Gin and Bear It

There's a Dalek in the picture, thus filling my Saturday Who quota

I'll talk about Steven Moffat's utterly fantastic, very intriguing and slightly scary Silence in the Library later but first, let's talk about the grand final of Britains Got Talent. Blogging about Talent instead of Who? I feel like a cheating wife.

I have to say, I've taken a great amount of guilty pleasure from Britains Got Talent. Everything about the show suggests I should hate it with a passion; Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan for one. Not a fan of the way in which the producers only highlight the terrible tragedies behind the actual talented ones cos you don't want to see a little handicapped orphan getting verbally abused for his rendition of Unchained Melody. But the thing I absolutely hate most about these competitions is

...the pregnant pauses before announcing a winner. So why do I enjoy it? I think it's because at heart I am someone who should have grown up in the 70's. Practically every television programme that has influenced me from a young age is from the 70's, most of my favourite films are from the 70's and the 70's was a great age for primetime variety shows. So I love the fact that one minute you could be harbouring lustful and borderline illegal desires for a 20-something belly dancer before hastily getting them out of your mind as they shepherd in a 6 year old girl singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" at that stage you probably want to put your pants back on. Variety is great and it's clearly what the public want, pulling in figures of around 13 million that you can usually only get for a Only Fools and Horses Christmas special. It is a shame that it suffers from the main problems of all talent shows on tv right now, the endless recapping, the padding out of the results show, Piers bloody Morgan. And tonights final was genuinely entertaining, thankfully the Great British public decided not to vote for another singer and went for the amazingly talented and very likeable George Sampson and his Singing in the Rain routine.

I was amazed by the public reaction to Kate and Gin, the dog act which, if you believe the tabloids and the news choreographed the whole routine himself. Poor Kate was never mentioned for her work in setting up the routine and training the bloody dog to dance. Piers Morgans "This is the animal worlds stamp on this competition that says: Beat That" was utterly bloody ridiculous.

He'll be advertising Drench in no time at all

Anyway it's George who'll be performing in front of Prince Charles, but with any competition like this, third placer; young Chorister Andrew Johnson is guaranteed a record deal with a voice like that, and anyone who gets into the final has been noticed and will no doubt get work. On the Britains Got Talent tour no doubt.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Angry Fanboys

May Include Spoilers (...and nuts)

With something as big as Indy it's never going to be possible to please all of the people all of the time. This is nothing new to me as a Doctor Who fan, ever since the show came back there have always been many people holding Russell T Davies up as the man who has single-handedly destroyed the show they were brought up with. George Lucas has already, and quite rightly had a lot of similar flack for the Star Wars prequel fiasco, so has he done it all over again?

Well, no, he hasn't because it's not written by him, and it has the reliable figures of Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg doing exactly what they do best. Of course, there was a worry around ten minutes in after a barnstorming chase through Area 51 (Yes, you read that right, but more on this later...) and a sadly underused model village nuclear test site that upon being accused of collaborating with those damned Ruskies (No more Nazis, might be deemed offensive after Schindlers and let's face facts, it's 19 years after Crusade!) that much like Phantom Menace we would be treated to long protracted scenes of Indy put on trial by McCarthy. Thankfully not, though the witch hunt angle did give us some rather nice commentary on todays society which didn't seem too forced at all. So after tracking down the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail and whatever the fuck it is he's after in Temple of Doom what's Indy looking for this time? He has to return the Crystal Skull found by an old friend (Played by a woefully underused John Hurt.) to the temple, of course I'd known this about 5 minutes before the bloody BBFC rating came onscreen thanks to a spoilery Lego advert. Said Skull's resting just so happens to be in the fabled City of Lost Gold, of which this blogger recently wrote an essay on how it had never existed and became a justification for what was practically ethnic cleansing. So it was kind of fun to see how Indy handled it, by practically doing it all over again, the Russians killing all of the tribesfolk in their search for the city...there's social commentary for you.

Now this is where everyone seems to fall out, and if you've read this far without seeing the film I advise to bugger off and see it because I'm about to talk at length about the ending of the film. Right after this picture of the very sexy Cate Blanchett. And that's something I never thought I'd say, having never been a big fan of her in films. I think it's something to do with the communist badass character she was playing and that bit where she crushes an ant with her thighs...blimey.

I've got a weapon you can....I've already done that gag this week.

So then, the Crystal Skull itself. Previous Indy movies have concerned themselves with mythical and religious imagery though I would argue that Crusade is the only one to explicitly state this with the Ark and its power being much more ambiguous. This time, they've gone for a scientific approach, namely life on other planets. Like Raiders I would have preferred this to be a bit more ambiguous, did the aliens really need to come to life and fly off in their flying saucer? I really don't think so, and it did make the ending to the film seem a little bit ridiculous. That said, I think this was exactly the right time to look beyond the myths of our own world and look beyond the stars. At the beginning of the film Indy has lost best friend Marcus and his father and is getting on a little bit himself, he clearly still harbours feelings for lost love Marion. If this is all there is, is that not the most depressing thing in the world? Isn't it somehow right that we should comfort ourselves with the fact we're not alone in the universe? A lot of people have argued that you can't have this religious and scientific imagery hand in hand in a series, I disagree somewhat and I think Crystal Skull handles it pretty well, with a couple of oversights including that flying saucer.

All in all, it's the most fun I've had in the cinema in a long long time, unashamedly populist entertainment with a wafer thin story and some cracking action set pieces. Shia LeBouef didn't annoy me nearly as much as I thought he would either, and the suggestion at the end that he's to take over the franchise when he picks up the hat, ala young Indy in Crusade before having it snatched off him by old Indy made me chuckle. Sadly the ending wasn't as definitive as Last Crusade and I hope this means we're getting another film because I'd gladly be first in line for another crack of the whip. (Knew I could get a whip gag in here somewhere!)

"Now we're in trouble..."

I've got a big weapon for you to hold Billie....fnar fnar

You said it madam. As entertaining as Eurovision was (More on that tomorrow...) there was a feeling of emptiness about this Saturday without any new Doctor Who. In their infinite wisdom, the Beeb decided to make us all feel a little bit better by showing us what's to come in the next 6 episodes and....oh my.

Much of the trailer focused on Rose and the Daleks, with a few other little hints on the finale. The bees aren't the only things that are disappearing apparently, with Donna's grandad noticing the stars going out. Not only that, but the Doctor appears to travel through the time vortex! This killed the Indestructible Captain Harkness so how does the Doctor survive without regenerating?

There was also a lot of material from the eagerly anticipated Steven Moffat 2-parter with some rather awesome looking Spacesuit monsters.

Ambassadors of Death much?

Amongst other things there was the TARDIS on fire, Donna telling the Doctor that Rose is coming back, someone who looks like Donna in some very bright light, and Rose warning Donna that the darkness is coming. That and we get a lot of Rose doing her very best Buffy the Vampire Slayer routine....oh....and is this him?

All in all it's looking like a pretty exciting 6 weeks that'll no doubt build on the strongest series since the revival...and herald and ending of sorts to RTD's era.

"I'd understand if she was drying her eyes over being dumped for a Cheeky Girl"

Tissues are wonderful items to have around the house, they're good for blowing your nose, dabbing the tears from your eyes and wiping away unwanted stains....unfortunately they didn't wipe away that odious streak of piss Michael in this weeks Apprentice.

Yes it was the always entertaining advertising task, every series of The Apprentice has had one, and every time some silly sausage forgets to really specify what it is they're advertising! So by now, in its 4th year, someone would have learned from this. Clearly Alex has, because his advert practically forced the message down your throat, much like he might do with a lady.....what? All I'm saying is he looks like a selfish lover. Anyway, Alex's advertising campaign for Atishu (Props to Lee McQueen for a genuinely good name) and box design came across like some sort of fluorescent hallucinogenic nightmare, but because it featured a shot of the horrific dayglo box (below) and patronised fuck out of the audience ("Tissues! Tissues! I'm advertising tissues! Tissues!") they won.

Ever thought what it feels like to be stabbed in the eyes?

Raef was the one responsible for not learning from the mistakes of others as he directed a heartwarming advert about, to quote Helene; 'The relationship between a mother and son, between a boy and a girl and between us and our tissues...." I'm sorry, what? Is this something to do with the discussion Clare and Raef had about another use for tissues in this deleted scene? Still, utterly ridiculous that statement may have been, it was still a damned sight better than Lee McQueen's stumbling delivery.

The advert, featuring actual tissues and, bizarrely, weathergirl Sian Lloyd. I'm still completely flummoxed by Raef's choice to hire her to advertise "I Love My Tissues". (Shit name...) She was pretty dreadful, but Raef's nervousness about meeting her was heartwarming.

Unfortunately it had a distinct lack of box, right up until the band at bottom of the screen at the end....in their defence I thought it pretty bleeding obvious that it was a box of tissues (And a damned sight classier looking box of tissues.) they were advertising. But Sir Alan was not happy. "Ah dunno wot yer advert's abaht!" he exclaimed, I suspect he has no love for the Cadburys gorilla. Michael (Former male escort allegedly, see here.) was on Raef's team...so surely he couldn't have been taken into the boardroom cos he'd have got fired right?

I mean Sir Alan said last week that he'd had enough of him...no, the stupid cockney cunt fired Raef, because he's "all hot air" and is only lucky that "you've only been here once." Bull-fucking-shit. Sorry Sir Alan, I like you and all that, but Raef proved himself as a fantastic team leader in the laundry task, and has been complicit in the big successes of Lucinda last week and Lee the week before. So exactly how does that make him full of hot air? The main problem with the ad was a lack of the product, fair does but Michael was the one most vocal on removing the shot of the box in the first place. In, I think the third time this series I think Sir Alan has made a mistake, but fuck it, he's richer and more powerful than I am. My main worry with Michael is that a similar thing happened with last years winner Simon Ambrose, granted he was a much more likeable figure, but he fucked up a couple of times and Sir Alan kept him on, and eventually gave him the job...surely he's not about to do it again?

"I can't wait to see where his extraordinary imagination takes the Doctor"

The words of a Mr Russel T Davies there, who and indeed what is he talking about? In what is perhaps the least surprising news in the world, the MediaGuardian website today announced that Steven Moffat (For it is he!) Is to succeed RTD as show runner when Doctor Who returns proper in 2010. Terrific news, perhaps we'll get a touch of the Hinchcliffe era "Hammer Horror at dinnertime" approach? Of course I do worry that, much like Rusty, the quality of his work will be diluted by the amount of scripts and work he has to do and let's face facts, the man can hardly knock out a script like Blink every week can he? Best of luck to him, he's going to need it...because there are some messageboards out there that will now be expecting even greater things from his Fourth Series story Silence in the Library which airs after Eurovision.

In other irritating scheduling news, the BBC are moving The Apprentice to Tuesday opposite The F word and Britains Got Talent. This is because England are playing the USA....Fuck Me, that will be exciting.

Flapper or Slapper?

Doctor Who has tried out and out comedy a few times in it's 45 year history. The first story being the classic Hartnell serial The Romans by Donald Cotton, which I absolutely adore as a story, a lot of fun and very different from the stories both preceding and following it. Then of course we had bona-fide classic City of Death, perhaps one of the best Who stories of all time. And now this generation has The Unicorn and the Wasp. Only, the comedy of the episode is based more in irritating, self referencing gags involving Agatha Christie titles, and Donna giving Christie the ideas for Miss Marple and Murder on the Orient Express, ha-bloody-ha. Still, after 3 years of practically the same formula (Doctor and companion meet famous historical figure and fight aliens.) it was nice to see them try something a little different with the Celebrity-Historical episode.

The Doctor, Donna and David Tennant's dad have tea on the lawn

Traditionally speaking, (Traditionally! Check me! It's only been running for 3 bloody years.) such an episode is reserved for the early stages of the series, and with this episode one of the first to be filmed, it certainly felt like an episode that should have been earlier in the run. As a character Donna didn't feel quite as strong a character as she has been in the stories preceding it. Though I suppose after 5 really strong episodes dealing with some fairly serious issues (slavery, altering the course of history, kick-ass sexy as hell illegitimate daughters...) there is a need to give us something a bit lighter.

Anyway, what the hell was it all about eh? As I say it's nice to see the team tackle something a little bit different, casting the Doctor and Donna in a murder mystery at a country house complete with lead piping, libraries, family secrets and Agatha Christie. Obviously this came as much delight to Donna and the Doctor before being scolded for taking delight in tragedy...a recurring theme? All in all it was a typical "abandoned child seeks revenge" murder mystery with a sci-fi twist; said abandoned child is actually shapeshifting wasp.

Fenella Woolgar was excellent as Agatha Christie and her scenes with the Doctor and Donna were an absolute delight, though I'm not entirely sure why the alien jewel suddenly linked itself to her, the explanation for its murderous rampage was that it absorbed one of her books not her whole imagination and back-catalogue. This seemed like a rather tacked on piece of nonsense so that we can have an explanation for Agatha Christies famous disappearance and memory loss. Good supporting cast also helped to support a rather paper thin premise with Who veteran Christopher Benjamin in a brilliant role as the wheelchair bound old General with his own reasons for staying in the chair. Felicity Kendall was brilliant as always as she recounted her time in India where she fell pregnant with alien wasp. A nice little scene at the end for the Doctor discussing how we'll be remembered after we're gone, is this going anywhere, could the Song for Ten be coming to an end?

Mad, fast-paced, and a bit too smart-arse, but Gareth Roberts' Unicorn and the wasp sadly failed to live up to his superior mad, fast-paced, bit too smart-arse Shakespeare Code of last season. No new episode this Saturday, on account of Eurovision, which I suppose will be covered in this blog. There will be a trailer encompassing the remaining episodes airing just before Wogan cracks open his first bottle of Wine, a glimpse of Davros perhaps? Guess we'll find out!

Terry's also excited about what we might see in the trailer....dirty boy

The Geeky:- Christopher Benjamin has starred in 2 earlier Doctor Who stories: Inferno and The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Chief Inspector John Smith of Scotland Yard has been used by the Doctor before in Ghost Light and I'm pretty sure The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Glimpse of a Cyberman chestplate, just to remind us all in the run-up to Christmas. Also references to previous historicals The Unquiet Dead and The Shakespeare Code.

"I've reached the end of my rope with you..."

"...whimper...sniffle...whimper...don't fire me..." Prick

I don't know what the fuck Sir Alan sees in "Good Jewish Boy" Michael Sophocles, but he's safe again. A snivelling, odious, monotonous whinging plea to Sir Alan seemed to save his good jewish arse for another week, claiming he could be team leader next week and prove himself. And I hope to fucking god Sir Alan sees sense and fires the slimy little scumbag. Anyway, that's enough vitriol for just now, let's take a look at the task shall we?

This week saw the teams sell wedding dresses at the big wedding fair at the Birmingham NEC. And whilst not being nearly as exciting, or as downright bewildering as last weeks Marrakesh jolly, it did provide some great moments. Such as....

Bear with me...

Raef dressed as a bear in a rather odd move to try and shift more wedding night lingerie...right, not sure I get the strategy, but rather that than having Raef parade around in a sexy nightie. Or is it?

Lucinda was team leader this week, deciding to take Raef's gamble of the expensive designer dresses (2 grand a pop! Crikey!) and snatched the wedding night lingerie off of Helene's team as a result, primarily because I think the woman didn't want to have anything to do with the company providing Helene's wedding dresses.

In what was perhaps the most bizarre marketing strategy ever (though it did the trick for Helene) a woman selling coloured wedding dresses (Cos let's face it. How many virgins are in those virginal white wedding dresses these days?) said "Jordan and Jodie Marsh have had similar dresses and everyone wants to be a celebrity." I don't know much about women, but I'm prrretty sure they don't want to be done up like a tabloid slapper on their wedding day.

As a result of losing the lingerie (not literally thank christ.) Helene was forced to go with the wedding cake option, which provided some of the most cringeworthy scenes in Apprentice history as Sara and the aforementioned odious prick Michael practically tried to browbeat people into buying their wedding cake. (which were...er...more expensive than the dresses they were selling...nice one!)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Lucinda's team won with a profit of just under six grand (they only sold 2 dresses, gutted Helene.) and Sara was fired from Helene's team, somewhat unfairly in my opinion, but there you go. Hopefully next week will be Michaels undoing in my favourite task of the year, the advertising task! And Raef gets nervous about meeting Sian Lloyd. Seriously.

SKY1 Revival #999

Exactly what the hell is wrong with Sky1? Reviving as many TV shows as they can get their hands on the rights to?

Look at their faces...why so serious? Gladiators is back!

If you've seen Sky One at any point at all over the last month you're probably aware that Gladiators is back on the telly. And well...I'm not too sure. Don't get me wrong, it was certainly entertaining but there was something missing. Maybe it's the Gladiators themselves, there was no real interaction between them and the contestants outside of the games, the only real confrontations being a little bit of trash talk between Wolf-a-like Oblivion and one of the contestants. John Anderson (For it is he!) tried to lighten the mood a bit by giving him a telling off but this ended up being drowned out by Ian sodding Wright. If they're looking for a Wolf for the 21st century you have to let him have a bit of argy-bargy with the referee, or at least let him push Ian in the swimming pool. It all just takes itself a little bit too seriously for it's own good, what with all the black and silver costumes, ridiculous searchlights all over the place and no real humour, be it intentional or not. There's not even someone like Jet! Aaaah Jet.

Oh my.

Anyhoo...the Gladiators I remember was fun, colourful and had a football player who couldn't present television to save his.....okay, they still have that. This is just a bit too monochrome, there's no real way of telling the difference between the Gladiators and the presenting is just dire and not in a funny John Fashanu way, in a painful to watch way. And just cos there's a swimming pool involved, doesn't mean it's any more exciting. 1990's nostalgia kicks off here folks... may God have mercy on our souls.

Pram-Face TARDIS

If you haven't seen this weeks Doctor Who (And I don't even know how many people read this, let alone how many people read it and watch Who.) you better just bugger off right now. Yup, that's right, sod off, cos otherwise I'm gonna spoil the hell out of The Doctor's Daughter for you.

The Doctor, Martha and Donna are held hostage by fans angered by the thought the Doctor can be a father

In an episode that packed so much, almost too much into 45 minutes, it's rather difficult to discern where to begin. So let's begin with the storyline, which, much like last years Utopia was merely window-dressing for a much bigger happening in the Whoniverse. That's not to say that it wasn't an interesting one, it was classic alien warzone stuff with a lovely little twist at the end when Donna revealed that the war has only been going on for a week! That gave a little twist to a well-flogged horse. So the big happening? Something about a daughter?

I actually had to grudgingly applaud Stephen Greenhorn for his sheer cheek by having the introduction of the Doctor's daughter a rushed scene involving the Doc and a cloning machine. Because let's be honest, RTD was never going to have the Doctors original daughter and mother of Susan turn up. David Tennant was utterly fantastic this week, and his scenes with the gorgeous, sexy Georgia Moffet as Jenny were funny, emotional and utterly heartbreaking at various points throughout the episode as the Doctor began to realise that she really was his daughter.

Helping the Doctor realise this was the wonderful Catherine Tate (She was robbed! ROBBED! By Ant and Dec of all people? Thieving Geordie Bastards.) as Donna who had some brilliant scenes making the Doctor realise that Jenny was indeed his flesh and blood, two hearts and everything! Of course, they were never going to let her live were they? RTD seems intent on bringing back and killing Timelords, and I'm sure it was no accident that Jenny's death scene echoed the death of the Master at the end of last season. And the Doctors reaction was utterly shocking, aiming a gun at the head of the wonderful General Cobb before pointing out the difference between him and the Doctor. "I NEVER WOULD!" is perhaps one of my favourite bits of Nu-Who, once again, the script focused on the idea of soldiers, and the Doctor as a soldier. This included much reference to the Time War, and I can't help but think this is a theme that may come back in the finale. But that's not for months yet! So yes, a breakneck 45 minute emotional rollercoaster, a story that echoed The Wrath of Khan; a terra-forming device, a sacrifice and a surprise resurrection at the conclusion. Yeah Jenny lived, either in a sort of regeneration or as a result of the terra-forming device who knows? And to be honest, who cares? She's still alive, off out there in the universe growing up to be her father and being really bloody sexy. Fuck Torchwood, I want a 13 episode series of Georgia Moffet doing backflips. I suddenly need a cold shower.

"You can pull down your trousers and we can check..."

"...pull down your trousers and we can all check..." Alan Sugar's on that "Good Jewish Boy" Chatline again!

That Alan Sugar's getting right saucy! Yes, it's another week in The Apprentice and what a bloody week! The teams were sent off to Marrakesh for the bartering/buying task, prompting Lee and Raef to discuss the sort of clothes they should be wearing, sadly Raef left his linen suit at home. That said, Nick donned a lovely white linen jacket, which unfortunately made him look more like a local butcher than Roger Moore.

Butchers, incidentally lead us to the downfall of two, yes two candidates. Once again highlighting exactly how bloody stupid some of this lot are, the two Jennys and even "Good Jewish Boy" Michael hadn't a fucking clue what a kosher chicken was. A particular highlight was when Ginger-Jenny asked for a kosher chicken at a Hal-Al butcher, what the hell was she trying to do? Trigger a bloody riot?

Jenny and Michael doing their bit for Middle Eastern relations

Good on Claire for pointing out they were looking for a Jewish item in Muslim country, points taken away for her being satisfied with Other-Jenny's "They do Muslim Kosher Chicken too..." I'm growing to like Claire, not as much as Raef, Lee or Sara but she does seem to know what she's doing. Ginger-Jenny also attempted to bribe a bloke in a sports shop to not string Alpha's raquets. This obviously did not sit well with Sir Alan who saw right through her, and fired her, describing her as a snake. This was not before a rather long and drawn out discussion about whether or not Michael was Jewish. It was an emotionally draining episode this week, by the end of the hour I was bloody exhausted. But that's enough about the losers, let's talk about the absolute dream team that was; Lee, Raef, Sara, Lucinda and...er...Helene.

Lee is just so god-damned enthusiastic about everything! But the boy done good, getting all the right items, even if in his quest to find a juicer, he attracted a baying mob all trying to sell him juicers, I was afraid a fight was about to break out!

This is what happens when you tell people you'll pay 1,000 dirams for an orange juicer!

Really good to Sara proving herself to Lee who laid into her quite a bit last week, and she proved herself to Nick too, which by default surely means Sir Alan. One of my favourite moments of Alpha's time in Marrakesh was Raefs face when Lee swore down the phone...way round this, why doesn't anyone in The Apprentice put the phone to their ear? Saves broadcasting Lee McQueen yelling fuck in polite company.

Also in Raef news, he was looking dapper as ever in the last few minutes as Alpha enjoyed a balloon ride (Incidentally Lee's "This is...happy days, happy days." brought a tear to my eye) and picnic. So yeah, very happy that all my favourites were in the same team and are safe for another week.



Next week:- The teams try and sell wedding dresses at a wedding fair, and someone dresses up in this bear costume! I'm hoping it's Raef.

That bear's got a hell of a range...

"Hello Dad..."

But before all that, let's talk about the concluding part to Series 4's cracking Sontaran 2 parter.

Pretty damned obvious cliffhanger solution to open with, as Donna's mum does what the Doctor and Donna fail to do...smash the bloody window! After that though, this story just had it's balls out all the way in a delirious mix of action sequences, some quality CGI, references to both old and new Who and...well, I'll come to that cheeky little foreshadowing in a minute.

Mmmmartha

Glad to see that Helen Raynor is a far better writer than I gave her credit for, opting to have the Doctor realise Evil-Martha was a clone right from the get-go. It was really nice to see Freema get quite a lot to do this week, playing up the now standard 24 role of the insider feeding information to the villains...I kept expecting Colonel Mace to yell; "UNIT has been compromised, initiate a lockdown!"

Tennant was on top form tonight, and his scenes with Colonel Mace reminded me a little of Pertwee and Courtney, echoing that idea that both men admire each other very much even though they don't necessarily agree with their actions. And it was nice to see the world genuinely in peril, with shots of Sydney and New York covered in the same fog. Though to be honest, we could've done without the now traditional news coverage scenes...and since when did Kirsty Wark host News 24?

The reason behind the Sontarans poison gas plot was a pretty neat one, even if the Doctors solution to it was a little rushed, and the eventual sacrifice more than a little bloody obvious. The battle scenes and rising death toll were, again, pretty brutal for Saturday tea-times but you wont hear me complaining. A quick word to how utterly brilliant Christopher Ryan was, his voice, his mannerisms, the brilliant prosthetics job completely made you believe he was General Staal.

Once again, Catherine Tate was on top form, and her scenes with Bernard Cribbins are utterly brilliant and move me to tears every bloody time. The final one with him sending her off to have adventures amongst the stars on his behalf left me with a lump in my throat. Can we have Cribbins get a credit in the title sequence? Speaking of Donna, she had another brief encounter with a certain blonde girl trapped in another universe, as Rose appeared on the TARDIS monitor.

Again, well done to Rusty for keeping schtum on this one. Are we gonna get more Rose appearances before Episode 11? And what exactly are they building to?

Overall, it was typical second part stuff, lots of action, a surprisingly well realised resolution and a surprise cliffhanger at the end, as Martha, Donna and the Doctor were all transported somewhere for a meeting with...The Doctors Daughter. Is that the sound of an internet messageboard in meltdown?

The Geeky:- Finally the new series acknowledges one of my favourite ever characters; The Brigadier! "Sir Alistair is a wonderful man, but unfortunately he's detained in Peru." Not for too long I hope!

Rather hilarious reference to The Empty Child when the Doctor put on his gas mask.

The Valiant from last years season finale made a welcome return.