An attractive blonde girl investigates an abandoned basement. She hears a suspicious noise. "Is there someone there?" she asks nervously. So far, so "Scream", but then you realise a shop dummy has started to move behind her. She backs off, questioning if this is someone's idea of a joke, but then other plastic assailants spring to life. They stand before her arms raised...

"Run."

Okay, the mysterious stranger who saved her was always going to be the Doctor, but how wonderful that in an instant, generations who grew up with Doctor Who KNEW that this new, leather jacket Northerner WAS the Doctor.

Fairly obviously much has changed since the Doctor and Ace strode off into the sunset, but I would argue Russell T Davies' "Rose" is very much singing from the same song sheet. First the differences:

Plot and characters aside, the pace of the episode is frankly dizzying, although never off-putting. The time taken in later episodes such as "Curse of the Fenric" just would not be possible for today's "Buffy" fed market. The relentless pace of the first ten minutes does slow when Rose asks the new man in her life who he is and why she has been attacked by a plastic arm, although I feel the pace is an excellent way of demonstrating The Doctor's effect on the mundane life of a normal girl. 

This brings me nicely to Rose. I feel the nicest suprise of the lot. I was a teenager when Billie Piper assaulted the music charts with offensively sugary pop tunes such as "Because We Want To" so was understandably nervous upon hearing her casting. My fears were unfounded, Piper shines as the very human Rose, a character who finds her blinkers removed in the space of two days. She cannot believe the TARDIS yet goes back inside it. She doesn't believe in Living Plastic but follows the Doctor regardless. She phones her Mum before attempting to save herself. Now it's hard to see how we ever cared about the other human companions who were in many cases plot devises. Rose is unique in that she has a life and I very much felt Rose's dilemma at the end of the episode, Piper's performance was charming as she obligingly chose her normal life, ("Because She Had To") and uplifting as she raced towards her new life in the closing seconds ("Because She Wants To").

Of course, Rose's success is down the the obvious chemistry with the new Doctor, another real plus to the episode. We knew Eccleston could act, but I was surprised at how unpredictable he was, very hard to get a handle on and I rather like that. Peter Davison was charming but utterly predictably and in the end even Tom Baker could be relied upon to do something silly. This ninth Doctor seems to find such joy in his vocation but his ready smile often flashes out of darker moments as when Rose questions his morality and before the Nestene Consciousness. An fabulously intriguing start, and I have now forgiven the rather dull costume. Essentially we know Rose, but along with Miss Tyler, I can't wait to travel with our new Doctor.

Other goods? The music is better after a few listens. The TARDIS interior does work and I'm sure as the weeks go on it will grow in "character". The Autons were suitably chilling, especially the junior dummies. Jackie was excellent and for the most part I enjoyed Mickey, especially his "Gansta" face on arriving at Clive's.

Now, no part of the episode really made me cringe or hide from my TV and I never stopped enjoying the experience of having Doctor Who back, although if I could have a whinge it would be on the smallest of plot details. Firstly I'm glad I knew what the Nestene Consciousness was before I started as The Doctor's explanation was a touch brief given the "blink and you'll miss it" nature of the whole episode and I understand the function of the Wheelie Bin totally given the fact I'm a teacher of ten-year-olds, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Further the scene in Clive's shed seemed to quite coldly blank the fact that Clive knew there had been other Doctor's, but wasn't sharing. It seems insane to deny there used to be a series with same name. You don't have to be a big fan to want nods to the past. My Mum for example would have loved some less subtle acknowledgement of the old show. I guess the Dalek show may be the big test of how much RTD is willing to indulge.

All in all, whats not to love? It's Doctor Who! It's the same, but new! The debut has so mush promise...An alien with secrets, a human with the strength to share them? A machine that can take them anywhere, anytime. The next three moths will be a real treat.

If the first episode was all about Rose, then this second outing belongs to Christopher Eccelston. He gives another superb performance as the Doctor, making his announcement to quit all the sadder. The story is based on a space station called Platform One, where the rich come to see spectacular events in VIP luxury. The event the have come to witness this time is quite literally the end of the world. The Doctor, plainly trying to show off to his new companion, travels to the Platform and gatecrashes the party. Of course this being Doctor Who, things soon start to go wrong. But who is behind the sabotage?

The visuals are very impressive, without ever being overwhelming. The aliens are pretty good, although a few are very much of the "men in masks" variety so beloved in the classic serials. However a few do standout. Most notably Yasmin bannerman as Jabe, a tree creature, and Jimmy Vee as the Moxx of Balhoon, an odd man boobed little blue pixie in a floating chair. The space station is superbly done and the CGI 'Cassandra' wonderfully realised.

However, this story is all about relationships and character acting. Billie Piper is once again a revelation as Rose, who is rapidly emerging as a contender for best ever companion. Yasmin Bannerman is the sexiest tree i've ever encountered. But it is Eccelston who shows why so Davies wanted him for the role. He is quirky, funny and dynamic. But most of all he makes you care for his Doctor.

The script is ones again excellent. Davies is superb at this sort of story telling. Light, pacy and just a little bit scary at times. This tale is very much a thriller rather than a chiller, and is delivered superbly well. The End of the World will be be a hard act to follow.

"Rose" must have been one of, if not the, most anticipated Doctor Who TV stories of all time, matched perhaps only by the anticipation of the 1996 TV movie. It had a heck of a lot to live up to in terms of expectations by both fans and more casual viewers and the obvious question is; does it deliver?

The answer has to be a resounding yes! I watched 'Rose' as a dedicated long term fan, with me were my wife who is a casual viewer and my nine year old who has seen the old series and enjoyed some of it, but not the dated effects. pon viewing 'Rose' all three of us came to the conclusion that we had very much enjoyed it, so much so that we watched the BBC 3 repeat on Sunday evening.

Perhaps more than anything else what made this episode so good for us all was Christopher Eccleston's amazing performance as the Ninth Doctor. For me, personally, Mr Eccleston has become my second favourite Doctor solely on the strength of that performance, beaten only by the great Tom Baker. Without relying on an outlanish costume or other frippery Eccleston totally convinces as a nine hundred year old alien tim traveller. He has a madcap quality that reminds one of Troughton or Baker (Tom) but which is completely different from either of those predecessors. There is a wonderful lust for life, a genuine sense of wonder, an infectious enthusiasm - the grin says it all. Eccleston very much gives us a Doctor for the nineties, yet a Doctor who is immediately recognisable as the same Time Lord we have known and loved for 40 years. Perhaps the ultimate accolade I could give is to admit that, for most of the episode, I forgot there was an actor playing the Doctor, for me this was the Doctor in the same way that Tom Baker was the Doctor when I was a child.

The titular heroine, Rose, is very much a companion for the twenty first century and telling the story from her point of view was a master stroke. She proved in this one episode, both to the viewers and the Doctor that she has what it takes to be one of the all time great companions. I had my reservations about Billie Piper's acting ability, but I am happy to be proven completely wrong. She proved she could scream with the beast of them in a moment of genuine terror, but also proved to be gutsy, resourceful and to have the courage and intelligence to be, in amany ways, the Doctor's equal.

The supporting cast were uniformly good, though I found Mickey more than a little irritating. A pity he wasn't one of the stories fatalities!

Finally, the story itself. For a fan who has been reading the New Adventures / EDAs it was a lot more simplistic than the stories I have become used to of late, but somehow it didn't matter. I loved it. Perhaps more importantly, my wife (the casual viewer) and nine year old daughter both loved it. My daughter in particular laughed at the intended jokes and jumped when the Autons crashed through the shop windows. For myself I thought the story an excellent way to re-introduce the concept of Doctor Who and feel that it was certainly good enough to keep the 10.5 million viewers who reportedly watched the first story coming back for more. If the other twelve scripts meet or exceed this high standard then TV Doctor Who looks set to have a long and healthy future.

If Episode one bent the rules a little as a pre-cursor to brillance, then episode two had to excel. With reputations hanging in the balance with this second offering from Russell T Davies, I was on the edge of my seat before Graham Norton had finished waving his hands in mock enthusiasm.

Putting my feelings for Christopher Eccleston's recently announced departure on hold, for the time being, I expected a lot and was renumerated ten-fold.

The effects ridden tour-de-force that is The End of the World showcases everything that is great about this 21st Century, BBC Who-niverse:

You see, Mr Davies and co. have realised that if the setting is supplied by post-production via special effects, then characterisation is the key and quite simply - it oozes out of this episode and most importantly, it works!

CGI starships and stations, believable, organic-looking alien make-up, fantastic, on-screen chemistry between The Doctor and co-star, Yasmin Bannerman (Jabe) and a do or die ending - make terrific television.

My suspension of disbelief at the impending doom of Platform One was complete, I was gripped by the goosebump inducing, heart-poundingly simple idea that the Doctor WOULD NOT MAKE IT.

Ecclestone shines as The Doctor, more so in this episode than its predecessor 'Rose', he is charming, thinks on his feet and fleetingly becomes his previous selves, most noticably when grilling Rose on how she feels about being 5 million years in the future. It was as if the Sixth Doctor's persona had wrestled this Ninth incarnation to get to the podium - argumentative and sulky.

The Doctor performs 'jiggery pokery' upon Rose's Nokia Mobile phone and though it is a touching and grounding conversation, the subtle reference to Rose's past (the call seems to have been placed before her encounter with the Autons) is all important - she must leave her past behind to get on with it.

Not only did we get a pre-credit sequence, a la Bond, but we got an Epilogue which counterpointed what it was to be human and revealed in full that a war had left the Doctor without a home to return to.

It is this single statement that left me a little disappointed, for if there are no other Timelords, then we can never go to Gallifrey, or see other TARDISes. Will the Master return and will we ever see another Castellan or Keeper of the Matrix?

These questions unanswered are a bitter pill to swallow at the end of what I consider to be a proper and auspicious start to the new series.

Doctor Who is back! And it’s being ridiculed by everyone I speak to. What went wrong?

Contrary to my initial fears, it wasn’t Billie Piper. Rose came across as likeable, capable and intelligent. Christopher Eccleston on the other hand, disappointed as our hero. His antics in Rose’s flat were silly (although his struggle with the Auton arm was played perfectly, since Rose was meant to think he was pratting about like Mickey before him) and his asides (such as the oft-quoted “run for your life” line) were delivered flatly and without conviction. I know Eccleston’s fantastic, ‘cos I own half his CV on video, but he does nothing to justify that reputation in this episode. The rest of the cast were great, with the sole exception of Mickey, whose idiotic grinning as an Auton replica just made Rose look stupid for not spotting him straightaway.

The plotting owed more to literary Who than any previous televised outing, with the Doctor in the thick of the action from the outset. Having Clive fill in his background was a very fannish idea, but was superbly handled, and I look forward to the Doctor’s upcoming adventures with Krakatoa, the Titanic and JFK. The pace was fantastic, and the plot holes (where does the intelligence get the plastic to recreate Mickey and how does it transport him to its lair?) barely showed as we were catapulted from scene to scene. Unlike the 1996 TVM, we actually had a decent monster tale this time round, but the Doctor’s speech with the Nestene was appalling. This was a chance to give Chris some great lines as he faces down the monster-of-the-week, but he’s just left stuttering about some war or other. Suddenly it felt we were watching a sequel to something we hadn’t seen, Silver Nemesis style, and as with that story, it just didn’t work.

The CGI effects were uniformly abysmal, from the failed attempt to blow up a department store convincingly, to the wheelie bin which makes the chair in Terror Of The Autons look good. The less said about the obvious green-screening at the end, the better. It’s as if the FX people were so worried about episode two that they didn’t pay any attention to this one.

The music was sterile and intrusive, and brought back memories of Time And The Rani. The Doctor’s speech about feeling the rotation of the earth would have been far more effective with a silent background. The theme tune – whilst not as bad as the McCoy or McGann variants – was also botched, with an irritating drumbeat destroying any menace or feeling possessed by the original arrangement. The time-tunnel looked OK, but it’s a very derivative idea which was executed with more style in the TVM. The 3D actors’ names look horrid, and I suspect they were only included to make the logo look better by comparison. The logo is still ghastly.

This isn’t to say that the entire episode was bad – the Auton massacre was well-handled, the dash across the bridge looked great, and there’s a wonderfully atmospheric moment when rose turns round and the TARDIS has vanished after she’s left her flat with the Doctor. 

There is much promise for the future, if Eccleston can calm down and inject some much-needed gravitas into the proceedings, and his debut is still a lot better than his two immediate predecessors’. The Next Time trailer looks stunning, and I look forward greatly to April 2nd. But I have to wonder how many of the general public will also tune in next week. The opening night may have garnered 10 million viewers with its remorseless hype, but I know half a dozen who’ll be switching back to Ant & Dec, and I fear they may not be the only ones.

5/10.

This episode takes the new viewer deeper into the Doctor's world, introducing elements of the Tardis and himself while in the company of a host of colourful characters. Unfortunately it does this around a rather flimsy storyline. Cassandra's plot is rather silly, but what can you expect when you are flat.

However, it had some great elements. Seeing the new (old!) Tardis in action was excellent - the Doctor pumping away extra hard to get further into the future was a great touch. The idea of the National Trust owning the Earth and returning it to a 'classic' form was spot on. The current debate on heritage and the role of people in it has been answered in emphatic form. Finally, some good alien creations - particularly the trees, but a number of the also rans were no so convincing (a tribute to classic Who?). I'm sure others will comment on Cassandra. It would be interesting, however, to ask other reviewers if, were they to get so flat, would there be any other bits they might like to keep apart from a mouth and eyes. 

But the bombshell - gallifrey gone (?) (planet not website, of course). Tears in the Doctor's eyes - when does that happen? Rose asked the question we all did - so who was this war with that wiped out the Time Lords? As an episode to set us watching for further answers - why, when and whether all other Time Lords were really all killed (we have quite a list of errant ones for a start), it will keep us watching. Have we been given a mystery that will become clear during the current series? Or, is the new Doctor being established with a new mysterious personna that will remain opaque as with the first Doctor? Time will tell.