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Series 2 Episode 1: “New Earth”Broadcast on BBC1, Saturday April 15th, 2006
Series 1 Boxset:
Series 2 Part 1:
Director:
- James Hawes
Screenplay:
- Russell T. Davies
(Casanova, The Second Coming, Bob & Rose, Queer As Folk)
Cast:
- The Doctor: David Tennant
Rose Tyler: Billie Piper
Mickey Smith: Noel Clarke
Jackie Tyler: Camille Coduri
Cassandra: Zoe Wannamaker
Duke: Michael Fitzgerald
Clovis: Lucy Robinson
The Matron: Dona Croll
The Sister: Adjoa Andoh
The Novice: Anna Hope
Chip: Sean Gallagher
Synopsis: The Doctor takes Rose to visit mankind’s new home, in the far future. But,Lady Cassandra is out for revenge…
Doctor Who returned to our screens with a new face in the TARDIS,self-confessed Whovian David Tennant. Freed from the expectations andmassive publicity of Who’s return last year, the second series has a lot tobuild upon. Series 1 was undoubtedly a huge success story for the BBC, butmore discerning viewers were quick to note the show’s failings. Can Who 2fill in the cracks?
New Earth is written by executive producer Russell T. Davies, whose scriptslast year became notorious for their, well, relative mundanity when comparedto the rest of the series. Unfortunately, Davies story is again typical ofthe new Doctor Who simply going through the motions, with little thought forlogic and anything approaching originality.
Essentially, the story concerns The Doctor discovering that a futuristichospital in New New York (yes, a gag stolen from Futurama) has erradicatedall disease — but of course there’s a sinister downside to this apparentUtopia. Elsewhere, Rose is again unrealistically split from The Doctor andhas her body inhabited by Cassanda (the “last human” supposedly destroyedlast year in The End Of The World).
Russell T. Davies indulges himself in his own written mythology, with twoaliens making a return to the series in New Earth. Unfortunately, thisreally just reminds viewers that there’s nothing new to see here. Thestructure of the story is pedestrian, hampered by the return of thatgodawful incidental music, and the comedy elements are somewhat forced(although Rose-Cassandra gets a few good lines).
It’s also a little tiring that so many episodes limit themselves tostage-bound “satellites”, “space stations” and now a “hospital”. Thisepisode was even publicized as new Who’s first show to be set on an alienplanet, but we’re quickly shoved inside within ten minutes! No matter whatthe creators do, all interiors on the show seem to have a false feeling thatnever goes away, no matter how many CGI cityscapes the effects wizardsgreenscreen into every window!
David Tennant has already proven himself a worthy successor to ChristopherEcclestone in The Christman Invasion last year, but it’s a littledisappointing that New Earth doesn’t give him much opportunity to expand onthe role. The only new impression we get from this episode is that he’s moreof an action-man (would Ecclestone’s Doc have slid down an elevator cablewith Rose on his back?)
Elsewhere, the only really memorable aspect to New Earth was some fantasticmake-up effect for the cat-like inhabitants of New New York, and some prettygood shots of the CGI hospital. Zoe Wannamaker is always good value, nomatter how her ludicrous her character’s return is.
Overall, by the time New Earth devolves into a zombie movie, the plot turnsget more silly and unlikely (the over-used Cassandra body-swaps, the Doc’ssolution being a silly disinfectant idea, etc). Typically of a Russell T.Davies script, it just stinks of old-hat throughout and didn’t offeranything of any real interest or meat for audiences over 10 years of age.
This was just another half-decent children’s adventure, basically. However,if this is what you expect from Doctor Who, that’s fine, I’m not begrudginganyone their fun. But, for those of us who believe kid’s imaginationsdeserve to be stretched more, New Earth is just a silly run-of-the-milladventure…
NEXT WEEK: The Doctor and Rose travel back in time to meet Queen Victoriaand protect her from a frightening werewolf!
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.