When I gave my two penny’s worth on The End of the World a couple of weeks ago, I made the comment that the excessive comedy overtones were undermining the drama, I was particularly pleased that most of these farcial moments were absent from The Unquiet Dead which made it all the more believable, even if the whole thing played rather like a Big Finish story with vision.

Well sure enough the farce was back with a vengeance with Aliens of London. Much like the latter days of the old series, the current production team seem to have the knack for doing certain things so right, only to counteract it in the next beat by moments so inane that you want to take a sledge hammer to your tv screen.

The whole thing started off so well, the teaser was great, drama and comedy elements nicely balanced, the Alien spaceship landing, nice effect. The scenes in the hospital, subtly spooky and seriously acted. And then we get a bloody midget in a pig suit. I could scarcely believe what I was seeing, even though the resulting explanation was half feasible there is no denying that the thing looked bloody ridiculous and from there on they flushed any potential for this story down the toilet.

The flatulent alien politicians were possibly one of the most cringe inducing creations ever put into Doctor Who. This sort of humour belongs in a Doctor Who spoof, not in the proper series.

Once again the scenes with Billie and Chris shone, full of charisma, warmth & wit. This is more than enough to carry the series along without resorting to Austin Powers style lavatory humour. But as I found with Rose and the End of the World it is hard to feel any real sense of danger or excitement for these characters when the opponents they face are so lacking in menace. I never ceased to be amazed about how often a successful franchise makes a great job of creating a hero, only to pit him against a pathetic comedic villain. The Batman and Superman movies were both guilty of turning Lex Luthor and most of the Batman villains into cheap comedy turns and now Doctor Who seems to be having a go. Farting aliens are not menacing, blacmange like creatures with doe eyes are not frightening, and maybe they were not supposed to be. But why in that case play on the sinister aspects of the unzipping heads, why make the audience believe they were going to see some unspeakable monstrosity, only to be confronted by a teletubby. I am still not sure whether the cliffhanger was supposed to be taken seriously, or was sending up Doctor Who cliffhangers.

Performances were variable, Camille Coduri still seems somewhat of a cariacature in her role of Jackie Tyler, although was better than in the first story, while Noel Clarke as Mickey is growing on me, and his antagonistic relationship with the Doctor worked well, afterall he has every reason to bear a grudge. Penelope Wilton was solid as Harriet Jones, while Rupert Vansittart as Asquith proved a worthy successor to the likes of Nicholas Courtney and Simon Williams, before his alien takeover and any opportunity for the character was squandered. The alien politicians however were excreable, while admittedly the script was mostly to blame the performances were childrens BBC level, insulting and patronising to all but the very young viewer.

Now I wouldn’t attempt to argue with anyone who said Doctor Who was a childrens show, because they’d be half right, although I prefer the label family show. But the original series very rarely played down to or patronised the young viewer, when it did in the late eighties, most of its young audience turned off. I was 12 at the time of season 24 and I cringed when the Rani dressed up as Mel, when Richard Briers did his ham chief caretaker and I am not sure whether sensibilities have moved on, but this new series has been guilty of just as many if not more of these sort of moments.

I had faith in Russell T Davies and nearly everything he said about his vision for the series in the build up to transmission seemed spot on, but so far I have seen not much of this in evidence. He promised a full blooded drama, instead all his scripts so far have bordered on parody, he cites his favourite story as Ark in Space, but instead we have been getting something more akin to a cross between season 24 and the Paul McGann tv movie.

It pains me that this is the case when the Doctor companion dynamic is so good, the visuals the best the series has had, and the whole thing has an energy and sparkle that makes each 45 minute whiz by.

The Second Coming was great drama as was Russell’s New Adventure (although way too dark for the small screen), but so far the general stories have been lacking, I was initially fuming at Eccleston’s early departure but to be fair to the man he probably expected more from these scripts as well. No doubt expecting to take part in socially relevant sci fi parables, he probably found himself feeling like he’d joined the cast of Red Dwarf.

So please less of this bargain basement humour, George Lucas has been castigated for it on his Star Wars prequels, and now Russell largely seems to be getting away with it on Doctor Who. Sadly I feel viewing figures will speak for themselves and this approach may be here to stay. But ever hopeful, I wait for that Dalek story which much like Remembrance did 17 years ago, will hopefully banish burping bins and flatulent aliens to that waste bin of Doctor Who history.

Episode 4 after starting on earth , moving to the future and back in time in a way it was time to bring all elements together for episode 4 and consolidate what has been so brilliantly achieved in this new start for doctor who.

I enjoyed the start immensely, a companion having to deal with the real life dilemma of being missing for 12 months and her thinking it has only been a couple of days. Billie just gets better and better as Rose as she is certainly making a bid for best companion award ever. The slap from Rose mother for the Doctor was a great moment.

The alien landing was fantastic and great special effects that in some way I now seem to be taking for granted will be really good.and they do not fail to deliver.

The news reports were great too with the Doctor trying to listen with all the family and friends around, that has so happened to me, I was getting annoyed for him .

The confidence that Rose needed that their journey together had not ended in this episode, although there is clearly a lot to sort out with family was touching with the tardis key and again uses the strength of the relationship of the Doctor and Rose.

The action moves to the hospital bed with the alien , this bit was tense and not having red the spoilers I was thinking this alien was going to be fantastic, my shock when it turned out to be a pig reminded me that it is geared for children on occasion and not for us old fans and we just have to accept that there has to be a mix for the programme to succeed on all levels.

On to downing street, the characters farting as aliens , again I do not appreciate this but I am again of the opinion that the younger audience would have been laughing loads in these scenes. Penelope Wilson needs a mention here for adding the drama to these scenes with which without her efforts would have been difficult scenes to get excited about.

The zips on the faces was a nice touch and a good simple idea to use, one that we can all relate too , there seems to be a running theme in each episode that the audience can relate to all the aliens. Autons , plastic coming to life. Jabe and Casandra , Trees and Skin, The gas ghosts and now Zips. I bet children will not look at these day to day objects in the same way again.

Moving on to the bit that made me jump , the prime minister's body falling out the cupboard, excellent ot had me for that 2 seconds.

The cliff hanger set up to was well thought out a three way end for all characters, Rose mother trapped, Rose trapped and Doctor being electrocuted. All good ways to keep the suspense until next week , COMPLETLY RUNINED by the look what happens next week , oh my god no !!!

The new aliens however do look much more menacing in the next episode where as in this first part there seemed to be a real mix of computer and rubber suit to achieve them and this seemed on first viewing to let them down slightly.

Overall this episode is my least favorite but I feel this is mainly due to the fact that the other three for me are better stories.

I wait with trepidation for the resolve of this two parter which may then lift this adventure.

Don’t you dare make this place domestic.

Why didn’t RTD take his own advice when he wrote those words? Aliens of London had all the promise of a great Doctor Who story but failed. But why did it fail when episodes 2 and 3 showed great things for this new series?

A great place to start is the pig. It highlights everything that RTD gets wrong when he writes an Earth based story. Instead of finding humour in the situation that is happening, he grafts slapstick humour onto it in the same way that the aliens graft a pigs head onto a bipedal body to disguise it. Let face it, after the 10th fart from an evil alien supposedly hell bent on world domination it’s no longer amusing, it’s very annoying!

When RTD is faced with the reality of present day Earth he no longer has the same pallet of the bizarre and the extraordinary to draw upon. What he needs to remember is that we’re in the age of “Shrek” where family entertainment can pitch to more than one level. We are far more sophisticated than the audience that watched “Doctor Who” 15 years ago. Don’t forget that this is family viewing, and at 7pm on a Saturday it’s the parents who have the remote control. If you lose that part of the audience you risk losing all of it. Furthermore, what becomes even more annoying is his overwhelming desire to make every situation funny. My biggest piece of advice to RTD is – if there is something funny in the situation, use it. If the situation is not funny then please don’t graft on the slapstick humour, as it’s very lazy writing.

The second problem with episode four is this inclusion of domestic drama. While RTD is obviously pitching the farting to the 4 and under, he’s trying to add drama for the adults to latch onto. Please DON’T do it! If we want domestic drama we have a number of soaps that do it far better. On a Saturday evening I want flights of fantasy, but instead I got a very poor episode of the Demon Headmaster crossed with Hollyoaks.

Unfortunately we are seeing a very obvious trend here. If you want to see classic “Doctor Who” then don’t watch any of the present day earth-based episodes penned by RTD. On a more possitive note however, hidden between these rather weak stories are some classic gems, and I guess that’s how “Doctor Who” always was.

Having read through the other reviews posted already on the site for this episode I felt the urge to put finger to keypad and add my two penneth...

I, and the others who attend Doctor Who Club as we affectionately call our Saturday night tv and takeaway fest, have fervently avoided information about the new series where possible and for the majority this was the first episode we were seeing fresh as was possible (without hiding in a broom closet for the past year).

When the credits rolled we all looked at each other and just sighed... So much good from the story and really only two complaints - both of which have been mentioned by other reviews - unfortunately in both cases they seem to be fairly central to the story - in otherwords - the Aliens of London. RTD's fascination with breaking wind is marginally worrying and after feeling uncomfortable with one outing in Rose imagine my horror when there displayed on the screen in front of me is a torrent of them. I can imagine my god son et al finding it hilarious and the juxtaposition of the comedy and horror from the two states the Slitheen entertain might affect the younger viewers in a way I can't empathise with but I really worry this is the beginning of a trend... Secondly the protracted appearance of the Slitheen at the end (did we really need to see the whole transformation from all three viewpoints?) ended, for me personally, in bitter disappointment. Initially I was fairly impressed with some of the original ideas (eyes blinking sideways etc.) but the bouncing heads and the obvius difference in style and look between the CGI versions and the physical costumed ones was far too apparent and compared to the stunning realisation of the aliens in The End of the World I really felt these let the side down.

Something inside tells me RTD wants these to be the new recurring enemy, I remember a piece where he said there were some great new monsters who he wanted to make as memorable and repeatable as daleks, cybermen, ice warriors etc. - I just hope these aren't them... Maybe I'm wrong, maybe episode two will make me eat my hat, and believe me, I hope so as despite this blip, the series continues to blow my and everyone I know who watches it mind.

This week's pre credit sequence was just astounding and had us all laughing out loud from the moment we saw the poster to the end of the title sequence - genius... It just goes to demonstrate how the relationship between the main two forges on stronger and stronger - can she trust him or not, just how alien is he, how far can he push her and so on. The arc idea of having them revisit Rose's real life is fantastic (excuse the choice of description - is it just me or does it roll off the tongue a lot more these days, accompanied by the cheesiest grin imaginable) and RTD has really thought about how to approach this idea effectively within the stories.

The pig was a great shock to me and personally I loved it... (Evoking both images of Pigs in Space and those evil Moon Cows - history chooses for me to forget their name - from the DWM comic strip many years ago...) It's always good when you work out the story at the same time as the characters and this was a lot more unpredictable than The End of the World.

Have I mentioned Penelope Wilton - not a lot for her to do and I fear hers is a tragic life, but still well performed and I look forward to seeing what happens to her next week.

All in all, whatever its faults - and remember we are a fickle lot when it comes to our beloved Doctor, this is Doctor Who, and it is being broadcast on a Saturday night on BBC1... We're a more discerning audience and we will find fault in whatever is put in front of us truth be told... I think the only true reviewer of this series can be from the wholly uninformed... And if that is the case then the text I received from my cousin - who has ridiculed me for thirty years now over my love for Doctor Who - is really the best review... It simply read That was excellent. And surely, it's moments and comments like that which make everything alright... (oh and the nearasdammit 10 million other people who seem to enjoy staying in on a Saturday night...) Here's to part two!!!

Well, I guess we had to have a cringeworthy moment or two at some point in the series otherwise it wouldn't be the full Dr Who experience!

Like many others, I thoroughly enjoyed the first part of this episode; the alien crash landing, the news reports (the Blue Peter interruption had me laughing out loud) and of course the wonderful dialogue between Rose and the Doctor. These two are fast becoming my favourite TARDIS team as they play off each other so well. It is so refreshing for the series to explore more deeply the back story of a companion and the ramifications of their actions in disappearing with the Doctor.

And then we have the Slitheen - ready to join the ranks of the Garm, the Myrka, The Ergon (insert your favourite woeful monster here) as a failed realisation of a monster idea. Then again, my main problem was less with the poor realisation of these creatures (lets face it, they were still more impressive than many monsters in the classic series- just not up to par in this one) but more with the way they seem to be in the wrong story.

This episode encouraged me at first that we were finally going to see Dr Who deal with the concept of aliens visiting London realistically. The destruction of Big Ben, news reports, Number 10 in a panic, I was enjoying the realism in this approach. Lets face it, Dr who has been pretty woeful on this score before - explaining away Dalek spaceships landing in a London playground as humanity's capacity for self deception always rankled me. Here was a much more effective approach - one we could relate to should we ever see a spaceship fly overhead.

But all these efforts at realism were destroyed by turning the aliens into a farce. If the aliens had been written with a more serious undercurrent, this episode could have been truly chilling. As it was, the farting and overacting sucked the tension out of the whole scenario, destroying all the wonderful suspense built in the first half.

And was I the only one who thought the cliffhanger was drawn out? Yes we get the point, you don't need to cut between the three scenes ten times to show us the same information. All three groups threatened by monsters. Got it. I hate to say it, but I was almost relieved when the titles came up because the cliiffhanger had been flagged about a full minute before it actually occurred and I was just waiting for them to finally admit it.

So far the weakest episode of the series (End of the World being one of my fave Dr Who stories EVER). Lets hope the slitheen can regain some respect in the next episode, although I suspect the jump between CGI creatures chasing around Number 10 and the more clumsy and obviously animatronic models is going to be rather jarring.

Well, after three episodes which either met or exceeded my expectations, there had to be a disappointment eventually. Aliens of London was that disappointment. Episode 1 wasn't great but did it's job. Episode two felt like Doctor Who, and episode three may go down as a classic. Episode four is hopefully a blip.

Let's start with the good. The plot is basically engaging, even though I didn't enjoy or like this episode as much as the prior ones I will be watching next week to see the outcome. The return of the multi-episode format with a cliffhanger is to be applauded, though the writing team has proved with episodes 2 and 3 that a single 45 minute programme can contain terrific Who. The effects concerning the crashing spacecraft were very good indeed. My wife, not much of a Who fan, is upset that she'll be in the states on Saturday as she wants to see the concluding episode.

But I have problems with this installment. I guess we're going to have to become used to domestic scenes in Rose's house and perhaps elsewhere. Though not traditional Doctor Who they aren't out of place in the plots and make the character of Rose more realistic. This can be forgiven, but the humourous aspect - always important in Doctor Who since Troughton - was overblown this time.

The basic premise we have here is that an alien space ship has crash landed in central London (good use of the location) so spectacularly that the Doctor surmises it is a decoy for some other alien activity. So we have a modified pig in a spacesuit placed in the crashing ship to keep earth's medical and scientific community busy while the real aliens plot to take over the world.

But the pig just looked silly. Clearly the viewer is supposed to have sympathy for the poor creature, the Doctor does, but I found it unconvincing. Perhaps a very good idea, poorly realised on screen. There should have been suspense in the scene where the Doctor is trying to find it but the pacing of the scene was wrong.

It transpires that the aliens have taken over the cabinet by disguising themselves as various government bigwigs. So far so good, but due to some malfunction of their gas exchange units all the aliens have terrible wind! This might have been funny the first couple of times, but a bunch of aliens disguised as politicians laughing and farting in the cabinet office only remains funny for a short while. After a minute this is about as funny as the later Police Academy fills. What could have been a suspenseful and interesting plot is almost ruined by the overdone attempts at humour.

UNIT is brought in, and the Doctor quickly explains who they are and that he worked with them before when he looked very different. Good, concise piece of dialogue for the uninitiated and hopefully a sign that we'll see UNIT again in the future. Word goes out to the various world authorities on aliens who are asked to gather in London, where the Doctor realises too late that they have all been trapped by the aliens who now reveal themselves to be the 'Slitheen'. I suppose they are meant to look nasty and frightening but they end up looking like a lifesize children's toy monster.

I'm glad you all wore your ID cards says their leader, before activating some sort of electrocution device which sends (presumably) deadly current through each experts ID card, cue 'scream' and roll credits.

A good plot, but the humour didn't help me take it seriously or feel any of the suspense. This should have been a thrilling adventure, instead it came across as childish and silly - precisely what Doctor Who needs NOT to be if it is to survive for another 26 years.

Disappointing, and hopefully a blip because the ability of RTD's team to produce quality Doctor Who is obviously there.