This is in many ways the first proper episode of the series. No short plot to allow for character introductions (we did that ast week) no interrruptions by graham norton (the bbc did that last week too..after 15 years did you really think the good doctors return would be glitch free?) just 40 odd minutes of new improved doctor who. And it was very iproved in a lot of areas... and changed in ways left, right, center, and sideways in time. Not all for the better (I'm an honest man.) The story was very good. Absolutely perfect for your 45 minute format that we now have, and the writing ability and who pedigree of the show is starting to show. You can tell these were the guys who read wrote and absorbed the virgin NA's and even the BBC EDA's (more on that in a moment..) Every character that gets a line manages to get across not just words, but a huge amount of character with those words, and we are even given the ability to feel sympathy for a plumber. A plumber who we *know* is going to die, and we *know* is going to be pulled into that ubiquitous ventilation shaft. Its a rule of sci-fi convention after all. But a cliche, when beautifully done, works well, and this it does. I admit, despite praising the characters to death, that I actually found our villain of the piece, our 'last human', cassandra, to be ...well not as interesting as I had expected. Funny, yes. Clever...in places. But I never found her to have much in the way of dimensions. Pun intended. I have to agree with the Doctors statement of 'all these years and it still comes down to money' and wish there had been more to it. (perhaps the implied race hate aspect of her character should have been played up along with her vanity.) And her demise...well, it was a bit gorey in a way? And I'm not sure many doctors would have done that. Hmm. The Doctor and Rose are obviously to be the centers of our attention in this series, with Ace's legacy being felt in a companion that we can focus on, because the stories focus on her more than the Doctor. Which is nice... it looks like the mystery is back, which is something thats been hoped for by most of DWs previosu production teams, and all it took was an absence of fifteen years so the public oculd forget all about it. How worrying.

The effects were wonderful, and yes, theres a nice shiney budget now, but that budget is still small compred to lot of sci-fi these days...but the shoe string power, and degrees in jiggery pokery held by the production team provided something that was truly amazing to see on screen, in a doctor who episode. (though the amazing aliens still don't quite beat the destoryer from battlefield...not just yet anyway.) And it has to be said that, as the beautiful south would have it, blue is the colour for DW aliens and monsters. Especially when the earth is directly in peril. This episode has the best effects work you have seen in Doctor Who, (since at least greatest show...because i love it.) Its on a par with the beautiful work done on shows like Farscape (which is useful, because you can watch that after DW confidential on BBC three..) and does show a nice mix aesthetics, imagination and good old fashioned hard work. Three cheers for that.

There a few things i simply must mention about this episode, that don't really fall under story or effects though. One is, the missus likes it, and this can only be a good thing, because she, unlike me, unlike us, is not a fan. And can only claim to having viewed DW under clockwork orange -like conditions due to me making her sit through my DVDs. And she loves it. More importantly, her kid sister liked it too. And at about 12 years old, thats exactly the market DW needs to appeal to, in order to see another 40 years through the door. So the mainstream appeal is back. Just what RTD wanted. The camp is back too... Tainted love and Britney? In the same episode. Not since the happiness patrol (or sylvs first season) has an episode played with such things. Its also worth noting that Cassandra is DW's first transexual character. (she states clearly that she used to be a boy.) The much hyped ipod joke was...funny. But not as funny as DWM had me expecting. But it did lead to the afore mentioned Tainted Britney stuff, including the doctor having a bit of dance, and coming across a bit dendrophiliac. Wonderful stuff.

But... I know its rotten of me, but I couldn't help but imagine Sylv in this episode. Its so NA, and... well, you can imagine him making a quite eulogy to the arth, after he's saved so many times, to watch it finally die would have so much impact on the doctor. Having imagined sylv, or either of the bakers do this... I wonder why it didn't have much of a noticeable impact on *this* doctor. Hmm. The sylvness kicked in again during the Doctors indirect execution of Cassandra.. but I think previous doctors would have sent her to prison. To justice, not vengeance. I'm not sure if this new callousness (other Doctors would have at least turned away rather than stare as Cassandra went ping) is interesting or worrying.

My final thing to note (and I messed up the structure of this review just so I could say it last) is something truly amazing. EDA's, (and therefore NA's through extrapolation) have just become canon in the most amazing way. Gallifrey has been destroyed 'before its time' in a war. And the Doctor is the last of its people. My jaw dropped as realised what it seemed they were referencing. And it made me happy. Because this series, owes more than its writing to the novels. And that debt is being paid off a little at atime. Now...if we can persuade them to reverse-regenerate the Doctor now that Chris has decided to leave, we can ration our regens and have another 40 years, during which time, I wouldn't be surprised to see an adjudicator turn up.

Go forward in all your beliefs...

After the hyperactive mania that was 'Rose' this was a much better paced episode. I had time to enjoy the excellent visuals and wallow in the events happening as I watched. I loved the tiny scene between Rose and the plumber, even though it was only really done go give the death of the plumber a bit of an impact - it worked too. 

The problem with 45 minutes per episode is that it is too easy to fall into the Star Trek trap where the first 40 minutes set up an excellent story only for it to be solved in last 5 minutes and this was exactly what happened here. A two second reprogramming of the spider droids was all that was needed to find the killer in a very Agatha Christie style reveal. Unfortunately it was a little too obvious who the killer would be, especially after the attempt on Rose's life. 

Saying that, however, it's too easy to forget that this programme is aimed more for children than adults and that's where it's success lies - the fact that anyone can watch and still be engrossed. The spider droids were an excellent menace, genuinely creepy and superbly realised in CGI - I only hope that the rest of the series continues with this level of SFX. I laughed and cringed when one them pressed the sun filter button and killed the blue Steward.

Christopher Eccelston didn't impress me in the first episode, he was too smarmy and the way he has of gurning through his facial expressions really didn't help me at all. In the this episode, though he was much better. He was calmer and more assured and handled the serious/emotional sides of the character very well. I love the idea of revealing little bits of the Doctor's past a tiny bit at a time and was on the edge of my seat as the war that destroyed Gallifrey was mentioned and the poinency it added to the destruction of Earth - A throw back to the Eighth Doctor novels perhaps? 

The gurning persisted though thankfully not to the extent of the first episode and for the first time I could see why Christopher Eccelston was chosen as the Ninth Doctor. I have the feeling he is going to grow on me throughout the season to the point where I love him as the Doctor, only for me to have to start the whole process again with his replacement!

It's very easy to form an emotional bond with Billie Piper's Rose. She is everything that ACE should have been in the eighties. I find myself self geniunely feeling for her, from her realisation that she knows nothing about the Doctor to the impact of the world's destruction and the need to call her mom. Although on a character and emotional level she was given some excellent stuff to work with plotwise she was given almost nothing. Rose served as the catalyst for the adventure and then somone for the Doctor to rescue - same old Dr Who then. I would have prefered it if her own curiosity lead her to finding out what was going on on the station, telling the Doctor and together the duo putting everything to rights.

All of the above said it was an beautiful episode. It looked spectacular and the story drew me in alongside the excellent perfomances of the Doctor, Rose and Jabe. And it's also worth mentioning Zoe Wannamaker's performance as the last human being. I would give this a solid 8/10 and I'm truly looking forward to next week's episode.

Episode two of Doctor Who takes the sound grounding from the series opener and builds upon it.

The fx are far sharper (the destruction of the Earth beats the pants of even the digitally remastered Death Star explosion!). Less obvious green screen this week, and some superb sequences. Several deaths are done with the maximum scare factor - a close-up of the character's reaction and cutting before we actually see them die.

The Doctor's characterisation is slightly calmer than last week, as is to be expected. With the breaking news earlier in the week of Eccleston's departure, its a shame that he looks as though he will build the role into a brilliant incarnation. The shedding of a tear (I think the first time since Jo Grant left to wed Cliff Jones), I found very poignant. Younger fans (i.e those seeing the show for the first time) will see this as a touching moment as we find out the first little segments of this Doctor's backstage. For us more seasoned followers, it shows another side to the Doctor's relationship with his home world.

The costumes are superb, all with a finish and polish that I feel was only achieved in the classic series by the Zygons. Even those aliens that are effectively window dressing have an attention to detail in them that is unsurpassed in the show's history. Another superb aspect of the aliens is that there was some superb concept work done on them. One race is in fact simply an idea - wicked!

Back to the back story. I'd heard rumours, but I quite like the way that this new Doctor's history is being revealed a small layer at a time. It takes us back to the days when he was just a stranger, who didn't have his species revealed for the first 6 years, and his home world went unnamed for another four. We can learn about the ninth Doctor with Rose.

Billy is less effective than last week, slightly more in the mould of the helpless girlie. However, her chat with Cassandra is another one of those "playground moments. However, some excellent POV shots continue to build the feeling of discovering the universe side-by-side with her.

After the coverage he got (cover shots, feature inserts, etc), the Moxx of Balhoun is a fairly insignificant character, but someone give me the funding to do Doctor Who - The officially licensed Moxx of Balhoun Incense Stick Holder!!!

After such a strong start, this episode could have fallen flat, but Phil Collinson has followed up RTD's intro with a superb SF thriller, with some lovely retro touches. There's even a follow up to a reference to the Titanic in The Invasion of Time, that once more fails to bog the show in continuity, but allows a wry smile to grace the face of older fans.

The NEXT WEEK teaser takes us to the past - and it looks every bit as promising as its predecessors. Enough from me - its time for QUATERMASS now.....

Additional: So blown away by the FX in this episode, I forgot to mention that this is the first time I can remember the "world about to end" scenario seem so...well...EPIC. Despite the confines of the location, a floating observation platform, the exterior views, the sun expanding, the perishing of the Earth, all of it is beautiful - there's no other way to describe it. If last week's episode caused you to go WOW, then I must invent the phrase "Even WOWIER!". Its hard to conceive that the series can sustain such continual raising of the bar, but if the remaining 11 eps come anywhere close to this, then our 1 season Doctor will be unforgettable!

On further reflection, there is a downer in the Episode. The oft-quoted "The Doctor is never cruel or cowardly" seems to have been pushed to the background. Although cowardice is not in evidence, I found the denouement of the main plot strand somehow un-Doctorish. Others may disagree.

And on a final note, I would like to distance myself from the seemingly constant vilification of CE since the announcement of his quitting. I would rather see 13 episodes of quality WHO that ensure the show continues, than 26 that wane and wither, with a man disinterested in the role because he is tied to a contract he wants to escape, which is possibly how things would have been had the Beeb insisted on a 2 year option. With some of the postings on various boards these past couple of days, Colin Baker must be glad the internet wasn't around when he declined a regeneration scene....

"Rose" was a fun romp, but perhaps the real test was always going to be episode two. Was "Rose" a fluke? Will the Doctor and Rose get irritating after a while? Can RTD "do" sci-fi? Is "The End of the World" as good as "Rose". I think better.

In a way this is the first "normal" episode of the new series. Last weeks show had the massive responsibility of reintroducing the Doctor and capturing the imagination of a new, more demanding generation and did so by literally dazzling the viewer with a 100mph adventure vaguely involving shop dummies, but in the follow up, they HAD to tell a story.

The plot retains the freshness of Rose, helped by continuing directly after Rose's entry into the TARDIS. Thankfully however, the pace isn't quite so breakneck and allows for many lovely touches, my highlights being "Tainted Love" (check out the Doctor's groove, I never had him down as an synth fan) and classic ballad "Toxic". The characterisation is also lovely. Eccleston really gets a chance to shine this week, most notably without saying a word as Jabe (excellent from start to finish) gives her condolances to the last Timelord (tear!). His exposition to Rose in the final moments is also fantastic and again hints at a very involving story arc.

Billie Piper's Rose is as charming in the future as she was in 2005 and once again her humanity ensures the story has soul (I think her best scene was with the plumber) and she gets a very traditional companion scene when trapped in a room filling with sunlight. This week I had a strong sense of Ace in Rose, notably when she loses her temper with Cassandra and on learning she has essentially been violated by the TARDIS. I felt the supporting cast was very good, Cassandra was fabulous as was The Steward, but I really thought Jabe shone and was almost too sexy to say she was a tree! The Moxx of Balhoon however, didn't get much of a look in and the much publicised Face of Boe doesn't say a word!

My only cirticism was the story was a little "Diet-Plot" for the second week running, while the Doctor, Rose and details of the war continue to grow and deepen the weekly stories are almost as thin as Cassandra. Really the plot boils down to: there are some robot spiders, they might kill you, someone is controlling them, why? Is that enough? I don't know, but I certainly remember single episodes of Buffy, Spooks or The X Files being more involving. The episode is excellent thanks to the characterisation, concept and performances, but now we have our heroes, I feel we need more interesting stories. I predict this will happen organically as it did with Buffy and The X Files (recall, Buffy didn't have a very good story to tell until half way through the first season).

Verdict: "The End of the World" is stunning and makes for more satisfying viewing than "Rose" (I had a lump in my throat as Rose and the Doctor stood on the busy street). I for one am incredibly happy with the way our new series is developing, regardless of events outside of the fictional world of Doctor Who! I suspect "The Unquiet Dead" however, may outshine both of the first two episodes...?

Once again Russell T Davies has pulled a proverbial dove out of his writers hat much to the amazement of all concerned (well me at least). I sat last Saturday and watched Rose and I enjoyed it, in my opinion it was probably the best Doctor Who story since 1984 (Caves of Androzani) and wondered, "How can this be beaten or topped". Then this week we started with the episode "The End of the World" the usual fare (the Doctor takes his companion to see some wonder of the universe and blags his way in). The old touches were there that made the series a favourite of mine back in the 70's and half of the eighties. The slightly telepathic piece of paper that made people see what they were meant to see being the first part that made me smile, ecclestons portrayal of the doctor ad-libbing that his breath was a gift being the other. 

Still this Doctor had something hiding behind the eyes something the others never had we saw a part of it when Rose asked him where he was from. The snappiness, the anger and the hurt that was put across tricked the viewer into thinking that the doctor was just irritated with the question and didn't want to reveal his people or the power they had. His way of apologising to Rose (by enabling her phone to call her mum 5 million years in the past was nice touch) shows that this is a doctor that will not apologise with words but with acts of kindness. 

Moving on from this the plot chugged along at a reasonable rate and started to reveal itself as pretty much a standard who plot however by the end it all revealed itself to be a charade. A smoke and mirrors exercise all put together for what can only be 2 minutes of the real reason for the plot and one of the biggest shocks that somehow I had managed to avoid during all the spoilers the new series and I’m glad I had. 

With Rose (the reasons of which were for the new main plot to be expanded) confined to a room the Doctor had a temporary new companion in the tree person Jabe who was wonderfully played by Yasmin Bannerman. She played the character of Jabe with just the right amount of knowledge and yet at the same time a sense of humanity one of the most powerful scenes has to be the act of kindness she shows the Doctor by saying she was "sorry for what had happened". Eccleston himself proved exactly why he deserves to be in big blockbuster movies and is such a character actor with tears welling in his eye's you couldn't help to be moved by the whole scene (even though it could only have been 30 - 60 seconds in total). 

The ending of the story will probably be the part that will get the most criticism and for reasons of spoiler fairness I must ask that if you haven't seen the story look away now because if you haven't this will really annoy you.

The Doctor lets someone die; he doesn't try to help them he lets them die. He stands there and watches someone die without any remorse or attempt to help them he just watches it and lets it happen. This was the man who would try to save anyone and yet now he watches people die. 

We were of course privy to at least why he had changed so much when Rose stood there saying she had missed the end of world and that no one had seen the earths final moments and lamented that all of earths history and it's people (her people) were gone he took her back to her time and let her see it was all still there and revealed that he was the last of time lords and all clicked in to place. 

The Doctor may have always been a galactic hobo, a traveller but his home was still there. Gallifrey and the time lords were in the background everything he was and had been made into was still there for him. With this Doctor it wasn't, it was gone he was the only one left of his race, no friends, no Romana, no history. With that moment you understood why he was the way he was and why this Doctor would try to save species and race's (the Nestine consciousness) but for the individuals who had no wish to play by rules and wanted death and destruction for power, glory or money he would have no mercy. This Doctor is one to watch and although Eccleston has left, I still can't wait for the eleven other episodes and this episode left me with only one question:

"Who is powerful enough to destroy the time lords"?

PS It's a rhetorical question by the way please, don't respond!

I was very impressed by the first episode, "Rose", but there's a few things that made me cringle in this second episode. 

I'm probably one of the biggest Doctor Who fans around and I really want to see it succeed. If it is to do that the effects need to improve. The story itself was exceptional. Very original entertaining and fun as hell, but a few things almost made the whole thing fall apart for me.

The digital animation outside the platform and in space where just horrid. I happen to own a 3D animation studio and some of the demo reels I get from amatures look better than this. The models are too simplistic looking, textures are plain, the lighting is all wrong, and the animation itself is jittery. Not smooth at all. Better lighting could have done wonders. Now when I refer to lighting I'm talking about the lights set up in the 3D software as well as shader attributes like phong. the platform looked plastic and not metal. Too much phong shading. It all just looks cheap. 

The sun and Earth blowing up was just cheap particle effects that where not convincing at all. The planet explosions in Star Trek are far better.

As for the indoor effects...

The spiders often did not blend in with the scene and the shadows didn't match. No shadow being given off by the egg in one scene. Also the blades, though they looked pretty cool all had the exact same texture map. Each blade should have had a variation of the texture. It just looks bizarre when each blade looks weathered exactly the same. 

As a 3D animator myself I know they could have done much better on the same budget. It's just the guy (s) doing these effects are not very good. I don't expect Star Wars quality stuff from a TV budget but come on you can't get away with such shoddy effects these days. These scenes are probably what made the Sci Fi channel say it's lacking and they where right.

I love Doctor Who and I just hate seeing less than 100% effort being put into it. Hire a professional 3D animator next season.

A few things like the Tardis somehow telepathically translating alien languages into human just seemed totally unplausable as well as the cell phone attachment to call mum from 5 billion years into the past. The show needs to stick to plausable science or it's going to fail. Telepathy and mind stuff always turns me off.

Over all though it was a great story. Iloved the humor and at the end of the day I was very entertained. 

Oh and not to nick pick but on the closeup of the spindle the Doctor rotates in the Tardis you can see numbers on it and it's in english. They need to watch those little details. They obviously used some junk part and forgot about the numbers written on the part. file those numbers off. Details!

I really hate being negative about Doctor Who because I am a huge fan, but I call it like I see it, but hey the story was fantastic overall.