TV review: Doctor Who, BBC1 (From Lancashire Telegraph)

TV review: Doctor Who, BBC1

7:00pm Monday 1st May 2006 in Reviews By John Anson, Features editor

SARAH Jane back with the Doctor; K-9 firing his red laser and wagging his metal tail suddenly I became an eight-year-old all over again.

I don't know about Doctor Who being a time traveller, I suspect that actress Elisabeth Sladen must know something about defying the years as she didn't look any different from when she first appeared in the series back in the Seventies.

After a shaky start, the second series of the new' Doctor Who is getting back on track.

After last week's scary werewolves, this week we had bat-like creatures from another planet disguising themselves as teachers and using pupils to try and take over the universe as you would.

The great joy about this week's episode was the way the script cleverly brought together old and new with Sarah Jane and the Doctor's latest travelling companion Rose Tyler.

Billie Piper has certainly come a long way from the pop teen sensation who pranced about shouting Because We Want To', and now displays some great comic timing.

But it was the forever youthful Ms Sladen who stole the show, providing a really poignant moment as she was reunited and then said goodbye to the love of her life.

I'm still not totally convinced by David Tennant as the Doctor though.

He's all wide-eyed stares and lacks that real charisma you'd expect the saviour of the galaxy to have.

But you can't knock really knock a series that he made Saturday night TV worth watching again.