Aliens of London is a great first instalment of the first multi-episode story of the revival, starting strong and continuing to hit each story beat dead centre. Yes, the farting is a bit much, and yes some of the acting could do with a bit of work, and there’s a hell of a lot going on that isn’t explored fully… but I can’t in good conscience call this anything other than fantastic.

A smooth TARDIS landing should set Rose on edge after this- a whole year late home, and the Doctor, despite setting the coordinates, completely oblivious until he’s already put his foot in it. We get some wonderful acting from Camille Coduri, the worried mum turning protective, slapping Nine across the face in the first of an ongoing series of angry mothers and whiplash.

The majority of the episode is so human, despite the plot revolving around aliens. There are so many little parts of everyday life captured by RTD - Harriet Jones continuing to push for her meeting about Cottage Hospitals despite a national emergency, people gathering in Jackie’s flat to welcome Rose home and watch the telly - like Rose says, it’s what everyone does in that sort of situation…

Life doesn’t stop for these people, just because something new and alien is happening a few miles away, even the Doctor comments on it:

• It's just a bit human in there for me. History just happened and they're talking about where you can buy dodgy top-up cards for half price.

It just feels so real, I know that sort of National Situation, it’s exactly how we’d respond to a First Contact scenario. Pop the kettle on, gather round the TV, but don’t let it completely stop whatever you had planned for the day.

Albion Hospital plays a key part of the episode - and it’ll come back in a few episodes time. We get our first glimpse of a modern UNIT, see that they’re still a bit trigger happy but not much else. It’s a little odd that they follow the Doctor’s orders without even knowing who he is, just because he knows what defence pattern delta is, but it’s a nice sequence - running down corridors to save not-Tosh from a not-really-an-alien-just-a-terrified-pig. (And the Doctor’s empathy with such a creature, the only one of its kind, confused and lost in this strange environment…)

Annette Badland hasn’t got much time to shine here, most of the alien action comes from the male Slitheen, but she does brilliantly with what she’s got. (I don’t want to talk about “I’m shaking my booty”).

I’m not sure if it’s just because the previous episode was so gloomy, but the early scenes of the Doctor and Rose seem so saturated, Rose’s pink shirt (style icon) seems so bright, and the Doctor’s eyes are so vividly blue for some reason.

The cliffhanger is great, splitting the main characters into three, giving each of them a different Slitheen (or two) to face off against… and it’s made all the better by iPlayer’s subtitles: ‘Really Evil Guffaws’ and ‘Slithery Squelching’ - they make the tense cliffhanger a little less climactic, but they really fit the tone of the episode.