Russell fleshes out the back-story of Rose in an admirable attempt at making the Doctor and Rose more believable. The pre-credits flashback re-introduced us quickly to the events of 'Rose' and the revelation of a 12 months absence made me chuckle like an eight year old again. The plot shone through as great SF and could have been taken from a Pertwee (or early Tom Baker) episode - Aliens duping the public with a false 'first contact' crash landing in order to gather all the experts togethor at Number 10 - Genius (or as the Doctor would now say 'Fantastic)!

The effects were good - certainly an improvement on the good old days, but that is to be expected. Billie continues to impress with her great acting and gutsy exposition. Chris, whilst swaggering with confidence and his Northern yet other-world mannerisms, sometimes makes me cringe with some decidedly un-Doctor-ish dialogue ("trying to save the world", and don't get me started on the 'when did it become acceptable to use the word 'fart' topic'). I can't help but think that he struggles with the more eccentric and esoteric qualities required for the role. I also cringed at Russells beief that the kids absolutley require burping/f*rting (I hate that word) in the mix to entertain. When I was an eight year old, Doctor Who would never employ such cheap, tacky devices to keep me interested and entertained. Please Russell - no more wind gags! It just isn't the Doctor.

Knowing that Chris has 'thrown the scarf in' we can hope that the tenth Doctor will maintain that manic grin but temper it with a more confident darkness (something that even Sylvester McCoy managed to do well eventually). The Unquiet Dead remains my favourite so far (not a whiff of Russell and his wind gags) and was definitely genuine Doctor Who for my money. Maybe Russell should consider taking a step back from the scripting (although his plots are great) and allow writers to remain more faithful to his oft-quoted Doctor mythology. I look forward to 'Dalek'.

The views I have had with the first three episodes was that I initially loved them unreservedly, but then upon rewatching them started to nit pick - but that’s not to say I didn't love them.

Just to clarify I love the theme tune, love Billie as Rose, Love Chris as the Doctor, Love the wind effects the TARDIS makes, love the style, love the in-jokes to Who past and other media. Just LOVE IT.

But on first viewing of Aliens of London I just didn't like it. But to explain , I was looking at it through the eyes of average Joe Public and not mine.

So, although the effects were brilliant at the start, the pig alien and the comic farting aliens embarrassed me from their smirking and giggling "Human" disguises to the child entertaining farting. It didn't help as I work from 7pm on Saturdays in a social club but put the telly on so I'm joined by my peers.

Furthermore, although generally impressed with Chris Eccleston, (and I'll say now, at least with him leaving we can get on with a regeneration story) he was just a bit too smarmy in this story.

The climax was disappointing too as the effects were a bit ropey , the aliens still like men in suits and too many cliffhangers! Finally being spoilt by next week's preview.

However, That was after my initial viewing. I watched it again when I got home from work (and more times after) and discovered that I actually do quite enjoy the episode.

I understand the point of the pig and it was realised quite well and quite spooky in it's build up. I understand why the aliens fart (but still don't like it - but then I've never found farting funny - prude maybe).

Billy is still Brilliant - Chris was a bit manic but not as bad as I first thought.

I still stick by my opinion that there were too many climaxes and the Doctor's was actually the weakest but it was played out better than I first thought. The aliens did become more realistic on their second showing and I'll have to reserve final judgment when they get more screen time next week.

But I do think the program should abandon trailers for two-parters and tone the music down.

Not the best of the four to date be still a whole lotta fun and so much better when I watch it for myself then what I would presume the general public would think of it! I’m going rate it fourth, though, after The Unquiet Dead, Rose, and The End of the World.

A confident episode in the new series with some great moments but unlike the other episodes, there are sadly some poorer scenes.

It was an interesting idea to bring the Rose's family back into the picture; portraying a very human side to the companion (she still has a life and a family). The concept of the Doctor brining her back was a good idea and excelled in places, however when the alien story took over the plot began to deeper with great intrigue.

The concept of these aliens was strong, I quite liked the idea of them zipping open their heads, however the flatulence and even CGI from underneath the suits was a little poorer, I liked the concept that as aliens there is something not quite right, paralleling to that of Third Rock from the sun in one sense, but I was unsure to whether the flatulence was for this idea or to make the kids laugh.

The pig was an intriguing idea and hard to make judgment simply because of what may develop in the second episode. And that is what we have to understand about Aliens of London, it is in all sense a two parters, two parters are notoriously slow allowing the story to develop for a stronger second part, so I am not too surprised or disheartened that this episode is the weakest, every series has one especially that of a 13 parter.

A good classic cliffhanger though with every character facing their own imminent death, I look forward to seeing how this story and indeed the characters develops.

What was that assault on my eyes! I'm afraid, unlike last weeks triumph, this week was very badly written and acted by Chris Eccleston. The Doctor simply wouldn't be surprised by an alien crash landing! He's got to stop all the laughing a happy smiling, his portrayal of the Doctor has been very weak so far although he does serious so much better!

All in all this episode with all the toilet humour was, well, boring. The fart gags for laughs was funny at first but then it went on and on. The cliffhanger took ages to develop, and when the cliffhanger happened which was actually really good they spoiled it by telling you how they all get out of it, i.e. Mickey comes in to save Rose's Mum, and then they try and salvage it by putting it if I save the world I'll loose you.. Like the Doctor would care.

The special effects and the directing of course are all up to A1 standard, Keith Boak is clearly an excellent director, I'm glad Euros Lyn doesn't do anymore this season as his direction has been weak at best. Loved the spaceship crashing into Big Ben and I also liked the Doctor's UNIT reference, where's Lethbridge Stewart to sort it out!

All in all, I know it’s a harsh review, but that’s two stories now (End of the World being the other) that have been very weak and not that entertaining and the two lowest rated episodes. It’s a great romp for children, but can't it have just a little hint of seriousness for us Mum's and Dad's - even just a little?

After 2 reasonably good episodes [ The Unquiet Dead and The End of the World ] I was looking forward to this 2 parter which looked impressive judging by the trailers I'd seen. It starts off quite well but then just goes downhill rapidly and degenerates in to childish schoolboy type humour - with farting aliens and a ridiculous looking pig creature that's obviously a man in a completely unconvincing rubber suit. The farting bits just ruined the story for me - right from the start.

Also annoying is Roses boyfriend - who though not quite as annoying as in the first episode is clearly being used as the comedy relief, even though he's not in the slightest bit funny. Rose and her boyfriend also have these annoying streetwise accents - obviously in an effort to appeal to a dumbed down teenage audience. Some of the bits with the new version of UNIT showed potential but again it was all in vain as any air of menace or urgency was ruined by the poor attempts at humour.

Christopher Ecclestons performance was pretty much the same as in previous episodes but even though he's on top form when he's taking a more serious tone, the manic grins are becoming a bit tedious and I still have trouble believing he's an alien with his obvious Northern accent.

The aliens themselves were bad. Not in an evil sense, but just plain bad. The actual design of the aliens would have been quite spooky - but they just look so obviously like men in cheesy rubber suits that they have a virtually zero scare factor. I think there was one convincing cgi rendered shot of an alien bursting out of it's human disguise, but that's about it.

All in all I'm completely unimpressed by this latest episode and Russell T.Davies just seems to treat the whole thing as camp, childish nonsense with a few feeble attempts at horror and too much slapstick humour. There's hardly any attempt at class or to move the whole thing above the camp whimsical rubbish that was the Sylvester Mcoy era. Some [ and I repeat some ] of the special effects are better than the previous Doctors shows but judging by this latest attempt - camp, unbelievable childishness is still an unfortunate trademark of Doctor Who.

By episode four you would expect a series to begin to settle down and develop a sense of pattern and style. After watching "Aliens of London" I'm becoming increasingly aware that the new series of Doctor Who seems to be developing an identity crisis. Worse, given that seventy-five percent of the episodes so far have been written by the same guy, that Russell T. Davies is developing some kind of crisis!

We went from a victorian episode, one that I willingly admit I was looking forward to seeing least and ultimately enjoyed most. An episode that had the masses, well some of them anyway, comaplaining that it was too gory and violent, straight into a comic farce, complete with ample amounts of flatulence.

If the general public are to have decided by now wether they like the series or not, and after a month you'd expect the audience to settle into it or not by now. It would help if the series settled down too.

I suppose this is in no small way a testament to the diversity this format allows for story-telling. But I felt, especially after last weeks' hard-hitting drama, totally unable to take this episode seriously at all.

The aliens... well all I can say is that they work far better in CGI than they do in foam rubber. By far the best part of this story was the dynamic in the early part of the episode between Rose and her mother (a character I never took to I might add).

I'm looking forward to part two, I think! In the mean time I'm wondering where on Earth, or off it, this series is going. This series is all style and substance but if they don't settle into some kind of continuity of content soon they'll be seriously in danger of antagonising a large part of their audience.