Doctor Who at its very best. Having read a large amount of this episode I was genuinely looking forward to it from the beginning, almost rivaling that to the Dalek episode. And I wasn’t disappointed. It had the dark element that under strong writing and creative directing can really thrive. And like the Dalek episode it didn’t disappoint.

The story itself was fantastically woven together, creating a dark setting yet continuing the exploration of this series, which remains predominantly on Earth.

The CGI throughout was very good, possibly the best so far of the series, especially the skies of war torn London. The morphing scene, which I waited with baited breath, was extremely well made and well done to the production team for going ahead with this. But again there were moments here that showed the modernized, character based elements of Doctor Who. It’s about the continued exploration of the characters, including this time the introduction of Captain Jack Harkness.

What I find fascinating about any series/film is the introduction of key characters especially when they are introduced amid a relation ship that has been developing; the three’s a crowd element. But Jack was quickly brought into the story in the best possible way, the flirting element between himself and Rose. His ship, fairly reminiscing of the TARDIS, showed the character without Jack actually needing to say anything another element that I am a huge fan of in film and TV. Using objects, signals to show who someone is with out them baby feeding the audience.

Again very strong performances from the cast, Christopher and Billie were very good, as was Richard Wilson whose small screen moments added to the tension which was waiting to explode.

A dark, chilling episode that terrified kids of my friends, so all in all another well made, well written episode, possibly the best so far, possibly!

Oh. My God.

In all my years of being a Doctor Who fan, there have been moments that made me jump, made me laugh, cry, gasp in shock...

Never before have I been actually creeped out by an episode of the show before. That's what "The Empty Child" did for me. And you know what it was, too. The boy. The eponymous Empty Child. The one running around Blitz-era London, wearing a gas mask, making telephones ring (including the one on the exterior of the TARDIS!) and radios flick on with its constant begging of "Mummy? Are you my mummy?"

....AAAAAAGH!

I wouldn't have thought so, but considering the setting and time period, this actually felt quite a bit like a New Wave Japanese Horror film. You know the ones -- Ringu, Ju-On (The Grudge), Dark Water... very moody, very much DREAD inducing. The Ringu influence is a little obvious: the telephone rings, but begging for mummy instead of "seven daysssss...", and radios turn on by themselves instead of a television set, but all the same, it WORKED dammit! Of course, the idea that the curse affliction is a virus of some kind actually goes towards Koji Suzuki's novel sequels to Ringu, Rasen (aka Spiral) and Loop, in which he gets more scientific with the nature of Sadako's (Samara's) cursed video, and determines that it's actually a virus of some kind. (This also somewhat filtered into the non-novel film sequels to Ringu, namely Ring 2 and Ring 0 [which was actually another adaption of Suzuki's short story "Birthday"], but not so pronounced. No idea whether or not the American Ring Two picked up on this, haven't seen it yet) But I digress. The point it, IT'S CREEPY.

And what's even more amazing, is that this episode initially started out looking for all the world like it was going to be a knockabout pulp actioner, reminiscent of even most recently Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Rose swings from a blimp whilst the Nazis raid! The Doctor tries to get close to a torch singer (if only briefly)! Captain Jack, who will, incidentally, get you high tonight and take you to your special island, saves the day in his own particular brand of stolen time vehicle! WHAT A GUY!

But wait -- Captain Jack isn't really a Time Agent, he's a con man, and his latest scheme may have caused the current crisis. WHOOPS! Damn that irresponsible time travelling, the kind that the Time Lords USED to clamp down on...

There was some controversy in other reviews I've seen, about the Doctor's speech to Nancy, about how Britain was the first to "say no" to Hitler's aggression. I'm split on this -- it reads half as what Nancy needed to hear to give her hope, and half as a send-up of the old series' tendency to (over)state England's importance in the Universe. But it didn't offend me.

Overall, a mishmash of influences leads to me feeling creepy and spooked for the first time ever watching Doctor Who. That Stephen Moffat guy, he's got a future, he should try comedies next...oh, wait...

Blimey! What an episode! It's difficult to know where to start.

The obvious place is with the crowd-pleasing special effects. They were every bit as good as anything in "Revenge of the Sith" or its overblown like. Where did the BBC learn to do that? Isn't "Doctor Who" supposed to be the programme that defines the phrase "cheap and cheerful"? No longer apparently. The blitz sequence was simply awesome: exciting, beautiful and totally justified by its context.

It was at the level of story, however, that this episode really scored. I cannot remember the last time television was as downright creepy as it was during just about every scene involving the gas-masked child of the title. I'm not sure I'm ever going to be able to hear the word "Mommy" again without my skin tingling. Only Richard Wilson's alternative "Doctor" turning into an adult version of the little monster even came close as a moment of horror.

But any suspicion that "The Empty Child" was no more than a frightfest were quickly dispelled. The period trappings were all spot-on. There was, moreover, some hugely inventive character drama in the subplot about street urchins helping themselves to the meals of families sheltering form the bombs. There was even a little humour when Rose bumped into the rogue time agent with a space ship moored by Big Ben.

And there was - a cliffhanger! Yes, I know we had one at the end of "Aliens of London", but that story was so camp I didn't know whether to hide behind my sofa or cry into the nearest cushion. "The Empty Child" climaxed with a moment of genuine threat, one which prompted the all-important question, "How are they going to get out of this?"

This episode had a little bit of just about everything and is second only to "Dalek" in terms of all-round excellence. Another one not written by Russell T. Davis ... it might almost be thought that a pattern is beginning to form. But, let's give credit where it's due; RTD is the man who mapped out this series and what I have found hugely impressive about the whole thing is the sheer variety he's built into it. No two episodes seem to be alike. Roll on the DVD box set!

Visually this reminded me of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, the screen adaptation of the thirties comic books vision of the future: all barrage balloons, tractor beam rays and such like. The CGI was shoddy. I mean, come on you Brits, we produce computer games with better graphics than that! Don’t take offence, its just that I guess Hollywood has set my expectations too high, and the more backwards countries just can’t compete.

Now this is the first episode of this show I have watched, and it seemed odd to me to wait until the end to bring on the Doctor. Isn’t he meant to be the hero or something? Old and infirm, he quickly succumbed to being turned into one of those fly-people and he just came across as a throw away cameo actor: Captain Kirk he aint!

Which reminds me: It was neat to see homage to Star Trek, the TV show that kicked off the whole science fiction thing, in the naming one of the minor characters after Mr Spock. I just wish this Mr Spock, a time agent who worked for that pretty English Rose, had a less strong accent because I could not understand him (is he Australian?) and this made it hard to follow the plot.

Sure the whole thing was cheap fun, in a thrown together kind of way, but there were huge continuity problems. In one shot Rose and her assistant were in a big room, that looked like something out of Farscape, and in the next they stood outside one of those traditional blue phone box things: If this is British humour then I just don’t get it.

To sum up, this show is what you get if you mix up Sky Captain, Star Trek, The Fly, Monty Python, Farscape and Oliver Twist together: a mess! Well done the BBC for trying, even though you got it wrong at every turn.

After “Father’s Day” I realized that Doctor Who had found a new life. It was growing in ways that us fans could not have dreamed of. To follow up such an emotional episode with “The Empty Child” makes me want to sing from the rooftops that Doctor Who is back and it’s better than we could have ever hoped for.

From the outset “The Empty Child” is a very sinister episode which will not only spook the children but the grown up’s too. We find Doctor and Rose in London during the blitz chasing an alien craft that crashed a month earlier. When they land the effects of the alien craft have already started. Strange voices can be heard crying out “Mommy. Are you my Mommy?” as a strange boy walks the streets of London.

What we are treated to for the next 45 minutes are a stunningly visual representation of London during the blitz. The effects are so real that they blend seamlessly into the action. And boy there is a lot of action! The pace of this story is relentless; it carries the viewer along with it thanks to the tight scripting and editing.

What we have here is a chilling horror story that is fresh and original and could only be compared to such classics as “Quatermass and the Pit”. With Hollywood producing horror by numbers we can finally show then just how to do it. I can honestly say that I was excited to have Doctor Who return to our screens, I just didn’t know how successful it was going to be.

Finally, I must bring up the contrast between this story and the one penned by RTD (once again!). It’s clear that Doctor Who should not lie in the hands of a lesser scriptwriter such as Davies. If there is a feature film let’s hope that the BBC learn from the voice of the fans and get someone else to write it.

British television has finally got its jewel in the crown back on its screens and I can’t help but smile!

AH! I knew this would be good ever since I saw a preview of it on Tonight with Jonathan Ross. It was being touted as the scariest so far, and I can't really argue against it. It was terrifically scary; my only regret was that 6.30pm today was daylight. I watched it again the same night in pitch darkness and it was very creepy. Well done Steven Moffat!

The whole atmosphere was very eerie. It had the WWII period down to every washing-line and it helped that this is a period of history I have a great interest in. Very 'noirish' as Eccleston puts it, and full credit must go to James Hawes as director. However, the Doctor's comments about evacuation were true. Although you can spot one or two kids going into the anderson air raid shelter which can't be right can it? Doesn't matter to be honest. Still a good episode.

Captain Jack Harkness was very American. Likeable too with some edge but did they really have to cut the alleged 'bisexual' bit? It was a joke as far as I was concerned. It wasn't risque at all. I know he's going to become a companion of some sort, but isn't he nearly the same age as the Doctor? As a companion, they really should be a lot older or younger [in earth terms] than him but its only been his first episode. As the episode drew to a close, we saw some conflict within Harkness and some concern at what was happening to the people around him. So he has some potential.

The whole 'Mummy,Mummy' shriek was very peculiar. To turn a kid into something scary is quite a massive feat and not to mention a great idea. It had been used to great effect in 'Remembrance of the Daleks' and it works even better here. The use of the gasmask too, its lifeless, emotionless face is more scary than any Auton or Voc Robot. Even my dad admitted it was very macabre. At 22, I'm too old to find this particularly scary but the whole atmosphere was something which should give kids nightmares for ages yet! However, I bet I'll even get a few nightmares too! As my dad commented, someone has clearly thought out of the box in telling a tale during the most overused period on television.

The plot is still very much a mystery. What's wrong with the boy? Who has spread the virus? What's with the Tula ambulance? What really is Harkness doing there? And that's why I love this. I prefer the two-parters to be honest. Aliens of London/WW3 is definitely my favourite so far and this one has trumped it as far as I'm concerned. Doctor Who stories do need time to breathe. Different layers of the plot need to be interwoven and properly explained. The cliffhanger for this one was a bit drawn out, but The Empty Child is definitely my favourite so far. I love the fact I've got to wait a week to know what happens next week, and I've still no idea what the hell is going on! Better than sex that is. Well...you know what I mean.

And I'm glad there was no preview of next week at the end, or at least, we got a warning about one which prompted me to switch straight away to BBC3!

And to top it all, I could hear my dad hum from the kitchen "Mummy, Mummy". Doctor Who is back in the people's psyche like it should be!

I just hope The Doctor Dances doesn't dissappoint!