I missed the proceeding episode due to moving house that weekend. Discounting that one, the best thus far was Shakespear(e)...

I thought it was one of the best, but prefered the Shakespere one too.
This season I thought has been consistantly good.
I think last season suffered from them having to work on Torchwood as well.

Rather unfair to say it was a copy of the Black Hole episode.
They had just returned to that time period to expand on what we know about it.
The episode itself wasn't that similar at all.

Mind you, that is what is so good about Dr Who.
It has so much potential for variety, not everything is going to grab you.
If you like every episode they are probably not pushing the envelope very hard.
Mind you, I did like pretty much every episode! :-)

I couldn't tell you what the date was meant to be for the Impossible Planet.
But both stories seemed to have the same time frame regardless and thats good enough for me. :-)

Actually...

1- Set up a base on an asteroid to observe a black hole
story - what is the mystery of the planet and the evil there
2- Stuck on a ship crashing towards the sun
story - how can the ship be stopped (in real time btw making it more interesting)and why is the bad guy attacking

First, very cool first part let down by less good second part
Second, not a copy just because it is set in the same time period.

:-)

Yay, well found. :-)

people thought it was the best? hmmm. I thought it was enjoyable, but a bit of a pot-boiler really

I don't think it was the best of the season but neither do I think it was a particularly bad episode. A series can't be made up of superlatives, there have to be average episodes and a lot of the old DW episodes didn't give anything to the Who mythology either.

This was more of a character piece, balanced to share the meat of the plot out more equally between the Doctor and Martha, now that she's his companion formally, not just someone along for a ride. On those lines, I think it did quite well and the parts with Martha's mother kept the season's underlying theme bubbling along now we're moving into the homeward leg.

Generally-speaking, I think this season is coming off better than the previous two. It's more settled, less jittery, with a better idea of what works and what doesn't but still with the freedom to experiment, as they did with the real-time aspect of this episode. Best of the season? No, I don't think so but it definitely serves a purpose in the structure of the season overall, in my opinion anyway.

The Message, Bushwhacked :-)

Yes, seen it then bought the DVDs. Great show but not lacking in average episodes. Not even Joss Whedon can create a show solely made up of superlatives. A look at the later seasons of Buffy makes this painfully obvious.

has the world gone MAD?

the best episode so far is OBVIOUSLY the one with everyeone stuck on the motorway.

So ner :P

When the guy had his eyes closed and first opened them, I thought they were going to be demony like in the black hole episode!

But then I thought it was rather good.
Yeah it was a bit too similar in parts, but I loved the idea of the sun being alive!

hmmm -didn't see this one - but I was rather taken by the recent Dalek episodes. There were some Dalek gems in those two episodes - such as the two daleks scheming in the corridor - when one checks 'over his shoulder' to check no one is listening. That and the general hateful sarcasm that some of the dalek lines delivered. But really what struck me was how well the daleks work in a 1920-1930 art deco era - they're designed for it!

I found the others a tad lack luster that while enjoyable didn't go anywhere for me.

The Daleks were well out of character for their race, even considering that they could imagine. Daleks would never contaminate themselves like that. The Dalek Emporer was rather insane so I can let that go, but although it was a good two-parter it could have been better written.

42 was the best for me because it was fast paced, kept going with out being repetative (Lazerous Experiment, I'm looking at you), and I cared enough about the NPC's... supporting characters that I didn't want to see them get killed off. For me, it was a much better episode than the prior six.

But thats just me.

I found it quite enjoyable, if nothing spectacular.

Actually, if it was similar to anything, it was similar to the _Planet of Evil_ story from the Tom Baker period. Antimatter removed from weird planet for research into fuel source, "possessed"/mutated people trying to kill, living planet/antimatter universe wanting the antimatter back.

Less screaming from the Doctor, though. ;)

I thought they could have done another fanboy wink by saying that the lifeform was akin to another living in the core of the Earth, and that the wandering possessed guys were Primords.

I liked it actually.
First: it wasn't written by Russell Twee.
Second: I watched it with a bunch of geeks and Dr Who fans in a large pub and there was a resounding cheer when the writer's name came up and it wasn't RTD.
Third: It engendered some entertaining catcalls from the audience. (When they were running about all over teh ship "Cone on! You've only got 7 crystals!")
Fourth: It was good and nicely done and the sun was ALIVE. *grin*

They don't all need to "give" anything to the Mighty Mythos of Who. Sometimes people just like a story about a dude trapped on a spaceship that's falling into the sun. Which this was.