After going to the future in episode 2 it was obvious that the Doctor and Rose would be travelling to the past.

I'm a big fan of the new opening sequence, I think it really builds up the episode, especially in this one where we see the old woman walking out of the house screaming and then all of a sudden the Dr Who screech comes in, just brilliant!!! Everytime I watch that part I feel a tingling up my spine. However there are some things which I really didn't like.

How can a man who arranged what I consider to be the best Dr Who theme yet be so bad at the incidental music. Murray Gold, not happy, the music is terrible, in some places the music doesn't fit the atmosphere or direction of the story, and in other places it just sounds so terrible and synthesised.

Up to know I really haven't been impressed with the new Dr Who series, I liked the first episode for the fact that we are following Rose's adventure rather than the Doctors, but it was still very ordinary, the second episode was just a joke, I mean trees with teeth and breasts. But the Unqiet dead is certainly a journey back to the good old days of Dr Who. In fact when I think of this episode I think of the Hinchcliffe era, which I consider to be one of the best in the entire series. For the first time we have a story which, even though it is fiction, is actually made to be believable. I absolutely hate stories in science fiction which are so fiction that they aren't worth watching. This episode is fantastic, Simon Callow is brilliant is Dickens.

I said it before and I'll say it again. I really don't like the new TARDIS, think it is the worst design ever. In episode 2 we saw the Doctor using a bike pump and a bell when controlling the TARDIS, I know this is suppose to symbolise that the Doctor has used anything he possibly can to repair segments of the TARDIS, but I think this is going to far. I also thought that when the Doctor gave directions to the wardrobe for Rose to get changed we could've seen Rose in the wardrobe looking through clothes, and perhaps bumping into Colin Bakers jacket maybe, and saying 'Who wears this rubbish'. A note to the writers, maybe some more links between the original series and this one would help, I really think that there isn't enough.

The acting in this episode is by far the best so far, the directing is excellent. I know that this is a small thing, but I like when at the end the TARDIS dematerialises and all the snow that was on it falls off, thought that was brilliant. However, maybe it is just me, but why does the TARDIS have fluroescent lights in its windows? They didn't have them back in the 1950's, to me this just makes it look false, especially since you can see the where the lights end.

Overall a fantastic episode, want to see more stories from Mark Gatiss, just thought that the music really let it down. I also want to see some stories on other planets as well, Earth isn't the only planet around.

Before I finish off, has anyone noticed that the Doctor uses his new sonic screwdriver (which I hate, love the old sonic screwdriver, WHY DID YOU CHANGE IT!!!) like a stylus, like in episode 2 which he was trying to unlock a few rooms etc. The sonic screwdriver is a great concept, but there is such a thing as overuse.

I am very happy to say that at last here was an episode which felt like an actual story, which was structured well, had very well-developed incidental characters, was truly frightening (especially the screaming lady walking towards us - the most scary scene in the series post-Gothic era; as was the lady glowering at Dickens in the theatre), and was very well directed, scored and realised. The Unquiet Dead is certainly worthy of the old Who cannon, and is, particularly due to Simon Callow's central performance, verging on a classic.

From the very opening scene this story reminded me of the old series - Horror of Fang Rock etc. - with the banter of two costume characters a little bewildered at events beyond their comprehension. Very nicely lit with excellent sets (or were they real places?) and a convcining atmosphere .

Mark Gatiss has provided is with the first truly memorable script in the new series. It is very well-written, with some extremely memorable and poetic lines and asides from Dickens - even the Doctor's slightly nerdish praise for him in the carriage proffers genuinely witty lines for those young viewers studying English Literature to pick up on: 'That American part in Martin Chuzzlewit....was that padding or what?' Hilarious. Equally erudite was the Doctor's reference to the ghost story, not Scrooge but the less well-known The Signalmen. Gatiss avoided pretention here by seeming to know what his characters were talking about, and this kind of didacticism, especially literary, is very welcome in a show which began as a partly educational programme, and is truly needed in escapist shows in this philistine day and age.

Gwenyth was an extremely well-developed character, which was quite extraordinary for an incidental character in a 45 minute story. Her visions of the future were poetically written, and her prudishness at Rose's sexual innuendos was authentically done. This was a very believable 1869 Cardiff. Certainly one could detect shades of Ghost Light in this story, though it offered a much more traditional and less precocious plot than Marc Platt's consumate but patchy and often infuriating season 26 tour-de-force. The zombies were realised in traditional Who-style - but my congratulations to the director for creating a truly terrifying and haunting series of moments regarding the Gelth-possessed old lady which almost reminds me of forgotten classics like The Woman In Black. This is just the sort of scariness the show seemed to lack post-Gothic era (bar Kinda) and is just what is needed to pull viewers in, especially the younger, rather than the trendy gimmicks of the previous episodes.

The Doctor was far more satisfyingly portrayed in this episode; of particular note was his very alien and slightly unsettling defence of the Gelth's right to possess human corpses to Rose, which one can imagine the early Tom Baker asserting with wide-eyed amorality. The seance was inevitable, fitting and brilliantly done. The effects for the Gelth are the best ever seen in the show regarding anything ethereal and the twist in their motives was satisfying.

Gwyneth's self-sacrifice is a very memorable moment and very well done. The finale was brilliantly exploited to include references to The Mystery of Edwin Drood - again, literate but not pretentious. The old Who cliche of bringing the historical figure into the TARDIS was nicely avoided (if only it had been so in the otherwise brilliant Black Orchid). The Doctor and Rose watching a bemused Dickens on the monitor seemed to make me believe more in the TARDIS than the previous episodes, perhaps because it harked back to old scenes - it is also quite nice to have the monitor on the console now. The ending was extremely well done and Dickens was convincingly re-energised from his pessimistic outlook on life by the end; a genuinely satisfying and moving conclusion; the protracted nature of the ending was also reminiscent of that of Talons of Weng-Chiang, and gave a highly satisfying closure to the story, which lingers well in the mind. Gatiss, being a writer by true vocation, inevitably put in the line of Dickens asking the Doctor, with visible trepidation, if his books will live on, and is elated to hear that they will 'live forever' - however long that is; this is made poignant from the fact that in the previous episode we saw the Earth explode - however, the Doctor obviously means 'forever' in the sense that his books live on his own mind, a time-traveller who, relatively speaking, possesses a sort of immortality. Brilliant and poetic. Any writer will relate to this egotistical question of Dickens's, as immortality of output is consciously or unconsciously what most writers and artists covet.

Any humour present in the script was underplayed and thus genuinely funny: from Dickens' hilarious dismissiveness as to the seance and his well-mannered sense of urgency on turning on the gas at the end to dispell the Gelth. Excellently scripted and an exceptional performance from Callow. The Doctor's line about having been in all sorts of times and places but now to die in a 'prison cell....in Cardiff' was excellently timed. Dickens' comment about the Doctor looking like a Navvy was very apt and describes this incarnation's sartorial appearance quite well given the period context.

Criticisms: ideally could have done with perhaps a second episode to really milk it and flesh it out, however, this is the first episode so far to succeed in structure in 45 minutes; the unleashed Gelth in the theatre do remind me of the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark a bit too much; though the scene ended up proffering some of the best lines in the episode via Gwyneth's vision, the earlier part of the Rose/Gwyneth parlour scene was far too long and inapproriate given the nature of the show and the episode itself, and I did cringe at Rose's 'smile and nice bum' line which felt to me completely out of place in Doctor Who - though one supposes that society having changed much in 16 years, we do have a much more sexually literate teen population. But this is all. These criticisms are relatively par of the course for any Who story - unlike those I divulged for the two previous episodes - and overall The Unquiet Dead is exactly what we need from the new show: a story which is properly developed and explained, with memorable characters and lines, genuinely frightening and compelling, properly explained by the end, and well concluded. If only the series could sustain this standard of story, I might eventually be tempted to say, Who really is back.

So after an adventure in the present day and a trip to the far future, we finally get our first episode of the new series to be set in what has always been one of the most fruitful areas for Doctor Whoscriptwriters' imaginations – the past. Perhaps surprisingly, given how well the series always seems to work in the time period, this is only the fourth time that the TARDIS had landed in Victorian times in the TV series proper. While it's certainly no Talons of Weng-Chiang, it is a damn good episode, and easily carries on the high standard set out in the first two episodes.

The setting, I have to say, looks marvellous. It has become something of a clichй to say that the BBC is good at creating historical settings in its drama programmes, but it's true. That fine tradition of costume dramas serves the production team well here as they create a perfectly convincing 1860s Cardiff – well, as convincing as it can be given that none of us have ever been to that time and place to be able to compare it! Euros Lyn's fine direction shows off the mocked-up Victorian streets to their fullest, and even though this was obviously done on a tight series budget rather than that of a film or lavish Sunday night Andrew Davies serial, it never feels small or enclosed or anything less than epic. I think the snow probably helps to add a great deal to the atmosphere, of course, but throughout Lyn's direction is never less than accomplished, and it's a shame this is his final episode of the season. I hope he returns next year.

What is nicely small and contained this week, however, is the guest cast – there are only three roles of any great significance, those being Alan David as Sneed, Eve Myles as Gwyneth and of course Simon Callow in the role he was apparently born to play, Charles Dickens. All three are superb – David bringing just the right balance of comedy and the macabre to his unfortunate undertaker; Myles having a lovely combination of innocence, spirituality and instinctive intelligence; and Callow… Well, what can I possibly say about Callow that hasn't already been said? The transformation of Dickens from world-weary author despairing of the state of his life and career to reinvigorated adventurer with a lust for life is one of the highlights of the episode, and the ending as he strides off with a, of course, "God bless us, every one!" is delightful. It makes it all the more bittersweet and sad that the Doctor, Rose and of course we in the audience know that sadly he'll be dead within the year, but at least he got this life-affirming glimpse at the greater picture of the universe before he went.

Much of the excellent of the guest cast comes from the script they've been served up with from Mark Gatiss, who provides an interesting contrast to the first two episodes as of course he's the first writer apart from Davies whose work we've seen in the new series. The script is a delight – full of lovely one-liners from all of the characters, with Sneed being particularly well-served. His knowledge and love of Dickens and his work also shines through, and even if having him say "What the Shakespeare is going on?" may be historically dodgy – the expression ‘what the dickens?' apparently pre-dates the author by some centuries – I don't think anybody cares, as it's the line of the episode for me.

There's plenty of good material for the Doctor and Rose as well, with Rose's delight and wonder at finding herself in a history she has only read about or seen on television being particularly well-conveyed. Once again, however, one of the highlights for me are the little hints and suggestions about the wider picture of the season we keep getting. Rose's reaction to discovering that they're in Cardiff was intriguing, and I'm sure there's going to be some sort of link between her and Cardiff picked up on later in the season, judging by it. The Gelth's mention of the ‘Time War' is the third episode in a row when what is presumably the same conflict has been mentioned, and the Doctor's look when the war is mentioned does indeed suggest that this was the conflict which destroyed his home planet. I love this sense of mythology building, and I hope we continue to get these teasing suggestions throughout the rest of the season. Gwyneth seeing a ‘big bad wolf!' in Rose's mind also picks up on what seems to be another on-going theme, so there's plenty to keep those who follow all of the episodes interested without ever threatening to alienate more casual viewers, which is surely how good episodic drama series should work.

The Gelth's involvement in the Time War provides a nice explanation for why the Doctor is to quick to trust them and wants to help them. This seems to be a more battle-scarred Doctor than we've seen before, still reeling perhaps from the loss of his planet and his people, and eager to help a race who seem to be in the same situation as himself, lost and alone, and suffering from the effects of the same conflict. Of course it turns out that he is too quick to trust them which leads to the drama of the episode's conclusion, as the Gelth flood through into our world and only Charles Dickens can save the day.

I must admit I did find it a bit disappointing that the Doctor simply seems to give up when faced with the crowd of Gelth-possessed bodies, being more keen on mourning the fact that he's going to die in Cardiff of all places than actually trying to do something about it. It would be nice if the Doctor could be a little more pro-active at saving the day, but as the episode ends so well I think I can forgive it this, as long as it doesn't happen too often.

Poor Gwyneth dies, and with another sense of mystery – if she was dead in that archway, how was she speaking and seeming alive those last five minutes? It's left unexplained, apart from a Shakespearean quote from Dickens of course, but her death is very affecting, particularly as she'd been so likeable. The scene where she points out that Rose thinks she's stupid just because she's from a different time highlights what I think many of us subconsciously end up thinking about people who lived in generations prior to ours.

The nice little coda to the episode, of Dickens asking the Doctor about the future and seeing the TARDIS dematerialise, is structurally unnecessary perhaps, but I wouldn't get rid of it for the world. It was a little uneasy when I first heard Dickens was going to appear in this episode as Doctor Who often works better in the shadow of actual history and real people rather than confronting them head on, but his appearance worked perfectly and the ending to the episode is one of the best we've had in the whole series I think. The new series seems to be developing a habit of nice little coda endings if the past two episodes are anything to go by, and that's not something I think I'll complain about as it all adds wonderfully to the characterisations.

In short then, another terrific piece of all-round entertainment, and another example of this new series failing to put a foot wrong so far.

Victorian England. A setting of some of the Doctor's best stories like The Talons of Weng Chiang and Ghost Light. Can this possibly live up to those Who classics?

The story starts off with the body of an old woman being taken over some ghostly creature in the undertakers of Gabriel Sneed, which is effectively realised and quite genuinely spooky. The CGI effects are quite simple, but convey the whispy creatures well. From the outset the tone of the story is given; a Victorian horror story about body possessions.

After the awesome opening titles and best rendition of the opening theme Doctor Who is ever likely to have we go to the Doctor and Rose inside the TARDIS. They're having trouble controlling the machine and it seems to shake around quite violently. This Doctor seems to be having lots of trouble with his time machine; a result of the War perhaps? The TARDIS eventually lands. The Doctor tells her they are in Naples, Christmas 1860, and tells her to dress for the occasion. He points her to a room in the TARDIS where she can find the appropriate attire. From what I've seen of this new TARDIS control room I've seen no other doors that lead to the interiors of the ship, but I suppose I'm nit-picking now. The banter between the Doctor and Rose is exceptional; I'm suddenly realising that I've NEVER enjoyed Doctor Who this much. Of course they are nowhere near Naples in 1860, but that's just another quirk of this near series which made me laugh. The TARDIS landing nowhere near it's destination never seemed funny before.

We meet a lot of interesting characters as the story progresses at a break-neck pace. Charles Dickens, here in Cardiff to read extracts from his books. Gabriel Sneed, undertaker and kidnapper of Rose in the first 10 minutes. There's Gwyneth, Sneed's assistant with psychic powers. This is what Doctor Who does better than any other programme; creates believable and complex guest characters that we come to know. That they are all effectively realised in just 44 minutes is a miracle. 

And from then on the plot follows the route of identifying the mysterious gaseous aliens, the Gelth, and trying to understand their motives. At first they appear to be benign. All they want is to allow the few that have survived the Time War to inhabit the bodies of the dead so they can survive. The Doctor wants to help them and thus comes into conflict with Rose, who finds the whole notion of allowing the dead to be compromised in such a way completely abbhorent. Billie Piper puts in an excellent performance here. Her outrage in genuine. I'm finding myself being more and more engaged by Billie's acting. Never has a companion been this good.

Of course the Gelth are far from benign. Or maybe they just want to survive and will do anything to achieve that aim; things in Doctor Who are less than black and white, and the Gelth are prime examples of this. Are they evil just because they want to kill every human being on Earth so they can inhabit their bodies, being as it's the only way they can survive? You may think so, but things are a lot more complicated. The Gelth once had human bodies but they were destroyed in the Time War, the war in which Gallifrey was destroyed and possible the Nestene homeworld. Did the Doctor have something to do with this, we wonder. Is this new Doctor much darker than we have been lead to believe? 

In the end the Gelth are stopped from entering Earth through the portal they created through the body of the wonderful Gwyneth, who sacrifices herself in the process. Rose's friendship with Gwyneth was very moving and her reaction at her death and the notion that she will never be remembered for saving the world is touching. But do I have to be concerned for Rose's mental state though. If she gets this upset over every death she sees she'll be in the loony bin by the end of the season.

The location work is beyond excellent. You really feel that you're walking the streets of Cardiff, Christmas, 1869. The mood is there; the fashions are there. It's just perfect. The acting is top notch, especially from Simon Callow as Dickins. He was a very engaging character and his initial scepticism at the Gelth was highly amusing, even when confronted by several of the things flying around his head! Special mention must also go to Eve Myles as Gwyneth. She was a wonderful character and I was genuinely upset at her death. Mark Gatiss did a wonderful job giving her such depth in such a short time.

Then there's the brief mention of the Time War. It looks like a lot of planets have been affected by this. I know this is going somewhere and I'm eager to find out exactly what. I'm also a little saddened. If the Doctor is the last of his race then that means that Susan and Romana are dead, maybe even Leela too, if she was still on Gallifrey at the time. I doubt these characters will be mentioned in the future as it would be too much continuity to explain, but I'm still worried about this; what are the fates of these characters? 

So there we have it. Was it better than The Talons of Weng Chiang and Ghost Light? Definately. This is what Doctor Who would've been with a better budget; the best Doctor Who has ever been.

This has to be, quite simply, one of my favourite Doctor Who stories yet.

Oh, yes, reasons.

Well, for one, Simon Callow as Dickens. Who'd have thought an actor, as talented and well thought of as he, would take a guest appearance in our little show? Just goes to show how seriously it's being taken. And what a performance from him! Played with such conviction, Dickens what utterly convincing, far from the caricature that Doctor Who often made of historical personalities.

Billie's performance was, again, totally convincing. Now her character seems more settled in as a time-traveller, but she still displays perfect wonder and excitement, and, when needed, believable anger when confronting the Doctor. For all that the hype surrounding her suggests, Rose isn't cutting edge because she stands up for herself, saves the Doctor and fights her own battles – Leela was doing that back in the 70s – but because she is written and played as a normal person. She reacts in a perfectly understandable way when confronted with body-snatching aliens.

This counterpoints her with the Doctor, who behaves in a bizarre, but entirely logical, way when dealing with the Gelth. His sharp yet justified snap at Rose to get used to a different morality underlines this incarnation's view on the world. ‘It could save their lives,' he says of the corpse-stealers, and he's entirely right. It's a point that is in no way diminished when the aliens turn out to be villainous after all. Even then, the Doctor is regretful that they have to be destroyed to save humanity. As with the Nestene, he first tries to negotiate and agree terms, showing empathy for a people desperate to survive; and also, it seems, guilt for his part in the mysterious war. With Cassandra, in the previous tale, he showed no mercy, killing her in retaliation for her greed-inspired murdering.

In this and other aspects of his performance, Eccleston continues to impress, and it is a great shame he'll only have one season in which to build on his character. His evident delight in meeting Dickens is a joy to behold, and I must confess, I've always had a soft spot for dreadful puns. Also enjoyable to watch is his growing fondness for/attraction to Rose, which thankfully is subtle enough not to alter the focus of the stories, merely to add a frisson of something new.

The effects were possibly the best so far, perhaps because they didn't try to achieve the impossible. The Gelth were genuinely creepy, and the scream truly horrible, something that the ‘other' 9th Doctor's story, Scream of the Shalka, was missing. The Victorian setting was one of the best aspects, evoking a wonderful Christmassy atmosphere. Although I had hoped the Doctor would don appropriate period clothing, he actually didn't look as out of place as I had feared. Rather than being weirdly futuristic, he instead came across as more of a scruffy traveller, muscling in on proper society, which is exactly what he is.

All in all, the perfect Christmas episode. It's simply a pity the production team didn't know they'd be having a Christmas special when they produced it – how can they top that?

And so we begin again.

"I'm the doctor. Now run for your life!"

It has been 16 years since the good doctor had a fresh broadcast fr the a person to sit down and enjoy. Certainly I was of those too young to enjoy such a thing and consequently left me on VHS and DVD to explore the past of this wonderful TV show.Thus 'my' doctor was Pat Troughton-the one I loved most.

Enough about the past though-this generation now as a doctor of thier own: Christopher Ecclestone (although this generaions doctor may be the next one). Since September 2003 we have been following the progress of the awaited return, debating the good points (the actors, writers and cast) and the bad (the logo, the jacket, the romance suggestions). Now we get to see the final results.

As was at the beginning, we are introduced with a startling and wonderful title theme. No time is wasted as we are introduced to Rose Tyler, played to perfection by Billie Piper. A hectically paced first few minutes shows us the life she leads: an average one and therefore something to connect us with her thoughts and feelings. 

In only a few minutes we are shown the principle threat of the episode: the plastic autons. If you didn't know, the autons have been in the show before. Did you need to know? No, and thats one of the reasons their use here is so good. The threat of something we see so often also acts in a way as another monster wouldn't have. 

The introduction of the doctor is well handled. The dialogue between him and Rose is emotional and comical, and continues well throughut the episode. The only prblem is the way Chris sometimes garble his lines, resulting in many watchings of certain scenes. The effects are top form for this episode and probably the best produced in an english drama. 

The guest characters here are a very odd bunch for an average setting. Mickey is a little too comical to be taken seriously when he needs to be (although the wheely bin sequence and the plastic replica smashing upth restruant are priceless). Roses mother is a curious but slightly discardable character. The best of all is Clive. His way of revealing the doctor to us is chilling, and his fate is one we care about. 

Roses first view of the TARDIS is a new way of introducing it and a very well worked one; in fact its one of the highlights of the episode. The climax of the episode is curiously effective, although the suggestionof a war we never saw is probably adding the continuity on early (although if we consider The Celestial Toymaker, maybe not). The final freeze frame sets out for the rest of the season.

So, he's back. Did it live up to what we want? Yes, it is certainly what we wanted and sets a promising start for what we hope to be many more years of time travelling.