An excellent episode which built nicely on the themes raised in Aliens of London.

Personally, I cannot see why people are complaining about the Slytheen. Do they want Doctor Who or not? What was the main ingredient of the original series? Men in rubber suits, that's what - and I felt that these suits were far better than some of the old ones we have had to contend with.

So they had baby-like faces. Big deal! What is this unwritten rule that seems to state that all aliens have to look absolutely evil just because they are, well....evil!

Is it beyond the realms of imagination to accept that there can be nice, cute looking aliens that are completely ruthless? What about the Drahvins - cute sexy blondes! And I won't even mention Beep the Meep!!!!

I admit, the suits in motion were a little embarassing - the heads were too wobbly and they looked like one of those shaking head dogs found on the back shelf of a car. However, the smoothness of the CGI shots of them running through Number 10 made up for it - you could see the muscles moving on their bodies.

On to other points. What other TV show would dare to destroy 10 Downing Street with a missile fired from one of our own submarines? Not an easy thing to show on screen but again I thought well done - not the most spectacular explosion you'll see but very satisfying all the same.

The cliffhanger from the previous week was again approched in a clever way - the Doctor saving not only himself but, unknowingly, Rose, Hilary and Jackie. The tri-cliffhanger itself was a marvellous idea - if you want a good cliffhanger, you have to have the Doctor and/or companion in danger, but we know that they will survive. However, by adding Jackie to the mix as well - we just can't be sure that she won't be torn to shreads, can we? (Well, ok, the true fans know she is in later stories, but the general public don't so have to tune back in to see if she cops it or not!).

The plot was simple, but effective, and unravelled at a logical and sensible pace. The use of Mickey and Rose's 'Superphone' was another clever idea. We have our hero trapped in a room, but still able to save the day. It was nice to see Mickey get some of the 'hero' about him. Coward he may be, but he showed his mettle when push came to shove.

Of course, there has to be some gripes, but these are mostly small, and in some cases, personal ones. The fact that after the Doctor had put the Secretary's body in the cupboard, said sorry and then walked away, you could see in the changeover of shot that the Prime Minister's body had somehow managed to prop itself up a bit!! The fact that the Doctor said there was no one in UNIT he could contact as they were all 'dead downstairs'. What about good old Alistair!!!! Yes, I know that we don't want to much reliance on the old series and risking alienating the new audience, but as UNIT had featured so prominently, I don't see that a quick scene over the Superphone would have made a difference. The fact that it would then have had to change the rest of the storyline...........!

What else? How did Mickey manage to target the missile on Number 10? It was never explained to him and he managed to set the co-ordinates as if he'd done it all his life. Similarly, he was able to stop anything else from intercepting the missile just because the Doctor told him to - 'I'm doing it' - with again no directions at all.

Finally, as much as I do like the Ninth Doctor, I wish he could be a bit more friendly (and I dont mean grin more)! Humans are supposed to be his favourite species, but the way he treats Mickey and Jackie, and talks about them, does not reflect this. He was more concerned about the pig! This does not make him unlikeable, and it could be argued that he manages to pull off very successfully what Colin Baker tried to do with his Doctor, but I do wish he could be a bit more personable to others.

All in all though, a nice episode - 8/10 for this one, and probably 7/10 for the story as a whole.

Straight to the point - I disliked Aliens of London (AOL), many of the component parts were strong, but overall it was poor. As a result WW3 gave me concern and I doubted that I would have anything positive to say.

The first ten minutes of WW3 carried on in part where Aliens of London left off. Notably with juvenile running aliens straight from a Benny Hill sketch, pointless farting and the aliens popping in and out of the human’s skins to continuously use the Beeb’s latest special effect.

Then something most unexpected happened, I started enjoying it. The plot seemed to run out of the effects of the production teams enforced eight cans of red bull and everything started to calm down. With the change in pace the quality of acting by the regulars shot through the roof and the storyline started to appear well thought out and provided clever twists. The fact the Slitheen were a family and not a race was a cunning plot that the show had not before offered, in truth this almost explained some of the silliness from AOL.

For someone who hates soaps I am finding the relationship between the Doctor, Rose and her family an interesting storyline and one that brings a new side to the role of the assistant. Christopher Eccleston, who at times looked lost in AOL, again settled down as the Doctor throughout WW3. Christopher’s superb treatment of hatred of one on ones with Rose’s mum, his off – on relationship to Ricky (sic) and his subtle displays of the Doctor’s inner feelings and loneliness gives the ninth Doctor an interesting new, but yet identifiably old, persona.

I will never rate AOL/WW3 as one of my favourite Doctor Who’s but the WW3 element ensured it rose above the Underwater Menace / Paradise Towers concerns I held last week.

Bring on the Dalek my faith in Doctor Who has been restored.

I was feeling pretty good about the new series through Rose, knowing it needed time to bed down. Episode 2 was amusing but some of the more irritating bits of the first episode remained but then I thought The Unquiet Dead was a serious piece of business.

Then it went a bit funny again. Don't get me wrong, I liked Aliens of London very much, but it had too much of a spoof about it, the farting aliens were particularly annoying. Some of the lines made me wince and the over-acting (a la Space Quest) of a couple of the aliens got very tired.

I love the development of Rose's story and the effect her disappearance from the Earth had on those around her, something that was never really explored before that and it brings a good emotional level to the series we rarely saw before. Rose could just as well be Ace, but we didn't see much about emotion when Ace came 'home.' (I think it was Ghost Light). Rose is coming along well as a companion but the litmus test will of course be how she handles the Daleks.

World War III, though, was not as good as one might have expected. The aliens were cool as they rampaged through Number 10, but, again, there were irritating, puerile things about the story that others have already pointed out in previous reviews for other eps - namely the really poor incidental music and the reliance on some dud gags to move things along. And the security forces were too thick for words. UNIT barely rated a mention through the story and here was Mickey breaking into the UN with a weak password like buffalo. You have to be kidding, right?

Christopher Eccleston also returned to his grinning loon interpretation that I had hoped to be gone after first-ep nerves and in some parts of the story appeared a little too callous for my liking. The Doctor is a compassionate guy and wouldn't have previously watched a companion struggle to get through a door to safety with a silly wave from the lift. And I'm over the re-born sonic screwdriver. Where are the Sontarans when you need them?

Technically the episode was good, the aliens looked terrific as I've already said and the editing was good if a little disjointed in parts. The wreckage of Number 10 was quite convincing and the way Harriet Jones took off to take control while Rose and the Doctor slipped away was nice.

On a story level, Russell T Davies' attempt to trash corporate greed just plain missed the mark. There are so many cool ways to do that and this isn't one of them. I know he had to find a motivation, but the fact it was all for the benefit of a family corporation was pretty dull and, it has to be said, predictable. How would I have done it? I don't know...but then, no-one has offered me the gig, so I'm not giving anything away. Pay me to think and I reckon I could do it. Are you listening, BBC? And the dismissal by the press that the whole thing was a hoax. Um...the PM's dead as is most of the cabinet and a fairly hefty chunk of the government's advisory committee. How was Harriet going to just step into the breach? Or maybe I need to watch that bit again.

The scripting remains good and exceptionally cohesive one story to the next, this is a great re-invention of the series. Rose gets good lines and the way the other characters react to Rose's slow de-sensitisation (?) to what's going on around her is a nice plot device - it's waking us up to the fact that where the Doctor goes, so does death and destruction. It started out as a sort of joke, but has evolved well and is woven into the story quite surreptitiously and then BAM, you're reminded.

Aliens and WWIII didn't do it for me but it certainly hasn't destroyed my faith in the series. Unquiet Dead was such a fine episode and the trailer for Dalek looks equally impressive. Aliens and WWIII were bankers, but entertaining enough.

Well I thought Aliens of London was great but this was immense!

World War III had everything from Penelope Wilton becoming Britain’s first non-Dalek woman prime minister to Mickey saving the day by firing a missile at Downing Street. (Good tie in with the BBC website, I was wondering how to get the password to the UNIT section!)

Plenty of character development too as the Doctor makes his peace with Mickey and Rose finally cuts the apron strings to commit herself to a future with the Doc.

The comedy in the episode (the look on the policeman’s face as he bursts in on the Slitheen) was well balanced by the drama as the Doctor wrestled with his conscience about putting Rose’s life at risk.

There was nothing in this story about the Time War, so I hope to hear more about this in the coming episodes.

Finally a word about the numerous complaints about Russell’s style, listen carefully, IT’S 2005 NOT 1975. Fans who remember the Doctor from twenty years or more ago have to accept that television and audience tastes have changed over that time. RTD had to completely reinvent the format in the same way Philip Hinchcliffe did to move it on. He has given us a rather insecure and damaged Doctor but these are insecure and damaged times and as we watch the story develop over the coming weeks we will hopefully understand more about why he is behaving in the way that he is.

I would much rather see a flawed hero like Russell’s Doctor that any number of bouffant buffoons and vapid vellour clad bimbos in Trek or such like pap any day.

In any event, BRING ON THE DALEKS.

The previous episode was not quite the disaster other reviewers have made it out to be. Truthfully, there were some serious flaws, most of which created by the decision to return to Rose's time and place - a decision I understand if not one that I agree with. A grounding in reality (well a reality comparable to that on display in a typical episode of Eastenders, anyhow) can certainly be conducive to compelling horror but I don't think this has been sucessfully employed as of yet. The Autons of episode one could definately have been much scarier. The real problem, however was the melodrama that accompanied the setting. Micky/Ricky is just annoying, I'm afraid. Having said that, I think the (eventual) appearance of the Slitheen redeemed the episode. The speed at which the dubious humour drained out of the show to be replaced by the genuinely strange and imposing aliens was truly impressive. So I had high hopes for the conclusion to the story - and I wasn't disappointed.

The Doctor's triumph as the episode reconvened (expertly emerging from the recap of the prior installment) was accompanied by the disheartening fact that every one else in the room was not so lucky. Ecclestone is capable of considerable menace himself, even in his diluted and less successful 'light-hearted' moments. His seriousness (more the accumulated result of other roles than his performances in Who) lends the programme real credibility. When he says the world is doomed, the audience believes him. It is a considerable shame that this will be his only series, as it was largely his work that made the start of this episode so engaging. Some of the chase scenes which followed were a little too comical for my liking but the volume of casualties already amassed by this point demand that we take the story seriously. This is quite a brave move and compensates, somewhat, for last week's overly humorous episode.

The Slitheen are reminiscent of something from a Roald Dahl story. They have an exaggerated, immature grotesqueness about them. I think it works well for the most part. The fact that 'Slitheen' is the name of their family and not their race was interesting as too often in sci-fi we are led to view an entire species of aliens as being wholly alike and evil, which is of course, an arrogant attitude. These particular creatures may well be an exception to an otherwise decent race. I felt this was a forgivable way to introduce the simplistic ethics, which are inevitably interwoven into every television programme these days, as I certainly wouldn't like humanity to be judged by the actions of a dozen individuals. Less forgivable were the subtle digs at contempary international affairs, which have become something of a myth in and of themselves lately. It's not that I think the conflict in Iraq was entered into in good faith its just that I've heard the same arguments too often. There's no conspiracy (as this episode repeatedly hinted) because our 'world leaders' are simply not smart enough. That's the problem. What we have is a confrontation with our own value system and the resulting shock that it is not universally accepted by the rest of the planet. Doctor Who provides an excellent opportunity to subvert this system and fortunately this was acknowledged when the victory over the Slitheen was described as a victory for 'humanity'. The real strength of the Doctor is that he is completely objective and has his own immutable moral code which is irrespective of time and place. Arguably the greatest challenge of a writer in this series is to be conscious of exactly what the Doctor's voice (as the 'voice of truth') is made to say, because he speaks from the ultimate ethical highground. It is far too easy to make him seem pretentious and self-righteous. I think the decision to show the Doctor's cruelty (with his allowing Cassandra to die in episode 3, for example) and hence his fallibility was an admirable one.

Fittingly the episode hinged on the Doctor's decision to destroy the Slitheen, even at the risk of destroying Rose and we are encouraged to see that (despite Ecclestone's impenetrable expression) not only would he do so without hesitation but that Rose would be willing to let him. The fact that this also involved the destruction of Downing street was an added bonus and a terrific conclusion to the threat, almost as spectacular as the collision with Big Ben. And the added fact the TARDIS did not return at the end of the episode as Rose promised is even more interesting. We may have returned to Rose's home but we have also blown it away irrevocably.

This was yet another fantastic episode of what is fast becoming one of the best programmes on TV. With the probable demise of Star Trek on the horizon, Doctor Who is already the best sci-fi series on the air. I, for one, cannot wait to see The Dalek, next week.

An excellent episode which built nicely on the themes raised in Aliens of London.

Personally, I cannot see why people are complaining about the Slytheen. Do they want Doctor Who or not? What was the main ingredient of the original series? Men in rubber suits, that's what - and I felt that these suits were far better than some of the old ones we have had to contend with.

So they had baby-like faces. Big deal! What is this unwritten rule that seems to state that all aliens have to look absolutely evil just because they are, well....evil!

Is it beyond the realms of imagination to accept that there can be nice, cute looking aliens that are completely ruthless? What about the Drahvins - cute sexy blondes! And I won't even mention Beep the Meep!!!!

I admit, the suits in motion were a little embarassing - the heads were too wobbly and they looked like one of those shaking head dogs found on the back shelf of a car. However, the smoothness of the CGI shots of them running through Number 10 made up for it - you could see the muscles moving on their bodies.

On to other points. What other TV show would dare to destroy 10 Downing Street with a missile fired from one of our own submarines? Not an easy thing to show on screen but again I thought well done - not the most spectacular explosion you'll see but very satisfying all the same.

The cliffhanger from the previous week was again approched in a clever way - the Doctor saving not only himself but, unknowingly, Rose, Hilary and Jackie. The tri-cliffhanger itself was a marvellous idea - if you want a good cliffhanger, you have to have the Doctor and/or companion in danger, but we know that they will survive. However, by adding Jackie to the mix as well - we just can't be sure that she won't be torn to shreads, can we? (Well, ok, the true fans know she is in later stories, but the general public don't so have to tune back in to see if she cops it or not!).

The plot was simple, but effective, and unravelled at a logical and sensible pace. The use of Mickey and Rose's 'Superphone' was another clever idea. We have our hero trapped in a room, but still able to save the day. It was nice to see Mickey get some of the 'hero' about him. Coward he may be, but he showed his mettle when push came to shove.

Of course, there has to be some gripes, but these are mostly small, and in some cases, personal ones. The fact that after the Doctor had put the Secretary's body in the cupboard, said sorry and then walked away, you could see in the changeover of shot that the Prime Minister's body had somehow managed to prop itself up a bit!! The fact that the Doctor said there was no one in UNIT he could contact as they were all 'dead downstairs'. What about good old Alistair!!!! Yes, I know that we don't want to much reliance on the old series and risking alienating the new audience, but as UNIT had featured so prominently, I don't see that a quick scene over the Superphone would have made a difference. The fact that it would then have had to change the rest of the storyline...........!

What else? How did Mickey manage to target the missile on Number 10? It was never explained to him and he managed to set the co-ordinates as if he'd done it all his life. Similarly, he was able to stop anything else from intercepting the missile just because the Doctor told him to - 'I'm doing it' - with again no directions at all.

Finally, as much as I do like the Ninth Doctor, I wish he could be a bit more friendly (and I dont mean grin more)! Humans are supposed to be his favourite species, but the way he treats Mickey and Jackie, and talks about them, does not reflect this. He was more concerned about the pig! This does not make him unlikeable, and it could be argued that he manages to pull off very successfully what Colin Baker tried to do with his Doctor, but I do wish he could be a bit more personable to others.

All in all though, a nice episode - 8/10 for this one, and probably 7/10 for the story as a whole.