After the joys of "The Girl In the Fireplace" I didn't expect the series to throw up something else so superb so soon. Yet this episode seems to have slipped under everyone's radar.

Not promoted as a tentpole episode for the season like the Cybermen or K9 episodes I think it's fair to say no one knew what to expect from the new writer director team.

What we got was flawless Doctor Who. From this day on, Star Trek and Stargate fans are on notice - they can no longer ridicule our show as the lesser force in television sci-fi. Quite frankly, the good Doctor kicked the bum of every and all other television sci-fi. In fact, it kicked the bum of quite a few sci-fi movies as well.

The whole episode definitely had a big screen movie feel to it - from the best special effects design the series has ever seen to the gravitas contained in every performance. This ensemble cast was not playing the episode with their tongue in cheek, this was played dead straight and the effects were chilling.

The script moved continually in new and fresh directions - nothing seemed predictable (expect that something is coming out of the pit but that sort of is the point!) and the 45 minutes just seemed to keep twisting and turning with new spectacle. I couldn't look away from the screen and continually felt as if the episode was about to end because so much had been packed in, only for another set piece to begin.

If the second episode disappoints it will be a huge let down but nothing can take away the fact that this episode was amongst the finest the series has ever produced.

Such a shame. Ratings slump. Smugness abounding. A distinct drop in quality compared to last season. I'm afraid the BBC might well ignore the critical claim, awards, overseas sales, DVD sales etc. and start planning a surefire hit for Saturday evenings. Never mind the audience appreciation figures, feel the ratings. Panic has probably ensued and already something like 'X Brother Strictly Big Celebrity Factor On Ice...in a Jungle' is no doubt being mooted to enliven our Saturday evening viewing. After all, reality television is popular...and cheap.

Disengage 'sarcasm-mode'. Sorry about that. Yes, it is a shame that the viewing figures are dropping as I believe this season deserves a big audience, but the BBC are not stupid and I think that they know they are making something rather special and are well aware of the circumstances. This isn't like the late-80's when those in charge didn't give a damn about the show. (Yet? Oh no! Paranoia!!)

Seriously, I guess 'Doctor Who beats ITV1 in the ratings for the 22nd time in a row shock!' isn't quite as attention-grabbing...

Right. Now that I've got that off my chest, what of 'The Impossible Planet'? Well, as we're only halfway here I will try to keep this brief.

The 'base under siege' story has, of course, been done before, but seldom has it been done better. The format was particularly prevalent during the latter half of the Sixties Troughton era, so a few 'Alien'/'Event Horizon' rip-off comments that I have heard have just made me raise my eyebrows and sigh. Actually, the fact that that the threat is 'down below' and the TARDIS has been lost forever (well, y'know...) brought to my mind 'Frontios' more than anything else...that's meant as a compliment, by the way! It's still a format that can work when well done, and....

Personally, I thought that this episode was sheer, unadulterated, gripping, well written, very well acted and expertly directed *class*. The Ood are memorable creations, and the cast as a whole were great. I would particularly pick out Will Thorpe's creepy performance as the 'possessed' Toby and Shaun Parkes' charming turn as the stressed out captain...I particularly liked the lovely scene where the Doctor feels compelled to hug Zac as representative of curious, brave, "mad" humanity. The chemistry the two actors had in 'Casanova' is completely intact here. A great moment that envoked the 4th Doctor's "homosapiens" speech from 'The Ark in Space'....although clearly Doctor Ten is more tactile!

Speaking of whom...I've had nothing but praise for David Tennant and he is right up to standard here. The Doctor's chat with Rose about carpets and mortgages was well-handled with some lovely directorial touches from James Strong, who makes a very strong 'debut' here. And the Doctor's panic when he thinks he might've lost the TARDIS is utterly convincing. (Although his refering to his promise to Jackie that we would keep Rose safe reminded me of the part of the otherwise excellent 'Girl in the Fireplace' that didn't work for me; I mean, it was just her and Mickey stranded then! I can kind of rationalise this by thinking that when you're completely smitten..you ain't thinking straight!!)

So...the Doctor and Rose are laughing at danger at the beginning...but they're not laughing now. This was an exceptional piece of television, and if 'The Satan Pit' delivers, this could well be an instant classic that'll sweep the end of season polls...and boy was it great to hear Gabriel Woolf's sinister tones in a 'Doctor Who' story again.

I eagerly await the second part...

The series continues to surprise us. After an atmosphere drenched period piece set in the 1950В’s we are plunged into a tough, gritty, dirty SF В‘base under siegeВ’ epic. If the Cybermen two parter was popcorn cinema Who this is horror SF Ridley Scott style for the small screen.

OK. Let's get the name-dropping out of the way first. Yep, itВ’s a riot of references - of В‘AlienВ’, В‘OutlandВ’, В‘Event HorizonВ’, В‘The OmenВ’ and reminds us of В‘Robots Of DeathВ’ and В‘The ArkВ’...and...wait a minute. Pinch me but did all of that glorious work on The Impossible Planet really get made for British television? To go out on a sunny Saturday evening at 7pm?

This was one of the most visually stunning pieces of British telefantasy in years. The production design alone should be applauded. If ever there was an episode to demonstrate that the show is no longer peddling naff sets, costumes and visual effects, then this is the one. Top marks to Ed Thomas and his crew, Neil Gorton and his crew and The Mill. Thanks to Murray Gold for a swirling, malevolent score. All the departments were really raising their game on this.

And to answer that vexed question, can the new series do alien environments and planets? Yes, big time, judging by the sterling efforts here. The location work combined with The MillВ’s effects really did justice to the look of the pit with itВ’s Harryhausen/Giger-like hidden ancient civilisation. Stunning images.

Anyway. Thematically, this is the Doctor and Rose plunging into the abyss (another film reference too), not just getting to journey into the centre of a planet but also their own search in the abyss for new wisdom, for the fountain of knowledge to douse their inflated pride. By entering it, they challenge their own rigid and fixed attitudes. Witness the way the episode opens with them giggling like a pair of schoolgirls and how that is completely turned on its head by the conclusion. Like the black hole they have been refusing to swallow their pills. The Bitter Pill is not just the planet's mythological name but also the Doctor and Rose facing up to the redundancy of their charm offensive. On this world, the chirpy references to Walford go down like a lead balloon. They are awkward gate-crashers at a party in hell. Suffering the loss of the TARDIS, they both are forced to contemplate an 'ordinary' life with 'mortgages'. The look of horror on the Doctor's face says it all.

'Everone leaves home in the end' is a pointer to this and perhaps an affirmation of the paths the Doctor and Rose originally took. That said, the Doctor/Rose dynamic works so much better here than in some earlier episodes and you do get much more of a sense of genuine affection between them once they realise that no one is paying attention to their mutual smugness. When Rose suggests they might live together, we also get an indication that the Doctor isnВ’t entirely sold on this idea because after all Rose is not Reinette.

The Impossible Planet is chiefly the flip side of the Doctor/Rose obsession with hubris. They seem to have been grounded here almost as deposed gods. The Doctor's descent into the pit is the age old confrontation of God with Mephistopheles - the light and dark of the masculine psyche. It is yet another striking example of the journey from above to below in search of the unconscious world and this has permeated the current series as a whole. The crossing into the unconscious is also linked with the sexual symbolism of the drill penetrating the planet. It's almost like the fertilising of an egg, the stirring of new/old life and the opening of Pandora's Box. The horror film conceits used in the episode are also very much about the stirring up of the unconscious and making it manifest in the conscious world.

Toby's possession by the Beast complete with the branding and marking of his flesh that sets him apart from the rest of the group is the literal representation of the Beast crossing the threshold between its world and the reality of the base. He is an unwilling and weak partner in a dark Faustian pact that brings together the three worlds of mind, flesh and unconscious. The Beast is a trickster figure that reinforces the boundaries between the conscious world (the base) and the unconscious world (the pit). By awakening the Beast the crew have also themselves been forced to emerge from a sleeping state, their lives now depending on much more than their hum-drum routine. This again is a lovely reference to В‘AlienВ’ with the lives of those on board Nostromo experiencing this abrupt wake up call in a similar fashion.

The Ood, beautifully designed, are transformed from their willing slave status into fiery eyed soldiers for the Beast. They are a personification of the BeastВ’s Ego, a conjuring trick that uses their herd instinct to erupt onto the surface in the form of totalitarianism, the tyranny of one mind over the masses of his army. Slaves turning against their original masters, the Ood are unable to articulate themselves in their dead-end service industry mentality. They are cut off from thought and sensation. Their Egos have truly been extinguished. An army of the dead.

The lighting and colour palette of red and yellows in the base provided a suitable contrast to the almost monochrome and baroque chiaroscuro of the planet. The skull like lighting of the EVA suit helmets, with the wearers pale deaths heads in the darkness of the pit underline this dramatic use of light and dark. There was also some nifty editing and directing. James Strong might possibly have the talent to join the ranks of Euros Lyn and Joe Ahearne. He racked up the tension nice and slowly, with a final nerve-shredding ten minutes that hopefully will pay off in the second part. There was a huge amount of exposition in the first fifteen minutes and that didnВ’t help the pacing to begin with but this did feel like the first two parts of a В‘classicВ’ Who story with considered pacing and character development.

On the acting side we were blessed with cleverly sketched performances from Will Thorp, Shaun Parkes and Danny Webb. As for our regular cast, Billie Piper is still doing superb work. Many have started to find her irritating but she still has the ability to be very subtle in the way she plays certain scenes and thatВ’s a quality much to be admired. David Tennant still hasnВ’t quite got there yet and there were some amazingly good scenes, his tenderness with Rose when they realise theyВ’re stuck on the base was particularly good, but there is still a little too much В‘forced zaninessВ’ in the performance for me. HeВ’s excellent but for me hasnВ’t quite reached some of the heights of Eccleston achieved in the last half of the first series.

The stand out performance has to be Gabriel Woolf. A chilling voice that dominated the episode and evocative in that this was a threat not seen on screen (yet) but all the more powerful because of that.

A waking nightmare of an episode, then, with cast and crew firing on all guns. A narrative that genuinely forced you to keep thinking and wondering what the resolution to this would be. Part two will, I hope, provide some suitably intriguing answers.

After convincing many of my friends that the new Doctor Who is well worth viewing (both Ecclestone and Tennant) the one criticism that I keep hearing is "They never seem to go anywhere other than Earth". Well personally I have no problem with the Earthbound episodes as long as the story is a good one, which by and large they have been in my opinion, but now with The Impossible Planet maybe there is something to satisfy those who want to see more space and alien planets in Doctor Who.

This one grabbed me right from the outset, a very wheezy and "sick" sounding TARDIS slowly materialising with the Police Box sign lights flickering on and off, gets the attention straight away. Rose and the Doctor emerge into what is described as "a cupboard" and begin to explore. On a wall is sprayed the friendly greeting "Welcome to hell" (a clue of what's to come?) under which is some mysterious alien writing that the Doctor states is "impossibly old" as even he and the TARDIS are unable to translate it. It's not long before they come face to face with the Ood, the new alien creatures for this story, humanoid...ish but with squid like faces and a multitude of red tentacles where their mouths should be. The prosthetics department have really gone to town here and made these creatures look real and believable, a far cry from the bubble wrap monster. And so with the Doctor and Rose surrounded by the Ood all proclaiming "We must feed, we must feed" we go to the opening credits in true Doctor Who cliff-hanger style. So far so good.

Okay so we have some pieces already in place, all is obviously not well with the TARDIS, a strange alien script, the reference to Hell and some new "monsters". I'm not going to go through the story minute by minute as most people reading this will have already watched the episode or be planning to and this is a review not a synopsis. I'll just pick out certain important aspects.

The main thought that springs to mind is the whole darkness of this episode and how close to the wind the Doctor Who production team seem to be sailing these days especially when you consider that this is shown at 7pm on a Saturday evening and is aimed at both adults and children alike. This is a story about evil, we're not talking nasty evil Daleks from Skaro or humans turned into emotionless Cybermen here, we're talking real evil. The references used provide little doubt to adult viewers as to what is lurking deep beneath the planets surface. The Doctor works out how much power is needed to keep the planet in it's orbit above an all consuming black hole and Rose mentions that his answer is "all the sixes". An Ood serving Rose her dinner announces that "The beast will rise from the pit and do battle with God". The archaeologist member of the base crew asks who it is talking to him and the reply is "I have many names". So there can be little doubt that this is the ultimate evil that the Doctor must deal with, the Devil himself. At one point the possessed Ood even mention Satan by name.

Now I watch Doctor Who with my son aged 6 and my two daughters aged 7 and 12, we all love it and despite what I have written in the previous paragraph I really did not have any problem or reservations about them watching this, after all many of the references they probably didn't get anyway, as far as they're concerned it's probably typical Doctor Who, something nasty is lurking somewhere, someone will meet a sticky end and the Doctor will (probably) save the day. But the religious aspect is most definitely there, this along with the whole darkness of the story may give some parents cause for concern.

I gauge the scariness of an episode by my youngest daughters reaction, this tends to be a pointer as to whether the Doctor Who "behind the sofa" thing has actually worked. During the episode "Dalek" she was actually in tears at one point and was torn between running upstairs to avoid it altogether or carrying on watching to see what happened, in the end curling up on Daddy under a quilt and peeking out every so often won the day.I'm not cruel, she didn't have to watch it honest, but I must confess that I was somewhat impressed that the Daleks still had the same effect on her that they had on me many, many moons ago. That was her first real taste of what Doctor Who can really be about. Other obvious episodes that come to mind that had a similar reaction from her were "The Empty Child" and "Tooth and Claw".

So how did my little Leah fair with "The Impossible Planet", well she did turn round and say "ooo, I don't like them much" when she first saw the Ood, but she was still quite happy to sit away from me on her own. The voice behind Toby whispering "I can see you, don't turn around" had her hurrying over to sit with me. "If you turn round you will die" had her hugging me rather tightly, the clincher was "I'm reaching out, I can touch you", that was the quilt over the head and "I don't think I want to watch this anymore" moment and I have to admit that there's something about disembodied, threatening voices that still works even for me. The imagination works overtime and it's not what you can see but what you can't see that can be truly scary. Even my other two children were sitting a lot closer together and staring wide eyed at the screen at this point and usually nothing in Doctor Who phases them at all.

But does it all work as a whole, I would say most certainly it does. The boundaries have been pushed just a little further and the team have come up with a real cracker here. The raised production values of the "new" Doctor Who have never been more obvious. This has had some real work and money pumped into it and it shows big time. Okay the base interior could have been taken straight from the Alien film but it has been built as a set and it looks the part, perfect. No white walls, shiny new computer consoles or sliding doors here, this is a dirty, noisy mining operation in the most inhospitable environment possible and it looks like it! The Ood are completely convincing. The CGI is terrific without overwhelming everything else, the black hole looks like you'd imagine the universes ultimate destructive force to look like, not scientifically what it SHOULD look like but how the imagination says it should look.

Doctor Who Confidential afterwards proved how much effort went into this one, a view of a poor hapless base member floating off into space being drawn in by the black hole that was on screen for all of about 10 seconds (if that) was meticulously filmed in the underwater studio at Pinewood Studios just to get the weightless effect right. I would say that to date this is the closest any Doctor Who episode has come to the cinematic experience on the small screen. And to top it all, the underground sequence was filmed in a quarry, Who finally returns to the quarries (although unlike previous quarry visits unless you were told you would never guess that it was filmed in one of these places)

My summary: Stunning production, great effects, very scary (especially for younger viewers). Completely engrossing, I only hope that the concluding episode of this particular story doesn't let it down.

“We’re on a planet that shouldn’t exist underneath a black hole. Yeah… start worrying about me.”

What an episode! “The Impossible Planet” is definitely the creepiest episode of Doctor since its rebirth last year. More than that, it’s just… well, brilliant. The pre-title sequence sums it all up beautifully – the Doctor finds some writing even the TARDIS cannot translate, for they have gone beyond the reach of the TARDIS’ knowledge. Until now, I didn’t know the TARDIS’ knowledge even had limits! This wonderful notion of ‘impossibility’ that runs throughout the episode really heightens the nightmarish scenario. Welcome to Hell.

“The Beast and his armies shall rise from the Pit to make war against God,” says the Dinner Lady-Ood very matter of factly.

In the Ood, the production team have found a race that are really shit scary. They just look absolutely monstrous; they are the pole opposite of human beings’ idea of beauty. Worse, the way they act as willing slaves to humanity; those creepily pleasant, uniform voices – they’re unsettling even before they are taken over by the ‘Beast.’ However, I found the most terrifying aspect of “The Impossible Planet” to be the psychological horror, as opposed to the physical. It is no secret that next week’s episode is called “The Satan Pit,” and with hints like 666 littered throughout the episode, combined with the Ood’s almost biblical quotations - “He is awake. He bathes in the black sun...” – the writer Matt Jones is playing on very primal, human fears. The Devil. Hell. Satan.

On top of this, there is absolutely no way out. These people are trapped inside a black hole. Not just Zack and his crew, but the Doctor and Rose. In classic Hartnell style, the TARDIS crew lose the ship in the first few minutes of the episode, and it this time it really seems like there is no getting it back. Even if they escaped the ‘Beast’, his legion of brainwashed Ood and the black hole that contains them, the Doctor and Rose would still be stranded in the far future (43k 2.1, I believe they said), forced to lead linear lives. I love that little scene between the two of them, where Rose playfully skirts around the idea of them sharing a house. I love the Doctor’s babbling about jobs, mortgages, doors and carpets. In all my reviews this season I don’t think I’ve adequately praised what a fantastic Doctor he is. He has a certain childlike quality a bit like Pat Troughton; I love the way he babbles endlessly and almost ends up stammering when he’s excited… yet he’s still essentially the same man as the ninth Doctor. In fact, I don’t think two contiguous Doctors have ever been so similar before, though I think that has more to do with Russell T. Davies’ vision of the character than the men who have worn his shoes.

“It’s funny ‘cos people back home think space travel is gonna be all whizzing about… teleports… anti-gravity, but it’s not is it? It’s tough.”

Damn right, Rose. In fact, Matt Jones bleak Sanctuary Base makes stuff like the Alien movies look like luxury. This harsh backdrop really emphasises just how grim the situation is, and by the time we first hear Gabriel Woolf’s voice creeping up on Toby, it seems that the situation couldn’t get any scarier. Woolf, of course, famously played the Osirian Sutekh in the classic Tom Baker story “Pyramids of Mars” back in 1976 and here he lends that some sense of malevolence to the ‘Beast,’ who could turn out to be another fallen deity. Having the ‘Beast’ manifest itself in Toby really pushes the fear factor through the roof. The red eyes, the tattoos of that untranslatable language… its all traditional, textbook stuff – but it works, and works brilliantly.

The look of the episode, as well as the soundtrack, is also immensely impressive. The black hole may not be technically realistic, but I doubt your average Joe knows what one looks like and I think this is one of those cases where you just have to go for what looks good… and it does. It’s absolutely beautiful. The score is another triumph for Murray Gold; it ranges from very gentle Celtic strings to very big, very epic ‘event’ music which helps build up probably the second-best cliff-hanger ever in Doctor Who. The pit opens. The Legion of the Beast begins to March, chanting all the Beast’s many names including Satan. The planet starts to fall into the black hole. The Doctor and Ida open the “Trap-Door” and stare down into the Satan Pit…

So is there anything about “The Impossible Planet” that I didn’t like? Yeah, two things. First and foremost, why did they have to kill Scooti, the fit one? And secondly, where did all the random extras come from at the end, only to be killed by the Ood? I thought it was just a skeleton crew! Ah well, you can’t have it all.

Being a Doctor Who fan can sometimes be likened to being in a long term relationship. The first introduction to the world of fandom is that rush of intoxication,

an infatuation where everything is fresh and new, over time this peters out into a sense of cosy familiarity, then one day comes a sense of stagnation which causes one to question the very foundation on which that love was built. At this point one can either jump ship and abandon that love for pastures new, or stay and hope the spark which caused that first rush, can one day be rekindled.

Well for me The Impossible Planet was just that spark, a sharp reminder that every so often Doctor Who can reproduce those very feelings which gave it such allure in the first place. Only two weeks earlier Age of Steel had caused me to hang my head in despair and wonder whether I had finally outgrown Doctor who once and for all.

In a nutshell The Impossible Planet was a combination of everything Doctor Who used to do so well, but for all its technical wizardry and characterisation, the new series has often been lacking. Doctor Who for me has always been about a journey into danger and the unknown, and for once Matt Jones script left us in no doubt that this time the Doctor and Rose really were up shit creek. From the opening teaser the episode flowed almost flawlessly: balancing drama, intrigue and exposition perfectly, never rushing into plot developments or drifting off at tangents as some writers are want to do. I must admit to not having experienced any of Matt Jones writing before, but possibly of all the new series writers, he seems the most in tune with the dramatic structure of the show, able to effortlessly create that sense of creeping tension, without it ever feeling forced or hackneyed.

This was of course Doctor Who’s much lauded first journey onto an alien planet and in lesser hands could have been a hamfisted hopelessly studiobound effort, but James Strong’s taut and cinematic direction left us in no doubt that we were really in the farthest flung reaches of the universe. It has to be said that after years of the likes of Star trek portraying a rather homogenous universe where all planets are remarkably hospitable and earth like and and space travel seems the intergalactic equivalent of a smooth bus ride, it is good to see the status quo being shook up. The success of the new Battlestar Galactica owes much to this nuts and bolts approach to sci fi, and it is good to see that Doctor Who is portraying man’s first steps to the stars as a dirty and rather hazardous enterprise.

The new series continues to amaze me with its technical leaps and bounds, and this story moved up a notch further, the fact that on a weekly basis the production team are turning out these episodes which visually are on a level with a lot of modern cinema is frankly astounding. It can be said without doubt that the first new alien planet is a bone fide success, and was not as one may have feared; a CGI nightmare with a funny coloured sky.

This second series has proved much stronger on its monsters and aliens than the first and the Ood once again made a memorable creation, it wasn’t too surprising to find that they weren’t as benign as we may have initially assumed. With a touch of the service droids in the Robots of Death in the voice treatment, it will be interesting to see how they fare as out and out nasties in the second episode.

We are now in the position of being half way through David Tennant’s first series and perhaps now more than ever is time to reflect on how his Doctor has scored. Tennant certainly makes it easy to forget that there ever was such a person as Christopher Eccleston in the lead, he has made it so much his own and continues to have a sense of enthusiasm which seemed to vanish altogether from Eccleston mid run. But to be honest, for me at least Tennant is a good Doctor, but by no means the best, he lacks the sheer physical presence some of his predecessors had, and a bit like Sylvester McCoy used to do, his displays of anger don’t always come across terribly well. One also sometimes gets the impression of the doctor being a bit up himself and a bit of a clever git. Nevertheless the fact that Tennant will be continuing into series 3, will hopefully allow some of the less appealing aspects of his characterisation to be ironed out. Billie Piper’s Rose has also been somewhat less impressive of late and again has suffered from some similarly unappealing traits, it hasn’t helped that in some episodes the charcter has been desperately underwritten, thankfully however this episode marked a return to form. Certainly the scene where both characters believed they had lost the Tardis and may have to settle down to a normal mundane existence reintroduced some strong character dynamics which have often took a back seat this series. The supporting cast provided some strong solid support with thoroughly believable performances.

For once this story was a case where the good far outweighed the bad and any complaints are only minor niggles. Firstly why does Russell T Davies seem to think 21st century earth will be the template for humanity’s future, here once again as in last years future earth stories we have people adorned in modern fashions. I know Russell T Davies shies away from flowing cloaks and jumpsuits, but given some of the liberties he has taken with realism so far, I don’t think it would be too much of a crime to have a stab at futuristic fashions. Also am I the only viewer who is becoming increasingly annoyed with the Doctor’s over familiarity with modern day popular culture. Last week we had him referencing Kylie, this week we are faced with the rather uncomfortable notion that the Doctor sits down for a thrice weekly dose of Eastenders.

Overall though The Impossible Planet gave the new Doctor Who a much needed shot in the arm, introducing a sense of danger and peril which was much needed. This new season has been a lot better than last years, but has at times felt a little comfortable and safe. This was of course only part 1 and for all we know they could screw it up next week, but for me this was the sort of thing the new series should be doing a lot more. As the tension was ramped up till almost breaking point and the new series delivered its finest cliffhanger yet, for possibly the first time since it returned last year 7 days seems much to long to wait.