I don’t need to tell you how I was feeling in the weeks and days approaching March 26th. I’ve been following Doctor Who since I was old enough to see its magic (I was 6 in 1974). I adored the show for all kinds of reasons – first and foremost for it’s imagination stretching format. I jumped aboard in the Golden Era of Hinchcliffe. I despaired as it wasn’t allowed to continue on TV in 1989. Books, comics and Audios more than made up for the lack of Who in the 90s and last few years – but I so much wanted the real thing - TV.

I love the Audios particularly – you can quote me on the fact that I believe them superior to the original TV show. Really though I just love Doctor Who – and I was as excited as the next active enthusiast (that’s what we are now apparently to distinguish us from the general public! I kind of like the label!) with the Official TV Return.

I went for a cozy approach on the night of the 26th. DW was mostly a solitary, or one-on-one pursuit for me – and I watched it with my better half (she sat fascinated throughout – but then she’s quite a fan herself).

After the initial frown at the jiggy-jiggy music, as Rose flitted about the Department Store, I am reliably informed I had a silly, stupid grin on my face throughout. As Rose went down to the basement so the marvellous secret, scary places of the imagination were upturned again. As the Mannequins moved the Monsters returned. As Christopher Eccleston appeared charging down corridors, I knew the Doctor was back.

It all went extremely quickly, but then modern TV is like that – and this is great modern TV. I really can’t remember being ever this engrossed in Who, yet I have pretty much sampled it all. No doubt I was caught up in the new, exciting novelty of a new series – but it really is rather brilliant. I find it marvellous that my expectations (which are always high for something with Doctor Who emblazoned on it) were exceeded. That really is quite amazing – and I would like to shake Russell T Davies by the hand (and his amazing helpers) and heartily congratulate him.

I knew Russell T Davies Doctor Who would be the genuine article – you just could tell from his mass of interviews, and the reports coming from the Recording. All the tingle-down-the-spine sound effects are present and correct. This really is the old show we all grew to adore – and it is fantastic to see it represented so well.

I was extremely impressed with the reality grounding that Rose and her home represented. Her homely yet normal house, her wonderfully dizzy mother, and her ordinary boyfriend. That marvellous scene where the Doctor and Rose are tracked past the garages back to the TARDIS. Pizza for dinner, lie-ins – this was the real world – and the magic of Who, as a contrast, has rarely been so better emphasized.

Chirstopher Eccleston is amazing. There’s something intrinsically Doctorish about him right from the start – yet there’s also a man-in-the-street about him too. Billie Piper is excellent too – and this was arguably her episode more than the anyones. We follow the story through her – and her character is so enchanting as to make that fascinating. The story for me was all about Rose and the Doctor – and there’s not one scene they are together that doesn’t sparkle with originality and energy. Special mention too, the new TARDIS Console Room is wonderful. To me it seemed Farscape/Cardassian inspired – and I really like that.

On the Monday night after the original screening we went to my friends house (EZ) – also a big Who fan. We watched it again, with his wife Nealm and his 6 year old daughter Nikita. I spent just as much time watching 6 year old Nikita as watching the TV Screen! It was fascinating to see her reactions. She laughed when the Doctor sent the playing cards everywhere. She laughed again and jumped up and down when the Mannequin Hand was attacking the Doctor, but then stopped suddenly when it fixed on Rose. She rushed to her Mum when the Wheelie Bin started attacking Mickey, but then giggled when it burped. She snuggled up to her Auntie (my wife) when the Nestene Monster was shouting at the Doctor. She gave it 10/10 when we asked around the room what our ratings were (we do this whenever we watch something!). Truly marvellous to see Doctor Who fascinate a small child, as I was fascinated all those years ago. Incidentally the ratings from the 4 over 35 adults were 10, 8, 9 and 9.

I am loathe to put any kind of criticism in my review, but I suppose I should balance things out a little. The story. With all the introductions, explanations of the Nestene threat seemed hazy. Of course it’s essentially the same threat and motivation as Spearhead From Space (well done DWM giving it an article in the latest Mag). The Internet guy was pretty good (complete with jokes about the male domination of fandom), but it would have been nice to see other Doctors on his walls – but I see why they didn’t too – focus had to be on the new Doctor.

The new Doctor Who is glorious, and judging from its beginning, this series will be probably the best we have ever had. Coming into work on Tuesday morning I was met with cheers from my fellow workers. I had come out of the closet as a Who fan a few months before, and they knew just how much I was looking forward to the new series. What I find marvellous is that they all loved it too. For the first time in my life I’m cool – absolutely amazing! 9/10

I should warn you at the beginning, if you’re a big Russell T. Davies fan: he’s not going to come out of this well.

Pathetic I know, but sometimes I feel personally hurt by this story; having spent almost all my life defending the show from my friends, who thought of it as a complete joke, Russell T. Davies comes along and proves them right. How could he do this to me? It stings doubly because this was also the first time where the bubble really burst and I realised the series wasn’t going to be the perfection I had been hoping. Maybe you could turn it round and say that I’m better off for seeing it and consequently getting a bit of a reality check, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’ve just had to sit through the bloomin’ thing again in order to review it.

I suppose it is good that some thought has gone into what Rose has left behind when the Doctor took her away, but it’s spoiled by the lack of thought that seems to have gone into other areas, like why everyone seems to have forgotten that shop window dummies suddenly sprang to life a year previously and killed a lot of people. That’s a big problem with Davies: he focuses on one area of an episode so that everyone coos over how intelligent and thoughtful he is, but then lets it down by neglecting some other area. The pre-titles sequence is at least quite well done though, linking between Rose in her flat and the Doctor in the yard outside.

The policeman asking Rose if her relationship with the Doctor is a sexual one is a very interesting moment as it shows Davies talking about sex in a way that seems totally appropriate to the narrative and not at all gratuitous; that is the kind of question that a policeman genuinely would ask her, so not only is it appropriate it’s quite correct. Davies brings innuendo into the series all too often, and it’s very rare that I end up praising it. Rose’s later line of “it’s so gay”, however, is quite different. It was included in the script simply to stir up trouble and get a reaction; it caused controversy at the time but I gave it the benefit of the doubt as I thought that Davies would have some kind of agenda, but when I found out that the agenda in question was simply to cynically provoke a reaction I lost all patience with him. The line is just presented starkly with no attempt to give it negative connotations, so an anti-homophobic agenda is a bit of a non-starter. Although I suppose if the Doctor had rebuked her for it people would react to that too, thinking Davies has turned the Doctor gay, so you just can’t win.

Forget my opinions about Davies for a moment, or even to an extent Keith Boak, as the spaceship crash looks absolutely great. It has a few flaws, like a lack of reaction shots from the crowd, the actual landing which isn’t the show’s best piece of special effects and the fact that nobody hears it coming until it zooms right over their head, despite it not only having roaring engines but also having a foghorn. Still, it’s still a great set piece and the shot of Big Ben getting smashed looks wonderful although it is spoiled by a totally unnecessary angle change from Boak, to whom fast, random, dizzying cuts are a particularly bad speciality. One thing to note is that the clock reads 10:55 when the ship strikes it but 6:10 when it appears on the news later: good old British workmanship eh? Big Ben keeps going even when an alien spaceship uncaps it like a boiled egg.

The party at Rose’s flat features some Goths as guests; maybe this is just my skewed perspective but they strike me as being somewhat incongruous in a council estate setting where such people would have a short life expectancy (oh, I’ve alienated a lot of people saying that, haven’t I? Never mind, so has Davies). The Goth girl is also the one who yells out to the Doctor “oi gawjus, come back an’ join da par’ay”, showing that Davies knows as much about Goths as he does about politics. The scene with the baby is daft but okay, but cutting to a cake spaceship is a classic example of the clever-clever metafictional elements that Davies scatters throughout his episodes that totally destroy the illusion. Rumour has it that he’s in a future episode carrying a billboard saying “this is just a TV show!”

After this the silliness comes thick and fast. Politicians are given comedy jobs; Harriet Jones is comic relief initially spouting her catchphrase “MP for Flydale North” again and again and again until people start saying it in their sleep; then of course there’s the farting, which is the moment that Davies really shows how little he respects a family audience. It truly pains me that a programme that once had characters talking in iambic pentameter (and getting nine million viewers for it before anyone accuses it of elitism) is now reduced to not just one but uncountable fart jokes. Even at its lowest ebb the original series never disrespected its audience to this degree. Why Davies seems to think that anyone is going to respond to such infantile writing is beyond me, but what is even more beyond me is that they do, with World War Three actually topping this in the ratings. The guffawing aliens seems to be an attempt at keying into an older, cheesier style of villain, just like the Dalek flying saucers key in to an older design of spaceship, but this is so ineptly done that like in Delta And The Bannermen the episode becomes what it attempts to riff off: namely, bad science fiction. I admit I sound patronising there, but I hate the thought that someone who reacts badly to such coarseness is an automatic humourless snob. Believe me, I react very well to humour. It’s just that this isn’t it.

The rest of the episode just keeps on annoying me, from the incredibly twee use of David Bowie’s ‘Starman’ on the soundtrack to Mickey’s embarrassing pratfall when the TARDIS dematerialises (which incidentally takes too long, so the visuals don’t match the sound effects), to the Doctor using a mallet on the console. Sorry, I know I’m being harsh, but they put someone in charge of the show who is simply not taking his job seriously, at least when it comes to this episode.

At least Navin Chowdry is a good actor, transforming a scene with his reactions when in the background. In fact a lot of the guest cast are very good here, such as David Verrey, Penelope Wilton and (particularly) Annette Badland, but their characters are so annoying (Harriet Jones to a lesser extent, bit still a little bit) that it counts for naught. At least Noel Clarke’s on hand to save the day, maintaining some charisma in the face of idiot pratfalls.

The escape of the space pig is dramatic at first, until we actually see the pig. Possibly this was an attempt to replicate the success of Mr. Sin from The Talons Of Weng-Chiang, but instead of being creepy it just ends up ludicrous. It could have been creepy if it was better done, but unfortunately Jimmy Vee in a pig suit just doesn’t convince. The dry, rubbery mask just doesn’t convince and no attempt to make anything other than the head and hands look like a pig has been made. In short, it looks like what it is: a small guy in a pig suit. And then Davies expects me to get emotional over it.

The scene where the three Slitheen line up and fart in front of Asquith while grinning inanely is my candidate for Doctor Who’s worst ever moment, which even now makes me cringe even though I’ve watched it several times. I’m just thankful that I’ve never seen this episode in the company of others – that’s definitely a moment to get the dog to “accidentally” tread on the fast forward button. The head zips are more tweeness that help shatter the illusion, although the bright blue glow helps obscure it a bit.

Note that the handrail in the TARDIS wobbles when Rose grabs it – I love stuff like that happening in the new series, as it counteracts the smugness of people who laugh at the original.

The scene where Jackie grasses up the Doctor shows that this is actually quite a well paced episode (just a shame that the content being paced is so naff), with the Doctor’s trip to the hospital neatly leading on to the next stage. The mystery of what the aliens have been doing is also good, but highlights how disappointing the story is as it has a very strong core idea and could have been very good.

The “wife, mistress and young farmer” line is Davies again at his most smarmy – the policeman’s question earlier on was appropriate to the story but when an innuendo is devoid of any relevance to the plot it becomes mere attention seeking. The gas exchange explanation for the farting doesn’t quite cut it with me – okay so there’s an explanation for it, but why can’t the exchangers just work properly? Then the Slitheen could at least claim to have a veneer of credibility. Apart from that is the fact that green aliens hiding inside human suits it taken wholesale from City Of Death, where it was done much better and the DVD of which ironically features Steven Moffatt talking (correctly) about the importance of taking the monsters seriously. I know City Of Death raises the question of how the Jagaroth can fit inside human skins but if the answer to that involves them breaking wind at every opportunity then I can live with the dramatic licence, thanks.

The Slitheen, when they emerge, look dreadful – stupid comedy monsters with baby faces, pot-bellies and bad posture. I’ll take the underrated Zarbi over the Slitheen; they may look dated now, but at least people where actually trying back then instead of hurling money at the show until it makes itself. What galls me also is the fact that the new series is capable of making such fantastic monsters (the Reapers), so these look like they do deliberately. When monsters failed in the original series at least you could put it down to budget constraints, but the Slitheen look exactly as they are intended to look and I find that very sad. I have to say, while I’ve seen praise for them on the Internet I’ve never met anyone in the flesh who actually liked the Slitheen. The special effects of their emergence from their skins look awful and fake, although like the wobbling handrail this does at least provide me with some ammo against people who laugh at the effects of the original series. The three Slitheen emerging at the same time in separate places show a completely artificial set up for a cliffhanger, which when it happens is distinctly ordinary. The “next time” trailer has been criticised so much I don’t need to go into it here.

Fortunately, World War Three is a bit better than the dreadful Aliens Of London and (just about) saves the story from a bottom rating. The resolution of the cliffhanger makes no sense though – so all the power transmits to other Slitheen through gas exchangers, does it? This demonstrates Davies penchant for grabbing whatever random sci-fi device comes along and turning it round to suit him regardless of it’s plausibility – see also The Christmas Invasion, where the Sycorax leader happens to be standing on the exact spot on the ship that can be collapsed by a carefully thrown satsuma. Funny thing though, but doesn’t Christopher Eccleston sound like Paul McGann when he says “deadly to humans, maybe”? Listen and hear it for yourself.

We get to see the Slitheen for all their rubbishness: the costumes look as rubbery and artificial as the pig’s and the CGI versions look too cartoony, as well as failing to match the costume-versions’ movements. Both, I should say, are largely down to the way Boak shoots them as the look improves dramatically when Joe Ahearne shoots them for Boom Town. There is no dignity to this episode at all, especially when they wobble about trying to get back into their human suits – and it’s all deliberate. It is quite unbelievable. However, I do like the look of anger that Verrey flashes Rupert Vansittart as Asquith when he tells the guards to take their orders directly from him.

The Doctor defeats a Slitheen with a fire extinguisher, Rose drops a curtain on one of their heads and Harriet Jones screams “noooooo!”. Yes folks, we have something falling somewhat short of the show’s most dynamic action scene. However, the fact that the Slitheen are a family answers a question about why the Slitheen have no nuclear weapons of their own (it doesn’t forgive ripping the plot off The Dominators though). However, Harriet’s rebuke to the Doctor for passing the port to the right is actually a good joke, having a bit of style at odds with the rest of the story (my word, I’m such a snob. Oh well, nobody’s perfect, but at least I know a good episode of Doctor Who when I see it). For every god moment though there’s a bad one to cancel it out, such as the unfunny moment where human skins are hung on coat hangers.

The Doctor’s quiet apology to the dead Indra Ganesh is a good moment though, as understatement is the way emotion should be done. Having said that I do like Father’s Day and emotion is hardly understated there so let me put it another way – it should be understated when done by Davies as he has a tendency to splatter his scripts with trite and cheesy platitudes, such as in the café scene in The Parting Of The Ways. Here, though, it works well. The “buffalo” password on the UNIT site is unbelievably stupid plotting, and when the Slitheen explodes through having picked eggs thrown at it I have to ask myself how thick Davies thinks his audience is.

The Doctor gags at the port (despite claims to have drunk earlier with Lloyd George), which is a great little moment of characterisation, helped by the fact that it’s so fleeting because of a quick cutaway. Keith Boak does good camerawork in the same way that someone playing Pin The Tail On The Donkey will occasionally, quite by chance, hit it right on the spot.

“Massive weapons of destruction”. Please, someone make it stop.

The resolution is, you guessed it, rubbish with Mickey hacking into (for the purposes of new viewers) a random fictional website and launching a missile at 10 Downing Street from his home computer. Davies’s strengths, such as his skill in characterising Rose, just don’t cut it in the face of such ridiculousness. Also annoying is the hint of a swear word from the Slitheen, because of the continued “tee hee, we’re doing this because we can get away with it” attitude of the writer. I’m glad it’s nearly over though (what if Margaret Blaine teleported into a chip shop? There’d be no Boom Town so we’d all be better off.

At least the ending, with the “ten seconds” moment, is pretty good in a sombre and sad way that contrasts with the silliness of earlier. The cover-up idea is implausible though – so what, a student prank? And they murdered the prime minister just for an extra hint of realism. It’s not relevant to anything, but I’ve got the same coffee mugs as Jackie (bet that caught you off guard).

The fact that World War Three isn’t quite as dreadful as Aliens Of London just saves this from a one-star rating, but only just. It totally sums up everything that is wrong with Davies’s writing: it takes all the shaky plotting, silly comedy characters, annoying satire, smut and innuendo and multiplies them; in short, despite not being the worst episode of the series (that thorny crown goes to Boom Town) this is still a poor, poor example of Doctor Who.

First of all, I am not reviewing this as a fan. I was a fan of the old series, but I will not let this cloud my judgement.

One of the biggest problems of die - hard fans is that when reviewing they are apt to forget things like how good the storyline is, the plot, even the suspense. The more extreme the fan, the more these things are forgotten.

Firstly, as an episode it absolutly failed. RTD clearly did not know how to inroduce a series in a 45 minute episode. It is always hard introducing a new series, this is why a lot new 45 minute episode series start with a double episode rather than a single one. But with something as important as this series it was almost suicude. Luckily, the series has now found its feet, but it must have been close. The Plotline was almost nonexistant. Everyone I know who watched the series as a kid agreed with this. You simply can't use the excuse that its for modern times. Episodes 6,7,8,9; were modernised and it worked. But for modern TV standerds this was bad.

Secondly: The Pace. When I first watched it I didn't know quite what to think of the actors because they were hardly given time to breath before their next lines. (Luckily Eccleston and Piper were able to pove themselves in later pisodes). The Pace was so rushed that It was a laugh. There was no suspense, no buildup, no climax worth considering. The Only part that interested me was rose's meeting with clive.

Thirdly: The music. Why on earth have that type of music. It completely wrecked any action worth seeing. Murray Gold isn't a bad composer, but he should have come up with something much better than that.

Overall a bad beginning to a series that would eventually right itself. 3/10

After 10 long years, Doctor Who has at last finally returned to Australian television screens – and it's about time.

The updated time vortex is a nice nostalgic touch for those of us who remember it. After over a year, the new Doctor Who logo still looks far too “photoshopped” for my tastes. The new theme tune is a wonderful combination of the old Delia Darbyshire melody, overlaid with a symphonic score. It's a big improvement on the pompous bombastic John Debney version from the TV movie. And light-years better than the chintzy cheesy version used during the Sylvester McCoy years. The opening shot immediately catches your attention – a wideshot of the earth and moon, then zooming into Rose's alarm clock. Clearly showing that this series will explore the unknown, but will be returning to Earth from time to time.

Murray Gold's new theme tune is excellent – his incidental music is not so excellent. The inspired-by-department-store melody was perfectly appropriate for the first five minutes, but I don't believe it was particularly appropriate for repeated use throughout the entire episode.

Rose's mother Jackie very much reminds me of my own mother. Especially her overprotectiveness of her daughter, not to mention her tendency to natter over the phone with her friends. As a result, I find the character of Jackie annoying for all the right reasons – as a reflection of the bland and uninspiring life that Rose will soon leave behind. Mickey is your typical faithful boyfriend. Like most males of his ilk, he's not a particularly articulate or refined fellow, but its clear that he does love Rose, in his own hamfisted way. I find Mickey to be an immensly annoying character for the same reasons as Jackie. And that's fine – as a Doctor Who fan gunning for Rose to leave in the TARDIS, I'm meant to.

In a breathtaking forty-five minutes, Christopher Eccleston has redefined the role of Doctor Who for the 21st Century. Other actors who have played the role, have sometimes taken the larger-than-life eccentric approach. For past episodes in a more innocent time, this has worked exceedingly well. Ecclestone's Doctor is truly alien, without taking the overly bombastic approach that some past actors have. For me, the “Earth turning” speech was when I truly believed that he was the Doctor.

Billie Piper's character of Rose is an even bigger revelation than the Doctor himself. Rose is a fully- fleshed out character, and the fact we see this adventure from her point-of-view only emphasises this. She's a fully-rounded person with a family who loves her, who's then flung into the most extraordinary situation imaginable.Billie Piper plays the role with charm and verve, without ever descending into maudlin histrionics.

The most interesting aspect of the episode (from a continuity) perspective, is the war that the Doctor refers to in his confrontation with the Nestene consciousness. Just what exactly has the Doctor been up to in the past few years since we've seen him? It appears that RTD is setting up a large arc for the Doctor – hopefully it will work. I enjoyed the Doctor and Rose's confrontation/conversation next to the London Eye. In addition to quickly establishing their relationship, it also brings new viewers up to date – what is the TARDIS? Why is it bigger on the inside than the outside? Just who IS the Doctor? Essentially, RTD has to sum up the forty-year premise of the show in forty-five fast-paced minutes. It's quite a challenge, and RTD mostly pulls it off.

Rose is by no means a perfect Doctor Who episode – how could it be? This new series needs to respect forty years of past history, as well as forge a new and viable future for an attention-deficit viewing audience. In that regard, the debut episode builds a solid foundation from which to improve upon.

After over 15 years of waiting, Doctor Who returns to our screens in a burst of creative ideas, visual effects, and a firm foundation into the 21st Century.

'Rose' is one of the band of Doctor Who stories that really needs a second viewing in order to really get into it. The initial shock of how different the series relates to the stories of yesteryear takes some getting used to, but upon second viewing, one can really appreciate the programme as a whole.

'Rose' follows Rose Tyler’s journey as she faces walking shop dummies, and a mysterious stranger known as the Doctor, who isn't all that he seems.

The acting of the episode is top notch, but the portrayal of Mickey just doesn't seem to fit in. He represents the clown, and, apart from giving Rose a purpose in helping the Doctor, serves little to the plot.

The humour of the episode is very strongly played, and is digestible with an open mind, but the burping wheelie bin gag is just too OTT in order to be accepted. The plastic Mickey is a good concept, but has clownish faults, which detract from the possible drama of the episode.

The Autons are a welcome return to the series, but the invasion at the climax to the programme suffers from being over-shadowed by its predecessors of Spearhead From Space and Terror of the Autons. However, the sequence does work well, as do the scenes with the Nestene Consciousness, which (albeit possibly intentional) is inaudible, a factor that detracts from the piece yet does abolish the stereotypical Doctor Who ideology that all Aliens appear to speak English (which is further picked up by the next episode) 

In all 'Rose' is a good story, but not a great one, but in all it is fair to lament that it is Doctor Who and it is back.

Does it work for the 21st century? Will it engage a new audience? Does enough happen? Is it just Hollyoaks with a TARDIS? A lot of accusations have been thrown at the new Dr Who series, a few of them justly so. But do any of them hit the heart?

Viewed as a Doctor Who story, 'Rose' is certainly very odd. The enemy gets barely any introduction, still less explanation, not much screen time and no lines. The plot, as far as this invasion is concerned, is little more than "the Doctor turns up and stops it", which of course is what a lot of people were dreading would happen once stories were cut from four half-hour episodes to a single 45 minuter. However, this isn't quite fair.

'Rose' isn't a Doctor Who story, any more than the first episode of the classic series was. Both are stories of ordinary people becoming inadvertently entwined in a world far outside theirs, and meeting a strange man who they, and we, will soon come to know as the Doctor. 'An Unearthly Child' is a story about two teachers investigating a suspicious student. It's very odd, because after the first episode it suddenly lurches off into a lot of tosh about cavemen, which is when Doctor Who proper starts, but for that first one it's creepy, mysterious, character-driven, explorative, and features no monsters whatsoever.

Similarly, 'Rose' is a story about... well, Rose. She doesn't investigate a suspicious incident so much as become one, but the idea is the same: she falls randomly into the Doctor's world, and we see the story of how it affects her. When she first meets the Doctor, he's practically at the end of what you'd think of as a classic Who story - he knows what the enemy is, how to defeat it, how to find it and what to do when he gets there. That isn't Rose's story; it's just background. Her story, like 'An Unearthly Child', is about someone ordinary colliding with an extraordinary world. It's very odd, because after the first five minutes it suddenly introduces a lot of tosh about shop dummies, which is when Doctor Who proper starts, but it still somehow manages to be mysterious, character-driven and exciting... and has monsters.

There are faults, of course. The incidental music feels a bit Remembrance of the Daleks, very disco military, with no thematic evolution from Working In A Shop to Saving The World. The editing in the climax isn't pacy enough. The humour is a bit strong. Micky can't act. Christopher Eccleston walks funny. But really, who's counting?

The point is, it feels like Dr Who. Overwhelmingly so, and infinitely more than the '96 tv movie, which we can finally all admit to having hated now we've got something else to fill the void. Christopher Eccleston is enormously engaging - friendly, fun, enthusiastic, and (his key character note) tremendously alive. Billie Piper is a revelation, utterly alive and believable as a real-life girl next door. The design work is excellent - even the semi-organic TARDIS, which made me sob when I first saw it because it's going to be such a bastard to build cgi models of, is great - and the sets huge, well shot and evocatively lit. The script by Russell T Davies is, needless to say, faultlessly structured, pulsing with life and astonishingly funny. The direction is rapid, clever, pacy and alive. I've even changed my mind about the coat.

And there's a reason for this. The first thing Russell T wrote for the series was a 15 page document explaining what the show was about. Not regeneration, not police boxes and sonic screwdrivers, but what it's REALLY about. The reason the new TARDIS works is that it's built from ideas up: it's not a home, it's a VW camper van - an old hippy's stolen jalopy, jury-rigged to be operated by a single pilot and repaired on the road with whatever technology was available. The Doctor isn't a an exile, an alien or a player of chess upon a thousand boards: he's a traveller, alone and homeless until he finds someone who can complete him. Rose doesn't join him because she wanders in off the street; she comes because she knows if she says no she'll regret it the rest of her life, and because the Doctor is everything her life isn't. Because he's alive. He doesn't save worlds and rescue aliens because he's a hero, or a pinko communist liberal. He does it because life is short, and every moment precious, whether you're a Time Lord, a shop assistant, a TARDIS or the Moxx of Balhoon.

Russell's final summary of the Doctor's moral code, and Christopher's, is "Live life". I may not have agreed with everything about 'Rose', but that's something I can't help but embrace wholeheartedly. And if the series has a heart as strong as that - two hearts, indeed, for a resurrected Time Lord - then the critics can whinge as much as they like. The Doctor's in safe hands.