It was always going to be tough following an episode like ‘Dalek’ but it would appear RTD didn’t really try and instead recycled a rejected script from series 24.

The Tardis materializes in the distant future, on a space station orbiting the Earth at the height of its Fourth Empire. The series is once again let down by dull, lifeless sets, unimaginative costume design and in the year 200,000 we can still be expecting to eat fast food courtesy of ‘kronck’ burgers. If it had been set in the year 2020 I would have struggled to accept this as the future but 200,000, please…

The story and plot are paper thin, a scary monster attaches itself to the ceiling of a satellite (why the ceiling? – less CGI – saves the purse strings) but don’t worry, turn the heating up and he’ll explode. The End.

The one redeeming factor with this episode has to be Simon Pegg, who despite some seriously dodgy dialogue manages to pull off one of the best performances of the series, so far.

A few people seem upset/shocked with the sudden removal of Adam from the Tardis but I think they’re missing the big picture here. Adam has been returned to Earth with a computer in his head for a very good reason and I expect him to return in series two with a very large axe to grind with the Doctor.

I have enjoyed the series so far but have to agree with the general opinion that the stronger stories are those not written by RTD. He has definitely got the length right, 45 minute self contained stories seem to be the way forward. Imagine having to sit through another three episodes of ‘The Long Game’.

I wasn't going to submit a review of this epieosde. Earlier today I read through the first few reviews that had been submitted, and was shocked to see so many people coming out to say "oh! Russel T. Davies is a good chap really." I was apalled!

I've seen for a few weeks now a simple problem with the new series, and simply put it's Davies' scripts. The two non-Davies scripts so far, Unquiet Dead and Dalek have been hailed all round as the finest two episodes so far. Please please Davies and BBC take the hint.

So what's wrong with Russel T. Davies' scripts anyway? (and what does the T stand for? Is that like the T. in James T. Kirk??) The problem is a simple lack of any depth or substance. The Unquiet Dead and Dalek both have something in common that no other episode so far has. This is that they took a simple premise and didn't try and either over-complicate it, or do too much with it.

Davies' scripts have so far translated almost as cartoons, parodies of what an episode should be. It's like Little Britain Sci-Fi sometimes.

I didn't really enjoy this episode simply as he was trying to so much with it that there was no depth. I would like him to have completely dropped the Adam story. If you were going to include a parable about "why it's wrong to change history", then I think that'll come about in the next story, and is indeed the entire basis for it.

We didn't find out anything about why the journalists were apparently so unwilling to ask questions. We didn't delve at all into the character of the Editor. Pegg was magnificent. Eccleston and Piper are playing off each-other so well now, that they'll be completing each other's sentences in a couple of weeks.

Tons of suspense. When that young woman got "promoted" and the bodies popping out - chills!

Great satire too. (Jagrafess should've been called "Murd" not "Max"!)

The "ho hum" previews by Ceefax and Radio Times were wrong. The only thing they made sound promising was the Jagrafess ("send the tots to bed", "Gerald Scarfe nightmare" etc)... but the story turned out great (the Jagrafess design, less so. Bit bland).

Everything was the opposite of what I expected - the story being good and suspenseful, the Jagrafess a bit disappointing. Nice idea calling him Max though (obviously a Robert Maxwell media emperor reference - lucky they didn't call him Murd!)

This could have been a McCoy era concept - and if the McCoy era had had the deft and experienced writing and direction of this, it would've worked.

The Face of Boe thing was a bit daft but fun. The psychic paper is going to make the doctor as invincible as the all-purpose sonic screwdriver (which has more functions now than it ever did in the Classic Series).

Perfectly paced, wonderfully acted (especially by Pegg, predictably) with three (count 'em!) excellent female roles (the Nurse and the two journalists) four if you count Rose.

Some superb dialogue, wonderful use of colour.

And anyone who says Adric is annoying, he's nothing compared to Adam. Think yourselves lucky!

Two things I didn't understand: the title (what Long Game?) and Rose saying Adam was her boyfriend. This was clearly his first trip, so exactly what had they been up to in the TARDIS -- spooning?

All in all, a tight little story and a nice breather after the grimness of last week.

The TARDIS makes its first random landing since 1983. And despite an apparent lack of enthusiasm in the media, the resultant adventure is an unqualified success.

The Long Game owes much to RTD's previous stand-alone episode, The End Of The World. The jolly music that has irritated so many fans (and delighted this one) is present; there's a breathtaking panoramic view of Earth for the Doctor to explain the setting against; a companion makes a phone call back home; and The Face Of Boe shows up for another irrelevant cameo. But this time, the absence of bizarre aliens is relevant to the plot, and it's the Doctor doing the sabotage, not this week's villain.

New companion Adam gets a bit of a raw deal from his fellow travellers, as he is teased for his all-too evident lack of suitability to life aboard the TARDIS. This might have made for an interesting dynamic aboard the TARDIS, but Adam is given his own plot strand for the majority of the episode, and is written out of the show at the end. A pity, perhaps, but given his part in the story's climax, it's hard to imagine this Doctor acting in any other way. Peter Davison he ain't.

If the children who were so scared by The Unquiet Dead's zombies were still watching The Long Game, it's almost certain that the creepy music and frozen corpses of this episode will have the same effect. The effects here are on a par with the top end of the horror genre, and the Jagrafess, whilst a little unconvincing round the edges, is an original, scary and mostly well-realised creation. The biggest triumphs on the CGI front, however, have to be the holes in the guest cast's foreheads...

Despite plot and theme similarities with The Krotons (aliens promoting humans to a place from which they never return) and Vengeance On Varos (a population controlled through the television broadcasts), this story is far more tightly written than either of those serials or the aforementioned The End Of The World, and should dispel the myth that RTD is the least able writer of the current series. The story is well-acted by all, and in particular, Simon Pegg is a joy to behold as The Editor, and he seems to relish every line he's given. Well, except that one.

Niggles are few. The sets - especially on Floor 139 - look somewhat unrealistic, and there's a lack of sparkling wit, or even quotable dialogue. Once again, it's up to a member of the guest cast to save the day. And why exactly is it called "The Long Game"?

Nevertheless, if this is the series at its most "ho-hum" (as one preview put it), the remaining six episodes promise to be something very special indeed.

9/10.

From the outset I must admit that I came to the end of "Dalek" thinking that the following week's episode had a near-impossible task in topping the return of our "pepperpot" friend, however I did expect rather better than we got.

First things first. It seems to be integral to the new series that the Ninth Doctor is not the saviour in all situations that his predecessors tended to be. As has been pointed out, he has only really saved the day in "The End of the World", and in "The Long Game" both the Doctor and Rose seem to be merely bystanders. I am not suggesting that the Doctor SHOULD always be Superman in a police box, but I feel he should provide the answer more than he does thus far, otherwise he comes across as somewhat impotent, possibly even too human...

Unfortunately Satellite Five does look suspiciously like the platform in "The End of the World", and causing the Jagrafess to overheat and explode was exactly how Cassandra was vanquished. It does suggest a certain famine of imagination on RTD's part.

I wasn't at all sorry to see the back of Bruno Langley's Adam, more as I find him irritating than that his crime deserved the punishment it received. The latter was far too ruthless on the part of the Ninth Doctor, I felt, and seemed to be motivated by jealousy over Rose more than anything else. Tom Baker's Doctor and Sarah Jane were close, but you can't imagine him doing the same to Harry Sullivan as Ecclestone behaves here. One could argue he ultimately showed more sympathy for the Dalek.

Perhaps I am being over-harsh, but I found little in this episode from three viewings to make me think other than that it is the weakest of the series so far. Simon Pegg's Editor was predictably excellent and stole the show, and I found myself hoping he would survive to fight another day. Tamsin Greig also shone as the Nurse, gently comic but clearly motivated by money rather than patient care.

In fairness "The Long Game" was weak in comparison with an otherwise fine series so far, and it did keep me watching, disappointed as I was in the end. Next week's episode, however, looks a cracker...

I thought this was a good, solid episode witha few salient points to make about the manipulation of the media and how clever distortion of language can lead to overgeneralisation and people not thinking too much as they are bombared with information (All together now, "weapons of mass destruction"....as opposed to "pretty harmless weapons that don't hurt anybody" perhaps?) Things didn't get too preachy and I think Simon Pegg gave an absolutely terrific performance which was the best thing in the story. So, not up there with 'Dalek' or 'The Unquiet Dead' but not at all bad...

BUT, and it's (ahem) a big but.....

I'm a tad worried about how the Doctor is coming across at present. This is no criticism of Chris (he was SUPERB in 'Dalek') . This stems from the writing....

Basically, my worry is that the Ninth Doctor is in danger of becoming far too unsympathetic in his treatment of supposedly "lesser mortals" which is beginning to risk him seeming far too judgemental and, well, that can lead to seeming positively smug! Not an attractive trait in anybody, let alone our favourite time-lord. Adam may have been foolish in his actions, but come on.....he's a young chap who's been thrust into a ridiculously alien environment and not adapted at all well. But the final scene with the Doctor and Rose leaving him behind (with a massive hole in his head!) left me feeling genuinely uncomfortable. Their behaviour just seemed too, well, smug? Callous? I just didn't *feel* right.

I mean, the Doctor didn't exactly cover himself in glory during 'Dalek' and it was terrifically handled. As a big Fifth Doctor fan I have no problem with fallibility in our hero, but a consistant lack of understanding of the fallibility of others? Yes, I do have a problem with that. (Contrast the 5th Doctors treatment of the would-be assassin Turlough. He came good when the chips were down *because* of the Doctors' inherent goodness, y'know?)

Maybe all this is going somewhere and I'll have to eat my words, but whilst I have no problem at all with a "darker" Doctor, it will be a problem for me if these traits continue without being challenged and I end up not liking the Ninth Doctor very much!

Thinking on, it has been the "stupid apes" that have saved the day in most of the stories so far. Rose, Gwynedd, Mickey and now the promotion-obsessed girl in this episode all helped to save his (and many others) ar*e!!! Shouldn't he have twigged that by now?

If this is a subtle 'character' arc and such potential hypocisy is addressed, I'll have my words served with chips, please. But I'm not sure this is the case!

Whole episode...six out of ten.