Another Saturday night, another episode of the good Doctor. As the third episode not to be written by Russell T, would this follow the same pattern and actually be rather good? The answer, as is so often the case with Doctor Who, lies somewhere between yes and no.

Rose alters time to save her daddy and all hell breaks loose. It seems a little unfair that Adam was punished (a life long sentence!) for trying to alter the world a little, whereas Rose gets away with a few stern looks and the odd tear. We all assumed the character of Adam was created to throw light on Rose's abilities as an assistant, and then two weeks later she pulls this stunt. Her actions are understandable given her history but I would have liked to see more long-term consequences. But perhaps we will re-visit all this in a later episode - let's just hope Pete Tyler doesn't end up being the Master.

Talking of Pete, Shaun Dingwall put in a good performance as a man living on borrowed time, and although I am now very bored of listening to Jackie shouting at everyone, the moment she finally realised the strange teenager was her daughter was actually quite touching. Once again the Doctor didn't seem to do much, though it was exciting to watch him take control of the churchgoers, if only for a little while.

Like most of the other episodes, 'Father's Day' managed to squeeze in lots of plot and character but the denouement still felt rushed. It would surely have been more interesting (and believable) for Pete Tyler to discover the truth, freak out and run from the church in fear and cowardice, only to be run over. 'Fathers Day' spent a long time building up a picture of Pete as a shifty, worthless Del Boy, only to transform him into a genuine hero in the last few minutes.

Russell T has said a number of times that the show must remain 'grounded' for us to stay connected with Rose and the Doctor. I can't say I agree and I think the (only) major failing of the series so far is that it too often descends into a soap opera - and not a very good one at that. Am I the only viewer who groans inwardly at the sight of Rose's family in trailers for the next week's episode? That said, 'The Empty Child' looks pretty great - roll on next week!

This story did something no previous episode of "Doctor Who" has ever done, by its conclusion; I was a whimpering pile of blancmange, in tears in my living room. The power of this episode was in the way it drew the ordinary and everyday into the fantastical and spectacular. By the end of the episode you really feel for the ordinary people caught up in the madness because you have seen them in their normal mundane life. The way that a normal Saturday in 1987 falls into anarchy is very creepy. This is something that Joe Aherne is very good at, his series "Ultraviolet" succeeded in scaring the pants of me just by implying the presence of vampirism in the real World.

Once again we see a definite growth of characters in this episode. Both the Doctor and Rose learn important lessons in this story. The Doctor is once again reminded that humans are not just stupid apes, but emotionally driven individuals who show a gamut of emotions that Time Lords have lost. Rose learns the just what a responsible position she is in whilst travelling with the Doctor, that she has to tread carefully. She also learns to love the father she never knew, gone forever is the blind hero worship instilled by her mother, she has seen him warts and all, and now has a deep love of the man he was. The two lead actors shine, you only have to look at Eccleston's face to know that his Doctor is incandescent with rage at Rose's action, you feel genuine sorrow when Piper's Rose watches her father die in her arms.

Shaun Dingwall gave a magnificent performance as Rose's dad Peter. Here is Mr. Average, who is the focus for events that are far from average. It is obvious who Rose inherited her intelligence and sense of adventure from, however, because he lacks a degree of common sense, he has never quite managed to get the success he dreams of. He does not need to be told that hs death is necessary to put the World to rights; he works that out all on his own.

It is a shock to realise that a point in time that seem like yesterday now has to be recreated with he same care that the BBC puts into one of its historical drama. The Doctor's comment that "the past is a foreign country, 1987 is just the Isle of White" is painfully funny. Pete's reaction to Rose's mobile neatly underscored that this was a time paradox story, as you could contrast the tiny Nokia she had with the clumsy house brick that the groom's father was talking into.

I particularly liked the fact that Paul Cornell recycled the idea of a small group trapped in a church from his novel "Timewyrm: Revelation" that is my favourite Virgin New Adventure.

Altogether, it was a very pleasing story.

This was always going to be a difficult episode. Just as expectations and reputation made the Dalek episode a difficult proposition, the emotional content and tone of Father's Day was always going to be a tricky task.

As it is, I am not surprised that Paul Cornell was the one tapped to write Rose's encounter with her deceased father and the ramifications of her impetuous action. Paul has built a reputation on deeply emotive and intelligently perceptive character writing and has always enjoyed exploring those most human of emotions. So a Doctor Who script that revolves purely around this type of set-up must have seemed like a gift to him.

And in the main, the episode succeeds incredibly well. This is probably the most un-Doctor who-ish episode in the series so far as it really is about Rose and her father more than anything else. The Doctor almost seems like a supporting character and isn't even around for the resolution. For once, it isn't the Doctor who saves the day.

This was an episode about characters first and plot second. A very 'talky' episode it attempts to extract every nuance from the emotionally charged situation the characters find themselves in. The episode does risk plunging into the saccharine in places and there were times when the piano score began to sound exceptionally cliched and overdone. But this sort of drama always treads a fine line between emotive drama and pukesome farce.

It was interesting to see the Dooctor fail, actually being killed by the creatures, but I am sure most viewers had worked out that the resolution would restore everything so I wasn't surprised that Joe Ahearne didn't accentuate the death into a huge dramatic moment of it's own. Let's face it, he was back 5 minutes later.

This episode was never going to have a surprise ending - I mean anyone who thought about it for more than ten seconds must have predicted virtually the entire plot - but this, for once, an episode less concerned about plot thann with the characters and for the main it managed too steer through these difficult waters extremely well.

And isn't Joe Ahearne shaping up to be the director of the series or what!

I've just got around to watching Father's Day, and I think I finally know what's wrong with the new series.

It isn't the intrusive or inappropriate music of End of the World. And I don't think it's really the pseudoromantic bond between Rose and the Doctor in Dalek, or aliens with supposedly comical long names. I think the problem is Russell T Davis.

In interview, he said Rose and the Doctor would be given equal billing. This turns out to mean Rose is the star and the Doctor is her all-purpose plot device. It's her concerns, feelings and actions that drive the show. The Doctor is there to transport her to settings where she can meet the local sentient life and display emotions.

This is evident in the first scene of Father's Day when Rose asks to see her father on the day of his death, and the Doctor cheerfully responds, "Your wish is my command."

Actually, he lets her do it twice, so they get to see themselves from the first time, in spite of knowing the great dangers of being "present in two aspects" as the Black Guardian once said. Inevitably, Rose impulsively saves her dad, and mucks up causality.

The wedding party get trapped in a church, with the Doctor using an idea straight out of Sapphire and Steel that the party would be protected (for a while) from the time creatures because the church is old. Cue a series of dialogue driven emotional set pieces.

We get to see the Doctor envious of the bride and groom, because he doesn't get to do romance and ordinary life. He says the couple are "important" and that he will save them because of their ordinaryness.

The Doctor tells us (once again) that his world – still not named as Gallifrey – is gone, and mentions his friends and family, indicating he would dearly love to go back and save them. Presumably this family is the clan of warring cousins in Lungbarrow. Has the Doctor ever mentioned any family in the television series before? Apart possibly from Susan, the canonical Doctor has always been a rootless renegade.

Rose realizes that the father she'd been told about is a fabrication from the mind of her grief stricken mother, but that the real man is both a failed wheeler-dealer and a decent, charming fellow. He later makes the greatest sacrifice a father could make for his daughter, dying to save her, and incidentally the rest of the world.

We even get to meet Mickey as a boy of about 5. Which, seeing as this is 1987, would make him about 23 in 'Rose'. The prepubescent boy hugs the girl he won't meet for years in a 'foreshadowing' of their later relationship.

RTD described Doctor Who as a 'Space Opera'. This turns out to mean 'Soap Opera'. Science Fiction is a way to explore ideas, not a forum for exploring tortured interpersonal relations.

He pointed out, quite correctly, that Doctor Who has consistently ignored issues about companions joining The Doctor, disappearing from their ordinary lives, and abandoning loved ones to go exploring the universe. Companions seem to effortlessly jettison their past lives and associations when they step into the Tardis.

There is a perfectly good reason why emotional bonds to friends and family are ignored. It's because they don't belong in Doctor Who!

If you want to know about the endlessly layered complexities of someone's neuroses - their insecurities, loves, fears, and of course their family - watch a soap opera, or a 'reality' show. If you want to play 'What If' games with technology, history or the laws of physics, science fiction is the place to be.

Obviously Doctor Who - and science fiction in general - has always had personalities and interpersonal relationships. The first Doctor was a wise but curmudgeonly explorer with bewildered companions, the third was a benign avuncular dandy with a series of innocent relationships with young women in short skirts, and the fifth a profoundly moral man who was very patient with his whining (and sometimes scheming) young friends.

But in Doctor Who under Russell T Davis it's just far too much. The science fiction elements of the plot are paper thin, while the soap opera elements are luxuriously thick. It's mildly interesting to find out about Rose's background, but not to have her family the center of every second adventure.

The Tardis is a way to easily find new worlds and threats for each adventure. It lets us see new aliens and human cultures, new mad scientists and fascistic robots, new political corruption and amazing technology, each time our mysterious, nameless hero lands somewhere.

It is not a way to find new angles for examining the inner life of a teenage girl.

Having just taken in Fathers Day, I can honestly, hand on heart, say it was the best piece of television of watched this year. I am a major, major doubter of the 45 minute episode format being suitable for Who. I was proved wrong by episode 3, The Unquiet Dead, and again Fathers Day has re-assured me that BBC can deliver a stunning episode of Who within this format.

The quality delivery of this episode is three fold; the script is simple but very clever (and the concepts of time travel are bent to extremes at points..). The direction is beautiful. It is unmistakably 'new Who', yet re-assuringly traditional. Even before seeing the vulture type creatures, the sense of cold mentioned on screen touches you in your armchair. And the acting....well it's simply superb. Billie Piper does in this episode what Ecclestone did in the Dalek episode - adds a totally new dimension to the character. The stirring exchanges between her and her parents and just perfect. I'm no blubber, but I had tears welling in my eyes.

This was the perfect piece of 45 minute entertainment. I still think the core of episodes should be two parters, but if the bar is raised to this level, then 45 minutes one parters MUST be a part of the Dr Who format. Congrats to all involved with making Fathers Day, it's an absolute gem - one of the best.

This episode was always destined to be the most emotional of the new series, and after the more traditional 'Who' of The Long Game, it was to be a very different type of story. Rose never knew her father, Peter. He died when she was a baby. Brought up by her mother, she only knew her father from what she had been told. As far as she knew, Peter was a businessman, a loving husband, and a doting father. He died alone - the victim of a hit and run.

This background information has been lurking behind the scenes since the first episode, and was re-told - perhaps with more detail - skillfully by Rose, and in flashback by Jackie to her young daughter. Explaining to the Doctor why she's been thinking so much of her father quickly, and easily, explains to the viewer. Rose merely wanted to see her father when he was alive, to know what he was like, and - more importantly - she didn't want him to die alone. But, as the Doctor says, be careful what you wish for.

On seeing her father, and witnessing his death, Rose is incapable of action. She asks the Doctor for a second try. At this point the story could so easily have become Groundhog Day, but fortunately Phil Cornell must have been aware of this and stipulated that they could only be there twice. On this second attempt to be with her father at his death, Rose realises that she can't face losing him again, and acting purely from grief she rushes out to save his life. Who amongst us can say, hand on heart, that we wouldn't do the same?

The catastrophic results which ensue from this single act lead to the end of the world, and inevitably Peter realises that he is the only person who can save the world - the only person who can make things right. Along the way we witness tempers, and tantrums, from Peter, Jackie, Rose and the Doctor, and Rose discovers the truth about her parent's relationship. Disappointed, and disillusioned, she watches them bicker. Rose is overflowing with remorse that her selfish actions have led to such a catastrophic turn of events, and again she has to face the death of her father. But this time she has a chance to say goodbye, as does Jackie, and Peter chooses to die - rather than being a victim, he becomes a hero, someone Rose can be truly proud of. Peter recognises that the Doctor knew the truth, that he knew that Peter had to die - but was trying to find a better solution. In the end, Peter doesn't die alone. Rose is with him, and she comforts him in his final moments. She attains closure, and, in two short scenes, we see the truth of the strong bond she has with the Doctor - his actions and her father's mirrored when comforting her.

This episode was wonderfully written, fully exploring the 'what if?' scenario, which we all face when dealing with the grief of losing a loved one. Can anyone truly say that this element of time-travel has been so well explored since H G Wells? Once again, we see a more human side to Eccleston's Doctor, and Chris was - as ever - superb. The Doctor's anger at Rose's stupidity - from the simmering silence to "I picked another stupid ape" - and his attempt to protect her, and her family, and his self-sacrifice, were portrayed in a wonderfully understated way. All of these emotions truly convey how much the Doctor cares about the human race, perhaps the most moving speech was when the Doctor was talking to the couple who were about to get married, ending with "I never had a life like that" shows us just how much the Doctor lost in his years of exile.

Camille Coduri, and Shaun Dingwall, were excellent as Rose's bickering parents, who recognised that they still loved each other intensely at the end of the episode, and who's courage and self-sacrifice poignantly saved the world. I felt their grief, and pain, and the mental anguish that Pete was going through was so well portrayed. But the praise really has to go to Billie Piper. This is certainly Rose's hardest adventure to date. She doesn't realise how hard this will be, and she faces her emotions head on. Two weeks ago Chris portrayed the Doctor in a highly emotional state, believing that he'd killed Rose. This week Billie portrayed Rose in a similarly emotional state, believing that she's killed the Doctor. On top of the grief, and remorse, which Rose was already dealing with, Billie made us feel that this really was the worst day of Rose's life. When Rose hugged her father, as he realised who she was, I felt her pain and grief - and this is all testament to Billie's superb acting. She has been a revelation in this series, and this episode has surpassed all others in terms of her acting - I'll never doubt her again.

At the end of this episode, I was left wondering what I would do if I had a TARDIS - how, or if, I would fight the temptation to do something similar and save my mum's life. And I know, deep down, that like Rose I'd meddle with history. In that situation who wouldn't? And I cried. I cried when I watched a second time, that's how strong the story is. That's how good the acting is. This is twice now that 'New Who' has made me cry. And this finally proves that great Sci-Fi can also be great Drama. Hats off to all involved, and thank you Russell for believing that stories like this belong in Doctor Who.