Doctor Who: Aliens of London/World War Three

As Clunkers go, this is a slightly odd one. It is here because, as far as I'm concerned, it is the worst of the Eccleston era. But it is far from terrible. Elements of it are very strong. Other elements are not great. And as this was the longest Doctor Who story since 1989, it is worth pausing to consider why.

The plot: the Doctor returns Rose to earth, apparently 12 hours after she left. However, it is actually 12 months. This causes some ructions in the Tyler household and earns the Doctor a slap from Jackie Tyler. In the meantime, an alien spaceship crashes and aliens launch a coup in Downing Street. The aliens are the Slitheen, a criminal family determined to reduce the Earth to radioactive sludge that can then be sold. The Doctor, using his connections and his newfound extended family in the form of the Tylers, defeats them. Hardly the most original of plots, but entertaining nonetheless.

So what works well? Eccleston is superb. Witness him chasitising the soldier for gunning down the space pig or threatening the Slitheen. This is an outstanding actor bringing real gravitas to the role of the Doctor. And he is ably backed up by Billie Piper as Rose - and pretty much anyone involved in the Tyler side to the story is really strong here. As is Penelope Wilton as Harriet Jones - a character who could have been deeply irritating (the repetition of her name and constituency, for example) is made compellingly human through Wilton's performance. By the end of the show, you want her to become Prime Minister. So we have a number of strong performances here, and we are introduced to someone who would become an important part of Torchwood - Toshiko Sato. Sadly, we also get some pretty OTT and consequently uncovincing performances - see almost anyone playing a Slitheen in these episodes.

The Tyler side to the story is also entertaining and, in its own quiet way, ground-breaking for Doctor Who. "Don't you dare make this place domestic" warns Rose after Jackie and Mickey enter the TARDIS. Well, here the show is made more domestic, and amazingly it enhances the experience. Looking at how life with the Doctor affects not just his companions but also those around the companion is a fascinating idea, and leads to these episodes best moments - the Doctor getting slapped and "maybe because everyone thinks I murdered you" being two examples. This is the first time we really see one of RTD's strengths - bringing the domestic and realistic emotions to the show.

Unfortunately, we also see the biggest weakness of RTD - sci-fi plotting. There is precious little that is original here, and the sci-fi elements of the story add next to nothing to it. Blowing the aliens up with a redirected missile is hardly a satisfying resolution after circa ninety minutes of drama. Nor is the cliffhanger any good - it is padded out for ages, and resolved in seconds with the plotting equivalent of a get out jail free card. I'd waited from 1989 to 2005 to see another Doctor Who cliffhanger - and it was not worth the wait. And much of World War Three involves the Doctor, Rose and Harriet talking about stuff in a room. Likewise, the Slitheen are undermined to a large extent by being vulnerable to vinegar - it is a childish plot device that makes them somehow unconvincing and very silly. Not as silly as their constant farting makes them, mind.

Indeed, the Slitheen were never going to become one of the iconic Doctor Who monsters - they are just a bit too silly for that. But I really don't think they are done any favours by the director here. They could be made menacing, even with all the farting. But the times when they are meant to appear menacing (i.e. before they kill) the direction is really rather flat, and they come across (again) as childish rather than a genuine threat. Which is a shame because, done just slightly differently, they could have been very sinister with their baby alien faces and their plump yet lethal hunter bodies. But the way they are presented meant they were always going to be consigned to The Sarah Jane Adventures and children's TV.

Essentially (and much like the current run of Torchwood) we have two stories here - one very domestic and really rather convincing and one outlandish and just plain silly. And this would be the curse of RTD - he was always great at doing the emotional or domestic, but when it came to plot twists or decent sci-fi, the quality went out the window. It is also why his best story - Midnight - relies on ordinary people facing an undefined and unexplained monster with only the most basic of sci-fi trappings.

So Aliens of London and World War Three are disappointing in some ways, but they are by no means a disaster. In fact, a strong case could be made that these two episodes are the best of what I'm calling the Clunkers. But in many ways they define the highs and the lows of an era - an undoubtedly successful age of the show where the lead writer was exceptional in some regards and sadly very lacklustre in others.