As I might have mentioned, I had high hopes for the new Doctor Who series. And the first episode with those lovely Autons was a good start. Then we had fun and games in the far future, followed by some delicious Dickensian devilry[1].
Following all that, the Doctor and Rose returned to present-day London for the first two-parter of the new series. The fun starts when Rose goes home to find that she has been missing for twelve months rather than the twelve hours that the Doctor had told her was the case[2]. After a, err, full and frank discussion with Rose’s formidable[3] mother, the Doctor and Rose go out on the roof of the block of flats, where they see an alien spacecraft fly overhead, trailing smoke and obviously in trouble. The spacecraft then heads to central London, where it smashes into Big Ben[6][7] before crashing into the Thames.
The action switches to 10 Downing Street, where a junior minister is told that, as the Prime Minister is apparently missing, and the rest of the Cabinet are away, he is acting Prime Minister. But there is obviously something going on…
After a diversion involving the “alien” recovered from the crashed space ship[8], the Doctor, Rose and assorted experts are gathered at 10 Downing Street. The Doctor realises that the spaceship crash was a diversion, and that the plan was to gather together all the people most able to combat an alien invasion. At this point, one of the people giving the briefing removes his disguise and appears as a huge alien creature, while another (the acting PM) activates deadly devices in the ID badges worn by the Doctor and the other experts. As everyone is surrounded in lightning-like discharges, the familiar music cuts in, and the episode ends. Classic stuff.
The second part, shown last Saturday was even more fun! Rose’s mother and Mickey, Rose’s much-maligned boyfriend have to deal with another of the aliens, while the Doctor, Rose and a backbench MP have a lot of fun running around Downing Street. It turns out that the plan of the Slitheen, as the aliens introduce themselves[9] is to start a global nuclear war, then sell the irradiated rubble of the Earth as fuel. Nice people…
As always, the Doctor saves the day with help from his friends[10]. As with previous episodes, the mixture of drama, humour and “wow factor” stuff is very well done. Eccleston’s performance as the Doctor is really superb - and we’re gradually being drip-fed information about his background.
And the next episode is the one that all Doctor Who fans must be most looking forward to[11] - it’s the one with the DALEK in it! Woooooooo hoooooooo!!!! EXTERMINATE!!! EXTERMINATE!!!!
Me? Over-excited? Naaaaaaaaah! 
[1] With Simon Callow doing a lovely Charles Dickens[4]
[2] The Doctor always did have a bit of trouble with the TARDIS
[3] Now there’s a nice word
[4] And with Swansea playing Victorian Cardiff[5]
[5] There’s not a lot of Cardiff left that looks the right age..
[6] The clock tower of the Palace of Westminster, which most people call by that name, even though “Big Ben” strictly speaking is the largest of the clock bells, the one that does the REALLY LOUD BONG
[7] Lovely bit of model work and a rather sad “bong”
[8] It turns out to be a pig
[9] This turns out to be a family name rather than anything conventional like a species..
[10] OK, he gets Mickey to hack into the Royal Navy and get a submarine to fire a missile at 10 Downing Street, killing the aliens, and destroying the building apart from the armour plated room that the Doctor, Rose and the backbench MP were holding off the Slitheen.
[11] Well, apart from the series coming back at all
