Sorry, but I miss Rose (Billie Piper). I know, get over it, right? But Martha (Freema Agyeman) seems like such a lightweight, more a groupie than a collaborator - and that family (especially the mother)! Piper had more gravitas as an actress, sprinkled with a pinch of darkness. And her mum, Jackie (Camille Coduri), had more strength and down home charm than that upper-crust iceberg Martha is stuck with. The Doctor, as usual, had great verve and energy, but he was very second fiddle to the Jones family storyline. Add to that - the (CGI?) monster was a bit soft an blurry as well. So there you have it : compared to the best of Doctor Who, this one was, well, soft and blurry.

Great episode. It had adventure, action, drama, comedy and death. It isn't the best episode there has been but it is certainly not the worst.

Mark Gatiss performs well as Proffessor Lazarus and the idea were beautiful. You could see the writing was great, it was just some of the acting that let it down.

The special effects were great and the Lazarus Monster was the best CGI monster ever created.

It was fun to see Martha's family again and Tish being in danger when they were in the Cathedral.

All in all a good episode but was let down a bit by the acting.

It was great to see Mark Gatiss on screen, and he gave Doctor Lazarus a wholly believable aspect (though my wife thought the "old man" makeup was poor). I was expecting a kindly old gentleman but what we got was a creepy, smarmy, dirty old man - right from the get go you realise Lazarus isn't nice even if he obviously is not evil. That often makes for the best of villians, they are more believable if you can see they're not just bent on destruction. Lazarus has a motivation for what he is doing, and in the same circumstances many sane people might do the same.

We also got to see Martha's family for the first time since "Smith & Jones", but isntead of the soap scenes with Jackie Tyler we are treated to an altogether more satisfactory situation where they are attending Lazarus's great unveilling of his life's work.

And what of his invention? Something akin to a regeneration chamber funded by Mr Saxon...if the rumours are true Saxon might well have good reasons for funding Lazarus's reserach! It is worth pointing out at this juncture that I have been pleasantly surprised that Saxon has not been mentioned every other sentence this year, I felt there were far too many Torchwood references last year.

As we all know, Laz's experiment goes wrong and his DNA becomes unstable forcing him to change into a hideous monster...and back into the young Lazarus. I felt the monster was good, but not necessary. Some of the dialogue between the Doctor and young Lazarus was truly excellent, a treat in an era of modern soundbites and something we wouldn't have had from a Davies-penned script (though his humour in Gridolck was fantastic).

The twist, where we think Lazarus is dead with 15 minutes to go was well handled. I really felt we were going to go off on some other tangent, and hoped it wasn't a prolonged family scene chez Jones. When it became Lazarus wasn't dead after all that was a nice surprise.

Also wonderfully written and acter was the scene where the Doctor tries to leave Martha behind. I really found myself wondering if he was going to leave her! Given how well Martha's character is working out I was very glad he didn't.

The final scenes in the cathedral made for a thrilling climax, with the Doctor's organ playing quite an appropriate way to do away with the monster in a non-violent fashion.

Overall this was very strong, if not perhaps a classic. Stephen Greenhorn's script is among the very best in terms of dialogue and the pacing of the direction was superb.

8.5/10

Dr Who ~ The Lazarus Experiment: There are times that I just can't believe how bloody brilliant this show is. It keeps getting better and better. David Tennant is absolutely sensational in this role (not to mention hot!!!). Not that Eccleston did a bad job of it either. I am adoring Martha. I love the fact that she's curious as well as stubborn. (again ... not knocking Rose out there). This episode was singularly special in the fact that it's an age old quest to find the 'fountain of youth'. I suspect that at some point Lazarus' experiment will be taken back up and refined and thus ... everyone will live forever, but hopefully that will be in the long time future. I thought the dialogue was really well executed, the action was believable and the suspense fulfilling. These just keep getting better and better. I was taken aback by the end of the episode and the plea in Martha's mother's voice about how dangerous the doctor is, it'll be interesting to see this storyline play out.