Doctor Who: The Lazarus Experiment

As with Gridlock, this week's Doctor Who - The Lazarus Experiment - is a "coronation chicken episode", that is a "tasty filler", whose main purpose is to provide a context for moving forward major sub-plot elements, namely building up the Doctor/Martha friendship and establishing the animosity between Martha's mother and the Doctor - egged on by the machinations of this season's, as yet, unseen Big Bad, Harold Saxon (John Simm).

Using the thinnest of thin old plots (man experiments with science, turns himself into monster, battles the Doctor), Stephen Greenhorn's script still delivers some strong dialogue and enough soap opera-style character interaction to keep show runner Russell T Davies happy.

The cliches continued - with unfortunate timing - with a final confrontation between Doctor and monster in a cathedral that, with its use of noise, echoed a major scene in Spider-Man 3 (and Daredevil come to think of it).

Yet while there was little original or surprising in The Lazarus Experiment (except the giant scorpion-like monster), it was written and acted with enormous class that continues to make the current series of Dr Who the best since its return to our screens.

Of course, the best part of the episode was "Coming Soon" trailer at the end which, to make up for next week's postponed episode (because of the Eurovision Song Contest) was a sneak peak at the rest of the series ... including our first glimpse of Saxon (Simm) himself!