A first two part story of the newly resurrected show begins with the episode Aliens of London and concludes with World War Three.
The first part features an alien spacecraft crashing into Big Ben in a very well done effects scene. It turns out alien race the Slitheen have a dastardly plot which involves them gaining access to the Prime Minister and senior officials and inhabiting their bodies. The Doctor goes to Downing Street with Rose where UNIT and world scientists are gathering in the Slitheen's trap. He then has to battle the Slitheen to stop their plan. Backbench MP Harriet Jones (Penelope Wilton) helps them out. Wilton is a great actress and is fabulous in her role as Harriet Jones who went on to appear in later stories with the 10th Doctor. There are lots of other positives too and this is a fun adventure overall but there are flaws which detract from its quality.
There is a cheesiness to some of this production and some silly humour involving Slitheen making farting sounds as they struggle to remain hidden inside smaller human bodies. Those aspects do not make it bad in my opinion and indeed I am sure that a new generation of fans found it amusing but from my point of view as an older fan I couldn't help thinking that if this had been a darker story with Slitheen as a fully menacing and scary alien it could have been a better story. I personally wished the farting aspect wasn't used and that the humour had been restricted to the witty aspects with banter between Rose and the Doctor and Harriet Jones. I feel maybe pressures were felt to not be too dark and scary and maybe trying to make it kid friendly. In fact, many kids love to be scared and to have some dark edge to their entertainment. It is people judging what is 'good for kids' who have pressured Doctor Who makers to soften the content throughout the show's history. In this case they definitely softened the story for a family audience but Russell T Daves is clever enough not to take that too far and he still provides plenty of scary scenes as Slitheen reveal themselves and chase and kill people. So overall whilst this isn't a favourite of mine it is good fun for all the family.
My rating for both episodes: 7/10.
