This second episode shows that the excellent work started by "Rose" was no accident. The Doctor takes Rose to witness the end of the world 5 billion years from now. On the observation platform orbiting the now deserted Earth are a host of various Aliens, very rich and powerful who have come to watch for fun the last minutes of our Earth as the sun expands and swallows it up. The Earth is now no longer viable as a tourist attraction. The shields having kept the sun from expanding are now being shut down for one final spectacle.

Among the Aliens are the Trees, a race of aliens made of wood who long ago originated on Earth. The Doctor strikes up a friendship with one called Jabe who seems very curious about the Doctor. Ross having meet various aliens from Jade to Cassandra, the last "pure" human to exist becomes depressed and out of her depth and decides to go for a walk round the observation platform. The whole experience of having met so many aliens having overwhelmed her.

The Doctor concerned goes looking for Rose with Jabe's help and before they met Rose again, a murderer has been at work to sabotage the whole event. The final death throes of the Earth become redundant in the face of the threat that now faces the stranded Alien spectators in the observation platform.

Normally this would make for just exciting viewing but along the way minor threads about the Doctor are revealed which for casual viewers who are unfamiliar with Dr Who get an emotional resonance rarely seen in Doctor Who. But for long terms fans of the Doctor, the ending is quite shocking and leaves the viewer wondering what the future holds for the Time Lord we have grown to love over the years.

Russell T Davies pulls no punches in this second episode. As the Doctor said in the first episode, it would be a dangerous journey for Rose but the discovery for the viewer along the way is quite unsettling. Make no mistake this is Doctor Who back with a vengeance after 16 years of sleeping.

Does it work for the 21st century? Will it engage a new audience? Does enough happen? Is it just Hollyoaks with a TARDIS? A lot of accusations have been thrown at the new Dr Who series, a few of them justly so. But do any of them hit the heart?

Viewed as a Doctor Who story, 'Rose' is certainly very odd. The enemy gets barely any introduction, still less explanation, not much screen time and no lines. The plot, as far as this invasion is concerned, is little more than "the Doctor turns up and stops it", which of course is what a lot of people were dreading would happen once stories were cut from four half-hour episodes to a single 45 minuter. However, this isn't quite fair.

'Rose' isn't a Doctor Who story, any more than the first episode of the classic series was. Both are stories of ordinary people becoming inadvertently entwined in a world far outside theirs, and meeting a strange man who they, and we, will soon come to know as the Doctor. 'An Unearthly Child' is a story about two teachers investigating a suspicious student. It's very odd, because after the first episode it suddenly lurches off into a lot of tosh about cavemen, which is when Doctor Who proper starts, but for that first one it's creepy, mysterious, character-driven, explorative, and features no monsters whatsoever.

Similarly, 'Rose' is a story about... well, Rose. She doesn't investigate a suspicious incident so much as become one, but the idea is the same: she falls randomly into the Doctor's world, and we see the story of how it affects her. When she first meets the Doctor, he's practically at the end of what you'd think of as a classic Who story - he knows what the enemy is, how to defeat it, how to find it and what to do when he gets there. That isn't Rose's story; it's just background. Her story, like 'An Unearthly Child', is about someone ordinary colliding with an extraordinary world. It's very odd, because after the first five minutes it suddenly introduces a lot of tosh about shop dummies, which is when Doctor Who proper starts, but it still somehow manages to be mysterious, character-driven and exciting... and has monsters.

There are faults, of course. The incidental music feels a bit Remembrance of the Daleks, very disco military, with no thematic evolution from Working In A Shop to Saving The World. The editing in the climax isn't pacy enough. The humour is a bit strong. Micky can't act. Christopher Eccleston walks funny. But really, who's counting?

The point is, it feels like Dr Who. Overwhelmingly so, and infinitely more than the '96 tv movie, which we can finally all admit to having hated now we've got something else to fill the void. Christopher Eccleston is enormously engaging - friendly, fun, enthusiastic, and (his key character note) tremendously alive. Billie Piper is a revelation, utterly alive and believable as a real-life girl next door. The design work is excellent - even the semi-organic TARDIS, which made me sob when I first saw it because it's going to be such a bastard to build cgi models of, is great - and the sets huge, well shot and evocatively lit. The script by Russell T Davies is, needless to say, faultlessly structured, pulsing with life and astonishingly funny. The direction is rapid, clever, pacy and alive. I've even changed my mind about the coat.

And there's a reason for this. The first thing Russell T wrote for the series was a 15 page document explaining what the show was about. Not regeneration, not police boxes and sonic screwdrivers, but what it's REALLY about. The reason the new TARDIS works is that it's built from ideas up: it's not a home, it's a VW camper van - an old hippy's stolen jalopy, jury-rigged to be operated by a single pilot and repaired on the road with whatever technology was available. The Doctor isn't a an exile, an alien or a player of chess upon a thousand boards: he's a traveller, alone and homeless until he finds someone who can complete him. Rose doesn't join him because she wanders in off the street; she comes because she knows if she says no she'll regret it the rest of her life, and because the Doctor is everything her life isn't. Because he's alive. He doesn't save worlds and rescue aliens because he's a hero, or a pinko communist liberal. He does it because life is short, and every moment precious, whether you're a Time Lord, a shop assistant, a TARDIS or the Moxx of Balhoon.

Russell's final summary of the Doctor's moral code, and Christopher's, is "Live life". I may not have agreed with everything about 'Rose', but that's something I can't help but embrace wholeheartedly. And if the series has a heart as strong as that - two hearts, indeed, for a resurrected Time Lord - then the critics can whinge as much as they like. The Doctor's in safe hands.

My review of this and the next two episodes will be more retrospective than the following episodes as I started reviewing from Aliens of London onwards. These episodes have been reviewed upon rewatching them on DVD. So my comments will be based on my memories of the first time I watched this story and new observations in light of the series to date. I hope you bare with me.

I am a massive fan of the Who theme tune and can listen to it in any form (excluding season 23). I even quite like the McGann movie version. So I was thrilled that the new theme is spot on and could listen to it repeatedly (in fact I have the menu screen of the dvd playing in the background - where is the BBC produced single ?) The time tunnel raphic sequence is enjoyable (if that can be the case for title sequences) and I really like the TARDIS switching between the two tunnels midway.

So, to the episode. The point of Earth view was a good touch to start yet I remember initially suddenly feeling like I was in a program I didn't recognise. Watching the fast cut, speeded up opening shots reminded me first I was watching a Russel T Davies show like Queer as Folk or Casanova, much, much faster than ANY Doctor Who has ever been. But it didn't take me long to settle in.

The opening scenes, again fast paced but actually quite eery and menacing when the Autons first encounter Rose. Then the Doctor uttering probably one of the, if not the most iconic words in his 42 year history "Run". A quick run through some corridors and then a proper introduction before we see the first special effect of the new series, not quite perfect but an idea of what's to come. Terrific start.

After some Eccleston baiting in later reviews, looking back on this episode I found him to be quite entertaining, charming and not as grating as I remember. I do think however his insane grinning was more prolific in other episodes. This episode could end up being the most quotable. I can see all the Ninth Doctor T-shirts emblazened with "FANTASTIC". But a tour de force for this opening show. Billie Piper as Rose hits the ground running right from the start. Again it's become common to praise her performance through the series but it's well deserved praise. Noel Clarke however, is just plain bad in this. But he will improve.

Being an opening episode (aka pilot) there is a lot of information to take in so is pretty much a fast paced episode. It is never drowned with exposition. This is cleverly left to snippets of data throughout the season. Yet all the Doctor Who icons are handled well and often with humour. Particular reference is made to Rose's first encounter with the TARDIS. The Auton invasion unfortunately, although well played is left to be the B plot and I do think they should have a better episode. But the point is to introduce the Doctor and Rose and the new format so this can be forgiven.

It did beg the question would the format be too much for a 45 minute episode but, again after seeing more of the series, 45 minutes will be enough.

I liked the plastic Mickey (as opposed to the wooden one) and the wheelie bin ( but didn't understand why that particular one was activated)

The effects off the nestene was briliant and much better effect than its been credited for. Again a throwaway quick fix but that is the nature of the episode. Best bit of the episode, and the series has got to be the Doctor and Rose in front of the Eye.

One continuity error I noticed, watch the gun-hands on the three Auton "brides". They are already open.

So to recap. A pretty first rate opening episode acted well by all (except one) and enough to whet my appetite for the rest of the season. It's still WHO and it's still FANTASTIC!

I'll save all of the catch phrases for everyone else. I, like most of you, sat with eager breath for this episode, and it did not fail to deliver. Yes, He's Back...

After the triumphant return in the first episode "Rose," the Doctor's character is even more flushed out in this episode. Partially due to Christopher Eccleston's acting, but mostly due to the writing of Russel T. Davies. He has taken the character in a new, wonderful direction, without tossing out the rich history of the character.

The Doctor furthers his relationship with Rose, while also letting slip a bit of his back story, leaving us long time fans pleasantly satisfied. Although, the fate of the Time Lords did leave me shocked.

The budget on the series really shines through with this episode, with all of the alien races, and CGI looking amazing. Gone are the days of rickety old sets, and wobbly walls. The teaser before the opening credits was a nice touch as well.

Christopher Eccleston brings a youthfulness to the role, with his inquisitiveness and interest. He is still the know-it-all, and show off, but he also showed that the Doctor also has a deep sense of love and compassion.. without having to have any sexual connotation (other shows in Hollywood should realise that..)

And, Rose brought up things in this episode, that fans have wondered for years.. "Why haven't they asked this.. (insert quote here..)" Billie Piper is an amazing actress, and duly suits this role. She is innocent, yet feisty.. a perfect counterpoint for Eccleston's portrayal of The Doctor.

All in all, the episode was tremendous and now we go into the deep wait for the next episode which, judging by the teaser, will be amazing as well.

Rose is an OK introduction, suffering from a paper-thin plot and the need to re-introduce a sense of mystery and danger to the character of The Doctor. The special effects were hardly ground-breaking, and suffered a lot in places from being too 'obvious' (e.g. the signal emanating from a famous London landmark). The Nestene Consciousness was better realised than in Spearhead From Space (which could be interpreted as being damned with faint praise), and it was good to see The Doctor at least trying to interact with it rather than destroy it straight away. 

The main problem I feel is that the story blasts on through at 200mph. The forty-five minutes allotted passed in seemingly half that time, with nary a pause for breath. The few character moments we had ("I can feel the Earth turning in Space" and "There's a strange man in my bedroom") were good, but too few and far between. Rose would have benefited from another 15 minutes to give the plot more meat and the characters more room to breath. 

But there is plenty which is good: Eccleston's first outing shows promise, The Doctor being less certain of himself and more distant at times. When Rose chides him for not telling her that Mickey might be OK, we realise that this isn't the Doctor we're used to: not Jon, who would have had consoling words for Jo, nor Peter who would have tried to buck up Tegan with 'Brave Heart.' This is a more alien Doctor, one hurt and de-sensitised by the events of the War he has fought in. Eccleston has put a lot into creating this part, and it shows in his performance. From his first speech (“Run!”), he makes the part his own, in a way no incoming actor has done before. Only Hartnell, the original, showed such confidence and presence as The Doctor from the word go. 

Billie Piper as Rose is a revelation. She can act. Not only that, she can act well, and makes one believe in the part. She is a shop-girl with a nose for trouble, she is a humanising influence on The Doctor, she could be our new best friend. Giving Rose the limelight for the first story was a bold decision, but it worked. For the first time since An Unearthly Child we get to meet The Doctor through the eyes of a real person, one not used to Time Travel and alien invasions. It was a masterstroke, and one we should applaud Russell T Davies for. 

The Auton dummies are reasonably well realised, and we finally get to see them smash out from the windows in which they are displayed. What was missing was the “first part” of the story, showing how the Autons were made (I’m assuming there is a factory somewhere in Kent where the owner has been supplanted by an Auton duplicate) and insinuated into so many shop windows in such a casual fashion.

Indeed, when Rose (we) get into the story, the adventure is half over. The Doctor is in the process of making Henrik’s department store ‘safe’ and has (presumably) dealt with other Auton outposts. There is something unsatisfying in this, a sense that there is more to be told, that we don’t have all the facts. 

Who does have all the facts? Clive doesn’t, but he has a lot of them. He’s the 21st-Century Doctor Who fan, all internet-savvy and anal retentive geeky. Why is he obsessive about The Doctor? We aren’t really told. But he has amassed lots of information and sightings about the Ninth Doctor (without ever really picking up on the trail left by his predecessors) and shows Rose that this is someone special. There are a couple of nice in-jokes there, including his presence at the Kennedy Assassination (22nd November 1963, of course) and more of these are included on the website (unpromoted) which the BBC have set up. It can be accessed via the BBC Doctor Who site, and is a clever piece of fluff to demonstrate how the series has moved into the Computer Age. 

The rest of Rose’s life is well detailed, from her slightly flirty mother to her deadbeat boyfriend. Noel Clarke plays the part well, and it is easy to see why Rose, given the choice of staying with him or travelling with The Doctor, would jump into the TARDIS. It’s a nice touch that Rose is stronger than Mickey, and shows both how capable she is and how much of a foil for The Doctor she will be. 

No review of Rose would be complete without mention of the infamous ‘wheelie-bin’ scene. Suffice to say that, as a tension-breaker for the little ones (who might not have ventured near bins ever again if traumatised by the shot) it worked well. It wasn’t overdone (as the farting was to some extent in Aliens of London), and there could be a plausible reason why the burp occurred (which I’ll leave out in the spoiler-free environment we still have). One scene does not deserve to be held up to ridicule this show, when there were entire stories in the 1980’s with more childish stupidity than in the two seconds of television shown here. Deriding the entire show because of this is truly clutching at straws. 

If this is Doctor Who for the 21st Century, then I like it. It is bold it is witty , it has great special effects and it is able to attract great actors to appear in it. Despite the shortcomings in the plot and structure of Rose, its sheer bravado carries it above much of the lacklustre, by-the numbers episodes of Doctor Who seen in its declining years. 

Overall: bold and beautiful.

I must admit that my heart was racing as we fast approached a brand new series of 'Doctor Who', all the way through Graham Norton's dire 'Strictly Dance Fever' and even through to the opening credits I was terribly excited! What a fantastic moment when the theme tune kicked in coupled with the lovely visuals of the Tardis in flight. This new slant on the theme tune is very good, but I did prefer the 'TV Movie' version, just because it felt more dramatic and had more louder musical punches through it. 

The opening shot of the moon then the Earth hurtling towards the screen as we entered through the atmosphere was a perfect intial shot. But it did take a while to adjust to this new 21st century version of 'Doctor Who'. We see Rose herself first climbing out of bed, then seing her mum, going to work at 'Henricks', meeting and fooling around with her boyfriend, and then back at 'Henricks' again at closing time in the space of one minute, whilst in the middle of all this, the rest of London is in super-fast mode, and the incidental music feels overdone. Things do start to pick up and yet slow down a bit in pace when Rose goes to the basement, and we see spare shop dummies moving, this feels more like 'Doctor Who' now. 

Although, blink and you would have missed Christopher Eccleston's first appearance and word as the Doctor...I did! His hand pops out from nowhere grabs Rose's hand as the shop dummies draw closer, and says "Run", and then we see them running down a corridor being pursued by the nasties, something very much a running theme within past 'Doctor Who' adventures, so nice to see that legacy continued.

Eccleston does take a while to get used to, certain traits are identifiable as Doctorish, although others such as how he reacts to Rose's mum are certainly very different to the norm, as indeed they must, otherwise it would get laughed off the screen. I did find Noel Clarke's acting as Mickey to be a bit questionable, although when he got swallowed up by the bin I found that to be highly ammusing and visually well achieved even if it did look computerised. Billie Piper though is the star of the opening episode, as Rose she really makes her a very strong believable character, and as the episode is named after her that is rightfully the case.

Doctor Who fan Clive was an interesting feature, but it was a shame to see him written out of the series so soon, as he had the makings of being a good returning character. Although that particular scene was the highlight of the episode seeing the shop dummies come to life in the shopping precinct and wreaking havoc, however, this didn't last too long and was over far to quick in my view. Nice scene at the end though with the Doctor giving Rose the chance to travel with him, and then having a brief preview of next weeks episode tagged on at the end was a nice new feature and very welcoming.

Overall then I would say this was a reasonable start to new 'Doctor Who' , I don't think it could be much else, with so much hype, and so many introductions having to be made in the first episode, it's surprising that there was any sort of coherent story at all. Yes, the plot is fairly straight forward and yes the anti-plastic thingy is very convenient, but you couldn't really have it any other way. After several more viewings the story has grown on me, and it must be noted that rarely has 'Doctor Who' visually looked so impressive. There are a number of classic moments that stand out, inparticular the shop being blown up near the start of the episode, the Doctor's 'Earth spining' monolgue, and as stated the Autons (brief) invasion.

One thing I did greatly miss was the regeneration, I can understand why it clearly wasn't there, as it would have meant being another extra explanation to have been squeezed into the action-packed forty five minutes, and also it would have probably not made any sense to a new audience, and yet so much was introduced to the audience in the first few minutes that I don't think it would have mattered if we had seen the Doctor's distorting and changing face thrown into the mix anyway! I still feel that the Doctor's first introduction to the audience did feel a bit rushed and a bit low-key. Maybe a dramatic regeneration would have been a more startling and visually stunning opening, I think you could even have got round it by not even re-hiring Paul McGann! Russell T Davies is certinly a good and intelligent enough writer that he could have pulled it off and still kept nostalgic fans and new fans happy and none the wiser. Rose stumbling across the Doctor convulsing in mid-regeneration would have been much more of a dramatic and disturbing opening!

Anyhow 'Rose' as it ended up was a fairly good episode, and Eccleston looks like he's going to become a great Doctor, so all in all things look pretty rosy...if you pardon the pun! 7/10