The Doctor and Rose are forced to land during this particular time due to an unsuccessful chase of a alien capsule. Like most of the Doctor's "retriveval" visits, he intended to this to be a fast pick up. The Doctor opts to ask a few locals if something has fallen recently from the sky - before realizing that screaming fireballs falling out of the sky and exploding on impact is something quite commonplace. Naturally, this complicates his search. The plot thickens when the Doctor returns to the TARDIS to discover Rose has wandered off, and suddenly the disconnected phone on the TARDIS starts ringing. The Doctor explains how impossible this is, since the phone isn't wired up to anything.
Meanwhile, Rose's search for a rooftop child has resulted in her dangling over London via a rope tethered to a blimp. She is moments later rescued by galactic con man Jack Harkness.
As with any great Doctor Who story, the plot unfolds slowly but steadily, keeping us on the edge of our seats for every minute. Once again, Moffat steers clear of scenes diliberately intended to be character development scenes - instead, Moffat develops the characters with the progress of the initial plot. The Doctor discovers a mystery afoot; one of a child no one can touch, a child that can tap any instrument with a speaker, and can operate typewriters from afar.
The Doctor pays a visit to Dr. Constantine at Albion Hospital at the request of Nancy. Constantine fills us in on the "plague" that is gripping the town, and then succumbs to the fate of his patients in front of the Doctor.
Rose and Jack meet the Doctor at the hospital, and we are left with a classic-who flavored cliffhanger accompanied with the "sting" of the theme music as the gas mask zombies close in on the Doctor, Rose and Jack.
Moffat wrote some great scenes with the Doctor in this story that reminded me of his past incarnations, particularly when he's talking to his TARDIS as the phone rings.
I cannot rave enough about this episode, as everything about this episode felt like a classic Who story. The way the plot unfolded, the passive characters giving the Doctor bits of information here and there, the con job-gone-awry with Jack, and the incidental music for this episode was very much like that of the original series. There was no thundering orchestral pieces in this to drown out my focus on the plot and dialogue, because Moffat doesn't need handicaps with his plots - Davies often said that Moffat's scripts were the only ones he never had to rewrite. Fantastic episode, and my all time favorite of the Eccleston year.
Great Doctor Who story. Goes to show that Moffat's work is better served by a collaborative approach, like classic Who script editor and producer team work. Who would have thought Moffat would produce the nadir of Doctor Who in just a few years time.
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