The Walls Of Jericho

With the slightly wobbly pilot out of the way, somebody on the production team has clearly flicked the switch marked "good". The improvements are noticeable from the outset: Harrison's slightly over-dramatic voiceover, coupled with some good, heavy electronic theme music, makes for an effective intro. There's also a nice conceit whereby, at the end of the theme, they play a quote from the episode, completely out of context, which always manages to sound a little ominous. Originally a graphic played at that point, of an alien hand seizing the Earth, but that's been removed from the DVD. A shame. The improvements don't stop with the intro, either. The writing has been tightened up, and although it's still far from Shakespeare, it seems a lot less cheesy now. It's such a shame that the pilot episode has to come first! I can see a lot of people being put off by it, and not giving the rest of the series a chance.

( 'They sure don't die pretty, do they.' )