At last they’ve done it. After three entertaining but somewhat flawed stories and one unmitigated disaster, the series new production team have finally delivered an episode which lives up to the potential of Doctor Who in the 21st century, and gave us probably the best story since Remembrance of the Daleks back in 1988.

I have had many problems with this new series of Doctor Who, particularly the inherent silliness and the often middle of the road light entertainment feel that all of RTD’s stories have had, but Dalek is the first which would make me glad to get up and shout its praises from the rooftops. Overall it reminded me of why I was a fan and still sitting in front of the tv screen after almost twenty years of indignities have been inflicted on this series. It proved the old notion that all that is needed is a solid script, some conviction from the cast and the rest would take care of itself.

I must admit the concept of this story appealed greatly, the concept of a private alien museum with one living exhibit sounded a great premise, but I hadn’t dared get my hopes up too much after last weeks contender for worst episode of all time. But from the off, this story moved quickly and assuredly, no moments of camp silliness to jar you out of the reality of it, no problems with pacing or structure that the first three stories suffered from. In short we got 45 minutes of genuinely exciting, moving and well structured drama, in fact the sort of thing I had been hoping for from this series from the outset.

There were some nice surprises, particularly the Cyberman head which brought a smile to my face, and gave us our first direct link to the original series and the Doctor’s almost melancholy reaction to it was strangely moving.

The arrival of the supporting players I thought was slightly overdone and played a little clichйd, but I was glad to see both Corey Johnson’s Von Statten and Anna Louise Plowman’s Diane Goddard settled down within a few scenes and became very credible characters. Bruno Langley’s Adam I am somewhat undecided on, although I must admit being familiar with his character from Coronation Street made it harder to see Adam as a character in his own right. The last minute addition of him joining the Tardis crew however came as a nice surprise, and it will interesting to see how he develops in his role as a (presumably temporary) companion. Perhaps ironically though the best performance came from Nick Briggs as the voice of the Dalek.

While in lesser hands it could have been a disaster, here for probably the first time ever, a Dalek became a rounded character in its own right, rather than just shouting down a microphone, Briggs varied the intonation to the point where you believed there was a living being inside and that there was far more to a Dalek than anyone could have imagined . I had been dreading the humanised Dalek after hearing rumours about it, but to give everyone their credit, it always stayed on the right side of credible and by the end one found themselves almost siding with the Dalek.

Visually too, the creatures have never looked better, thankfully retaining the original design with just a few minor tweaks which bring them firmly into the 21st century.

Just as I moaned in my review of Aliens of London about doing Who villains badly, so Dalek illustrates perfectly how to do them right. The Dalek seen here is an unstoppable force and god if this is just one, think what a whole squadron would be like. Now we can see why they rule the universe. Every joke that everyone has made about Daleks will hopefully now be silenced. From the rotating midsection, to the leviatating, this machine will hopefully have left joe public with their jaws on the floor, and if the remote control Dalek toy isn’t a best seller this Christmas then there aint no justice. The revelation of the mutant was an unexpected surprise and full marks should go to the effects crew who made it look thoroughly realistic.

If I were to raise any quibbles with this story and they are only minor quibbles it would be that the levitating Dalek effect looked a little fake, also I found the Dalek’s revival just by Rose touching the head a little too convenient and lacking a full explanation. After 6 episodes I also still find myself sitting on the fence over Chris Ecclestons portrayal of the Doctor. I have found much to like in his performance, but ironically I still find him very undoctorly in a lot of his confrontational scenes, in moments of this story he came across a bit like Grant Mitchell in space, almost thuggish and too easily emotional. His scene against the Dalek was a masterclass of acting, but failed in the fact that I was never convinced that it was the Doctor actually saying these things . Saying that, I think part of the problem is the inevitable source of comparison, one cant help but compare him to Doctors one to eight, and certainly Eccleston’s Doctor is far removed from his predecessors and I applaud the production team for trying something different. Unfortunately this bold new take on the Doctor’s character which now seems to have developed into him being a shell shocked war veteran is, taking some get used to and with Eccleston leaving at the end of the season I can see him being remembered as the guy who didn’t quite pull it off.

I haven’t quite decided whether this story is a classic, opinion usually takes a while to settle on these things, but it was definitely close. Unfortunately it seems the two scripts most respectful of the old series this season have come from writers other than Russell T Davies, it is shameful that jobbing writers are doing a better job of getting this series right, than the man who was employed by the BBC to revive the show in the first place.

However regardless of what next week may bring, Doctor Who shone bright this Saturday, it may have took an eternity but Doctor Who has finally delivered on 16 years of expectations and promises and for that everyone involved in Dalek should feel very proud.

I come at this not as a hardened Who fan who follows every cough, spit and splutter of everyone who has ever written for, or of, the series and its predecessors, but as a non-nerdy lover of Doctor Who going back to when it began in the sixties. I rather hope it brings a different perspective to what I say about “Dalek”.

Yes, it was excellent, hence my being moved to write my first ever review of a Who episode. “Dalek” worked for me on a number of levels. It helped knowing something of the Daleks – and, I guess, having been one of the team who copy-edited many of the books for Virgin and the Beeb (I even helped to blow up Gallifrey). I realised, though, that, had I not known anything about them other than their cult status, my enjoyment would not have been diminished – it would merely have been made to work at a different level.

A friend thought the episode had sentimentality; I preferred the word “pathos”, not defined as arousing pity but going back to its Greek origin: “feeling”. I “felt” a lot for the Doctor and the Dalek while watching this episode, and could empathise with Rose, still very much an outsider to the Doctor’s world – universe – in spite of her show of being a little more “knowing” as the series has progressed.

We did not need legions of Daleks to summon the idea that this race was one of absolute monsters whose potential for destruction was Armageddon-like. Our minds could do that for us, thanks to the skilful writing of Robert Shearman and the direction of Joe Ahearne. The menace oozed from this understated creature because Messrs Shearman and Ahearne went only so far, and let us do the rest – surely the goal of any writer or director.

>From the single blue light when we were supposed not to know a Dalek was there (but did) to the lighting up of the room, revealing the carapaced creature bound like the Titan who tried to steal the fire (but bound for very different reasons), we were entranced. The wider emotional range Nicholas Briggs brings to the Dalek voice is apparent from the words, “The Doctor?”

Here was the centrepiece of the tableau, imbued somehow with an indefinable quality from the very fact that the episode was called “Dalek”, not “The Dalek”. Some subtlety there, on someone’s part. During this first confrontation between the creature and the Doctor, we found ourselves wanting to look for longer, wanting the dialogue to be more spare, wanting longer gaps between lines, so that we could witness this confrontation between – But wait a minute. It wasn’t between good and evil any more: it was between – well, between the Doctor and the last surviving member (as far as we know) of the Dalek race; between the complexity the Doctor was able to show in this episode and a balancing complexity brought to the Dalek by Briggs and the writer.

Yes, there were comic moments. One was when the Dalek realised its gun wasn’t working, and down went the eye stalk and up went the gun, simultaneously, in an anthropomorphic representation of someone who’s just been told that he’s holding a turd in his hand and can’t quite believe it. But the most telling thing to come from the Dalek was the line, addressed to the Doctor, “You would make a good Dalek.”

This was perhaps where knowing something of the Doctor’s past would have helped those viewers coming to Who for the first time, although perhaps having seen the first five episodes has given them enough of his character and backstory to work out that here we were seeing a “hero” who was not all that the heroes of drama are cracked up to be.

“Dalek” had claustrophobic menace, some classic creature features with much-needed enhancements thrown in, emotional complexity, the gorgeous Billie Piper and equally gorgeous Bruno Langley (Adam) and a Doctor who is forced to question himself. It worked on all these levels and, for this fan, was the best so far in the series.

Okay... now, how should I describe this episode? I have read everyone else’s reviews after I finally saw this episode on Saturday that has just passed. (Us poor deprieved people in Australia were five or six episodes behind the UK; I have been brave and not let myself look at any other reviews for future episodes).

While having watched the new Who every Saturday and the reruns of every all the old series (we are currently on the second series with Tom Baker) every weekday I thought the Daleks in the old Doctor Who weren't all that scary compared to the latest episode. I actually got really scared when the Dalek started to go one its killing spree because it showed many shots of the dead bodies. I did feel a lot of sympathy for it when Rose's DNA started to mutate it.

Actually coming to Rose I thought that Billie Piper acted brilliantly, especially all of her scenes with the Dalek and as usual all of her scenes with the Doctor were a joy to watch. The Doctor's reaction to thinking that Rose was actually dead and gone was extremely convincing but his reaction to seeing her alive was even better to watch. Christopher E's acting though stole the show when he first encounters the Dalek and his reaction and speech to the Dalek after he realises that it actually can't hurt him because his laser can't "Exterminate!" I did get a bit disturbed though when the Doctor threatened the Dalek with a massive gun, even though the Dalek had opened his casing and only was trying to feel the sun. Since when did the Doctor become a military man? Her reaction though was extremely well played and her asking the Doctor, "What about you Doctor? What the hell are you turning into?"

Excellent acting but the only thing that peeved me off was the introducing the character of Adam.

Why on earth did the Doctor take him? I can understand from Rose's point of view but why oh why Doctor? Hopefully he'll die or something in the next episode!

I also really hope that the Doctor and Rose get together in the end.

Overall I would give Dalek a 9/10.

We're roughly halfway through the debut season of the new "Who" and on the whole I have been pleasantly surprised. Having said that, I don't think it has been a coincidence that the two episodes so far that have been truly top-notch are the two that have not been penned by Russell T Davies. We all owe Davies a debt of gratitude for bringing the Doctor back in the first place, but he might be taking on too much by writing most of the episodes in addition to his duties as producer. Anyway, more on that later...

As a die-hard listener to the Big Finish audios I've had the opportunity to enjoy Rob Shearman's previous work, so the news that he would be writing a television episode featuring nothing less than the Doctor's most notorious enemies filled me with confidence for the show's future. The episode, titled simply enough "Dalek", certainly did not disappoint. I'm leery of the trend that casually throws around the term "classic" before the closing credits have even finished scrolling down the screen, but I'll make an exception in this case. "Dalek" is destined to be regarded in the same vein as "Genesis of the Daleks", and not only because of the parallels between the Doctor's attitude to Dalek life. Shearman's episode brings additional layers to the whole Dalek mythos just like its predecessor but manages to do it in only a fraction of the time.

The above comment regarding the story's length is one of the key strengths of "Dalek"; this is the first of the new series' 45-minute one-parters that seemed to fit perfectly within its limited timeframe. It's a bizarre facet of the "Doctor Who" universe in which any story less than 90 minutes is seen as somehow lacking while virtually every other television show in existence fits comfortably under an hour. Granted, plenty of "Who" stories have featured tons of filler to pad out its length but even so fans have become so conditioned to the traditional length that anything less is seen as less substantial. Even the Big Finish audios and full length novels reinforce that prejudice. At any rate, I was worried about the shorter stories coming into this new series and until "Dalek" my fears had been largely confirmed. All of the previous one-parters left me wanting more; in the case of "Rose" and "End of the World" in a critical "Is that all?" sense. Even "The Unquiet Dead", as great as it was seemed like it could used something more. "Dalek", while I wouldn't have complained seeing even more of such quality writing, nevertheless had a beginning, middle, and end that left me with the satisfied feeling of having seen a complete story.

Another highpoint of this episode was the acting of one Christopher Eccleston. Previously his performances have left me with very mixed feelings; the Doctor's attitude has been way too breezy, flippant and at times downright annoying with the idiotic grin plastered on his face half the time. At times I wouldn't have been surprised if he had broken out the spoons. It wouldn't be fair to blame Eccleston for all of this, however; for one thing almost all the previous doctors went through similar growing pains in their early stories as the actor himself as well as the writers came to grips with the latest incarnation. The tragedy in this case is that Ecclestone already has a much tighter time-frame to grow into the character before he leaves the role. Part of the problem also lies with the writing for the character, more particularly Russell Davies as the primary writer. The goofy, off the wall characterization fits in with Davies' idea of comedy within the series; I've always enjoyed the comedic aspects and sense of fun found in the classic series but at times Davies' writing seems to veer closer to Benny Hill than Doctor Who. Shearman fortunately brings back the dramatic, darker aspect to the Doctor which is especially important in an episode such as "Dalek". The threat would be drastically undermined if the Doctor resorted to an endless stream of one-liners and gags, something that weakened "Aliens of London/WWIII". This episode illustrates how Ecclestone certainly has the ability to be a great Doctor given the right material. He works much better in a serious role with the occasional comedy versus the clownish role with the occasional drama that has been the case so far.

As usual, Billy Piper is excellent in this episode. As an American, I had never heard of her until she was cast as Rose. Learning that her claim to fame was as a pop singer didn't exactly thrill me but she has turned out to be the most consistently enjoyable aspect of the series. The guest stars in this episode also held their own; I was worried that the American setting would mean plenty of caricatures of the "Texas oil tycoon" or brass "New Yawker" variety but fortunately they stuck to a more neutral accent. The Dalek itself certainly earned its starring role, thanks to the work of Nick Briggs as this generation's version of the deadly pepper pot. The script made great use of the creature, from the deadlt use of its sucker to its downloading of everything on the internet! Perhaps my favorite scene was not the Dalek levitating up the stairs, as I'm sure it was for many, but a later scene in which it wipes out an entire room of soldiers using the sprinkler system and electricity. It was a clever and interesting way to demonstrate the Dalek's intelligence and its deadly nature without resorting to yet another generic shootout.

"Dalek" has confirmed my overall belief that the new series has the ability to have just as successful a run as the original show. Even with my reservations for the RTD-written scripts I'm still enjoying the overall progression of the season. The second half of the season seems to contain a more serious and dramatic tone with perhaps more revelations about the mysterious "Time War", one of Davies' overarching storylines that I am enjoying in addition to the ongoing connection with Rose's family and friends back home. At any rate the rest of the season has the potential to set up the Doctor's adventures for many years to come, with or without the ninth Doctor.

If you frequent forums, newsgroups and the like without contributing then you are known as a 'lurker'. Many of you reading these reviews will recognise that quality in yourselves, but every now and then something comes along that breaks you out of your apathy. A moment so profound, so life changing that you are forced out of the shadows to yell it from the rooftops and tell everone else about it. In science it's been labelled the EUREKA moment. What event would cause a scientific mind to leap naked out of their bath and run yelling down a public street?

Well no nudity in public for my epiphany. I like to reserve a special place in my tele-visual history for the WOW moments. On Saturday night, a cynical classic Who fan of some 36 years sat down and watched a beloved, but in his view, underachieving, resurrection deliver a WOW moment that registered high on the richter scale. Dalek delivered - in spades.

Let me put this into context.

I've lived WHO from Pertwee to Baker, from Davison through to the other Baker. My enthusiasm was drained by the travesty of... I mean the Trial of a Timelord, only to have it re-ignited by 'Fenric' only to have it dashed by the cancellation when it had just become interesting. I had slim hopes for McGann and the movie... yet the infamous 'kiss' scuppered any creditability it may have gained from me. So it was that the Doctor faded into television history.

17 years and the landscape was changing... Star Trek had a Next Generation, Deep Space Nine came and went, Voyager voyaged and Enterprise confounded original series devotees... Mulder and Scully opened (and closed several times) the X Files, Babylon 5 was the last best hope for peace' before being decomissioned, Buffy was the chosen one, died and was resurrected... as indeed was her vampire love Angel... all contributed in their own way and gave rise to inspiration for others to follow... but you know that...

The US fantasy output had 'raised' the bar - in script writing / dramatic and special effects terms. Nothing the British could do could challenge or compete with the genius of Whedon, Straczynski or Carter... at least that's what we had been led to believe.

I'm not one to deify writers, creators etc, and RTD is a long way off that with his own scripts, but I must congratulate him on the first two non RTD scripts of this new series. Gattiss's 'The Unquiet Dead' invoked nostalgia of Hinchcliffe WHO, and now Shearman's Dalek.... to coin an often used ninth doctor phrase "Fantastic!"

Twenty minutes in, after much promise came the WOW moment. Two minutes of Dalek action in the corridor showdown with the bases forces. Two minutes where I remembered what it was like to be a child again. That wonderful feeling of awe and inspiration where you look at the screen with undiluted pleasure. EUREKA! Te ruthlessness, the brutality... this was a Dalek displayed in it's purest form doing what it does best. The re-invention was realised superbly... with post-Matrix forcefields dissolving bullets, skeleton exposing exterminating rays and the clincher? The 360 degree revolving mid section. Such a simple idea... and a perfect accompaniment to what went before. The aerial POV shot of this new movement was inspired! Yet it didn't stop there... who could watch the movement of the Dalek as it shifts itself into it's next direction post the corridor slaughter and not be chilled by it? This could so esaily have been a static Dalek moves forward shot, so congrats Joe Ahearne for going for a more artistic and aesthetically pleasing viewpoint.

So impressed was I that I had to view BOTH the BBC Three reruns.. just to see if this moment was as good as I thought it was. Could I be being deceived? Was WHO 2005 delivering the goods at last after the abomination that was the 'two parter' that shall remain nameless... (Third World War indeed... waste of a powerful title...Wind breakers would have been better....)? Dalek did deliver and I wasn't being decieved.

Sure I can be critical; Rose could touch the Dalek even though the "last guy that touched it burst into flames"?; the emotionless pre-DNA transfer Dalek could be "glad" that it had met Rose?; the Dalek reasoning that "what use are emotions if you won't save the woman you love"; slightly dodgy CGI in places, the cop out power drain / internet download (some broadband connection!) and the slightly 'too convenient implosion'...(if that's what it was... I'd much prefer it to have been a time jump....) But in counterpoint the episode has such richness... from great atmosphere to stunningly effective use of location (the Millenium Stadum at Cardiff was an inspired choice), tight direction and classic dialogue; "You would make a good Dalek..." ; "If you can't kill what are you good for.. Dalek?" "E-L-E-V-A-T-E!". I can't let my review pass without praising the subtle refrence to classic WHO in the prologue.. "an old friend.. well.. an enemy.. the stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit" recited over the image of a blank expressionless "Invasion" Cyber head. How may households rang to the cries of... "Dad what is it?" Well done Mr Shearman for not labouring the point. (Just bring them back and let the new generation really know what they are...)

I hope the new generation of WHO fans will enthuse about this as much as this veteran does. THIS is what it's all about. This is why I love this programme. If there is nothing else offered by this revival then the 2 minutes of WOW delivered here will have made the 17 year wait worthwhile. File with those other classic moments... my first glimpse of a Dalek in Day of the Daleks, the Sontaron reveal in the Sontaron Experiment, the Cybermen appearance at the end of episode 1 of Earthshock, the marshmen in the swamp of Full Circle... and I'm sure you have a long list too...

If Mr Davies wants to learn anything about his audience then he too should become a 'lurker' and realise that he has started something good. As all fledgling shows this new 'infant' will make some faltering steps... but when it learns do do things right (as it has done here) it should do them MORE! Here's one lifetime fan hoping for less 'soap' (exterminate Mickey please) and more WOW in the weeks to come.

As another sci-fi visionary once said; "Faith manages".

The Daleks had been ridiculed, often imitated, and had generally lost their edge. No longer were they the stuff of nightmares; they were now the figures of fun. With this in mind, Robert Shearman had a hard task in writing this Episode, and it is a pleasant surprise that it was as great as it is.

Slowly but surely, the Dalek strips away all possible points of humour: the sink plunger arm becomes a sucking, lethal, and head-breaking (literally) weapon, as well as one able to break codes and absorb information; the circular balls on the Daleks’ bases are no longer pretty, decorative attachments but are instead spherical bombs which are used to commit suicide, or self-extermination if you prefer; the gun turret in the Dalek centre can now swivel around 360°, making any notion of sneaking up behind them and, say, pushing them into a freezing cold lake on Spiridon no longer reasonable. This Dalek could single-handedly wipe out the entire Thal army in less time than it takes to surmise the plot of… well, a ‘Doctor Who’ story with very little plot- insert your own parallel here!

The actual plot of ‘Dalek’, rather famously now, borrows the lone-Dalek-in-a-cell scenario from the beyond-excellent Big Finish play ‘Jubilee’, but scenario aside there is very little in the way of similarities, which is a good thing as it saves me having to write out lengthy comparative paragraphs, though I shall come back to it later on nevertheless.

Here we have what everyone believes to be the last Dalek. Ever. The Daleks are no more; they fought a war against the Time Lords and were wiped out, though quite why they were fighting each other and what it actually entailed is something we never learn throughout Series One. This is a Dalek which is alone, and consequently confused. It kills, because that is what it does. It exterminates because it is a Dalek, and Daleks exterminate.

After some nifty DNA-extraction from a certain Rose Tyler (o, she of the easy deception), our entrapped friend is free to begin its killing spree, and kill it does. The bodies fly thick and fast, the screams echo and in one very memorable scene, the Dalek even makes sure everyone is watching it as it gloatingly murders a room full of base personnel in a rather imaginative way. The actual repair of the Dalek seems a bit convenient, though I cannot really see another way in which it would have worked, considering how the Episode ends. The use of a solitary Dalek was a superb way to make them seem all the more hostile and threatening. After all, if one Dalek alone could cause the immense damage this one did, imagine a whole army of them…

The supporting characters Shearman has created are just as memorable as the Dalek’s actions within the Episode; Henry van Statten- played with obvious relish by Corey Johnson- is the perfect ‘Doctor Who’ baddie. He is selfish, arrogant, rude, and out only to save himself at the expense of everybody and everything else. Bruno Langley debuts here as Adam, and he gives a performance that shines, so when he joins the TARDIS crew at the end of the Episode, it is a pleasant and most welcome surprise. As Van Statten’s aide, Diana Goddard (played by Anna Louise Plowman) is just as cold as her boss, but so less vocal that she gets away with not being shouted down by the Doctor. Alas, she is given little to do compared to Van Statten and Adam but she still makes an impression.

Once more, Billie Piper as Rose Tyler is a joy to watch, from the slow way she is tricked by the Dalek to the moving conversation she has with the Doctor via Mobile Telephone. If this wasn’t enough, Christopher Eccleston turns in his best performance to date as the Doctor. This is a Time Lord scarred by all he has seen, witnessed and fought in, and his sheer anger throughout the Episode is gripping stuff; you cannot help being drawn in. Everything, from his one-on-one conversations with the Dalek to his rant at Van Statten following Rose’s apparent demise, is so good that one is compelled to watch.

The Director of ‘Dalek’ was Joe Ahearne, and he is quite simply terrific. The ambience he creates fits the Episode perfectly; when it is meant to be moody, it is moody; when it is meant to be a bit lighter in tone, it is lighter in tone. From the reveal of the Cyberman head in a glass case near the start of the Episode to the interplay between Van Statten and the Doctor to the scenes with Rose and Adam talking about extra-terrestrials, everything is as close to perfection as can be achieved. Complimenting this very nicely indeed is Murray Gold’s incidental music; his score is big, loud, operatic and grand, and lives up to the expectations of the visuals every step of the way.

The very ending of the Dalek in ‘Dalek’ is good, though arguably not clear enough. Many people have complained that it is shown to be weak and full of heart due to having a conscience, but in truth it has anything but that. It does not kill itself because it has gone ‘soft’ and seen the error of its ways. It kills itself because it can no longer kill. It wants to exterminate all living things, but cannot. It wants to see the destruction of all things, but is prevented from doing so, so it kills itself. It is not a happy ending; this Dalek has not been redeemed. If anything, it shows itself to be just as nasty as it has done throughout the Episode. It wants to kill, but it cannot, so it kills itself. It dies through lack of sadistic alternative.

If I had two complaints, they would be that, as mentioned above, the ending lacks the clarity that it really should have, and also, from a personal point of view and one largely irrelevant to the Review, I preferred ‘Jubilee’.

For a start, I think that its four-episode format allows the supporting cast to develop more, and also the Dalek undergoing similar treatment reaches the same state as the one in ‘Dalek’ without the lack of conscience, making for, in many ways, a more powerful ending and certainly a more interesting Dalek. Perhaps I just wanted ‘Dalek’ to be longer than it was, but for me ‘Jubilee’ wins the crown as the better story. Despite this, I still think that its television equivalent was superb, so it’s a bit like comparing sublime with fantastic- they’re both good, but one has the edge.

‘Dalek’ was a chance to make everything the Daleks once were prominent in the viewers’ minds, and Shearman has succeeded remarkably. This is an Episode that could have gone so badly, but it doesn’t. Everything shines from the acting, to the Direction, to the golden Dalek casing (which looks brilliant and quickly quenched any thoughts within which wanted the Dalek casing to be silver like in ‘Death To The Daleks’ in my deepest, darkest fanboy dreams). Okay, so the ending lacks the clarity it deserves and, for me at least, the source of inspiration (‘Jubilee’) remains superior to this, but that is not to say that I disliked this. In fact, I loved it, as the rest of this review will show. ‘Dalek’ is a resounding triumph, which does ‘Doctor Who’, Christopher Eccleston and- above all- Robert Shearman proud.