When I reviewed New Earth on these pages last week, I had made the comment that Russell T Davies seemed to concoct his scripts from a shopping list of ingredients and then create a semblance of a plot by simply joining the dots together. One of my initial fears about Tooth and Claw had been that same worry, that it was a case of throwing in Queen Victoria, a Werewolf and some Monks and hoping that that was enough to divert an audience for 45 minutes, distracting attention away from the scantily dressed plot built up around it. Well for once I am glad to have been proved wrong, for virtually everything that New Earth did wrong last week, Tooth & claw did right this week.

Tooth and Claw on paper is of course probably the most traditionally old fashioned Doctor Who story since the Unquiet Dead, and while I wouldn’t for one minute suggest that this should be the template for all new Doctor Who, it certainly proved that the old Doctor Who formula can still hack it in a twenty first century context, without being drowned under a deluge of camp humour and pop culture references.

The humour for the most part was very witty and well handled, although what the Royal family (allegedly viewers of the new series if you believe the tabloids), would make of the various jokes at their expense is anybodys guess, is Russell T Davies a republican by any chance?

It is amazing that the series has took quite so long to do a werewolf, and after one false start, Mags in Greatest Show barely counts, we finally got a bonefide Doctor Who werewolf, and very well executed it was too. While I am sure someone somewhere will make the critiscism that it looked too CGI’d, I would remind them that this is television and the fact that Doctor Who is getting this standard of effects work at the moment is an achievement in itself. Despite shots of the creature being used sparingly, one was in no doubt that the creature was a feral force of nature. The effective two shot of the doctor and the Wolf separated only by a wall, was an image that certainly stuck in the memory, and I am sure for younger viewers this story provided many a behind the sofa moment.

The fact that the wolf was given a credible science fiction background also worked in the story’s favour without ever becoming bogged down in technobabble. Particularly well handled as well was the way the separate elements of the Queen, the Monks and the Wolf were tied together in the story, it could so easily have been written as coincidence that all three happened to end up in the same place, but each element had a pivotal role in advancing the story.

Queen Victoria once again proved a worthy addition to the new series rollcall of famous historical figures, and just as Simon Callow so ably did last year, Pauline Collins managed to tread the line remarkably well between portraying the theatrical aspect of the character most audiences would identify with, while adding just enough depth to make the character a living breathing person. That Doctor who is reintroducing these historical figures, which have often been poorly handled in the old series, can only be a good thing if they can maintain this calibre of actor. If only one child in a hundred gets the urge to look through a history book after watching, then the series is still fulfilling that educational remit it started with over forty odd years ago.

So to David Tennant’s second full appearance as the Doctor, last week he breezed through the whole story with an air of confidence that firmly cemented him as a Doctor, whether he will become a definitive Doctor remains to be seen. Tennant didn’t set a single foot wrong in Tooth and Claw, but has still not had a defining moment which has firmly established him in the part. Tennant has a tough call, he has the unenviable task of stamping his mark, on what for the last fifteen years has been a guest rather than a star part (McGann, Richard E Grant, Eccleston not to mention the Undound and comic relief Doctors) and which has fundamentally destroyed the identification most people built up with the character during its first twenty years. While Tennant has all the attributes to make a great Doctor, he still needs that defining moment, that will to us older viewers at least allow us to sit up and say this is the Doctor and not just a Doctor.

While Tennant’s Doctor may have been slightly underwritten in this story, I have also felt a subtle shift in the character of Rose. I was a huge fan of Rose during season 1 and the Christmas Invasion, but certainly in the last two stories, the character has had very few defining standout scenes, not that any of her stuff in this story was bad, but all of a sudden Rose seems to be less vital and more just a standard Doctor Who assistant and I am puzzled as to why this change has suddenly come about.

The revelation that Queen Victoria laid the seeds for Torchwood was an unexpected but welcome surprise. It will be interesting to see where the Torchwood theme is going this season and whether it will lead to a bone fide role for the organisation in the story arc, or whether it is all just an extended set up for the spin off series.

So all in all, a welcome return to form for the series after a rather uneven opener, a traditional Doctor Who story which while not really breaking any new ground, touched all the bases it needed to keep both the fans and the casual viewer happy. With some truly cinematic production values, and a Russell T Davies script that for once didn’t compromise the integrity of the show, Tooth and Claw I am sure will be fondly remembered by fans and viewers alike for many years to come.

It was said many times that the new series has taken some of its lead in characters and writing from shows such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel". Now that's been taken one step further and we have an episode that's got "Angel"-like subject matter, and more startlingly, a much more modern directing style never before seen in "Doctor Who," one which fits this story perfectly and gives a real shot of adrenalin straight to the heart of the production.

Though different directors came and went last season, it felt as though all of the episodes were following a "house style," which kept any one of them from looking too different from any other. Depending on the producer, this wasn't something the original series always did... often those directors were left to put whatever style they wanted into it. Euros Lyn seems to have been let off the leash here on "Tooth and Claw" (sorry), and we open with a wire-work martial arts sequence that wouldn't look out of place in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" or a Tarantino film, not just because it's wire-work martial arts but also because it's been differently lit and graded and shot at different frame rates than usual to get that "flicker" look going and to sometimes go into slow-motion. The camerawork throughout the rest of the episode is similarly uncoupled from the house style and allowed to go wherever the most tense shot is, with the biggest "signature" moment of this being the one where the Doctor and the werewolf are listening for each other through the wall of the house's study. Murray Gold on the music has clearly been given different orders this week as well, as he matches this change of style with a total makeover of his own, producing what is by far his best score for the series. I very much hope these are standing orders and that this trend will continue in future weeks, both on the directing and the music. This was the best directed episode of "Doctor Who" since Graeme Harper last worked on the series. (oh and look, here _he_ comes again in a couple weeks... eek)

This plot seemed a lot tighter this week too. Often in the new series (and no, it's not just in RTD's episodes) certain details get glossed over for fear of putting brakes on the plot (and judging by the popularity of the series with the general public, this seems to be a good tradeoff), but in this episode I couldn't see any weaknesses or holes at all.... with the possible exception of the question of what happened to all the monks outside at the end, but with both the wolf (the object of their worship) and their leader dead, I suppose it's an easy dot to connect that they'd have legged it, though it would've been nice to have one shot of them doing so. But everything else... the set-up of the telescope and the diamond, the mistletoe, the nature of the wolf as a slow-acting infection from another planet, the monks coming to worship the wolf and the Host, the conspiracy between Sir Robert's father and Prince Albert... it was all laid in like a perfect jigsaw puzzle and paid off beautifully in the end. It reminded me a lot of the story in a "Tomb Raider" video game, or more precisely, another one called "Eternal Darkness" which also involved a telescope in a large spooky house. Oh, and it was all very tense and scary all the time too.

With everything that was going on, what with Queen Victoria, the kung-fu monks, and the werewolf, it was still the Doctor and Rose that came through with the finest moments in the story. The Doctor's best has to be when he goes all Giles on us and gets everyone to help him look up what the werewolf is in the library, but he has plenty of others as well such as going native with his accent or when he's suddenly being rude and checking himself, or when he bonds with Queen Victoria over how those who are gone never talk to us from beyond. That last exchange is just dripping in significance to me, given what we know the title of the second-to-last episode is going to be. Hmm. Rose's best moment is when she takes charge down in the cellar when everyone's chained up in front of the caged Host and takes it upon herself to ask it where it's from and so on, and then when she verbally slaps everyone else for just staring at the werewolf and instead gets them all to pull on the chain simultaneously so they can get away. Another thing that was dripping with significance was how the Host could spot the Bad Wolf within Rose... and we thought it was all over. Whether it was planned that way from the start or whether RTD has realized he really did need to explain the Bad Wolf stuff a bit more I can't tell, but whichever it was, it still works. The pair together also get a warning shot across their bows, so to speak, in the form of Queen Victoria telling them to leave and never return because, as she puts it, they treat all this terror and misery that's being inflicted on people as something fun. Again, I'm sensing a running theme that's going to hit them hard later in the season. Still, after the riot act she reads them, I wonder if they're tempted to vworp over to Washington, D.C. after this and look up that document that goes "we hold these truths to be self-evident..."

Victoria herself was the most fully-formed character of the guest artists, and very well-written and performed she was too. I think Pauline Collins hit the note just right here. She's not too stern in the quiet moments and incredibly tough and strong in the sense she's famous for in the harder moments, such as when she tells the Doctor to leave and then decides to set up the Torchwood Institute, or of course, when she shoots the Father of the kung-fu monks. I do love the idea of her being bitten by the werewolf and passing it on the rest of the royal family... as Rose says at the end, "oh my god, they're werewolves!" I would love to be a fly on the wall around the royal television sets when the real royal family saw this.

And I should spare some words for the werewolf itself. This was as good as TV CGI gets, and was everything it needed to be to make the scenes work and be scary and dynamic. This is not, however, to say that it was perfect... CGI itself still has a long way to go before it will ever look completely photo-realistic to my eyes I think, but of all the techniques available to tell this story, this was the best choice, and it worked well enough.

I think I'll say 9 out of 10 for this one. I'm tempted to go 9.5 or 10, but I have a feeling that there's going to be even better stuff to come, and I better leave myself some room on the scale.

Wonderful. What a terrific episode. Rather than begin at the beginning, I'd like to highlight one particular scene.

The Doctor, Queen Victoria, Sir Robert and Rose are trapped in a room with a ferocious werewolf sniffing around outside, temporarily by the intelligence of a dead man, Sir Robert's late father. Robert himself is despairing; they have no weapons, he fears for his wife and feels that he has betrayed his Queen. The Doctor does not despair. They are, after all, trapped in a library. They have weapons. Donning his reading glasses, he attacks the shelves and throws a book at Rose. "Arm yourself," he says.

I loved that scene. It was one of those 'goosebump' moments that excellent 'Doctor Who' can provide...and I believe 'Tooth and Claw' to be excellent 'Doctor Who'.

I'd say this was Russell T's best script to date, surpassing last year's concluding two-parter. The Host scenes were particularly chilling, with Tom Smith giving a brilliantly scary performance. An effective contrast to the earlier scenes with the Doctor and Rose that were full of humour and zest. Some great dialogue as we discover that the Doctor is fond of Ian Dury and 'The Muppet Movie' , but clearly not fond of M Thatcher. (my kind of hero!)

I laughed out loud at Roses awful scottish accent ("oot and aboot" indeed) and there was obviously another level to the humour from the scottish David Tennant's pained reaction. ("Don't do that...no, really.") There is a lot going on in these 45-minutes, and my admiration only grew on second viewing. (First time around, because of all the sound and fury, I'd missed a few things. For example, the "70% water...can still drown" line.)

Due to the general high standard, direction doesn't get mentioned all that often, but I'd like to commend Euros Lyn for his brilliant work on this story. As for the acting, it was pretty faultless. Pauline Collins gave us a prickly, brave and not particularly sympathetic Quuen Victoria. The presence of the Doctor and Rose clearly disturbs her, and I found this subtext surprising and spot on. I don't want 'the establishment' to be comfortable with the Doctor, and vice versa, so I thought his 'banishment' worked very well...I certainly didn't see it coming. The Doctor and the 'status quo' do not go together...and so the Doctor is instrumental in the instigation of Torchwood; terrific.

David and Billie have developed into a very good team; she'll let him know when he's "being rude" , for example. I liked the way he called the 'telescope' "...a bit rubbish" and Roses' fixed grin in response! Tennant is terrific throughout, highlights being the aforementioned library scene and his awed response to the werewolf. ("That's beautiful...") He can be funny, manic, sarky, rude, warm, wide-eyed, off-hand, intense, kindly...but in the scene where the Queen laments the inability of the dead to get in touch, you see brooding sadness. He is, after all, still the Last Timelord. (For now, anyway?)

Great effects work, not overdone; running down corridors, dark shadows; the Doctor's ingenuity saving the day; a hint of 'Ghostlight'....what the heck, this gets a Ten from me!

To conclude; the Royal Family....secretive...love bloodsports....WEREWOLVES!! I'll buy it, Russell, you cheeky so and so. (I can just picture it; kids seeing the royal family on telly, and shouting "Werewolves!" Wonderful.)

"Who let the wolf out?" RTD cetainly did with "Tooth and Claw": a gripping and entertaining ode to the werewolf legend with an expected whovian alien twist. This episode was a vast improvement from "New Earth" - The fear factor was raised up a notch or two and the plot was well paced with the rising body count.

The "We are not amused" bet between the Doctor and Rose was annoying and totally unneccessary - lets just say I was not amused. The wolf CGI was acceptable, but could have been better, more menacing. I loved the opening sequence, despite the Scottish Monks trying desparately to be Shaolin monks and not quite pulling it off.

Tennant is starting to win me around and came into his own in the in the library scene. Looks like his glasses have been introduced as one of his querks - he'd make a convincing Harry Palmer. Maybe Michael Caine should pop us as the Doctor's father. Imagine Michael Caine as a long lost Timelord.

Pauline Collins portrayal of Queen Victoria was fantastic, and She certainly put the Doctor and Rose in their place by first awarding them with Honours - " Sir Doctor of Tardis" and "Dame Rose of Tyler" for saving the day, and then banishing them for the their unworldly knowledge, only to set up and introduce the "Torchwood Institute" to combat unnatural threats to the Empire. This sets up a nice precedent for the Torchwood spin off series, which by the way is an anagram of Doctor Who - as if you didn't know.

RTD delivers a second episode superior to the first, just like he did with series one, so things should only get better.

Tooth and Claw В… Or, The One In Which Russell T Davis Proves He CAN Write Decent Incidental Characters And DialogueВ… But Screws Up the Regulars Big-Time!

So, as ever, a real mixed bag from Russell T. Firstly, the honour of the Smiths compels me to say that this was a very good piece of television, nicely paced, and dripping with atmosphere В– Euros LynВ’s direction really came up trumps this week, which was a very welcome result, after В‘New EarthВ’, from which the thitherto excellent James Hawes strangely seemed all but absent.

For me the most surprising part of the whole thing was RTDВ’s depiction of the Victorian era (often seen as the ideal home for Dr Who). You might have been forgiven for expecting wickedly snappy anti-British Empire barbs to be dropping from the DoctorВ’s lips every other sentence, but if fact Russell excels himself with an excellent evocation of the enlightened, devout and pioneering spirit of the age, not only its greater focus on militarism. All the references, by various characters, to God, and RussellВ’s apparent knowledge of Queen Victoria, add tremendous character and colour to the script. I sincerely doubted beforehand that Prince Albert, one of our greatest В“kingsВ” (so to speak!) would even get a mention. Instead, he has a huge role in the story, and comes out of it very well indeed В– despite not even appearing!

Woe, woe, woe to the Doctor and Rose in this, however. RussellВ’s treatment of Rose I guess I can live with В– if he wants to make his very own, and admittedly exceptional, character look like a moron (which she does throughout, with the possible exception of the first scene with the caged wolf), thatВ’s his prerogative. The Doctor, however, takes a distinct turn for the worse in this episode.

Given that every Doctor, with the exceptions of Patrick Troughton and the hippy-ish Sylvester McCoy, has been rude, I donВ’t really know exactly why TennantВ’s lines in this grate so much. But from a completely gratuitous insult to Mrs Thatcher (two episodes after the Christmas Invasion В– I donВ’t know whether he seriously thinks she was a worse Premier than the Labour PMs preceding her, or come to that whether the Sycorax-busting Harriet Jones was worse than Tony Blair, I canВ’t presume to guess the mind of someone so strange, but it really seems as if Russell has issues. Maybe the 80s traumatised him.) В–from there to the observatoryВ’s В‘rubbishВ’ telescope and the DoctorВ’s venomously-delivered reproach to the heroic Lord Roberts, in В“Tooth and ClawВ” we see more than ever the unpleasant streak underwriting this incarnation. WhatВ’s more, it seems quite likely that the DoctorВ’s stinging reproach in the library contributed to Lord RobertsВ’ eventual decision to sacrifice himself and thus gain В‘redemptionВ’ in the eyes of the Queen and his beloved wife В– nice one, Doctor. Proud of yourself?

If Tennant had the same genius in the role В– the combination of otherworldliness, intense gravitas, magic and a core of tempered steel В– that Tom Baker had, then the Tenth Doctor would get away with it with aplomb equal to the Fourth. But heВ’s no Tom Baker, not yet В– he hasnВ’t settled in enough. I still insist that DT has the potential to become a great incarnation: but this vein of unpleasantness should be something the production team rein in for Series 3.

This episode must set new records for the number of people RTD lashes out at: the end of the episode, with Rose and the DoctorВ’s closing remarks on the monarchy. Apparently theyВ’re all werewolves: of course! That explains why they enjoy hunting, of all things! (she signed the goddamn Bill, didnВ’t she? What more do you want, youВ… [obscene rant nipped in the bud]) Royal blood really gets a slamming from Russell, doesnВ’t it? Not only does it render you helpless before blood control, but it also makes you indulge in those sinful blood sports (seemingly a terrible thing in RTDВ’s book В– after all, the Slitheen liked it too В– and they were certainly terrible!).

But I digress. Maybe IВ’m suffering from a sincere sense-of-humour deficiency, but I have never found RussellВ’s writing that funny, and the ridiculous offensiveness of this scene is breathtaking, particularly on the day after the QueenВ’s 80th birthday, and marks a new low in the series revival В– RussellВ’s aggressive, almost missionary promotion of puerility, which taints his episodes what is supposedly his favourite TV show, is fast becoming wearingВ…

В… oh, who am I kidding? ItВ’s been wearing since episode 1, March 26 2005!

I am well aware of how much worse it could have been, given the Victorian-era material: I just wish Russell wouldnВ’t keep using the Doctor as a vehicle for his stupid prejudices, thatВ’s all В– it really spoils my enjoyment. Nevertheless, this is an episode which I expect to see performing well in end-of-series polls.

One of the many criticisms levelled against new Doctor Who is its pacing. The 45 minute episodes being seen to force the expulsion of great swathes of development and backstory- paring the series down into little nuggets of edited В‘who-liteВ’. Pish and tosh, I say. Yes, this new series is a different beast- but this new, short form, Doctor Who is as capable of being as dynamic, affecting, smart and magnificent as any work of shorter fiction. More is not always better. And nowhere, to my mind, has this been demonstrated with greater effect than in В‘Tooth and ClawВ’.

If this had been an old four-parter, we would presumably have had a prologue detailing the monsterВ’s crash to Earth, the Evil Monks would have taken up at least half the first episode with veiled allusions to what was to come. Maybe they would have taken control of the house at the end of part one (trapping the servants in the basement, wheeling in the shrouded cage, crash-zoom on lead baldy В“This will be the Empire Of The Wolf!В” cue titles). Certainly the werewolf transformation would only have come at the end of part two and part three would have been a run-around chase scene ending with them trapped in the library.

More importantly, and disastrously, we would probably have had to endure unnecessary elaboration- all serving to diminish the impact of the story. RoseВ’s conversation with the Host would have involved layers of back-story in which we learned the name of its home planet, its race (maybe, if produced under JN-T, itВ’d be a Rutan- for no discernable reason) and probably a way to eventually kill it.

Good horror sees no need to abide by rules and needs no explanations- despite what the lazy nonsense of Kevin Williamson and the post-modern, post 'Scream' bandwagoners may have you believe. It positively revels in throwing up nonsensical ideas and then making you believe in their possibility. The best horror feeds off that wonderful paranoia we all feel- the abnormal brain-function that causes us to fear that, even though we know weВ’ve locked all the doors and windows- and our multi-million pound alarm system is switched on, that sounded like someone breaking in and scraping a knife along the paintwork!

Old Doctor Who would have had the million pound security, let the murderer in- but then revealed they teleported in from Venus and actually it was all an alien plot to steal your pyjamas and actually, the aliens arenВ’t that scary after all. Ho hum.

What new Doctor Who does- in this wonderful new short form- is bung all that out the window. Yes, we get a reference to the monster being an alien- but itВ’s over in a few seconds and the real meat of that particular thread is left to some ill-advised internet/phone downloadable doodah that only fans/nerds desperate for that kind of security blanket will see. For everyone else watching, the monster is a werewolf. A big, nasty, powerful, man-eating werewolf that rips people apart and does not, ever, despite earlier talk of a stellar empire, pull out a laser gun or wear a pair of silver trousers and a funny hat.

It is vital you consider that for a moment. ItВ’s important. It means, I think, that Doctor Who has grown up. Maybe this is as a result of cgi allowing things on the screen that previously could only be alluded to in the most basic of visual terms. Maybe Doctor Who no longer needs to convince us of a monsterВ’s veracity by swaddling it in post-war, space-race, terminology. Maybe, because we can now see it with our own eyes more or less as intended, we no longer need that extra spoonful of sugar. Maybe the aliens no longer need to be quite so cosily alien and instead can come from somewhere else- and after all, isnВ’t that what the supernatural is all about?

В‘Tooth and ClawВ’ was a fast-paced, dramatic episode that probably scared the nationВ’s children into therapy. Some bits still felt like padding- the Tardis sequence especially seemed to serve no purpose and just delayed us getting on with the plot. That terrible, mocking dialogue with the Doctor and Rose discussing the possible lycanthropy of the Royals just seemed so crass after the sensitive treatment of Queen Victoria throughout the episode. But I have never, never seen an ending like that! VictoriaВ’s vow to the creation of Torchwood, tellingly almost-overdubbed with the cliffhanger sting, sent a shiver down my spine. There was a real sense of Doctor Who evolving, changing and becoming something entirely new and different. Something, ever-so possibly scary.

Given time and the opportunity to pursue these story ideas- either in the series itself or in one of itВ’s spin-offs- В‘Tooth and ClawВ’ could come to be seen as the launch of a whole new existence for this fantastic show that somehow, somehow, refuses to die. And just keeps on getting better. ItВ’s better now, as a tv show, than it ever was before. Forget your Tom Bakers and your Phillip Hinchcliffes. Verity? Sorry love, donВ’t need you anymore. ItВ’s in very, very safe hands.