(Note: Yes, this is my real birth name! No relation to my namesake!)

At last the start of new Doctor Who! The wait is finally over! I loved the opening and closing themes and sequences. They were very similar to the classic series and yet noticeably updated.

For an introductory story Rose is quite good. It introduces the characters and situation at a manic pace and given the time constraints it needs to. Other "first" stories such as An Unearthly Child, Robot, The Twin Dilemma & Time and the Rani were not nearly as entertaining and they had twice the length of time to do so. That being said, I wish the story had been done in two parts because I feel it would have been even better if time had been given to flesh the characters and situation out more. I'm a little unsure if the one episode format is really the best choice but we'll see if the future episodes manage it a little better since they don't have the requirement of introducing the main characters.

The opening is presented in a very music video montage style which is typical of much of today's films and television, and yet it manages to actually convey the necessary information which is something that most films and tv shows fail to do when utilizing this style.

It's nice to see the Autons return along with the Nestene Consciousness. For old fans it was a nice nod and it was also a fine choice of returning foes which needed little back story to get new viewers up to speed.

Christopher Eccleston is a fine Doctor bringing many of the old familiar elements to the character as well as some of his own added quirks. I know some people are bothered by his grinning all the time, but I find it refreshing. It makes him seem more approachable than many of the other Doctors. I found his performance to be excellent.

Billie Piper was quite the pleasant surprise with her acting ability. She is also one of the most attractive companions ever and yet the producers have so far managed to avoid some of the sexism and helplessness attributed to most of the female companions of the past.

Noel Clarke was fine as Mickey and I especially liked his portrayal as an Auton. The only downside is that I could see many U.S. TV stations frowning upon having a minority character portrayed as flawed as he is. It could make it a tough sell over here in the states where we're really sensitive to negative portrayals of minority characters. On the plus side he was in a relationship with Rose which was very progressive for Doctor Who.

I also enjoyed Camille Coduri as Rose's mum. She reminded me of so many mothers I've known that it was an amazing job.

The special effects were great! Not as nice as the TV movie, but so much better than the old TV series! The only scene I didn't feel worked entirely was the trash bin scene. It looked too fake. Also the burp was a little too over the top. It was very humorous, but it felt really out of place with the rest of the atmosphere of the scene.

Most of the humor worked really well. I loved The Doctor wrestling with the Auton arm and many of the one liners. Again the only bit I felt didn't work was the trash bin scene.

The resolution was a bit rushed and the anti-plastic a bit convenient but I'm sure that was do to the new time constraints.

So overall, a fine start and a really nice episode. Really good performances, a nice mixture of humor and drama and the return of classic foes along with old friends. I have confidence that they will be able to smooth out the few rough spots. My main complaint would be the limited time to establish the plot and characters.

At last! At last! At last!

Credible science fiction to expunge the PAST!

Auntie Beeb has delivered Dr Who, most credible

Glossy looking, witty, sharp with ne'er a moment dull.

Rose didn't scream but looked logically bemused

And worried at such creatures on a ship broken and fused.

Had she made the right decision human plotline nicely bubbling

Under the 'science-fiction' story most troubling.

With effective links to Episode 1, continuity 

Succeeded to make us feel as we too were on Rose's journey.

Simple sets were few but stopped the endless wandering

Of previous Doctors through that 'ship' again re-visiting.

A super portrayal of the Doctor we were given

Who performed on so many levels, being character driven,

Witty, charming, angry, sad, 

Lonely, amused, amusing, bad!!!

So many layers, slowly being unpeeled

With historical, explanatory and emotional traits revealed.

We convincingly learn more about his background, his timely role

His loneliness as the last of his race, one fish swimming into the shoal!

We have become so used to good sci-fi- from America imported

That this is the first time we have got 'it' 'sorted'!!

Our effects and backgrounds were up there with the best

Production values to match the rest.

The Blake's Seven music over the spaceship sounded dated 

That or me with memory saturated.

4 legged spiders and villians were menacing on the space station 

With all horror of death off screen and left to my imagination.

So all in all, slower with many themes and good effects

Leaving many questions, hope, and curiosity as to what comes next!

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!

After the intensity of watching 'Rose' and hoping the series would be as good as it appeared in the monumental build up, things calm down with the wonderful episode 'The End of the World'.

'The End of the World' follows the Doctor and Rose as they arrive on Platform One, where all kinds of aliens are gathering to witness the destruction of the Earth.

The plot is good, with a well-paced storyline that doesn't disappoint. It is a shame there was not more of a 'whodunit' factor to the episode, but the revelation of the true villain is fitting enough. The relationship between the Doctor and Jabe is touching and the last few poignant minutes are some of the best in the series history.

The one plot-related problem with the story is the lack of characterisation to the other aliens. Of course there is not enough time to do this in a 45-minute programme but you can't help but feel a bit irritable that the alien species seemed used on the off chance. Perhaps if each of the species had not been given such an introduction, the scene would work better (a-la Star Wars: A New Hope).

The acting is good, with both Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper settling nicely into their roles as the Doctor and Rose. The guest artists are good, particularly Zoe Wanamaker as Cassandra the last human being. The characterisation of Cassandra is superb and the tongue-in-cheek references to the taboo subject of plastic surgery give the episode its best bits of humour.

In all, 'The End of the World' is a nice story, with a nice mix of humour and drama, and maintains the quality of the series, which was established with 'Rose'.

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.