The Day of the Doctor

There's an awful lot that could be said about The Day of the Doctor, but I'll try to be brief and avoid spoilers as far as possible (but if you've not seen it yet and want to, you might still prefer to watch it before reading on...).

Firstly, let's get the most important thing out of the way - it was good. The first 30 seconds or so, before it all goes a bit adventurey, are a pleasing link from the very first episode to present day, and the last shot of the episode - without wanting to give anything away - is a nice way to round off the first 50 years of the show.

In between those opening and closing shots, there's 75 minutes of spectacle with a plot that, at least as far as I can tell, holds up to scrutiny better than many recent episodes of the series itself.

The feature-length piece also, of course, INTRODUCES JOHN HURT AS THE DOCTOR, but the lack of subtlety with which he was shoutily announced at the end of the preceding episode has been smoothed out slightly, and he fills the role nicely without stealing the show as the biggest 'name' among the cast members.

Subtlety is, for once, to be found in abundance in The Day of the Doctor, which manages simultaneously to give a nod to the classic era of the show, the early days of its modern-era revival and its current incarnation with Matt Smith at the helm of the TARDIS and of the show.

Billie Piper's appearance (again, hardly a spoiler by the time you've watched the opening credits) is handled well, allowing her to feature without getting bogged down in the Tenth Doctor/Rose storyline - which, remember, younger newcomers to the show may not have seen.

And there's a curious Wizard of Oz undercurrent throughout - look out for the ruby slippers in the Black Vault, Clara (IIRC) calling herself the 'Wicked Witch of the West' and Ingrid Oliver's character name 'Osgood' (Clara is, of course, varyingly known as Clara Oswald or simply as Oswin in previous episodes).

I've been trying to work out if the three Doctors are meant to represent the Scarecrow (Smith), Tin Man (Tennant) and Cowardly Lion (Hurt), but it's not a perfect fit - maybe it's all just my imagination.

I could spell out all of the references to the earlier Doctors, but I won't - I'll leave that for somebody far more familiar with the show than I am, and for a page that's less careful about spoilers.

But needless to say, as a viewer who came to the show in the mid to late 1980s (I wasn't born until 1983, so I like to think I have an excuse), there was enough of the spirit of Doctor Who as I knew it then, balanced nicely with the modern-day sense of the show as the new generation of fans have come to know it - not to mention a couple of surprises thrown in purely for the older fans, which seems fitting for an anniversary of such magnitude.

I do wonder how they got from the end of the previous episode to the beginning of this story, but perhaps that doesn't matter too much - it really needed to stand alone, so viewers who tuned in only for the anniversary did not feel lost from the outset, and I suspect it achieved that aim fairly well.

The focus now has to be on Peter Capaldi - it's no secret that this year's Christmas special is likely to see Matt Smith bow out and regenerate, which will ruin Christmas Day for a few kids, but never mind.

Can Capaldi continue to unite the two eras of Doctor Who? Restore The Doctor to his true, original character as a grumpy grown-up, rather than a clown? Bring back the darker side of the character and the show, for a generation of fans who came to the show as adolescents but are now reaching maturity in their own right?

I had all but written off Doctor Who until this anniversary episode; now I greet the oncoming storm with optimism. I have loved Matt Smith but, like Sylvester McCoy, he has rarely had the storylines he needed to shine to his fullest potential. Bring on Capaldi.

An Adventure in Space and Time

If you're already sick of watching Cybermen faint under the lights of The One Show studio, you probably decided not to watch An Adventure in Space and Time.

But while much of the build-up to this weekend's 50th anniversary of the first broadcast of Doctor Who has been bordering on the vapid, this 90-minute dramatisation frankly blew everything else out of the water, and has probably set the bar impossibly high for the 50th anniversary episode itself.

Not to worry - it's a small price to pay for what was not just a perfectly time-shifting glimpse at the show's earliest days, but also a touching tribute to The Doctor himself, William Hartnell.

Outcasts (BBC1)

The first three episodes of BBC's new science-fiction drama have shown real promise, but left me with questions beyond those its makers were intending to pose.

Outcasts charts the progress of the inhabitants of Forthaven, the first pioneer settlement on the planet of Carpathia, following some as yet unnamed catastrophe that has rendered continued life on Earth untenable. These settlers have been chosen for their usefulness to society, which apparently means scientists, law enforcers, and soldiers. Not a banker in sight.

It's a real ensemble piece, there's no obvious main protagonist, and it's hard as yet to place who is the emotional centre of the series. President Richard Tate (Liam Cunningham) is the noble, but imperfect leader; Stella Isen (Hermione Norris) is Tate's head of Protection and Security (PAS), desperate to rebuilt a relationship with her daughter Lily who arrived on the latest transporter; Cass Cromwell (Daniel Mays) and Fleur Morgan (Amy Manson) are PAS officers tasked with upholding the values of the new society, and Jack Holt (Ashley Walters) is the hot-headed leader of the Forthaven's armed force, the Expeditionaries.

10 O'Clock Live

10 O'Clock Live is an attempt by Channel 4 to give the nation a new flagship topical satire show. It continues in the grand tradition of British political satire (think That Was The Week That Was, Spitting Image or Have I Got News For You), but it is much closer to current American market-leader The Daily Show in format. Filmed live in front of an often vocal audience, last night's debut combined stand-up, sketches, interviews and round-table 'debates' of a sort between the four hosts.

And they are good hosts too; Charlie Brooker, David Mitchell, Lauren Laverne and Jimmy Carr (in order of personal preference, sorry Jimmy) are all intelligent, well-informed and amusing in more or less equal measure. I did sometimes wonder if they were too much of a 'right-on' liberal bunch though, as they were at pains to show off their lefty credentials in front of a partisan audience. Maybe that's inevitable when you're satirising a Conservative (sorry, Conservative-led) government though, and certainly a show like this needs time to bed in and find its own voice.