[PTeppic]

Now that's what Doctor Who is all about... fast paced action, giant space-based aliens, TARDIS chases down the motorway, little plot links to previous episodes, running down wierdly lit tunnels, cross-referencing famous landmarks and general mayhem in the centre of major towns.

Still visibly "mourning" Rose's departure the Doctor finds he's picked up a hitch-hiker. Which of course is technically impossible. She's a thirty-something London girl who was half-way up the aisle at her wedding. Playing down the capability of the TARDIS the Doctor and the Bride (Donna, played perfectly by Catherine Tate [yet is SO bothered by the whole experience she never quite says so!]) end up in London where Donna is captured by one of last year's Santa robots. The Doctor comes to the rescue via an open doored visible flight along the motor way, before taking the Bride back to her own reception. There we meet Donna's fiancee, Lance. Viewing the wedding video the Doctor realises that Donna is seeped in Huon energy, which has been absent from the universer for aeons, apart from some in the TARDIS, to which she must have been drawn like opposing magnets - so where did her Huon energy come from? Investigating, we go back to where Donna and Lance work, a security firm which turns out to be owned by Torchwood. In the un-mapped celler something lurks. It turns out to be a factory creating Huon energy, to be used to help hatch a nest of Racnoss eggs, by the Empress of the Racnoss (Sarah Parish) in one of the best make-up/prosthetics ever seen on terrestrial TV in the UK. Obviously the Empress doesn't like the Doctor's interruption, and things get generally complicated, but you get the idea.

Fabulous episode, with some incredible make-up/prosthetics for the Empress. Some of the other, minor, CGI stuff elsewhere in the episode was a little rough, as usual not in itself but integrating with the live footage. It's still their biggest problem. Great action, a few little nods to previous episodes, some genuine emotion from both lead characters. Plot-wise, one or two tiny niggles (what would really happen if there was suddenly a 4000 mile hole drilled into the surface of the planet?) but otherwise excellent. Not sure I liked the final departure of the TARDIS, visibly shooting upwards into the sky as it faded.

As for the "coming soon":
I reckon there were a good half-dozen, jumbled up episode's worth of spoiler/trailer sequences. I'm going to have to watch the repeat on Wednesday with the video running, there were probably clips from twice as many as this but... there's the Judoon, human rhinoceros people; what looked (very briefly) like the pig-human from "Aliens of London" but I couln't be sure; Mark Gatiss seemed to be playing with regeneration in some form (a self-penned episode?) and of course.... you just can't keep the beeping Daleks down...