Available on the BBC iPlayer here.

So Tennant is gone, likewise Russell T. Davies. One will be missed, but the other - not so much. The main question I'm sure most people will have had going into this evenings return of Doctor Who would most likely be "What's the Eleventh Doctor going to be like?".

Honest truth of the matter, Matt Smith had some huge shoes to fill, following on from arguabley the best incarnation of the Doctor full stop. David Tennant brought an extra level to his portrayal which gave the Doctor more depth and humanity than ever before - he managed to surpass my personal favourite Doctor, the one I grew up with (the 7th - McCoy) and I feel really took the character to new places.

I write all this in order to express just how huge a task Smith and Moffat had before them, they needed to open up with a memorable and fun episode which grabbed the viewer straight off and wiped the slate clean while acknowledging the epic performance which came before.

Lets not mess about shall we? The story itself was pretty simple; aliens, a threat to the world, introduction to a new companion. It was classic Doctor Who boiled up from the old baby formula, but the entire piece was nothing short of fantastic. Matt Smith very rapidly settled into the role and gave an energetic, fun and above all else believable performance - pushing through early almost clown like moments with an endearing quality before developing into a Doctor you could like, believe in and most of all enjoy watching.

Karen Gillan was likewise quite great, I'm sure that the series will develop her further as it progresses, she didn't have a lot to do other than be amazed and annoyed with the Doctor here. But she did do it well and I think she shows a lot of promise.

Moffat's was everything you could have hoped for and more, weaving a fun introductory plot that mixed action and a personal story with the first hints at an overrarcing metaplot involving a 'silence'. It wasn't as deep as his work in the previous series, but it didn't need to be - it was instead sheer fun from the first moment to the last and had a lot of 'The Christmas Invasion' in it's flavour. Stating, here's the new Doctor, here's his companion, here's some fun, action and excitment. Enjoy!

And I certainly did.

I'm going to be following each episode in this series and writing about it either on the Saturday or the Sunday right afterwards. I also have the additional bonus of being a Cardiff resident and as such there are some areas I might recognise and be able to mention in a "Cardiff Who Spotter" section. Here's the first.

Cardiff Who Spotter:
The village of Leadworth is actually The Cathedral Green in Llandaff in some scenes.