When there's a general air of expectation that a story probably won't live up to the standard of others in a Dr Who season it can very often be the case that the finished article is better than anticipated. This is certainly the case with Boom Town,which isn't going to win any story of the season poll but which beats Long Game as the best RTD scripted story thus far in my opinion.

The story itself,rather like Planet of Fire for example,has that almost end of term,calm before the storm feel about it as we initially see the Tardis crew happy and relaxed,the Tardis having stopped off to refuel in Cardiff. The fun never lasts that long when the Doctor's around however and pretty soon he sees a familiar face on the front page of a local paper. As the story begins to unfold there's a brilliant Bad Wolf interlude creating a sense of foreboding reminiscent to the scene where the Master took over Tremus's body at the end of the Keeper of Traken thereby ushering in the beginning of the end for the Fourth Doctor.

The Cardiff setting gave RTD the chance to take a swipe at the authorities in England who couldn't possibly concern themselves with something like a planet-threatening return of a Slitheen outside of the M25. In this character driven episode,the exchanges between Rose and Mickey/Ricky were standard fayre whereas the key restaurant scene between the Doctor and Margaret Slitheen was just fantastic,to coin a phrase; infact the idea of happily strolling to a restaurant for a jolly little meal with a rather nasty alien who'd destroy the Earth given half a chance is brilliant enough even before any dialogue commences. Davies is a modern writer expressing the long-held liberal view that punishment isn't an acceptable response even to the most heinous of criminals committing the most heinous of crimes on the basis that by punishing them you become no better yourself. The Tardis solves the moral dilemma by regressing Margaret to an egg thereby allowing the Doctor to drop her off so she can begin again after appearing to show limited remorse for her appalling actions although how neatly this plot device fits in with the notion of facing up to the consequences of your actions. . . . well,I'll have to view the episode again and try and work that out. What I do know is that we had some riveting scriptwriting there and overall less of the obvious levity that almost blighted the earlier RTD stories;even the gas exchange wasn't as much of a problem in this story.

What is apparent from this and the preceding story is how well CE has settled in to the role of the Doctor. If he had only stayed even for one more season his could have been one of the great portrayals but now we shall never know. Of the supporting cast,Captain Jack didn't have much to do as the odd man out in the character driven exchanges but does seem to have settled in to his part well.

Although I initially cringed at the Weakest Link/Big Brother connections with the next story,having seen the preview I can honestly say I don't think I've ever looked forward to a Dr Who story this much. Indeed I could cheerfully strangle the minority who have bashed this excellent series. . . but wait!That isn't an appropriate response. Perhaps they too can be regressed,come to the series afresh and congratulate RTD and his team on a very successful season indeed.

What initially looked like it could be the worst episode of the season (the Slitheen again? GOD, NO!) turned out to be one of the best. 'Boom Town!' is easily the sharpest of Russell T Davis' episodes to date, as he finally throws off the reluctance to write non-traditional Who stories which has stymied him all year and lets rip with a smart, funny piece of TV drama that just happens to feature a gang of folks who travel through time and space.

The opening five minutes or so were depressingly similar to the slightly cringeworthy Slitheen tale from earlier this season, but the moment Margaret decides not to kill her pregnant victim we find ourselves in a far more complex, thoughtful tale.

The opening section with the beautifully-balanced TARDIS crew of three is an absolute joy. Three friends (you get the impression that Jack has been around a little longer than simply joining the crew last week) who are having a ball gallavanting around the universe share stories and jokes with Mickey, who has travelled to Cardiff to bring Rose her passport. The real strength of having a Doctor Who with full, proper season-long story arcs is really starting to show now, with all of the Doctor's previous visits to present day earth this season as well as his encounter with the Gelth all referenced.

The group's capture of the last Slitheen was both comic and enjoyable, and a small reference back to the The End of the World in the Doctor's skill with teleporters flags up yet another indication that we are getting near The End of the Season.

What followed was the real meat of the episode, however, as the Slitheen tells the TARDIS crew that returning her to her homeworld will lead to her death, challenging them to face the gravity of their actions. Rose and Mickey disappear off together for a reunion which reveals all the tensions underlying their closure-free relationship while the Doctor and Slitheen share a last meal, during which the Timelord is forced to defend his decision to allow her to die.

The final few minutes are devoted to a near-apocalypse and face-off which seems is a bit contrived (particularly the rather odd resolution), but it's the dialogue and character development which rule 'Boom Town!' The episode is all about responsibility for decisions which change (or end) lives forever. Rose is starting to appreciate the hurt she has caused and the Doctor's transient life is hinted at as nothing more than running away from the pain caused by the Time War.

All this, and a spine-tingling Bad Wolf moment which is both anticipation-building fabulous and laugh-out-loud funny.

Next week's trailer looked a bit dodgy at first (reality TV British style with robots?!) but then our favourite killing machines rolled into view, complete with an armada of warships, and I was fit to burst. We are getting very close to a Parting that, after 11 great weeks of adventure, drama and humour, I'm not sure I'm ready to face.

Its 18:55 on Saturday the 4th June 2005 and there are three episodes to go........

It still feels odd watching Doctor Who on a Saturday night, suddenly it's 1979, Tom Bakers penultimate season and I'm 3 years old hiding from the Daleks behind my grandparent's sofa. That was the last time I properly remember seeing Doctor Who on a Saturday, seeing it again after all those years has been a joy. The show I care about has come back and it's great, it's not badly written, has no awful production values and the majority of the episodes have been of a higher quality than most the episodes in the eighties / early nineties.

Boom town opens in quite a novel way, and gets better from there. It doesn't have huge alien ships or classic aliens but what it does have and what Russell T Davies excels at is interpersonal dialogue and character driven plots.

It's your standard plot line involving a nuclear power plant and potential world disaster however once again it's just a mask for some character driven development and how wonderful it is. I won't bother recounting the plot here as no doubt other reviewers will but needless to say it involves the last Slitheen from Aliens of London who's alive and well and still up to diabolical schemes in Wales.

The performances were quite outstanding, with Annette Badland in particular putting in a wonderful performance of somebody who quite literally just can't be good. We saw a vulnerable and soft side that was quite literally playing the Doctor for a fool.

Noel Clarke as Mickey was on form, the scenes between him and Rose were excellent and for the first time you really saw what he could do acting wise. Playing the jilted and hurt boyfriend arguing with Rose and earlier communicating with the Doctor and not just trading insults you felt it was more friendly banter with no animosity between them. If this how the character of Mickey is going to progress then he should come back next season.

There's no point talking about Chris or Billie as once again they chewed through the script with effortless ease. Tragically John Barrowman had very little to do, although with Billie verbally sparring as Rose with Mickey and the Doctor having a final meal with the Slitheen (who's name was revealed but I'm not even going to attempt to type it) there was not much for him to do. However some nice banter with the Doctor at the beginning of the episode and a nice scene with everybody having a meal helped cement him in as a permanent member of the TARDIS crew.

Throw in a more obvious and explicitly mentioned bad wolf reference (not to mention the link appearing on the Doctor Who website and the bad wolf website going on-line) and you had a nice little story arc.

There was one problem with the episode though, the three main cast work well together, very well in fact almost like a family. Having the realisation that there are now only two episodes left does leave me wanting so many more episodes from them, and yet knowing that at least one of the cast are leaving only leaves a twinge of sadness for the last two episodes.

It's 19:45 on Saturday the 4th June 2005 and there are now only two episodes to go........

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?

Of all the new races to reprise, why on earth the Slitheen, possibly one of the least impressive or believeable alien races in the history of Who?

As you might guess I wasn't too impressed at this, but then apart from the first two episodes of the new series, I haven't been impressed by RTD's writing contributions full stop. Consider: in The Unquiet Dead, Dalek, Father's Day and Empty Child/Doctor Dances, we have stories absolutely up with the best of old Who, with tight plotting, excellent characterisation and scripting, not to mention an emotional tug and surprise angles. In the Aliens of London/WW3 debacle and the superficial Long Game, there was silliness to the point where it was difficult to care what happened at all, not least as the Ninth Doctor, despite Eccleston's best efforts, being portrayed as inconsistent, often ineffectual, and at times callous and indifferent.

At the outset of Boom Town!, it felt like several episodes had been missed out, such was the camaraderie of the crew, despite the fact that in our terms, Captain Jack had only really joined the TARDIS at the conclusion of the previous excellent two-parter. The character of Mickey, having shown promise in WW3, now seemed shoehorned back into the storyline, serving little purpose. In a similar fashion to RTD's last effort, The Long Game, the story felt overly rushed, with too little time to digest what was going on.

It has been said by many writers that the biggest problem with Eighties Dr Who was an inconsistency of tone and at times too much style over content. Frustratingly this series appears to suffer the same problem; much of it has been excellent, emotionally involving and intelligent as well as integrating character and humour, but it has at times lurched from triumph to clunkers like this.

Cardiff was the setting, but it could have been anywhere, and it was hardly a great advert for the Welsh Tourist Board, unless any Cardiff-based fans can show me the error of my ways. In comparison to Steven Moffat's deft handling of the chemistry between the three leads, RTD's banter came across as clumsy and infantile. The repeated attempts of the Slitheen/Margaret character to teleport and the Doctor reversing the transport was overplayed and childish, much the same as with Adam's brain implant in The Long Game. Certainly Dr Who is meant to be enjoyable, fun even, but this was just silly.

I appreciate RTD's role in bringing back our favourite time traveller, and he is to be applauded, but arguably he should be leaving the actual writing of the stories to other hands. I hope the closing two parter proves me wrong.

Which brings me to my final gripe, and it's a big one. The BBC got it absolutely right at the end of Empty Child, warning those not wanting the cliffhanger spoiled to look away or leave the room. If only they had done so this week. Whilst this series' final adversaries could have been predicted, why ruin the surprise straight away? At least they could have warned us not to watch the teaser...

A low key episode this week, very much an interlude in the series between the dramatic high of last week and what promises to be a spectacular concluding two parter starting next week. This story allows Russell T. Davies to excel at his characterisation, as we are once again confronted with the moral problems associated with the Doctor’s travels through time. Mickey returns to find his girl friend not just travelling with the Doctor but yet another man- the preternaturally handsome Captain Jack. We learn of other adventures in the TARDIS as well as Rose refers to visiting other planets with the Doctor, which is something she has yet to do in this series.

The presence of the Slitheen and the proposal to build a nuclear power plant in the centre of Cardiff were prominent in the trailers for this show. This turns out to be a nice bit of distraction by the producers as it leaves the audience with the expectation that this is going to be another run around save the world type romp that the first Slitheen story was. Instead we have a more thoughtful study of morality, retribution and redemption.

Annette Badland practically steals the show as ‘Margaret’ the one surviving Slitheen who is defeated by the Doctor and faces death on return to her home world. The best writing is in the scenes between the Doctor and Margaret, who swings between being coldly manipulative and pleading for her life.

One really feels for poor Mickey in this episode, for we already know from Father’s Day that Rose was indelibly imprinted on his psyche when he was still a young boy. Therefore when Rose rings him from Cardiff to tell him that she needs her passport and can he bring it up for her, of course he comes running to see her. We see the TARDIS crew very much from his point of view- very much a scene he cannot get into- a bunch of self-serving hedonists on an eternal jolly. Even when they involve him in the capture of Margaret he cannot get it right, whilst Captain Jack athletically vaults over obstacles Mickey runs straight into them and ends up with a bucket on his foot.

John Barrowman has very little to do this episode apart from look buff and fiddle with the TARDIS. The TARDIS itself is the one who saves the day in the end, as we learn a little more about this enigmatic living machine.

The subplot involving the nuclear power station does have one more useful purpose, for the name of the project is Blaidd Drwg, Welsh for ‘Bad Wolf’. For the first time the presence of these two words ‘following us around the universe’ is acknowledged by the Doctor and Rose. However the Doctor quickly dismisses the idea as just a trick of the mind, an unconscious mechanism where you notice something that would otherwise appear to be random and see a pattern. (This works much better on the screen, believe me!)

A lot of fans have been very derogatory about RTD’s writing for this season. I think the problem is that the writing on the other stories has generally been so good that he has seemed pretty banal in comparison. His strengths have generally been in the character based drama, some fans have suggested he should write soap, which I think is being unfair. In this episode we have less of the slap-stick puerile humour that was so irritating in the Aliens of London/ World War Three.

Doctor Who finally pays tribute to his new home of Cardiff. Unfortunately, Cardiff, as depicted in Boom Town, is a bland, soulless expanse of concrete, metal and glass. Surely they could have found some more interesting locations than these...?

Boom Town is designed to be an exploration of The Doctor's morality and the effects he has on those he leaves behind. This leaves it very light on the action, and very heavy on the dialogue. The scenes between the Slitheen and The Doctor promise much, but very rarely deliver; much time is wasted with slapstick scenes of The Doctor foiling Margaret's last-minute (and utterly unrealistic) attempts to kill him and Margaret's truly repulsive description of the Raxacoricofallapatorian execution rituals. And (as with the Doctor and Jackie's discussion in World War Three) as soon as their conversation appears to be going somewhere interesting, external events deprive us of a conclusion.

To add to the tedium, we have an extensive subplot exploring Rose and Mickey's lack-of-relationship. It's all very well to show the effects of The Doctor's adventures on those who get caught up in them, but devoting a large part of an otherwise uneventful episode to them just comes across as naval-gazing. It's doubly frustrating when this thread is also left unresolved, with Mickey sloping off quietly back to London at the end. Doctor Who is supposed to be about scary monsters - this is a worse case of "Neighbours with roundels on the walls" than anything JNT ever produced. Or, to quote the previous episode's writer: "Us kids want Narnia, not the wardrobe".

To liven things up, we have a rather unconvincing threat to the Earth tacked on to the end of the episode. Unfortunately, it all brings back unhappy memories of the TVM, with the planet about to get sucked into a space/time rift for the flimsiest of reasons. The comparisons continue with a ludicrous denouement that sees the villain permanently changed by facing a bright light from inside the TARDIS.

It's all very, very uninvolving. Where it's not dull, it's painful to watch. The most fascinating things about this episode are the descriptions of the crew's various offscreen adventures (and I believe we have to buy the books to see those, which somewhat undermines RTD's words about adhering to the BBC charter) and the Next Time trailer.

A total waste of an episode, and particularly disappointing after the wonderful Empty Child two-parter. 1/10.