mistake results in several deaths. This is serious stuff for Doctor Who and I look forward to further repercussions as the series progresses. I also like the idea of alien incursions possibly having been CAUSED to some extent by the Doctor's actions. There's a depth to that backstory that balances the brevity of the individual storylines. They shouldn't get too bogged down in 'continuity' -- that's been the death of many a decent show (the X-Files springs to mind).

I can hardly fault the production of 'The Unquiet Dead'. The CGI was perfect: slightly unreal, echoing all those old fake 'ectoplasm' photos. You knew the Gelph's betrayal was coming, and you knew pretty well how it would look (after Gwyneth had described them as 'angels'), but it still worked for me. Suspense is scarier than mere shock, as everyone from Hitchcock to Val Lewton knew. The BBC's ability to recreate Victorian Britain is a given, but here they excelled themselves with glowing, cinematic photography.

All the performances were superb. Piper is a constant surprise and delight. She is a natural 'reactor' -- first requirement for Doctor's companion -- but is increasing proactive as the series progresses. The girlt-chat with Gwyneth (Eve Myles) was magnificent, taking numerous unexpected turns. Top marks to Gatiss for taking so much time over it in a 45-minute story. Myles was captivating and moving, taking uncalled-for trouble over a 'genre' show -- which was not always the case in the old days, when top actors often saw Doctor Who as a chance to camp it up. Also resisting camp heroically was Simon Callow, revelling in a deeper, darker Dickens. There will be those who think his performance as hackneyed as Dickens's own tired stage act at the start of 'The Unquiet Dead'; they should watch it again.

But congratulations must go to Ecclestone finally, who after all has the hardest role of all. If we like to think of the Doctor as intelligent, brave, infuriating, unpredictable, occasionally getting it wrong and basically being the most human alien imaginable, then he IS the Doctor. For now.

So, another 45 minutes of rapt viewing. Not perfect, but I think you'll find the classic series wasn't either. So good it made me wish I had kids!

I have chosen Mark Gatiss' script as the first story of the new season I shall review for "Outpost Gallifrey". Not that I have anything nasty to say about the first two episodes particularly (Rose was, well… I'll come back to Rose in a moment, whilst The End of the World is an excellent 45 minutes of entertainment), but because this episode was the one I was looking forward to the most (the Dalek episodes, rather unpredictably, being the second). I love "Doctor Who"'s visits to the past, as it is something the BBC do well. Ghost Light, The Visitation, Masque of Mandragora even The King's Demons all look good and contain solid performances from the actors involved (even if, sometimes, the story itself is weak). The early press shoots covering the filming at Swansea led me to believe that, once again, the BBC was not to disappoint in the recreation of the past. Simon Callow, hundreds of extras, fake snow, horse drawn carriages, night filming, etc. Not only was the BBC doing what they do best, they were doing it with some serious money – on "Doctor Who"! Unbelievable! I thought I'd never see the day. Yes, I couldn't wait for this episode.

March 26th 2005 finally arrived. Not only was it my (and of course, my twin brother, Terry's) 31st birthday, "Doctor Who" also made its long awaited return with Rose (I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present – a whole new series of "Who").

Oh yes, it looked good, and Billie Pier was great, Eccleston not so great (but thankfully, his performance has got better over the next two episodes, so I'm putting his ‘dopey' personality down to post-regeneration stress or something similar), but quite frankly I was gutted. I couldn't fault the production itself, top marks to the special and visual effects team for the Autons, the TARDIS, etc. It was the story I had a problem with – or the lack of it. No wonder some newspapers slated it in the review pages. By all means you had to introduce the basic concepts of the show to a new audience, but leaving only ten short minutes for the Auton invasion and the thwarting thereof was unforgivable. As for the resolution to said invasion, having the Doctor produce a bottle of jollop he whipped-up earlier (in true "Blue Peter" fashion) is just sloppy. As in introduction episode, the BBC should have allowed it to be a bit longer (maybe an hour instead of 45 minutes) to let the story grow naturally alongside the ‘now-this-is-the-TARDIS' scenes, I feel Rose would have been a better tale for it. Then again, what do I know? A mate at worked loved Rose, he found it hilarious (especially the ‘cork-in-Auton-head' scene) and loved every second of it and is quite willing to watch the rest of the series. He praised Billie on her acting, but thought Christopher was (his words not mine) "a complete twat" though.

I was more impressed with The End of the World. Not only had Eccleston's performance mellowed (although my mate at work is still stating, "Can't stand him, when's Tennant taking over?"), the story had the luxury of the full 45 minutes to play with. The scene between Rose and Raffalo (Beccy Armory), in my opinion, is worthy of a mention. Nicely played by the actresses concerned and proof that, even at 45 minutes, "Doctor Who" can still find time for lovely character driven scenes such as this between the action set-pieces. Incidentally, my work mate thought Rose was far better than The End of the World, which just goes to show that every audience members taste is different (he also isn't a fan, so I'd say his views on the show probably are of more importance than mine). However, with a much happier heart (I'd be very worried if every episode was as bland as Rose), I eagerly awaited ‘the-one-with-Charles-Dickens'.

First the pre-credit sequence. Brilliant. If I don't hear of any complaints about the show being too scary for the little ‘uns, I'd be very disappointed. Despite the wide variety of aliens on display in the previous episode, none of them really provided much scope for terror, but then again that was the whole point of that episode. Hey, they may look different from you and me, but that doesn't mean they mean you any harm.

Now walking cadavers – that's exactly what "Doctor Who" is about; turning the everyday into something terrifying, and you can't get more commonplace than a corpse.

I've now accepted Christopher as the Doctor; he is on fine form in this story. His scenes between Simon Callow and himself are superb. Billie just keeps better and better though, the realisation that Rose really does think Gwyneth (Eve Myles) is stupid is played beautifully. Despite the time-travelling, the modern girl from London may think she knows it all, but in reality she knows nothing. This spoke volumes about both characters.

Simon Callow is spot-on as Charles Dickens, but as he's played the role many times, I expected nothing less than perfection.

Yet what impressed me most about this episode is that no-one hams it up. From the leading roles right down to the extras (sorry…. supporting artistes), not one is thinking,"It's only "Doctor Who" let's mess about a bit". What could've easily been made-up actors badly grunting in an over-the-top way (as witnessed in many poor zombie films), the final moments of the episode genuinely held some tension.

Ah yes, the final moments! If anything the 45 minute format has proven is that the story endings are rushed. In Rose a handy virus was used, in The End of the World the Doctor pulled a lever to save the day, in The Unquiet Dead…

… let's just say that once you learned very early on that the Gelth are made of gas, it didn't take a genius long to work out how they were to be defeated. It was no surprise when the obvious did occur. Just as obvious as mentioning silver bullets early in Battlefield or Hexachromite gas in Warriors of the Deep for instance. I was hoping for the obvious not to happen, but alas I had my only disappointment with this episode in this respect. However, to get to the obvious solution was an eventful and excellent adventure that I can forget this small detail. It will be interesting to see if the episode denouements become a lot more detailed and cleverer in the two-parters though, as they will have more time to tell their stories.

More well produced tales like this please. A triumph for the BBC!

Another fine episode and from a production point of view one of the most atmospheric pieces of television ever filmed. The gorgeous location work, chilling and subtle effects and beautiful lighting combine to make this is an absolute treasure on the eyes. 

Any doubts that others writers than RTD could pull of his unique style of Doctor Who are quashed with this glorious historical episode. You have everything that the first two episodes had, the fantastic production, the witty lines, the mentions of the ‘War', the engaging narrative but this episode has the bonus of being the closest to what we fans recognise as Doctor Who. Rose clearly borrowed wholesale from Spearhead from Space and various other Doctor Who stories and was truly Doctor Who but its modern day setting gave it a new edge. The Unquiet Dead has to compete with gems such as Talons of Weng-Chiang and Curse of Fenric as Doctor Who has always had a great track record when popping back to the past, historical re-enactments being the BBC's greatest triumph in my eyes. To Mark Gatiss' credit he has delivered a smashing story, expertly squeezed into fourty-five minutes without squandering his location or period or any depth a historical can offer. This is everything Mark of the Rani should have been and half the length at that. 

It is shocking just how out of place Christopher Eccleston's Doctor is in the Victorian era considering how perfect his previous selves have fitted it. It is another layer to this intriguing new Doctor that marks him out as something very different to what we are used to. My friend Matt is having troubles with his accent, this very northern sounding Doctor proving a bit normal to be totally believable but I am finding his portrayal more and more interesting every week. Gone is the grinning loon from Rose as Eccleston grows into the role and discovers what the show is capable of and he is replaced by a far more balanced character, one who is capable of growing very angry suddenly (these sudden bursts are shocking and accentuate the fact that this is an alien we are dealing with), who can turn on the charm (“You're brilliant, you are!”), make quick decisions (as he does here with the future of the Gelth) and remain very humane (“I'm so gold I met you…”). He dashes about Victorian Cardiff (the location itself involved in a number of brilliantly time jokes at its expense), every inch the hero right up to the touching climax. 

I hope Rob Shearman was not too pissed off at Gatiss stealing wholesale his idea of the ‘little person' saving the world from Chimes of Midnight? It is so important that the new series is concentrating on characterisation over special effects. Oh you can have as much spectacle as you want but you can fill the screen with as many pretty pictures as you want but if there is no story to follow or characters to care about you will lose your audience as soon as the eye candy wears off (and trust me that high can lose its novelty very quickly…ever seen The Phantom Menace?). Wisely, Gatiss populates his episode sparsely and takes each of them on a journey, which climaxes in very different ways (murder, suicide and life affirming glee!) but which satisfies in each case. 

Whilst Dickens is clearly the centrepiece for the episode I found Gwyneth even more interesting because it was somebody I knew nothing about. Cute references aside, we all know Dickens story (and his stories…) so it is easy to predict just where his character is going (as touching as that was) but Gwyneth surprised me a lot. In one superb scene she looks into Rose's mind and has a frightening look at the future and the tone of the scene shifts several times. First, its hilarious girl chat that highlights the difference in culture between the two women which is then deepened when Gwyneth spots the cars and planes and noise of the future and then it gets REALLY scary as the Doctor reveals her part to play in this crisis. A great scene. Her relationship with Rose takes on real depth when it becomes clear that she is vital to the climax and Rose's firm admonishment to the Doctor (“She's not going to fight your battle!”) shows you how close they have become in such a short time. It was Rose's reaction to her death that affected me the most, as she starts to learn the responsibility of time travel and the fact that you cannot save everybody. 

If Rose's relationship with her spotlights Gwyneth it is the Doctor's slack jawed reaction to Dickens that reminds you meeting this man is an EVENT. And what a disappointment he is. At first. Simon Callow plays up his scepticism to such an extent he would make Dana Scully proud and yet retains the dignity and good humour of the character. You really want to shake the man and tell him this is really happening and to pull himself together! But his vital role in the climax redeems him totally and his final line and little swagger just make the episode. The Doctor's invasion of Dickens' life is given real weight and Rose is afforded a look at just how their adventures can change peoples lives for the good (Dickens) and the bad (Gwyneth). What I loved about Callow's performance was the humour he injected into it, his immediate turn around in opinion about the Doctor's character when he starts raving about his books is hilarious and his drunken speech summing up the truth about the Gelth similarly chucklesome. And his line when he is surrounded by zombies at the climax must rank as one of the best lines in the series yet. Having such a big name gives the episode real weight but it is the performance that counts and Callow does a predictably wonderful job. 

It's Christmas! The TARDIS landing at Christmas! Dontcha just love it when Rose steps in the snow as if to confirm all this magic is real. The Beeb have pulled of a real Victorian Christmas with fantastic detail and I was clapping so loud when I first saw the TARDIS land I woke the dog up! There is something wonderfully atmospheric about a ghost story at Christmas it is real shame it couldn't have been shown then (maybe they'll repeat the episode over the festive season…I'd watch it!) and my advice is to tape it and watch it again with all the lights off when its dark. Brrr…it takes a whole new level of creepiness…

Was it too scary? I doubt it, kids are used to so much nastiness on telly these days but this mix of spookiness and the fantastical might catch those of the more faint hearted. The pre-credits sequence was excellent for grabbing the attention and preparing us for the episode ahead but my personal favourite scare came at the end when the corpses started springing up en masse… it was like something out of Shaun of the Dead except it look really stylish! The theme of the dead rising is always a winner and I am more interested in hearing what the adults thought because I fairly certain the idea of corpse possession would affect them more. 

This was an excellent spooky fantasy, which probably would just be pipped by The End of the World if it wasn't for that gorgeous production which pushes it into a league of its own.

It's a tradition in Doctor Who that, while futuristic episodes cost the Earth and look appalling (because everything has to be made from scratch), so historical ones are dirt cheap and glorious, because the Beeb has been making Victoriana since before Victoria, and can do Period Drama with its eyes shut. So after the budget-bursting End of the World, the most expensive Dr Who story ever made, what better way to mend the purse-strings than a good old-fashioned dollop of Dickensian mimsy? The answer should be obvious, at least to anyone following the spectacular trends of the series: a dollop of Dickensian mimsy with ruinously expensive CGI ghosts!

Enter The Unquiet Dead - a frightening tale behind the scenes as much as on them. As the first story in the new season not to be penned by series-creator Russell T Davies, fear was rife that the scripts wouldn't meet the high quality of what had gone before. Rumours abounded that League of Gentlemen founder Mark Gatiss would overdose on humour to the detriment of plot. Worries wafted around that the poe-faced historical setting would turn off viewers expecting a science fiction series.

In the event, as usual, fears were unfounded, rumours baseless, and worries... not a worry. Mark Gatiss was a Dr Who fan long before he was a surreally sinister sketch writer, and delivers a punchy, powerfully plotted story, with if anything more of a strait-laced and traditional approach than Russell T's breakneck paciness. After Rose and The End of the World, in fact, this feels almost shockingly slow to start with, a real slice of nostalgic, period Who, replete with Victorian mannerisms, dodgy skullduggery and ill-advised sideburns. For the first time the Doctor is given a chance to actually think, deducing what's going on and developing plans rather than leaping to a conclusion from a standing start, and the plot itself manages to feel surprisingly multilayered for what is still only 45 minutes.

Endearingly set in Cardiff as a nod to the city that hosted the season's location filming (and even more endearingly actually shot in Swansea because Cardiff has the wrong sort of cobbles), The End of the World has the same glossy, big-budget look viewers have come to expect from this series. While the exterior work perhaps feel slightly cramped, due to the small number of appropriate locations available, interiors are lavish and convincing, while the wardrobe, props and make-up department does sterling work recreating victorian aesthetics. What really sets this apart from stock period drama, however, is of course the special effects, here realised as a combination of genuinely creepy make-up effects and cgi ghostliness. The latter in particular is extremely effective - cgi being an, ahem, perfect medium, for ghosts, who aren't supposed to feel exactly real in the first place and so can afford the slight unreality that still inevitably goes hand in hand with computer graphics. There are perhaps moments that could have done with some more work - the ghosts' visual development throughout the story, for instance, could have been more obvious, and a central plot-revelation effect near the end could have been handled with much more subtlety, for instance by being omitted entirely - but these really are quibbles. Just compare this to the terrifying, er, blinking pixels, of The Awakening and see what 20 years of technology can do for art.

It almost goes without saying now that the performances are rock solid, Christopher and Billie pulling off their effortless chemistry, and Simon Callow veritably wallowing in the chance to play Charles Dickens as an actual character rather than a cipher. Much of this is due to the strong, balanced script, with ongoing hints at a plot arc running under the series continuing to intrigue, while the incidental music, so heavily criticised in Rose, here seems genuinely to lift rather than distract from the drama. All in all, a terrific episode, at once tremendously different to what has gone before, and utterly in tune with it. It would be hard to deny at this stage that the show has the width and the depth to sustain many more than its 13 episodes... And that, judging by the stunning 'Next week' trailer, things can only get better.

Oh, and the Doctor finally comes out in favour of carrying donor cards. As the proud owner of three kidneys and a second-hand liver, I can only applaud.