I felt rather let down by the previous season of Doctor Who and in particular by Russell T.Davies and Christopher Eccleston. I love their previous work but for some reason they just didn’t work for in the Doctor Who context. So when I found out the first episode of the new series was another Davies script I was more than a little worried.

We had yet another goodbye scene with Jackie and Mickey, how boring? Added nothing at all to the episode and didn’t need to be there. And when we last saw these two it was Christmas but judging by the weather this time around it was summertime. Surely Rose and the Doctor didn’t stay that long?

I don’t like the idea of the Doctor and Rose fancying each other, at all. It’s just wrong in my mind. The Doctor doesn’t fall in love with everyone to come through the Tardis otherwise he’d be a bit of man-slapper. And its such a boring and unoriginal plot as well. So why even bother? And all the sentimental crap surrounding it is so tedious. It almost makes me reach for the remote.

For the most part the special effects were good but the odd one brought the show down. Which is a great example of why storyline must come before effects! I get the feeling the production crew are trying to show off and amaze us all with these brand new special effects the old series never had. Problem is they actually look rather cheap and don’t stand up to the likes of Battlestar Galactica. Now there’s a show that has got the balance right. Yes they have very good special effects but they have excellent storylines to match, dark and moving. Doctor Who needs to look at this re-invented show and learn some lessons. I want to see story to the episodes and less showing off and far less humour. Doctor Who always worked best when it was scary and there was nothing scary about this episode.

On the plus side Billie Piper proved what an amazing actress she is during this episode. Switching between Rose and ‘Cassandra’ was brilliantly done. And the Lady Cassandra was a welcome return. She was by far one of the better things about the previous series. She’s so witty and bitchy, she’d be perfect for Footballers Wives. I do hope we see her again because there’s plenty of potential there. Her change of heart was rather sudden so I’m hoping it was all a trick on Cassandra’s part otherwise its just a little of a cop-out. The cats costumes were another high point as well as their characterisation. They’re another species I hope we see again. The Face of Boe added a little mystery to the episode, what does he have to say to the Doctor? Could it be a warning about the Cybermen or about his own people?

The dialogue for the most part was good. Although I doubt that Cassandra, five billion years in the future, would actually use the term chav it was all very funny. The plague victims looked a little…..dodgy. I couldn’t help but think of Terminus and how dodgy that make up was. And how on earth can they speak and why do they have clothes? The Sisterhood bred them for experiments and finding cures not to try out different fashions on them. Why bother clothing them? It’s pointless. And if they are bred for experimenting on, and kept isolated from each other, how do they possess the skill of speech? Children learn to speak by watching and listening to their parents and copying their behaviour.

Deep down under all the humour, special effects and bitchy comments there was actually some kind of moral to this storyline. It’s all about animal testing and human testing. It’s wrong. And in this case I can’t help but agree. Breeding animals just to experiment on them is totally and utterly wrong.

Overall not a bad episode really. An improvement on some of the direness of the previous season and a much better actor in the role. However, I’m still not sure of Davies and prefer other episodes to his.

Looking at the early UK newspaper reviews, this hasnt been received too well...I loved it personally. Yes it was silly but what's wrong with that? It made the contrast with the sad ending to the episode so much better....

One review said that Billie Pipers cleavage would only get her so far....well, suffice to say it didnt bother me too much...It would have been nice to have a bit more Zoe Wanamaker..maybe had her voice over the Doctor's and Rose's and a trick was perhaps missed by not showing Cassandra/Rose's point of view when she changed.

As for the new Doctor, I enjoyed him immensley. David Tennant can obviously do the funny stuff but he showed that he has that steel needed for the role as well. This certainly shows with the Cat Nun scene.

I think the backlash to the hit first series has started now but not every episode is going to be emotional and upsetting a la Fathers Day or The Parting of The Ways. I think you have to have funny and sad, crying or glad as contrasts or you dont believe each of them when they come around.

You could definitely see it was a Russell T Davies script for exactly those contrasts. He walks that line of happy and sad more than any other writer on the show. Before the Anti-RTD crusade starts...just jump in the TARDIS and imagine when he leaves the show. Think about who might take his 'Dalek Emperor' role....the care and attention he brings to the show, the care and attention that he brings out in others....those will be big shoes to fill...

I think most importantly the kids will love New Earth and I'm actually going to agree with my missus for once...that Doctor Who is a kids show...as someone said the kids show that adults all adore...

I'll warn you, dear reader, I'm not happy. My short review is that that New Earth was childish, camp and lazy. The long version follows...

First good bits: It looked good most of the time. Billy and David are exceptionally good at what they do though neither of them made me laugh. (It's too early in the series to be trying comedy with the leads). The themes of clinicians' scientific detachment from patients in need of emotional contact were interesting (though virtually unexplored). The end was quite imaginitive.

Now my quibbles really begin...

Bipedal Cats as medical nuns is a very strange idea. It's a bit pantomimey, a bit simple and a bit easy. You could imagine them as incidental characters in a children's book populated by dog firemen and Duck taxi-drivers. However they're weird and outlandish enough to be really fantastic sci-fi/fantasy creations- but only if they are more than just nurses with cat faces. For some reason I'd expected some kind of interesting and imaginitive explanation for their existence- something a bit clever or a bit mysterious or maybe a bit allegorical. But no- they were just there. They are there ONLY because they're a bit weird and might look good- nothing to do with plot, nothing with any reason or thought behind it.

This is a bit symptomatic of this episode and RTD's Doctor Who writing in general. This is such a shame as he can be so good when he's on form- by the time we'd got to 'The Parting of the Ways' I'd completely fogotten how much I'd cringed at the burping bin and fart-driven plots in last year's series. The brilliant character work in the script and in the perfomances shone so brightly I'd completely forgotten everything that was awful. Whoops.

New Earth did have some good moments and ideas- the ending focussing on Cassandra was a lovely idea and could have been moving if it wasn't completely unbelievable given what we seen up to then. In fact the episode teemed with characters and themes that were supposed to be heart-wrenchinlgy profound but came across as vapid and camp...

The hordes of imprisoned disease-carriers were supposed to be so heart-breaking having spent their existence craving human contact and suffering from every disease possible. But the groups of pleading and beckoning extras looked awful- the performances were laughable. If you'd turned on half way through you might think it was a quirky comedy sketch show. Perhaps a Doctor Who spoof? And then one of them cuddles up to David Tennant after he's cured them with an unbelievably childish plot device.

It's as though RTD is saying all that matters is you have people who look needy and pathetic, they get sprayed with magic by the Doctor and are fixed so then we think the Doctor is wonderful. There- That's drama. Tick. It really seems as though he doesn't think anything else in the script matters and he can slip in the simplest and most childish explanation for anything and get away with it because somewhere there's some camp sparkling dialogue.

My real problem with this is that a very similar thing was going on in Steven Moffat's WWII two-parter last year where Christopher Eccleston showered broken people with what was effectively fairy dust for non-scifi fans but there was SO MUCH MORE going on behind it. The nano-gene premise, the issues of motherhood and guilt in the social context of 1940s Britain, the themes of redemption and forgiveness an these being what brings about change in a scene with amazing semi-religious imagery but an intelligent explanation about DNA hierarchies and re-programming the fairy-dust. How can you go from something that good to New Earth?

The previews of next week (and the big stretch of guest writers' episodes following it) look really good and there are some writers that we know produce brilliant scripts. I was looking forward to this series SO MUCH and I'm hoping that there's some truly wonderful Doctor Who coming out way.

After what seemed endless trailers and previews, mentions in newspapers , and interviews the new series was back. Having read other reviews, I do feel that it is unfair to criticize RTD , the man who brought back the best TV series in the world and made it good.

It was alright. What does get me though, is why he needs to constantly bring back characters , which were not that good in the first place. The slitheen made an unwelcome appearance last year, and no Cassandra and the The face of Bo. Harriet Jones was the only return that in my opinion worked. The only saving grace with Cassandra was the brilliant voice of Zoe Wannamaker , which brings such life and humor to a fairly plain character. The body swapping was quite funny, but after the fourth time got annoying. The snog, which he said in confidential will ( paraphrase) 'Have funs up in arms'. It seemed pointless to the plot, and a bit of titillation was completely unnecessary.

The story heavily relied on the CGI and prosthetics . This is not Doctor Who, it should be character based, and I feel it went to far and relying on the effects. The zombie like creations were uninteresting and boring and predictable, similar to the traditional zombie, but also the Unquiet dead creations.

As for Mr Tennant, well I think there is no doubt that he is miles better than Eccleston. Having seen him , it all comes so naturally, where as Eccleston performance , with hindsight seemed force to put on the eccentric qualities. But maybe if he went into it, not liking it, just to get a career jump, well what was the point? But then that’s another matter. DT is superb, and thankfully he is sticking around, although I wish he went to Specsavers for the glasses!.

I only hope this is the flaw in the series and we shall see a rise to the glory heights , Pauline Collins as Queen Victoria looks good, although the werewolf’s don’t look that excting. Can’t wait for the Lis Sladen to return , and bring some marvelous talent to the show, not to sure on K9 or the cyberman, but then the proof of the pudding.

And so it finally arrives, the first episode of the second season of the brand new Doctor Who, something which only three years ago would have seemed unthinkable. It has been a hell of a year and I sometimes have trouble reconciling the fact that the Doctor Who I have known for the last twenty years, a guilty pleasure to be confessed to at your peril, the pillar of ridicule by tv and sci fi pundits and a series that has had to claw its way every last inch back to tv, is now gasp, the height of critical and commercial success. In short I should be doing cartwheels that twenty years of unswerving devotion has been paid off, many would say a Who fan has never had it so good. Unfortunately last year also brought the sobering revelation that this new series of Doctor Who was not produced as many would have hoped as a serious sci fi show that would take its rightful place alongside Star Trek, Babylon 5 etc, but as a piece of 2005 entertainment for kids designed squarely to sit alongside the playstation, Yu Gi Oh cards and the likes of Ant and Dec. That it has been such a sterling success goes to prove that Russell T Davies probably knows a lot more about popular tv than I will ever do, so I have become reconciled to the fact that I am going to have to agree to differ over this new series, many love it unconditionally, while I still remain uncomfortably sat on the fence being entertained and irritated in almost equal measure.

As a semi sequel to The End of the World, New Earth carried much of the same strengths and faults of the earlier story. The story once again boasted a superbly realised futuristic enviroment which was on a par with a lot of stuff offered in recent feature films, I can only take my hat off to the BBC for the slick look that they have given Doctor Who, which holds court with most of the modern US series. When one thinks about the cheapness of shows such as Neverwhere only 10 years ago, it is remarkable how far things have come. The location more than anything last year evoked the classic Doctor Who setup of something sinister going on under the surface, and with the enigmatic cat like nuns and some weird patients, I thought the story was going to be something pretty special. Unfortunately as was often the case last year, for me the story was marred by far too much camp silliness. The bodyswapping, the rather camp and annoying character of Chip, and various other quips and gags, placed the series once again as a show seemingly targeted at the very young. Many I am sure would disagree, but I still don’t think the humour drama balance is quite right, The Christmas Invasion seemed to be heading in the right direction, but once again the tomfoolery prevalent in this episode sat uncomfortably with the rather bleak nature of the underlying story.

The opening teaser got the story off to a rollicking start, and one could almost sense the anticipation as Rose and the Doctor once again set off into the great beyond. From the opening moments David Tennant filled the shoes of the Doctor effortlessly. While appreciating a lot of what Christopher Eccleston did with the character, at times he seemed to be struggling and when he went off mark he went off badly, sometimes creating a character that was scarcely recognisable as the Doctor. In contrast David Tennant strode through the whole story completely at ease, never for one minute having to try and convince the audience he is the Doctor. As yet he hasn’t had a really great standout script, but on the evidence of the Christmas Invasion and this episode I think the part is in safe hands and I think some of the stuff to come will give him a chance to really shine. Only in the possessed Cassandra scenes did he slightly lose credibility, but probably did the best anybody could with this material.

Billie Piper in contrast seemed somewhat weaker in this episode than usual. Probably because much of the episode was given over to her being possessed by Cassandra, Rose got very few standout moments in her own right.

The return of Cassandra herself was somewhat of a mixed blessing, she was one of the few genuinely amusing camp comic creations from the last series, and her few scenes in her trampoline form where a joy to behold, unfortunately the whole bodyswap idea became very tiresome as it went on and once again seemed to be too much of a divergence from the main thread of the story. The Face of Boe’s return seemed a deliberate setup for a future plot strand, but I for one was glad to see him back. He is without doubt a superbly realised alien creation and it is just a shame he wasn’t given a bit more to do, series 1 had a few false starts on the monster front (I wont mention the Slitheen) but we now seeming to be getting some pretty good and believable aliens, and the Sisters of Plenitude easily put the cheetah people from Survival to shame.

The basic premise of the plague farm and the birth of a new breed of humans was an interesting one, there seemed to be a real good germ of an idea somewhere underneath it all, but it never quite sprouted. Drowned under the frenetic pace and the constant cutting about from one idea and place to another, the poignancy of the message the story seemed to be trying to make about the nature of life and death was lost. This is where I get the notion that Russell T Davies thinks the whole country suffers from attention deficit disorder, he seems so frightened at the notion that the viewer may become bored or turn over to the other side, that there has to be new joke, special effect or big moment every few seconds. While I agree with a lot of his perceptions, it is this worry that is preventing the new series from having many well plotted involving stories. It more often than not feels like we are watching the edited highlights, there is never any chance to build up a sense of mystery, characters such as the Duke are introduced and then dispensed with as the story flits between disparate elements in an attempt to keep the viewer watching. If I am honest I get the impression Russell T Davies concocts his stories a bit like Terrance Dicks said he had to do on the five Doctors, he has a list of ingredients and big set piece moments and the rest is a case of joining up the dots, one very rarely gets the sense of a clear progression from point A to point B. Again Mr Davies probably knows more about modern tv than I do, but this approach is why we have never had a modern equivalent of Genesis of the Daleks or Inferno, these stories grew organically from their respective ideas, gradual unravelling plots not afraid to have a quiet moment or two, one didn’t feel the writers were checking off a list of crowd pleasing ingredients as they went along.

So a somewhat mixed start to the new series: a very confident turn from Tennant in his first full story, a basic solid Doctor Who setup with a great looking location, a good story idea and some interesting characters, all of which unfortunately failed to gell into a cohesive whole, and sprinkled with too much of a camp sugary overcoat to be the standout start to the series it could have been.

The episode starts with a scene on the Powell Estate where Rose and the Doctor are saying goodbye to Jackie and Mickey. This would not be important, but it shows that the programme is still "grounded" in every day life. Although we may be visiting the year 5,000,000,000,023, where the grass smells of apples and the people fly about on hover cars, we don't forget that we have just left a very real council estate, where people have very real concerns about whether the washing is done, who will cook the chips and beans, and of course, where their teenage daughter is. This makes us care more about the characters, they are real people, not elements from a computer game or characters generated by the roll of dice. Mickey also elicits some sympathy as his "I love you" isn't reciprocated by Rose.

The theme music used is the re-vamped Christmas Invasion version, with its added orchestral parts and brief sound effects at the beginning. This therefore, must be David Tennant's version of the theme music. The CGI and/or model work (you can't tell what's what these days) is astonishing, whether it is the futuristic city of New New York, or the thousands of 'Tomb of The Cybermen'-like chambers, the perspective, lighting, and focus is all rendered perfectly. We can become blasй about effects we've seen before - We know they can 'do' Cassandra, so when we see her now we aren't gazing in wonder at the effect, we're listening to what she say, but it's still well done, however they do it. I had wondered whether she would have survived in a different form, having been left with just a brain at the end of her last appearance, but even though this might make logical sense, it is dramatically much better for us to see the "bitchy trampoline", so that we (and especially younger viewers) can realise that this is the same character returning.

The shape of this season seems similar to the last, if, that is, we take The Christmas Invasion as the first episode of the new series. If That was the debut episode, full of fast thrills and excitement, and then this is the comedy counterpart of the End Of The World, complete with two returning characters. The following episode is the historical story, etc., etc. But on to the returning characters. It is reassuring to see The Face Of Boe make another appearance, given how much he was spoken about in the last series, much anticipation has been built up. Here he is voiced by Chandler & Co.'s Struan Rodger (he played Barbara Flynn's husband) and he lends a dignified, unpretentious gravitas to the part. He has a final secret which he won't reveal until he and the Doctor meet for the third and last time. I only hope that that next time we see a bit more of him, because he's a great character and well-realised by both the actor and Neill Gorton's visual effect. The other 'plus' this gives the story is that there is an unanswered question; a Bad Wolf-style mini story arc, likely to run through the series. Like the inclusion of Cassandra, and the fact that the story follows on from The End Of The World, this rewards loyal viewers, but is not intrusive as to deter casual viewers (they may even be tempted into watching further episodes to find out the Face's secret).

David Tennant and Billie Piper both perform well, with the latter having a lot of comedy work to do, especially in the scenes where she is playing Cassandra. At times, the comedy and innuendo gets a little out of control, and this is perhaps evidence of a very confident production team. This undermines the realism in a couple of areas, mainly to do with the mind-transfer machine. A staple of science-fiction (having been used in Doctor Who several times before, but to better effect in The Prisoner), mind transfer machines are sometimes used as an excuse for actors to give OTT performances, and David Tennant probably oversteps the mark here. Tennant is his jolly self throughout most of the story, but does get a small chunk of steely moralising near the end of the episode, showing that his character probably has more dimensions than we have seen so far. He seems more mercurial than the ninth Doctor, and the fact that we have lost such a great Doctor as Christopher Eccleston makes it even more remarkable that Tennant has succeeded so well in stepping into his shoes. As for the supporting characters, Zoл Wannamaker makes the most of her limited screen time, even appearing as a beautiful, younger Cassandra in a couple of sequences, and I hope we see her again in whatever form. Her acolyte, Chip, is played with imagination by Sean Gallagher and again it would be a shame if we don't see him again. The cat nuns' facial expressions are all but hidden by their masks, but they have some good vocal performances, with Brothers and Sisters' Dona Croll appropriately playing a sister!

The cat nuns were very well realised. When you compare the effort that went into making them with the equal effort that went into 1989's cheetah people, and then see how much better 2006's results are, it gives a good if a of how technology has marched on in the last 17 years. If, presumably, they are a race of people and only some of them work as nuns/nurses, then it would be nice to see more of them in future stories. They were especially popular with my four year old, who was a little sad when the "naughty cat" fell down the lift shaft! That brings me to the most shocking aspect of this story; the make-up design used for the various visible ailments on the 'human guinea pigs' was almost unnecessarily realistic and I know older children (and adults!) who were also a bit distressed by this. That said, at least it was convincing, and when the visible skin complaints were seen to be healed, this acted as a reassurance to younger viewers. Having said that, I am not sure exactly how the medicines would have healed scarred skins so quickly, and why did just eight bags of coloured liquids cure thousands of disease when they're supposed to be taken intravenously anyway? But I digress and I nitpick. This was a great 'funny episode', and Doctor Who has to be able to laugh occasionally (nobody likes a sci-fi series which takes itself too seriously). And despite the comedy, there were serious moments, and quite a touching ending (which I won't reveal!). Altogether, this gets eight out of ten, and I can't wait for next Saturday to come round!