Now I'm Russell T Davies' biggest fan but I didn't enjoy this episode; too clever by half.

I hope the Christmas special is better.

Any worthy Timelord would have figured out quite early on that he could save the crew by setting the self destruct and transporting the crew via his Tardis to some other place and time without changing history. Earth would still assume they all died in the explosion.

Not sure what all that nonsense was about with the Doctor going batty. Maybe just to pad out the episode. A very poor effort, even for RTD. A child could have written a more intelligent ending.

That was one of my favourite ever Doctor Who.

It actually was believable in a way.

BOWIE BASE ONE - superb.

ICE WATER ZOMBIES - amazing and many people think there is water on Mars and who knows whether life is frozen into it.....

DOCTOR WHO....tour de force. From bystander - to active part in the story to crazed God ending as he begins to suffer more from being alone and the last Timelord.

ADELAIDE - what an amazing co star. This women was fantastic. Rarely do we see such a brilliant performance from the "guest star" in the programme. She was superb in the role.

SET UP for CHRISTMAS : this has set it up for the Christmas special where my fave all time baddie THE MASTER by John Sims - is again in the frame !!! The question is - does the Doctor go over to the DARK SIDE with the MASTER because he is so "Losing it" at the moment ?

Christmas could be the best ever "spcecial" in the hisory of the christmas specials.

70% of viewers have voted this episode Very Good at the Digital Spy forum - and most seem to think it was brilliant as well.

Lots of untied ends and questions - but quite right as we move to the end of this Doctor's incarnation.

Of course it's all down to personal opinion of a piece of fantasy.

Reasons I was not impressed.
The Doctor is a 900 year old Timelord who has been most places and seen most things, so why was he excited to find someone growing plants and keeping birds in a greenhouse on Mars? It would hardly be news to him and a very tiny achievement on the scale of all the other off world achievements by Humans (refer to Robots of Death, Revenge of the Cybermen, Death to the Daleks, etc.)
As I previously noted, The Doctor should have easily worked out that he could have taken the crew to safety on another planet or to another time without altering history.
The plot could have been written on a matchbox and there was no continuity of character or with the history of the series.

If all you're looking for is meaningless low key fantasy then this would probably fit the bill. Even when Dr Who went through it's cheap / bad effects period it involved a little more intelligence. For me (personally) this was a waste of an hour.

Al you seem to forget the excitement was because this was the FIRST EVER off world human colony. These were THE pioneers of " we choose to go to the stars " therefore no wonder he was so excited.

It is down to taste - but I felt that there were many deep issues that this addressed for the whole series as follows :

1. Should the Doctor interfere with history except to protect the human race and ensure history takes place as it is meant to be.

2. Is the Doctor actually GOD ? is he given his abilities by an external force or does he operate alone and without any "judge" ? or are the OOD the judges of what he does or does not do ?

3. Was Alex the most important human being who ever lived in terms of space travel - being the first commander of Bowie Base One - and because she and her crew decided to protect the Earth rather than try to escape. Even when offered the paradox of getting back to Earth she chose to take the fate that she should have received on Bowie Base One - thus negating the Doctor's work ( the first time ever this has happened as far as I can remember ? )

4. Has the Doctor lost the plot ? and is this how his demise starts leading to his death/re-incarnation as the new doctor.

Lots of excellent stuff to get excited by. Not much "action" but plenty of really deep ideas were explored in this episode.

Can we change the future ?

If I told you that in 2012 the Olympics are going to be attacked by a tactical nuclear device - probably in July.....and that I had seen this happen......would anything be able to stop this future happening ? I might add that I am on the Terror Database having rung the Ministry of Defence the week before 7/7 to warn them of the event....and rang the Police the day before the 21/7 event. So I have good proven form on "pre sentiment "

So this question for me is very real and very important and there are few programmes that actually deal with this.

The Doctor isn't human, BR, so why should he be excited about the first human colony in space? I think that bit was a sign of the limits of the writer's imagination. He also seems to have overlooked the Doctor's other story "Colony in Space" which featured the other "first ever off world human colony".

It could also be argued that the astronauts on the space station were the first humans to live in space, even though only for six months. Or maybe Yuri Gagarin was the most important human in space travel, being the first to go into space. Each journey or colony is just another step. A Timelord would know that.

Is the Doctor God? Hardly. He is mortal and powerless without his Tardis. He has a limited lifespan. Not much of a god if he was one.

The Doctor has interfered in history many times. He's a worse offender than James T Kirk. He would know that even the slightest interference, such as turning up in another time zone and saying hello to one of the locals, could create ripples with major consequences. The entire series has dealt with this issue since 1963.

No new ideas were really explored in this episode. It touched on many old ones but failed to do much with them.

I've watched Dr Who since "An Unearthly Child" and, storywise, this latest one fell well short of standard. I recently re-watched "The Next Doctor" and that was a very enjoyable episode. I also like David Tennant as The Doctor. I'd rate him less than Pertwee, Troughton or McGann, although he is quite good.

Hubby gets into major debates on Dr Who forums about the tiniest detail or continuity error. I thought the way they made the Doctor behave in this one was rather silly but I just pass it over as a dud episode and move onto the next one.

I think JC the Doctor could get excited by actually "being there" to meet the pioneers for the human race - that he has said are wonderful - beautiful - and cruel.......he almost studies "us" as a lab scientist would - and perhaps in a slight Godlike way thinks of humans as his children ( obviously not literal ).

Though the Doctor interferes in history - he generally does so to "preserve the timeline" rather than to "brea the timeline". I cant think of another major example in the new incarnations where the Doctor has done anything but save the human race to preserve its place in history. In this particular episode he tried to change a history which he knew.

I believe that Doctor Who can be watched in a deeper way than just entertainment.

Note the date of the mission 21 NOVEMBER 2059. This Saturday coming the LHC fires up on 21 NOVEMBER 2009. The writers could not have known that in advance. Like in Torchwood the Children Of Earth was right on the money - supposedly by accident according to the writers......in addition there have been other strange co-incidences as well in the recent series.

Yes it is great entertainment - but there are many people who do watch the series for other things.....