A short seven days on from the fervent anticpation that preceeded the previous week's debut episode, this Saturday's airing of "The End Of The World" was unfortunately overshadowed by the news of Christopher Eccleston's departure. One can easily picture a substantial share of the hordes of dithering die-hards, willing to embrace Dr Who 2005, but still undecided, giving up at the first hurdle. After all, why go to all the bother of climbing the mountain if someone coming back down tells you the view is rubbish? Better to find out in the foothills.

As a result this imaginative slice of Who was probably greeted with less fan interest than it deserved, and this is a shame as it was really rather good. Perhaps, after 16 years of hiatus and of imagining our "perfect Who", that we all need reminding that sometimes the fun lies in making the effort and journeying to the summit regardless.

Eccleston's Doctor had some memorable moments in this episode, some might even dare to say at least one **classic** Who moment (the fleeting appearance of tears in his eyes as Jabe mentions the fate of Gallifrey) that would have served to utterly dismiss the doubts of the undecided and gain him acceptance, were it not for the fore-knowledge that his days piloting the TARDIS were already numbered.

"The End of the World" boasted several similarly small, but impressive touches that served to raise the show above the simple premise as a sum of its parts. The "core" story was uncomplicated, and the eye-pleasing menagerie of aliens smacked of the BBC effects department showing off for the sake of it (but brought back quaint memories... "Curse of Peladon", anyone?) but all this can be forgiven in the light of (pun unintentional) the impressive sun-expansion and orbital Earth shots, and especially the subtle development of both the Doctor's and Rose's characters, which, let's face it, was the object of the exercise and what we all wanted to see. It's notable that for an episode during which the pair spend most of their time apart, their relationship has by the end of it all cemeted into a closeness some Doctors and companions never achieved, even after dozens of episodes. It is also ironic that for the first time a companion has a home to return to, and the Doctor hasn't.

OK, what was good? Rose, and Billie Piper. Her disorientation and culture shock, her standing up to the Doctor, and questioning her decision to join him. The one-liners ("Wait til you see the bill"). The big big news about Gallifrey. The mercurial Doctor. The I-Pod. Stepping through the fan blades.

What was bad? The Platform One computer's ponderous and irritating attempt at sampling. "Sun-Filter descending, Sun-Filter rising, Sun-Filter descending", etc. anon (a latter day "Vacuum Shield Off" for all those "Enlightenment" fans). The drawn out "suspense" sequences. The Shrek 2-like stabs at contemporary in-jokes (the National Trust would never be around in the year 5 Billion - who would pay the subscriptions and display all those car stickers in their spacecraft?) The glib resolution, and linear plot (more mystery and intrigue, please, Russell).

In summary, if "Rose" was the first tentative step forward, the character development in "The End of the World" represents both feet firmly on the ground and Dr Who 2005's format being successfully established. Time to have some fun with it, and find out where it can take us.

OK BBC.... show us what you can do.

If the first episode was all about Rose, then this second outing belongs to Christopher Eccelston. He gives another superb performance as the Doctor, making his announcement to quit all the sadder. The story is based on a space station called Platform One, where the rich come to see spectacular events in VIP luxury. The event the have come to witness this time is quite literally the end of the world. The Doctor, plainly trying to show off to his new companion, travels to the Platform and gatecrashes the party. Of course this being Doctor Who, things soon start to go wrong. But who is behind the sabotage?

The visuals are very impressive, without ever being overwhelming. The aliens are pretty good, although a few are very much of the "men in masks" variety so beloved in the classic serials. However a few do standout. Most notably Yasmin bannerman as Jabe, a tree creature, and Jimmy Vee as the Moxx of Balhoon, an odd man boobed little blue pixie in a floating chair. The space station is superbly done and the CGI 'Cassandra' wonderfully realised.

However, this story is all about relationships and character acting. Billie Piper is once again a revelation as Rose, who is rapidly emerging as a contender for best ever companion. Yasmin Bannerman is the sexiest tree i've ever encountered. But it is Eccelston who shows why so Davies wanted him for the role. He is quirky, funny and dynamic. But most of all he makes you care for his Doctor.

The script is ones again excellent. Davies is superb at this sort of story telling. Light, pacy and just a little bit scary at times. This tale is very much a thriller rather than a chiller, and is delivered superbly well. The End of the World will be be a hard act to follow.

While “Rose” was enjoyable with many wonderful moments, I experienced a sense of unease watching it. This was due to the following: the gag about breast implants, the reference to “gays and aliens”, lazy scripting (as indicated by the repetitive use of adjectives e.g. “stupid”), rather trite social commentary (Rose’s speech about “no A levels, no job, no future”) and the overuse of incorrect and poorly delivered English. All this suggested to me that Russell T Davies had no actual respect for the series, and was using it as a vehicle for scoring points on pet issues. It is this type of self-indulgence that killed Dr Who off last time. 

Having watched Episode 2, The End of the World, I see more of this. I make the following criticisms: 

The plot was extremely weak. There was an unacceptable reliance on “magical solutions”: the Doctor’s hypnotic note paper, the tree lady knowing about the duct behind her suite, the way the Doctor just walks through the rotors, the amazing way he knows all the answers at the end, and the convenient way that the teleport is reversible and catches the skin lady but not her attendants. These magical solutions were to make up for the lack of decent story construction and were very disappointing. 

Apart from the steward, there was an absence of characterisation. The tree lady and the other delegates looked wonderful, but there’s no point being visually good if they do not have personalities. The alien guests in this 44 minute episode had less characterisation than the delegates in the first 23 minute episode of Curse of Peladon. What is the point of trying to feel sorry for the tree lady’s firey death if we do not get to know her in the first place? 

There was unnecessary and intrusive use of coarse language (“bitchy”, “prostitutes”). I do not want this language in Dr Who. In the case of the word prostitution, this could have been changed to “mistress”. But there is another question: why go down this route? Is Russell T Davies trying to prove how daring he is? Oh, please! The scene would have been better had the tree lady asked the Doctor: “Is she your wife? your mother? your grandmother?”

Remember all the hype about Billie Piper being the assistant equal to the Doctor, who would not have to be rescued and would play a full part in the stories? Well, she spent half this story locked in her room – needing to be rescued. 

There was complete overkill on the political commentary. I’ve only seen the episode once and cannot remember it all, but I was conscious of it while watching. Russell T Davies should have spent less time looking to make references to contemporary issues and more on plotting. He’s writing for Dr Who, not Panorama. 

The script was remarkably crass in some places, such as “can we get chips”? I respect that the writer is trying to draw contrasts between five billion years into the future and our common, everyday existence. Nice idea, but he is not doing it very well. There is an absence of subtlety, an overuse of colloquialisms and poor pronunciation. I appreciate the latter is intended, but it should not be apparent in every other line. Otherwise, it just irritates. 

Piper’s performance was very good, but Eccleston was disappointing (and I’m not just saying that because he’s leaving). I was looking for development in his performance and could not see any. He grins a lot. I want to feel I’m watching a Time Lord, not someone out of Eastenders. 

Finally, the Doctor’s standing by while the skin lady died. Disgraceful. The character of the Doctor is sufficiently established for us to know that he would not let another being suffer distress and death, even if they are a baddie. The Doctor kills but only to save life, and even then as a last resort. He does not kill out of vengeance. To refuse the villain aid and to gain smug satisfaction from their painful death is so out of character as to make me wonder whether the new production team have any real sympathy or respect for the programme at all. How could such a scene happen? I wonder whether Russell T Davies is content to rip it all up, make something different but rely on the Dr Who “brand name” to get the ratings.

If Episode one bent the rules a little as a pre-cursor to brillance, then episode two had to excel. With reputations hanging in the balance with this second offering from Russell T Davies, I was on the edge of my seat before Graham Norton had finished waving his hands in mock enthusiasm.

Putting my feelings for Christopher Eccleston's recently announced departure on hold, for the time being, I expected a lot and was renumerated ten-fold.

The effects ridden tour-de-force that is The End of the World showcases everything that is great about this 21st Century, BBC Who-niverse:

You see, Mr Davies and co. have realised that if the setting is supplied by post-production via special effects, then characterisation is the key and quite simply - it oozes out of this episode and most importantly, it works!

CGI starships and stations, believable, organic-looking alien make-up, fantastic, on-screen chemistry between The Doctor and co-star, Yasmin Bannerman (Jabe) and a do or die ending - make terrific television.

My suspension of disbelief at the impending doom of Platform One was complete, I was gripped by the goosebump inducing, heart-poundingly simple idea that the Doctor WOULD NOT MAKE IT.

Ecclestone shines as The Doctor, more so in this episode than its predecessor 'Rose', he is charming, thinks on his feet and fleetingly becomes his previous selves, most noticably when grilling Rose on how she feels about being 5 million years in the future. It was as if the Sixth Doctor's persona had wrestled this Ninth incarnation to get to the podium - argumentative and sulky.

The Doctor performs 'jiggery pokery' upon Rose's Nokia Mobile phone and though it is a touching and grounding conversation, the subtle reference to Rose's past (the call seems to have been placed before her encounter with the Autons) is all important - she must leave her past behind to get on with it.

Not only did we get a pre-credit sequence, a la Bond, but we got an Epilogue which counterpointed what it was to be human and revealed in full that a war had left the Doctor without a home to return to.

It is this single statement that left me a little disappointed, for if there are no other Timelords, then we can never go to Gallifrey, or see other TARDISes. Will the Master return and will we ever see another Castellan or Keeper of the Matrix?

These questions unanswered are a bitter pill to swallow at the end of what I consider to be a proper and auspicious start to the new series.

It's already happening. Who fandom seems to be splitting- maybe not equally- but into two distinct areas. The people who love Russel T. Davies's defiantly bold take on the show, and the people who are shaking their head and wondering how the hell it went so wrong- or at least wishing for something that bore a little more resemblance to the programme they remember and love.

I'll be honest- I'm in the "take it with a pinch of salt" camp. I wasn't bowled over by "Rose"- there were moments that I loved, and moments that made me want to hurl my TV out of the window- but I went into "End of the World" with an attempt at a positive outlook. As they say, always look on the bright side of life...

So, anyway, I sit down to watch "End of the World", and forty five minutes later, one thing is absolutely clear:

Russel T. Davies adores Season 24.

It's true- "End of the World" was essentially a big-budget homage to the kind of campery that was being practiced in Paradise Towers, Dragonfire, and- (shiver)- Delta and the Bannermen. You even had a "Death of Kane" reference, someone being pulled into a duct by mechanical creatures, overdone use of pop music on the soundtrack... For me, Season 24 was one of the darkest times of the show- where I had to work especially hard at filtering out the stuff that wasn't working to find what was- and to find that the new version of Who is essentially just a bigger version of that is disconcerting to say the least.

The overdose of camp humour is certainly getting a little grating. It'll be interesting to see how the show works when RTD isn't writing it, because at the moment it's like being locked in a lift with a gay man who's determined to show how wonderfully smart, sophisticated and bitchy he is. The characterisation of Cassandra wasn't particularly effective- instead of trying to blend any "plastic surgery" satire with the sci-fi, we just got lots of overplayed "You could be flatter!" gags (And if anyone could explain to me exactly how you can get a sentient piece of skin, I'd be very grateful. Who doesn't have to be hard sci-fi, but it'd be nice if they tried to come up with something that made me vaguely suspend my disbelief...).

And then, the music related gags. It's not enough that Cassandra has to bring in a Jukebox (somehow perfectly preserved after five billion years), she's got to call it an Ipod (Oh, how ironic!) and then it's got to play Tainted Love by Soft Cell. And then Toxic by Britney Spears (certainly one of the most surreal moments of Who ever broadcast). I suppose, this is the man who wrote The Second Coming, where one of the most dramatic and disturbing sequences of the show was accompanied by a song by ex-Spice Girl Mel C, but it'd be nice to have some humour later on in the show that isn't like being bashed around the head with a pink, velvet-wrapped sledgehammer. 

(As a note: The whole "misinterpreting artefacts from the present day" concept is very very old, and has been done an awful lot better than RTD manages here. Michael Moorcock's The Dancers at the End of Time is a fantastic example.)

Not to say that "End of the World", when it worked, wasn't tremendous fun. Probably the biggest strength of this new version of the show is that it doesn't ever stand still for too long, and the energy managed to carry the frankly rather weak plot (Ambassadors arrive, someone gets murdered, countdown to Doom, The End!) through a few (if not all) of the sticky moments. 

And then, there's the points where the show got darker, and shiver my timbers if it didn't actually start FEELING like Who. First up, the nicely played relationship between the Doctor and Jabe- could have been squirmingly embarrassing, and instead was subtly done and quite convincing, and the moment where Jabe reveals that she knows where the Doctor is from was both hugely surprising and utterly magic. It's interesting to see a Doctor with this much baggage (although I think we can safely say that it's a very different version of the War depicted in the Eighth Doctor novels. Who else is betting on the Daleks being responsible?), and the climax- with the Doctor calmly standing by and watching Cassandra die- was more like something you'd expect from the Sixth Doctor (Is hi-jacking so much tone and form from the eras of the show when Who definitively didn't work a fantastic idea?).

Most of all, there was Billie Piper as Rose, who's doing a great job of anchoring the show. The sequence where she realises that she really doesn't know anything about the Doctor was beautifully played, and where she's trying to get the facts about his origins out of the Doctor, it felt real and convincing in a way that the psychobabble between the Seventh Doctor and Ace never did. Billie's performance gave the ending a real emotional impact, and the "I want chips" line was simply fantastic (Pity RTD had to then ruin it with the "Five billion years till the shops shut", as truly horrible example of the "end your episode on a gag and have your main characters laughing" principle as I've seen).

Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor is still a jumble that's both intriguing and frustrating. Now that he's jumped ship and the potential for the Ninth Doctor has been shrunk down to the upcoming episodes and very little else, he's a bizarre mix- great at the action, great at the dark stuff, creaky on the humour, and absolutely terrible at looking like he's experiencing a sense of wonder. The fixed grin he was wearing as the delegates filed in was decidedly dodgy, and he doesn't yet feels like he owns the role. The previous Doctors all managed to feel like they belonged- like the bizarre and the surreal was completely commonplace- where as Eccleston is overdoing the "love of life" aspects of his characterisation to the extent that he's coming across as a hyperactive teenager at times. He's very good at certain moments, and cringeworthy at others, which seems a fairly effective way of summing up the show at the moment.

The production values were pretty good- and yet, it also feels like the show is falling victim to the "all flash and no substance" vote- especially considering they've used up 20% of the CG budget for the entire season in one episode. An entire room full of weird looking aliens- and yet hardly any of them get used. The Moxx of Balhoun got talked about plenty and shown lots in the pre-publicity, and yet he turns out to have diddlysquat to do with the actual story, and the CG Minority Report-style spiders felt like gratuitous showing off rather than good storytelling. The genuine strengths of the show seem to be getting dumped in favour of showy humour and "look at me" effect shots which- for all the effort that's gone into them- aren't good enough to stand up next to the US shows that are doing the same thing. It's the same problems that affected the TV movie- big sets and flash effects can't help you if there are fundamental flaws in the way you're thinking about the show. It was an improvement on "Rose", but the new series is still in very shaky territory, and without a small amount of balance and intelligence in the scripting, Who is simply going to be remembered as "that daft sci-fi show that had people painted blue as aliens". And I'd like to think that Who was a little better than that...

Funny, dramatic, beautiful, engaging and wonderful ... Maybe not in that order, but The End of the World has it all.

(This review contains heavy spoilers for the entire episode)

Carrying on from exactly where we left off in Rose; the Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) offers Rose (Billie Piper) the chance to choose the TARDIS's next destination: Backwards or forwards in time. Rose chooses to go one century forward in time.

A few seconds later, the TARDIS materializes and the Doctor claims that if she's to step out of the TARDIS, they will be one century in the future. Rose seems unimpressed and the Doctor takes her further and further in time until ...

... They arrive on a space station five billion years in the future. Representatives of the wealthiest species in the Universe have gathered on a shielded space station to watch the Earth being destroyed by the expanding sun.

As the Doctor tells Rose: "Welcome to the end of the world." We go to the cliffhanger screech and the opening titles roll.

All is not well in this future, however. As the representatives gather and exchange 'gifts of peace,' the last Human being alive, Cassandra (Zoe Wannamaker), immediately takes over the party with relics from Earth. An ostrich egg and a jukebox which she claims is an I-Pod. A wonderful scene follows; the Doctor starts dancing to Tainted Love.

One of the tree people, Jabe (Yasmin Bannerman), takes a photo of the Doctor (who gave her the gift of 'air from his lungs,' an intimate gift on her home-world). She discovers who he is and what species he's from and ... Well, I won't reveal that.

The gifts of peace from one of the representatives are in fact incubation chambers for mechanical spiders who soon set about sabotaging Platform One. The heat-shields which prevent the sun's light and head from scorching the station begin to fail and the steward is killed.

The Doctor and Jabe rush down to the engineering section to try and find out what the problem is and, after capturing one of the spiders, the Doctor reprograms it to return to whoever brought it on board. At first, it goes to the Adherence of the Repeated Memes, but they are revealed to be simply remote controlled droids. The real culprit is Cassandra, although she claims to be the last Human being alive, she is simply a stretched piece of flesh attached to a frame that requires constant moisturising. She was hoping to collect an enormous ranson to pay for more treatments to herself.

As she teleports away, the Doctor and Jabe go back down to the engine room to reset the computer control, which has been taking over by the spiders and, with the shields down, the windows of the station are beginning to crack. Rose is still trapped in her room after the Doctor upgraded her mobile phone with a device from the TARDIS which would allow her to talk to her mother - five billion years in the past.

In order to get past the giant fans which block the reset switch; Jabe has to hold down a lever which slows their rate of turn. Due to the temperature, however, she begins to burn away (she is a tree, you know). The Doctor, using some trickery to slow time down, is able to get past the final fan and re-active the shields. Just in time as the sun expands and destroys the Earth.

The Doctor and Rose stand at a window. Rose contemplates that after five billion years of history; no one was looking at the Earth when it was destroyed. The Doctor takes her hand and they go back to present-day Earth. The Doctor tells her that his home planet was destroyed in a war, all his people are dead, he's the last of the Time Lords and he's left to travel alone: "Because there's no one else."

The Doctor asks Rose if she wishes to continue travelling with him, before she can make her mind up, though, she smells chips and offers to buy the Doctor some.

OH! MY! GOD! Was that episode beautiful? We finally get an explanation for why the TARDIS is so run-down, with no Eye of Harmony to sustain here; the Doctor is having to use whatever equipment he comes across to keep her functioning. Billie Piper's acting is very moving at the end when she reflects that no one watched the Earth burn. The Doctor and Jabe's relationship borders on the flirtatious and when Jabe finds out who the Doctor is and that Gallifrey is no more ... It's a touching scene and possibly the only time we've seen the Doctor cry. However, a mere few seconds later he's all business again.

Also up for praise, Zoe Wannamaker. She puts in a bitchy, funny and wonderful performance as Cassandra O'Brien, the last Human. The last pure Human that is. Her conversations with Rose, regarding cosmetic surgery, are both humorous and biting at the same time.

Russell T. Davies's writing is, again, on top form. With Cassandra's line that: "Humanity has touched every star," it's very possible that all the beings in attendance were descended from Earth. As Jabe seems to confirm when she says she is a descendent of an Earth forest.

It's a pity she had to die, too, she'd have made an excellent and interesting addition to the TARDIS crew.

The special effects are absolutely amazing. When the Earth explodes ... Well, it's a million times better than the CGI used in Earthshock at any rate. The space station is also well realized, both internally and externally. No more tin-foil and cardboard sets.

The only down-side, to me, is that Rose never really got to do much. Except for mope around her quarters while the Doctor was meeting aliens, flirting and saving everyone's lives. 

Well, that's another criticism: As a respecter of all life, the Doctor should've helped Cassandra when she was dying. But, as he says, "Everything has its time, everything dies."

All in all, I have to give this episode a 9/10.