"Fear Her" is especially disappointing because writer Matthew Graham does such an incredible job on his series LIFE ON MARS. Unfortunately, Graham's Scribble Monster and animated kid's drawing of the Doctor end up being cheesy to watch, and for such a key role, could the producers have found a worse child actress than Abisola Agbaje? I certainly don't think so...

For a few stunned moments after it finished words failed me; glad then that I recalled Lex Luthor's wonderful delivery of the one word that summed up this effort. If you thought Love & monsters opened one up to ridicule from one's non-Whovian friends this one took the biscuit.

SpyGuy covers the major points but someone else said it felt almost like a lost X-Files episode. It had the feeling it was meant to play as an unsettling look into supernatural goings on in suburbia, but had to play as normal detective story for mainstream BBC 1.

*So* in with stupid "I'll draw the world and it'll be my friend" out-there idea tacked onto make it Dr Who-worthy and you had a show trying to deal with abusive fathers and single parent families and... and... a murderous squiggle?!

As a certain ambitious, ruthless, murderous, business man and scientist once said... "WRONG!"

Billie seems to have checked out, and just showing up out of contractual obligation--she had ONE good moment: the hand-holding scene with Dr in the Tardis--that was the Rose we all liked to see.

Tennant is just not as good as Eccleston (or this season is so much more poorly written--or both, I suppose). He was good in the first ep, and in The Girl in The Fireplace, but is otherwise mostly annoying rather than likeable. His ONE good moment in Fear Her: "Ball bearings you can eat!!"

And David Tennant is as good as Christopher Eccleston (at least the readers of DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE seem to think so in their Favorite Doctors poll), but he does need better material. Tennant really shines when written properly -- "The Christmas Invasion," "Tooth and Claw," "School Reunion," "The Girl in the Fireplace," "The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit," and "Doomsday" -- but too often the scripts (or the directors) call for unnecessarily hyperactive and jokey. On the flip side, though, I certainly couldn't see Eccleston's Doctor pull off "The Girl in the Fireplace," especially the scenes involving Reinette. Eccleston mugged and grinned a bit too much for the camera, in my opinion, almost as if he was trying to one-up Tom Baker. Hopefully, the scripts for Series Three will play to Tennant's strengths more now that the writers have had a year to nail down his Doctor's persona.

As for Tennant, I will give him the benefit of the doubt, since I DID like him at first, and he still has his moments. I suspect you are correct: the writing is to blame here. I guess my overall disappointment is that he started so well, and it has become hit and miss, now. I don't recall any such instabilities with Eccelston's Who--but there again, could be writing as much as anything.

My favorite character in season 1 was Rose, and I loved the way Billie Piper brought a wide-eyed wonder, curiousity, and willingness to trust the Dr. into the role. I thought she was pitch-perfect.

This season, and again it may be the writing alone, but not only has her character gotten cocky and arrogant at times, Billie Piper just hasn't brought the sparkle to the role as before. The hand-hold moments in Fear Her were about it.

looking forward to the finale, though, and thanks for the assurance that it is a good one, sir. Cheers

One bit of good news, though, is that Sciffy is rerunning "The Christmas Invasion" ON CHRISTMAS DAY (!) at 3:00 p.m. EST. Even better, they've slotted 90 minutes for it, so it shouldn't be chopped up to make room for all the commercials.

Yeah I wanted to see a few more reviews (or even just good ol' plain *views*!) on Torchwood.

I myself have enjoyed it, but seemingly in spite of its attempt to hobble itself with its "crack team does something cool against a below-par scifi enemy with a few really nice moments of characterisation tacked on". Hmm, sounds like some episodes of Dr Who series 2!

Anyway, one of the problems with Torchwood is the majority of episodes at the start of the run were given over to Freak O' The Week formula. It was something they stuck to dogedly at the expense of brilliant episodes like the one we were treated to last night. A limited budget, action sequences that were stilted and poor directorial flourishes (how many helicopter shots can we fit in of Cardif bay!) cripple its ability to pull off a believable British Sci-fi threat in suburbia.

However the shows that worked best for me were the very first episode Everything Changes, They Keep Killing Suzie, Cyberwoman and Out Of Time. These episodes had us just looking at a team with its foibles and problems, getting on with their mundane jobs. Lots of character building. I think they needed more of these type of episodes towards the start. I mean, who would've missed the "Sex Alien" which was a clichéd and horribly childish attempt to scream from the rooftops "we're an adult show!" and had it replaced with We Keep Killing Suzie.

It feels they're only now giving the writers room to expand the characters, which is surely the wrong way round; this show needed more story arcs like Suzie's early on in the run to make us care about them and far less The Hills Have Eyes rip offs! Nevertheless I'll keep watching it in the hope for a few more quality shows (and especially any written by Cath Tregenna).

Due to scheduling luck I've managed to somehow catch every repeat of this brilliant episode that the BBC have put on.

Aside from making me wonder how many times the BBC can get away repeating it in one week I'm actually quite happy. Got a friend to watch tonight's so here's hoping he'll come away liking it.

Oh and anyone else notice the formula that really worked well this week? Capt. Jack, Gwen and Own being split up and dealing with their own little love/motherly moments with these time travellers. Also liking Yanto going all Rain Man in the store when they're shopping. I just wish they'd had as strong episodes as this early on in the run.