So, after something of a delay, Aliens of London reviewed. Leaving it until after World War Three was useful as I can now review episode four knowing how the story was resolved. It also means I won’t ask questions like “Why not take over the Prime Minister’s body?” which have now been answered on screen.

The revelation that Rose has been missing for a year provided plenty of opportunity for domestic backdrop to the alien invasion, and Russell Davies used it to the full. That Mickey would be suspected of murdering Rose was all too believable. I’ve been undecided about Camille Coduri’s and Noel Clarke’s performances but I’m slowly settling on Clarke’s portrayal of Mickey as being spot on, if a bit goofy at times (e.g., the OTT wall collision as the TARDIS dematerialises) but Coduri’s Jackie as a bit hammy. Sorry Jackie fans. She’s at her worst as soon as she gets a telephone in her hands.

Aliens of London has a noticeably slower pace than the previous episodes but it nevertheless feels scrappy, jumping around from scene to scene. Eccleston seems to be mugging more, but given his comments his first scene involved chasing a pig, perhaps much of this episode was filmed before he’d settled into the character.

The plot itself is a great idea: aliens faking an invasion in order to get alien experts together to kill them (and later to justify a nuclear launch). The Slitheen as humans have been accused of being a bit CBBC, which is fair enough, but it doesn’t damage the episode so long as this is a characteristic of the aliens. As long as the rest of the characters appear to be taking the events seriously (for example, Navin Chowdry is excellent as Indra Ganesh), the Slitheen can still seem dangerous. If I were to change one thing about the Slitheen, it would be the thoroughly un-alien zips.

Once again, there were plenty of good gags, notably the Patrick Moore quip and Harriet Jones’s ID card waving, and the special effects (even the disrobing Slitheen) were good – and, of course, still light years ahead of the original series. It was a shame, given the use of Andrew Marr and Matt Baker, that the BBC News 24 reporter was an actor. (The News 24 clock appeared to be missing from some shots too.)

The return of the cliffhanger to Doctor Who was welcome, with three sequences building to a strong climax – albeit ruined by the “Next Time” teaser (and a cursory resolution in the next episode).

My least favourite of the first four episodes, but still the best thing on TV at the time. And Penelope Wilton was terrific.

According to Doctor Who Magazine – via Outpost Gallifrey – the penultimate episode of this series of Doctor Who finally has a name. And it’s…

Bad Wolf.

Thanks to a blank version on Thought Crime Is Death, we can all play.

On Saturday, there was a royal wedding and the Grand National. So which programme, according to overnight viewing figures, had the highest average viewing figures for the whole day? Yep: Doctor Who, with 8.3 million.

The Unquiet Dead was another heady mix of suspense, top notch special effects and great dialogue. This was a more traditional Doctor Who story – especially the pre-title sequence – but no worse for it. Now that we’ve got to know the regular characters, Mark Gatiss was able to tell 45 minutes worth of story, a Victorian ghost story with a sci-fi twist.

Billie continues to prove what an inspired choice she was for Rose and the supporting cast were uniformly excellent. Simon Callow – who appeared as Charles Dickens again on Saturday night on BBC Four – brought the writer to life, and got to save the day. While it can be argued that this renders the Doctor, as hero, somewhat redundant, it is only because the Doctor has convinced Charles that the aliens are real that Dickens can help defeat them.

There were some very funny lines – “Brecon?”, “Go out there dressed like that and you’ll start a riot, Barbarella” and “under the stairs, past the bins” being my favourites – although my own quibble was one joke I didn’t rate: when Dickens cries “What the Shakespeare?” But I know other folk who found it funny – horses for courses, I guess.

Without intruding into the plot, there were more hints of the story threads running through the series. The “Time War” that destroyed the Gelth’s physical forms also left the Nestene and the Doctor homeless. And Gwyneth is horrified by the “big bad wolf” she sees in Rose’s future Earth; we then see “Bad Wolf” grafitti on the side of the TARDIS in the (very moreish) preview of next week’s episode.

The Unquiet Dead was at times properly frightening. The lovely scene in the scullery between Rose and Gwyneth (like the scene with Raffalo in The End of the World) fleshed out Gwyneth as a character and made her sacrifice all the more touching. I confess to shedding a tear at TV Doctor Who for the first time since 1973, and I wasn’t even born then.

My favourite episode so far. Next week: Aliens…of London!