Who’s back

Doctor Who – New Earth 7.15pm BBC1

[WARNING - MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS]

The first proper adventure for the tenth Doctor, not including saving the Earth with a satsuma at Christmas. The Doctor and Rose travelled to a future re-creation of Earth to visit a hospital patient (The Face of Boe – the most amazing, if slightly underused model from last year). Rose gets separated from the Doctor and runs into Cassandra (again from last year' The End of the World), who possesses her body. The more I watch Billie Piper, the more impressed I am with her skills as an actor. She gave a very credible performance of Cassandra/Rose, picking up on many of Zoe Wannamaker's inflections, and using the possession concept to great comic effect, especially when looking in the mirror and trying to attempt a cockney accent. David Tennent also did a similar changes when possessed, but only for brief moments. The real joy were the disinfection lifts; being a crazy, but humourous invention which turned out to be crucial to the plot (I worked out what needed to be done to save the world, but not how)

Overall, an enjoyable start to the series. I'm never overkeen on the far future stories, but next week's is historic Earth set, so that should be more to my taste.

The accompanying Confidential on BBC3 focused on both the Christmas and this episode. The usual stuff, apart from the teasers for the rest of the series – giving far too much away. How's a girl supposed to avoid spoilers if they put them on without warning?