Well, having just sat down and watched 'The End of the World', I am extremely impressed that Russell T Davies has managed to put together a script which starts off humourous in the extreme, before becoming extremely tense and dramatic. Anyone who felt that Rose was too lightweight, and focussed on wit to the detriment of a dramatic plot, will almost certainly be pleasantly surprised by this new offering. It's a great all-rounder in the true spirit of the show.

The Doctor takes Rose to Platform One in the year 5 Billion, where he wishes to allow her the chance to witness the Earth's natural end. Rose, however, is not the only one assembled to view the planet's ultimate destruction. A cornucopia of aliens have also assembled on the station, but one of them is a murderer and a saboteur. Before long, the Doctor and Rose are fighting for their lives, because the end of the world is coming, and it'll go out in a blaze of glory...

Russell T Davies script manages to almost flow flawlessly on from 'Rose', with the wit of that episode being the driving force of the first 10-15 minutes. After that, however, it begins to move into its own territory - that of tense drama. We move from humourous scenes of the Doctor breathing all over aliens, to the other end of the spectrum, with the Doctor depressed over the extermination of his entire race. Russell's script is ambitious, and it works well.

There does indeed seem to be a story arc in place over the course of this series, with more references in this episode about a "war", which after two episodes we now know involved both the Nestene Consciousness and the Time Lords of Gallifrey. The fact that it's been clearly sign-posted that the Doctor is the only Time Lord left in the entire universe is a sobering thought, but it does explain the run-down appearance of his TARDIS. Let's hope they don't bugger it up, eh?

Generally the acting from all involved in superb, with top marks to Billie Piper for managing to echo the feelings Ian and Barbara felt 42 years ago when they went on their first trip in the TARDIS. Her initial enthusiasm quickly turns into shock and horror as she realises she didn't understand what she was letting herself in for. The assembled guest cast all do a superb job, with not a single person letting the side down. Zoe Wanamaker does a brilliant job as Cassandra!

The production values of this story are uniformly great, with the interior realisation of Platform One looking suitably superb. The sets for this story are so good, it's hard to tell if they are dressed-up locations, or actual physical sets the BBC Wales team constructed. Oh well - whatever the case, it works well, with a lovely leisurely interior for the station. Costuming is generally very lavish, and the production values generally avoid looking like a Star Trek rip-off.

Special effects-wise is where the story really shines. Russell T Davies was ambitious by featuring the character of Cassandra in the first place, so top marks to The Mill for creating such a realistic CGI character. The exterior shots of Platform One are breathtaking, as are the shots of Earth and it's Sun - both before and after "detonation". The robotic spider creatures are also a great piece of work, well realised. The final action sequence is supported well here.

Murray Gold's music manages to take a slightly more subdued approach when compared to his work for 'Rose', which goes some way towards proving that his choice of incidental score for that episode was a deliberate choice. Here we are treated to a much more traditional orchestral score, with some truly lovely touches. The music is never too intrusive on the main soundtrack, thus allowing it to serve its purpose well - to heighten the drama, and not swamp it. Top stuff.

Euros Lyn's direction is pretty smooth, with some lovely camera angles allowing us to really feel the breath and scope of this story. A lot of people are complaining that the series is being shot on Digibeta, but at the end of the day it's clear when watching this series that it does look damn nice, with the whole thing looking very expensive, and not at all cheap. The new series continues the show's long standing tradition of filming everything on videotape - which is cool.

Overall, 'The End of the World' is an absolute triumph for the new series, but more importantly, for the state of British sci-fi on TV. It proves that the British have what it takes to match the Americans shot-for-shot when it comes to producing space opera-style sci-fi, with Russell T Davies scope being nothing short of breathtaking. Euros Lyn brings it all together in a wonderful package that actually had me crying by the end, I was so moved. Bring on episode 3!

Overall Score: 6 / 6 (Perfect)

It truly is a wonderful experience to get to Saturday, and be able to enjoy a brand new episode of Doctor Who. Absence, for many of us, has made the heart grow fonder. And even though I love many stories in the Comics, the Audios and the Books – TV tops them all in the sheer anticipation stakes.

We had a story set in the present to launch. Now it was time to go to the Future (the next goes to the Past – so the Triangle is complete). The Future is my least favourite place to go of the 3, to be honest. I’ve always favoured the pseudo Historical story type over all else – but after Russell T Davies boundless enthusiasm I was hopeful that for once Future would be better. I was expecting something special, with really weird aliens.

I don’t think we got something really special, but the weird aliens were out in force. After basking in my peers backslaps for a week, I knew I wouldn’t be as comfortable on the Monday morning in the office. This was the kind of Who that alienate many, because it really is so far away from their world. Personally I think far away from the normal world is a good thing – but even I cringed a little at various slices of the bizarre presented here.

The monsters of Doctor Who are an acquired taste. Personally I’m not monster obsessed. Doctor Who is brilliant with or without them. Certainly the monsters at the End of the World divided my house, with their alien-ness. Cassandra was the best – a brilliant comment on the excesses and vanity of this world we live in. The Droids, with their Spider robots, were superb – a golden star for the Special Effects Team. The Trees were marvellous too, especially Jabe – all credit to the Costume and Make Up there. The Moxx was a disappointment though. After adorning the DWM cover, I expected something more from a character our beloved leader has harped on about since he began devising this enterprise. My opinion of the background aliens was that I was glad they stayed in the background – can’t think of one I wanted more at the forefront.

So that’s the aliens – and to be honest, now I have written about them I see I reacted more positively than negatively. Maybe subconsciously I loved it all (probably that DW fan gene that makes me love all Doctor Who!). 

The script positively jumped with energy. There were some lovely comments by all the major players that had me nodding my head in approval, and throwing my head back in laughter. This was the kind of script that Douglas Adams would have been proud of – a kind of hybrid of serious and comedy futuristic Sci-Fi. What strikes me is how impressively Russell T has written the Doctor and Rose – especially Rose. Interviews with Russell T indicate he would rather have been the companion than the Doctor – and his grasp of how brilliant the Doctors companion can be, emphasizes this. Billie Piper is brilliant in this episode – and for a great deal of it she is very much on her own, the Doctor going off doing his own thing, with Jabe more a companion for large chunks of the story.

The 9th Doctor is now like one of your favourite relatives that you really get on with, but will only be around for a few weeks. Soon they will be heading off out of your life again, only to pop back every now and again. We haven’t had enough of Doctor Number 9 for me to be happy or sad about his leaving – but I know so far he’s been brilliant. I also know, like all the other Doctors he will always be around, even though Christopher Eccleston is departing. I’m actually more excited about a 2nd Series than the lead departing. DW has always been so much bigger and broader than one single personality – and it is no different now.

The Special FX was the major star of The End of the World. I am currently doing a Time Team, and have nearly finished Pat Troughtons Doctor – it’s an incredible contrast between The Seeds of Death (which I watched the afternoon before) and new DW. And I l love that contrast – I really do. As the series was then the FX are state of the art – but after 240 Black and White episodes, it all looks so marvellously real. I can’t think of one ropey effect in this show, and we have been reliably informed there’s hundreds of FX set-ups within. Brilliant FX, and I really felt there on Platform One watching the end of the world.

This Russell T script was also notable for its Last Time Lord references. I find is hugely interesting to see where this goes. After following the 8th Doctor arc in the BBC Books for the last few years, where Gallifrey was destroyed – I can’t help but think of that. But would the TV programme pick up a Book notion? Or, as I suspect, has Russell T taken Justin Richards marvellous idea to destroy the Time Lords, and leave the Doctor wonderfully alone? It will be fascinating to see.

I thought the conclusion with the Doctor and Rose in present day (Chips and all that) was glorious. It kind of shows my preferences in storytelling though that the few minutes I enjoyed the best was not at all representative of the story as a whole!

The End of the World was above everything else supremely entertaining. It might not be my kind of Doctor Who, but it still has a place in the mass of ideas that DW can present. There were some marvellous scenes (Doctor conquering the Ventilation fans, Cassandra exploding, the World finishing, the Doctors emotion at being the last Time Lord). There’s a mass of wonder here – mostly brilliantly diverse and entertaining. I am loving this new series – even more than I expected. 7/10

However much I would like to pretend otherwise, I must confess to finding The End of the World somewhat disappointing. It reminds me of watching a horse race, willing your favourite on, seeing it trying mightily only to eventually come in fourth; one of those stories where the more you think about it, the less satisfied you become.

Perhaps I should address some positive aspects first. Once again the Doctor and Rose make a fine combination, their on-screen chemistry truly being something to appreciate. The humour was also enjoyable, generally hitting the mark well - "I give you air from my lungs" and the I-pod jukebox being particularly memorable. What story there was to execute I thought was executed proficiently, although I have some reservations about the general style of the new series, which I shall discuss shortly.

The episode has one major fault, almost unforgivable for Dr Who: a weak villain. Cassandra was certainly very amusing and would have fitted in well amongst the cornucopia of aliens on show, but not as our hero's main adversary. Rose's quick put-down is, unfortunately, most accurate, as there was really nothing more to Cassandra; she was a "bitchy trampoline" rather than a true villian. Feel free to differ, but I think Meglos was more menacing! I doubt the Doctor, or even a five year old, will wake screaming with nightmarish flashbacks of Cassandra.

The setting of the story was reasonably interesting, but very reminiscent of Douglas Adams' Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and without a decent enemy to distract us, simply comes across as unoriginal. Let's not get confused - Dr Who has often payed homage to other stories, or translated them into its own unique format. This was not the case with The End of the World, it was not a nod to RatEotU at all. This, combined with the mediocrity of its villain, means that viewers get to see nothing significant that they really haven't seen before and denies them the opportunity to experience what has made this program so special and different over the years.

Two episodes down and I remain unconvinced that this new 45 minute per story format is working. What might suit other genre programs does not necessarily suit Dr Who, because we have only two regulars and with each new story we are (usually) introduced to an entirely new scenario, often strange even for a sci-fi series (I adore that "left-field" quality of good Dr Who), which necessarily takes some time in order to properly appreciate. This is not helped at all by the breakneck speed at which events are flung at us. The opening credits, not bad in themselves, give us a good indication that this is indeed the producer's aim (compare it to the more leisurely pace of Tom Baker's time tunnel opening). Now, whilst speed is good for action or for effect here and there, it can detract from mystery, suspense and horror. Of course, I don't see the makers even trying to change this style, and I realise today's viewer is more capable of immediately identifying a concept and moving on. So can I, but I don't have to like it. I prefer ideas to be more fleshed out. I suppose this style just doesn't wash with the spoon-fed, attention deficit crowd. Maybe new/young viewers don't understand the misgivings of older fans, but remember: there wouldn't be Dr Who without an older fan base, and those who grew up with the program probably have a fair idea of what worked and what didn't. Nor do I believe they are especially adverse to more modern storytelling; they just want it to remain faithful to some of the basics (of Dr Who and storytelling in general) and by all means update the rest and improve it where you can.

A few random comments. There was good acting across the board. Nice to see some decent special effects. A pity all those aliens, except for one tree and a steward, had absolutely nothing to do (loved the Face of Boag, could have done without the blue Oompa-Loompas). Some suspense managed to be generated in the second half, only it was all over too quickly to savour.

I'll keep watching, that's for sure. I'm not pining for a traditional story, but at the moment would prefer one. Perhaps The Unquiet Dead fits that bill...

I liked Rose. I really did. I didn’t love it – perhaps if I’d watched it ten more times in the week leading up to the second episode, I’d have ended up adoring it… or analysing it to death, like so many of those who downloaded Rose weeks before its initial broadcast. But I knew this was not the way to properly view this new series. I watched Rose once on broadcast, with my family, then a second time alone in the dark. So I had the regular-viewing-audience experience, and the obsessive-fan experience. And that worked quite well. So I decided to do the same thing with each following episode.

So, The End of the World. The pre-titles sequence worked more effectively than I expected – that’ll teach me. I was dreading the line about “the year Five Billion” – a Fifties sci-fi idea if ever I’d heard one. (Of all the dumb luck – the Earth explodes in exactly Five Billion AD?) But then the line changed. Regenerated, if you will. It wasn’t Five Billion AD. In its place, a very clever line that immediately restored my faith in the writing skills of Russell T. Davies. I sighed with relief.

Once the episode got properly started, I began to feel… comfortable. A space station, a gaggle (or whatever) of aliens, murders, intrigue… this was the Doctor Who I grew up with. The Moxx of Balhoon, for instance, looked, spoke and acted like a classic Who monster, despite his regrettably small role. And of course it was contemporary. Just as Sarah Jane’s hairstyle was contemporary. And Dodo’s taste in clothes. Et cetera. I loved the contemporary style, even more than in Rose. Surprisingly, the songs worked, as did the jabs at beauty therapy and the National Trust.

The Doctor and Rose are finally getting to know each other – as Rose points out, she hardly knew the Doctor when she jumped onboard his ship. But now they’re bonding. They’re bickering, they’re bantering… they’re slowly becoming friends.

Some of these scenes were golden, the stuff great Who – and great television – are made of. I especially cite the short scene between Rose and the blue cockney vertically-challenged plumber. (I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed writing that description.) And the scene between the Doctor and Jabe, where – in my second viewing, at least – I saw a tear fall across the Doctor’s face. Wow. This wasn’t what I expected. I can’t imagine Tom Baker’s Doctor weeping. Or even the slightly wet Peter Davison. But then again, neither of their Doctors saw their home burn. This is a war-ravaged Doctor, a Doctor who let Jabe sacrifice herself because he’s now truly learned about the nature of survival. A Doctor who destroys Cassandra because, as he puts it, “everybody dies”. And all his family, all his friends… they’re all gone.

Thankfully, he has Rose. And she tells him so in a beautiful, poignant end rivalled only by the end of Survival, all those years ago. “Somewhere else the tea’s getting cold”? That’s as may be, Professor, but Rose wants chips.

So I liked Rose. It was quite good. But I really liked The End of the World. It was very good. The fact is, this is real Doctor Who. A space station, a whodunnit, the Doctor and his companion arguing, an “ensemble” finale with practically the entire cast, a comic-book villain, a big explosion… this is Doctor Who.

Don’t believe me? Did you even see those corridors?

So what are we going to learn about the Doctor as his travels continue; this very modern Time Lord and his very contemporary travels? This second episode of the first (and only) series to star Christopher Eccleston was an exhaustive journey through the extremes of time travel, that which takes its passengers to the end of the world itself, but also hinted at potentially explosive details of the Doctor's own life.

Now that dust has, to a degree, settled upon the return of Doctor Who, perhaps more focus can be placed on the content of the individual episodes, of which this was the first to hint at the blossoming relationship between the Doctor and Rose. In "The End of the World", the Doctor takes his new companion to just that, a bizarre tourist spectacle of the death of Earth. Amongst a gathering of the peculiar aliens of the galaxies, the Doctor encounters the self-styled last human on Earth, whose own plot to get rich from a none-too-clear business plot is thwarted in double-quick time.

Certainly this episode was in fast-forward, and with a story as potentially muti-layered as this, more the pity that a Part II does not exist. Too much in this episode was left as a glossy sheen, nothing deeper than hints and allegations. An old-fashioned cliff hanger could have been structured to help with the audiences understanding of Rose, her relationship with the Doctor and so on. Just as the sun visers were falling, just as Rose was exhausted with trying, imagine the theme tune screaming in then! Sadly, it can only be imagination, for this new series appears to have no time for genuine nail-baiting tension. Whilst both Billie Piper and Christopher Eccleston shone in this episode, the former quite brilliantly, neither had the chance to save this episode from being a clutch of missed opportunities.

The interesting jewel in all this dust must be the possibility that the Eccleston Doctor will prove to have more a more complex, more dimensional character than any before him; he has been written well this year. His bursts of anger and emotion are genuine, and the information about Gallifrey and he being the last remaining Time Lord should have fans stroking their chins for a while. Just what role does a solitary Time Lord have, exactly, and will we have the chance to find out? Certainly Eccleston seems to have given his status a little weight and gravitas.

If all this 'save you in the nick of time' stuff is a little too much even for the committed fan-base, then celebrate the strength of the minor characters, who did the best with a story no-one could really save from being too thin. Lady Cassandra was a very clever pastiche, and the Forest of Cheem was represented by a very well designed trio, of which applause to the very well acted Yasmin Bannerman. Incidentally, applause to Billie Piper for looking genuinely bemused and confused by the introductory mingling of the crowd. 

I wondered if it was possible for this series to be as close to perfect as my imagination could wonder, although thus far I am having to have all my predictions put in check by reality. Surely no-one can forgive the 'mobile phone a billion years' scene, however 'in touch with reality' it was supposed to be. I am not yet disappointed - this was a good episode - but how far towards 'mainstream drama' and how far from 'Doctor Who' is this series to go?

It’s been a long while since televised Doctor Who ventured out into space with hordes of weird and wonderful alien creatures ready to confront the viewer. That Russell T Davies and the rest of the BBC Wales production team decided to leap in and create such a story for only the second episode of the relaunched Doctor Who could be regarded as either brave or foolhardy – the audience had become expectant of a high standard of visual effects from such ventures in recent years, and even in 2005, on a BBC budget, or even a British television budget in general, matching US television space opera and Hollywood movies was never really going to be on the cards.

So it’s a tribute to all involved that they get away with it – the CGI may not be Hollywood stuff but it more than passes muster, the only example which I felt looked a little cartoonish being Cassandra’s mouth, but as Zoe Wannamaker was so busy making such a great character out of her I don’t suppose too many people were really that fussed by it. By turns filthy, bitchy, vain and devious, Cassandra is a wonderful example of just how well-written the dialogue and how well-created the visuals of new Doctor Who can be.

She’s not alone in the alien stakes, however – officiated over by the Steward, played with great relish by Simon Day, all manner of strange beings are gathering on Platform One, to watch the end of the planet Earth, which is now we are told owned by the National Trust. The National Trust of where is another matter of course, but it’s a harmless cultural reference that is amongst many to sneak into the script and go unquestioned – unquestioned because they’re so joyous and they make us laugh. The labelling of the likes of Britney Spears and Soft Cell as ‘classical music’ may be a steal from Vicki’s line about the Beatles in The Chase, but I’ll forgive Russell T Davies that for the equally good one about the jukebox being an iPod – history, it seems, always gets the details wrong.

The alien creatures are what this episode was perhaps always going to be judged by from the point of view of a channel-hopping viewer, so we are indeed lucky that they look so good. The Face of Boe, the Trees, and of course the near-legendary Moxx of Balhoon. Never has a Doctor Who monster’s appearance been so eagerly-awaited, given all of Davies’ cheeky hints and throwaway remarks about the character in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine over the past eighteen months or so. I have to admit I expected there to be no such character, or if there were for it merely to be referred to but never seen, but no – here the Moxx is in all his small blue glory, although in the event he only gets a few lines on screen before eventually being fried to a crisp.

That the Moxx does get so little to say and do is however mainly due to the all-round excellence of the supporting characters and the actors who portray them in general, making this surely one of the most textured and realistic ofDoctor Who’s forays into the far future and the depiction of alien races. It’s already looking as if any ‘Best Supporting Character’ poll at the end of this season is going to be hotly contested, and two of those who will doubtless feature in the final reckoning turn up here, in the forms of the plumber and Jabe.

Yasmin Bannerman is nothing short of sensational as Jabe, treating the role of a tree person – which, let’s face it, must hardly be any actor’s dream role – with great seriousness and sensitivity. Bannerman’s performance coupled with Russell T Davies’ dialogue is wonderful, and her obvious rapport with Eccleston’s Doctor makes the scenes between the two of them a joy to behold, the most obvious example being the wonderful sequence where Jabe confronts the Doctor with her knowledge of who he is, and consoles him on what has happened to his race. This makes her demise towards the end of the episode all the more poignant, and really rather upsetting, packing more of an emotional impact than the deaths of most other supporting characters from down the years.

The plumber has a much smaller part to play, but is also wonderfully portrayed, and helps Rose to realise what this episode is partially all about her learning – that ‘aliens are people too’, so to speak. The only missed-step with this character is the fact that Rose never learns of her demise, which would perhaps have reinforced the message and underlined her sympathy for the plumber, both for Rose herself and for the watching audience.

Rose is also involved with what I felt was probably the main structural fault of the episode, in that after she’s been saved by the Doctor from the lowering of the sun shield she’s simply left locked in a room on her own with no way of getting out, sitting out the end of the episode without much to say or do, and there’s no explanation of how she does eventually get out, although we can I suppose assume that some of the Platform’s crew eventually opened the door for her. 

This wasn’t the only plot point that niggled, however – the ease and convenience of the transmat recall device to bring Cassandra back, and the fact that there’s a big handy ‘computer reset’ button located at the other end of a Galaxy Quest-style obstacle also grated. The biggest problem I had, however, was the overuse of the sonic screwdriver as an all-purpose ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card – exactly the sort of easy option John Nathan-Turner regarded it as and why he had it written out of the series. It’s not that I don’t like it as a device – it’s always been a nice contrast to other heroic TV characters that the Doctor carries a tool rather than a weapon – but I think it could be produced a little more sparingly. The psychic paper was another instance of such a device, but as it seems likely to be a one-off I’ll let that one go.

Such flaws are, however, easily made up for by everything else in the episode. Whilst I’d hope for tighter plotting in other episodes, the scintillating dialogue, packed with wit and vigour and really making all of the characters come alive, the wonderful creation of the aliens and the sets and the ideas behind the episode mean there’s so much here to like that criticism begins to feel a little bit churlish. Best of all, there’s that wonderful sense of mystery and enigma about the Doctor, which should always be at the very heart of the series, back again – more mention of this mysterious ‘war’ which he spoke to the Nestene Consciousness about last week, his confession to Rose that he is the last of his people and the fact that his planet has been destroyed. Where all this is leading I can only guess at, but it’s wonderful to have that sense of uncertainty back in the programme in a narrative form once more.

It wasn’t the only poignancy to the episode, however – Rose’s realisation that the world she knew is five billion years dead after her miraculous phone call to her mother, and later her lines about nobody seeing as the Earth died are all equally as affecting. All that history, and nobody saw it go… Well, if nobody saw that, plenty saw this End of the World, and I’m sure most of them will, like me, are very glad to have done so.