AbstractSeveral factors are contributing to an increased air of excitement about the eukaryotic DNA replication problem: new insights into the nature of origins of replication, a better appreciation of the factors that control initiation, and studies of a DNA polymerase α‐primase enzyme complex. In this review, recent research on the initiation, elongation and termination phases of DNA replication is critically examined and a coherent picture is formulated. In the not‐far‐distant future we expect to reproduce these processes in biochemically defined systems.