Ah, young 'uns with yer Daniel Radcliffe as Doctor Who, you don't know you're born, I tell yer. When I was a lad, we had proper under-the-bed-chills like in the one with the Clockwork robots. My God, that got me all jiffultey that did as a nipper. I couldn't sleep for a week, I couldn't, thinking one of them robot things was under me bed, all tick, tock, tick, tock... We 'ad one of them old fireplaces too ( a 1960s one mind) and I was forever looking through it shouting Doctor! Doctor! Are you there? ,expecting some sort of Sapphire and Steel Father Christmas.

Yes my darlings, they were the golden days of Doctor Who alright, with David Tennant bouncing around all grinning and mad starey eyes and Billie whassername going all gooey eyed over him (who'd've thought she'd become an ambassador for the UN?) and Mickey the Tin Dog. My goodness me how David Tennant could act his socks off being drunk (first Doctor to do it, so as I'm told) and falling in love with Madame Da Pompadour and she him. Now, now, I know what you're saying but this was the first proper time he did it, it was - and long before his successor had a romance with the Contessa Di Tempus too (he likes his posh birds, see).

Oh how I thrilled at the sight of the spaceship and the Doctor riding the horse right through the mirror into the ballroom! You'd do worse than watch them Labrynth flicks if you like stuff like that. Pre-CGI mind, but worth a look its out now on DVD. Do you still use DVDs? No? Oh... You see in them days there was sheer imagination and enthusiasm for the programme. By 'eck, I'm lucky to 'ave seen the heydays of Doctor Who when I was a nipper. If only they hadn't cast Ozzy Osbourne as the Master in Series Three...

Russell Davies continues his quest to make his viewers blub with every episode, and succeeds royally with The Girl In The Fireplace.

School Reunion was an excellent character episode draped over a fairly cursory and not particularly original plot. This episode, by contrast, hit the mark on both counts, and presented an absorbing story as well as great character work. Even the pacing glitches, which have effected all the New Doctor Who stories so far, with the possible exception of FatherВ’s Day, were finally ironed out, with the story fitting comfortably into the 45 minute timeframe.

And weВ’re also back to vintage Doctor Who in many ways В– weВ’re on board a spaceship (at last! Hurrah!), thereВ’s proper body-horror (the barbecue smell is especially effective, and pretty hardcore for 7pm on a Saturday tea time) and a healthy dollop of unselfconscious surrealismВ… perhaps the best Who surrealism since Enlightenment, maybe even The Mind Robber. I remember vividly the strange dreams that followed the Enlightenment cliffhanger when it was on originally, and I have no doubt that there will be swathes of youngsters, and adults too, with some heady dreams of their own tonight.

I wouldnВ’t like to say this was the best ever Doctor Who story В– though I was certainly thinking it from about five minutes in В– but it has to be up there. The clockwork robots were brilliantly realised, especially in the bedroom scene towards the start, and wonderfully scary. The Narnia-esque time portals worked well too, a rare use of time as a plot point in a programme apparently about time travel (off the top of my head, the last one was Mawdryn Undead).

Mickey worked well, injecting the common touch into proceedings (Rose was oddly subdued today), and David Tennant gave his best performance yet, playing the mania and tragedy with much more subtlety than Chris Eccleston. His portrayal of a devastated and heartbroken Doctor putting on a brave face at the end was spot on.

And Sophie Myles was great too. The pair have a real chemistry В– one should hope so В– and she really brought this historical character to life. That she was ultimately stood up by the Doctor carried with it real tragedy В– didnВ’t it seem too good to be true that she would get a spin in the TARDIS? В– and I like the suggestion that her health declined as a result of that: he saved her life and killed her at the same moment. Though, couldnВ’t he just fly back in the TARDIS and pick her up himself, being a bona fide time traveler and all? I was hoping for a last minute reprieve in the manner of Captain Jack in The Doctor Dances. And I know who IВ’d rather have around the TARDIS.

There have only been a few times when sci-fi series have come close to perfection. The train station story in Sapphire and Steel is one, last seasons В“The Empty Child/The Doctor DancesВ” was another. Who would have thought that Steven Moffat could strike gold once more?

From the trailer last week, I was not ready for the intelligence and emotion that was contained in this story. What is more, to neatly contain it within the 45 minutes without feeling rushed makes this a classic. While there have been many who have slated RTDВ’s recent work (and really, В“Tooth and ClawВ” was damn good Saturday evening viewing, whatВ’s wrong with you?) you can still see where he fails and writers like Moffat excel.

For some, having the Doctor in a romantic lead is sacrilegious. The kiss in the TV movie had fans baying for blood. But I hope that in this instance, they can forgive the love story because it is so believable. That may be in some part because the leading lady was none other than the Doctors real life girlfriend, and boy did they have chemistry.

I dare critics to find problem with this story. It may not be for the kids, but hey, they got farting monsters last year, itВ’s the turn of the adult fans to feel that the Doctor is not only alive, but better than ever! "The Girl in the Fireplace" will stand aside all of the classic Who stories. Welcome to the Hall of Fame! Three cheers to the BBC for making Saturday evenings worth staying in for.

The excellent School Reunion was going to be a difficult story to follow - especially in the emotional stakes. If anyone could come up with the goods it would be writer Steven Moffat and, in many ways, he almost did it!!! Doctor Who has always worked well when exploring more unusual concepts and ideas - The Mind Robber being a perfect example of the unexpected. So mix the court of Louis XV, robotic clockwork killers and a futuristic spaceship with a living heart and instant time windows into the events surrounding Madame de Pompadour and you have a very non-traditional but enjoyable DW adventure.

Season One gave Christopher Eccleston some very good lines but the Ninth Doctor tended not to be the centre of the plots - Rose almost dominating many of the story lines. This time round David Tennant's tenth Doctor is very much the leading figure with many aspects of his emotions and past being investigated. His attraction to young Reinette as her imaginary friend from behind the fireplace grew to a full blown fascination with the man called the Doctor - as the Doctor met the older versions of Reinette the mutual attraction grew until they touched minds and understood each other's loneliness. OK so many DW fans will not accept that the Doctor should have romantic thoughts but surely this is a Time Lord who has become very vulneranble after the death of his race, has learnt how devastating his involvement can be with his former travelling companions and now desperately needs to belong to a race - even if it is human. Another emotional rollercoaster as the Doctor experiences what could have been a very passionate relationship only to loose his Reinette and become a wanderer in time and space again!

The feel of the story is excellent - BBC Drama always excel at period pieces so the lavish external and internal scenes around Versailles looked great and the clockwork droids were both chilling and powerful - those black eyes and smiles were positively Hammer horror at is best!

A relatively small cast excelled with Sophia Myles' performance being outstanding. Poor Rose and Mickey were very much in the background this time - but as for Arthur the Horse . . . a future rival for K9 perhaps!!!! David Tennant gave many dimensions to his character again - almost Tom Bakerish in parts - but the humour here was far more in keeping with the story (as last week). He is really a tremendous Doctor and is developing into his own special characterisation.

Every episode of this series seems to take the show on further and further - the clips of the Cybermen episodes suggest that the best could be yet to come!

Two things to say at the outset of my review. 1) This is the only episode of this new series that I have seen so I maybe unfair in basing my opinion on this one story. 2) David Tennant is streets ahead of Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor - in the right story he could be one of the greats.

First the good things about The Girl in the Fireplace. I greatly enjoyed David Tennant's performance up to a certain moment, which I'll write about later. Gone was the gurning of Christopher Eccleston, here was a Doctor who could save a child from the horrors lurking under her bed without making cheap jokes and grinning like a maniac.

I also found it refreshing that Rose had very little to do in this episode and that it mainly focused on the Doctor. There has been a lot of gushing about Miss Piper's role in the new series on these reviews and I don't think that it's any coincidence that these are entirely written by blokes. I'm not saying that her performance is bad, but her character can be tiresome. The rivalry over her in the last series between the Doctor, Jack and Mickey was pathetic and her possessive attitude to the Doctor is also starting to annoy.

I also loved the costumes and settings for this story.

The moment my disillusionment came was when the Doctor went sneaking around after Madame Pompadour like a lovesick schoolboy seemingly dazzled after just one kiss. I felt as if the Doctor was being transformed into some kind of cosmic Casanova or getting a touch of Captain Kirk Syndrome. The whole thing would have worked better if Madame's passion for the Doctor had been entirely one-sided and he'd had to resist her seductions!

I found the Doctor acting drunk very cringe-worthy as well - it was like seeing my Dad plastered - and where did he get shades from in 18th century France?

Was this episode also a not so subtle attempt to prepare the audience for Rose's departure? It seems that these days the Doctor would rather spend the evening dancing with his latest conquest than save Rose's life. He also didn't seem to show a great deal of concern at being stuck in 18th century France away from her. Had this episode been placed in the previous series the Doctor's whole concern would have been to get back to Rose.

The villains here were not particularly scary either, apart from their very first appearance. They didn't seem to be very robustly designed and it seemed that practically anything could destroy them. This made it all the more surprising that Madame Pompadour seemed to have made no preparations for their arrival in the five years after Rose's warning. All they would have had to do was dump buckets of water over them or something similar. Maybe they should have dumped a cold one over the Doctor and Madame at the same time!

Anyway this is just one story among others - maybe it's the Bad Wolf of this series (not a lot happened in that bar a lot of male posturing over Rose) The bit they showed of next week's episode looked very good. Less mush and more action!

Tonight’s episode by Steven Moffat was another masterpiece. The opening of Reinette calling out for the Doctor in her time of need through a fire place, opened this piece with intrepidation of how does she know to call the Doctor?

Enter the titles and we are now in 51st century in a space ship, on investigation the new crew wander around while Rose wants to know where when why, Mickey is gob smacked that his first journey is on a space ship. The whole design is great and the CGI of the space craft and outside through windows is fantastic. The crew find a fireplace, eighteenth century at that, and a girl Reinette who says that it is France in 1871. The Doctor finds a way of opening the magic door which is a spin of the fireplace. I loved that especially the way that the Doctor now has some adventure on his own. David is fantastic in this scene making it all very frightening and dark. He finds the clockwork man under the bed, what a creation really spooky and the weapon is very menacing but again using items that children can identify with. Having the young Reinette setting the journey is good for the children too as the fact that Reinette controls the danger is a good plot, the clockwork men need her for something but what. The eerie Tick Tock in the back ground and the music behind is subtle but so important and really adds to the overall tension and the darkness that is being created. The Doctor saves Reinette by taking the clockwork man to the spaceship.

The Doctor attacks the clockwork man and then unmasks. This is a wonderful creation, clockwork mechanics a great design concept that works so well. The Doctor revisits Reinette who is now a woman. Wow did anyone see the kiss coming; I thought this moment was shocking but yet surprisingly likable. This Doctor is so charasmatic and a flirt that it certainly goes with this Doctor that kissing would happen. David’s Doctor is tender, passionate and emotional and I think this makes David’s intepretation fascinating to watch.

In this episode we have another powerful women’s part in Sophia Myles taking on the part of Reinette. This is a great portrayal and Sophia has made good work of all lines emotion and drama that she has been given. You can see why she was cast and it is lovely to see so many women getting decent parts in science fiction. This series has been delivering these strong roles and Reinette is a character that is instantly likeable; wish I could say the same about Mickey.

Back on the spacecraft and Rose is teaching Mickey about time travel and getting on with it. Rose is a strong character but is being limited by Mickey. Fortunately Rose is so well written and acted by Billie that she is able to shine even in limited time. Rose’s emotional journey continues in this adventure, the heart being wired disgusted Rose, the jealousy she shows at why did you pick this woman to the clockwork man shows that she doesn’t want to share the Doctor with a beautiful woman like Reinette, who is clearly gaining the Doctor’s attention. Rose also benefits with a lovely scene with Reinette on her being ready when she is 37 and demonstrating how difficult it is for her to explain the concept of how Reinette’s life is being viewed by portals in Mirrors, Tapestry’s and Fire’s. The scene where Reinette walks through the tapestry onto the spaceship is simple but clever. Reinette after seeing into the Doctor’s mind while the Doctor searches for the answer, she sees and understand the Doctor’s loneliness that comes from his travelling and long life. The line to Rose about we understand that the Doctor is worth the monsters don’t we Rose, again illustrates to Rose there is more than one person who knows why she travels with the Doctor. Mickey sees this to and implies to Rose that the Doctor surrounds himself by women a point Rose chooses to ignore.

The relationship between the Doctor and Reinette is superbly played and this journey is why the adults will stay interested as it is a beautiful and emotional ride. Each time portal window showing another layer of the relationship and even though time is limited between them the time is enough to show a love story.

The story climaxes with the Doctor penetrating the window riding on a horse. Genius where else would you see this moment anywhere else but in Doctor Who. The visual effect was strong and well worth the tremendous efforts of all the production team involved and Steven’s ability to write without budget constraints in mind. This scene is definitely a fantastic achievement. Saying that though all departments are equally as good, the visual effects and set pieces are really strong. The location of Ragley Hall fits beautifully and the costumes are a real highlight of the episode in my eyes. The clockwork men and women look visually fantastic and I love the contrast of the regular cast members against the back drop of the eighteenth century costume. This episode is definitely going to very re watchable as you soak in all the elements that have gone into this episode, there is too much to take in on one showing.

So the Doctor heroically saves Reinette and leaves Rose on the spaceship. With the Doctor trapped Rose cries over the loss which is another Billie beautiful moment and so subtably done. We then move to David whose portrayal over the loss of Reinette at the end of the episode is so compelling. The Doctor showing this emotion is very bold stuff but it all works so well. Words don’t always say it all and it is to David’s credit that he can command the scene even when saying nothing is what makes him in my eyes the best Doctor there has been so far. I know that many people will be saying that we just move on to the new but I believe that it will be difficult to emulate David when he decides to go. I’m hoping that this isn’t for years.

For me the only element not working in this series is Mickey, he didn’t do anything for me last year and I find his character so unmoving, you can see Noel is giving his best but it not holding my attention. I only hope that with continuing episodes this does change as this element may spoil a weaker episode but as we haven’t had one yet I’m not worrying about it.