Suzanne is the only one so far this series who makes it look completely effortless.

They had a strong combination of skating, dance, some skating tricks and a big lift, with added difficulty to what she's done before. There's not many people there who can do all of those things, and Ray may be rustier early on.

I agree. Suzanne also shows a lot of emotion in her dancing.

I think Suzanne and Beth may well be the ones to watch rather than Ray or Sam!!

Considering she was in Panto all over the Christmas period and only finished barely a week ago…. I think they did a magnificent job.

Its six years since Suzanne won, she has not skated very much since, even though she obviously gave every minute to training that she could since November and it showed.

She has an extraordinary bond with Matt too, best friends it seems from the day they met, and it shows. The chemistry and emotion they put into their performance showed an intimacy that comes from having a real bond.

Ray will always be the one who has the moves… the technical expert if you will, but its the emotional performances that Suzanne and Matt are capable of that could see them trounce that if they keep this level up. I still think their flying routine in the final will never be beaten. Amazing !!!

I agree; it reminded me why I loved series 3 and very much wanted Suzanne to win that year, as much as I liked Chris Fountain. This routine was my favourite - by far - of this all-star series. It felt more like an ice dance routine than a pairs one, which is the norm for DOI. On top of that, not only was it technically great, but it was a heartfelt and emotional performance. All the transitions were pretty flawless and her extensions were lovely.

In my view, it was hard to fault and I'm not surprised it scored so highly. Ray Quinn does NOT have this in the bag!

Did I mention that I really liked it?

Fantastic performance. Loved the death spiral in particular - would far rather see that than the overdone & ugly headbanger.

Others may be technically better than Suzanne and there are some great couples but as a skating partnership they are the best. As Karen says sometimes partnerships just click & are pure magic and that is definitely the case with these two.

I will be shocked if she doesn't finish as the top female skater though she won't necessarily win. The interesting thing is that she is currently the front runner in this series whereas when she won in series 3 she was more of an underdog who came through at the end to snatch the title. This will mean she will have more pressure on her.

Suzanne & Matt may or may not win but they really should be in the final at least IMO.

She was always up there. Chris had a bit of a head start as he could already skate and was confident on the ice, but Suzanne always had a lot more grace, and felt like a contender from the start.

I think we could see a repeat of series three. It was always between Suzanne (performer) and Chris (technical) and I think we may get more of the same with Suzanne and Ray, which isn't a bad thing. Suzanne beat Chris in the vote, which means viewers may prefer performance over technique. However, I am little bit wary of her becoming the favourite so early on - she may peak too soon. Now all the contestants are merging, I hope she can take a back seat and let the others take on the pressure for a bit.

Edit: Just thought I'd add, I'm not saying Suzanne doesn't have any technical ability, by the way, nor am I saying Chris or Ray can't perform.

From the two shows, I would say Suzanne has been the best out of all the other contestants.

Suzanne has this natural skating ability, which she can just turn on when she has too. The fact she hasn't done alot of skating since winning, shows she is just naturally gifted.

Her and Matt are a fantastic partnership, i would say that if she keeps that up, her and Ray will be battling it out come Finals night!

Suzanne is very good technically and artistically. I actually think her skating is showing a new maturity and is better than ever. Her death spiral was amazing, and so controlled.

Love Matt

i don't think they will want anyone looking too far ahead so early, so they may hold Suzanne's marks, or cut it back a little, a while - even if she improves or stays the same. The judges also may want to be overly positive on some others to keep them in - with three good contenders with a vote problem, at least. T and D also need to give Ray, Kyran and Hayley a better routine to make it look like a race.

Its not really technique over acting ability. Ray has a dancing routine this week which he is reportedly very happy with. He, Hayley, Bonnie and Suzanne are all very strong dancers with musical theatre experience. Ray's advantage is that he may be able to do some skating tricks that other people can't do. That will matter if they bring back the skills test and pick skills he can do that some others can't. However, Bonnie and Suzanne can do bigger lifts, and Suzanne, Bonnie and Hayley have more acting experience. Kyran can do equal tricks, and put up bigger lifts. I doubt if it will come down to Ray being able to jump higher, or whatever - more likely to be the best all around combination of emotion and excitement - and who gets what routine, who injures what, and the randomness of the vote?

I did enjoy her performance but I did think it was over marked. IMO for a performance to score that highly particularly in this series there needs to be a certain degree of difficulty in the skating as well as everything else (partner, performance, tricks) and in past series since series three people like Hayley and Jorie have demonstrated very difficult skating by themselves on occasions. Whilst Suzanne is an excellent performer, I wasn't that excited with what she was doing on her feet though granted she did let go off matts hand long enough to do some skating alone unlike Zaraah, (completely over marked and didn't even straighten her legs in The lifts). I'm want to see the girls excite me with their skating ability as much as the boys do rather then rely on performance and lifts. Suzanne, Hayley and Beth all seem very capable of doing it

How come they have got worse after one week?

They were on first!

It just wasn't a strong performance IMO. She was definately hesitant, slower over the ice than previously and not as strong in her elements. Probably due to her injury and lack of rehearsal.

Though it may just have been a poorer week, the music wasn't great and the routine was a bit 'meh' IMO.

She can do much better, but this week exposed the issue that with lack of practice her skating skills suffer.

I don't see how that will affect their performance.

I actually thought they were brilliant. Suzanne was amazing and her moves and performance level were outstanding. I'm amazed she was as low as she was on the scoreboard. I really like Hayley, but Suzanne did better, and better than most of them. Easily my favourite of the night.

My two favourites are Suzanne and Hayley too! I think both of these girls are great and I love both of their energy and enthusiasm. Plus I love their partners, Matt and Dan!

Yes, what a stunning revelation that is - every single performance would suffer in that case.

I actually think all things considered they did brilliantly !! You have to remember that the skaters that skated last week, Suzanne among them, had five days to put a new routine together, while the skaters that skated in the first week had twice that amount of time, so were obviously going to be far more practised. If Suzanne also missed rehearsals today due to hurting her neck, then even more credit to her for coming out and performing so well.

From next week on, its on an even keel surely. They all have the same amount of time to get a new routine together and that should shake things up.

I felt for Zaraah who skated so very well and yet did not get the public support she should have.

Good to know you were paying attention then.

You would expect to see them about there regardless. if she had beaten Hayley, Kyran and Beth again, it wouldn't have looked like a competition. Just a choice of her and Ray.

Ray, Beth and Hayley above her also had the advantage of two weeks training on their routine.

If she hadn't done the routine at all today you wouldn't expect it to be that slick either.

The big issue though is what people get to do. Beth got a good piece of music and rose to the challenge interpreting it. She comes with unique abilities though, and that means she gets either lifts that suit her skills , or moves she invents herself and can, by definition, do. She's not going to be doing the lifts a Suzanne, a Jorgie or a Bonnie can do - her partner may not be able to lift her into them either. Hayley and Ray both got what they wanted in the form of strong dance routines. Suzanne got a routine with weak music, no story, and two big moves - including a throw jump that was also new to the show, or rarely done, I think. There's a big problem there if those who can do the risky difficult moves get them, and some who can dance well avoid the risk and just do dance routines.

Its not only Suzanne who seems to be doing more professional moves - with the standing exit last week and a throw jump this week - Ray seems to be doing axels in his VTs, and has talked about learning bigger jumps. Thats not going to be a fair competition if a few are doing moves like that , concentrating on the difficulty and taking the risk, whilst other people get vote friendly dance routines. Its even more unfair if 2 or 3 couples could do the best routines of the night that someone else was given - ideally there would be more top routines, more choice what you did, and the marks would allow for the difficulty attempted.

On the other hand, they could be even worse off and get the duller routines Gareth, Bonnie and Kyran got....