SEASON 2. 15 Apr 06. BBC 1, 7:15 p.m.
WRITER: Russell T. Davies DIRECTOR: James Hawes
CAST: David Tennant (The Doctor), Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey), Zoe Wannamaker (Cassandra), Michael Fitzgerald (Duke), Lucy Robinson (Clovis), Dona Croll (The Matron), Adjoa Andoh (The Sister), Anna Hope (The Novice) & Sean Gallagher (Chip)
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 and massive publicity of Who's return last year, the second series has a lot to build upon. Series 1 was undoubtedly a huge success story for the BBC, but more discerning viewers were quick to note the show's failings. Can Who 2 fill in the cracks?
New Earth is written by executive producer Russell T. Davies, whose scripts last year became notorious for their, well, relative mundanity when compared to the rest of the series. Unfortunately, Davies story is again typical of the new Doctor Who simply going through the motions, with little thought for logic and anything approaching originality.
Essentially, the story concerns The Doctor discovering that a futuristic hospital in New New York (yes, a gag stolen from Futurama) has erradicated all disease -- but of course there's a sinister downside to this apparent Utopia. Elsewhere, Rose is again unrealistically split from The Doctor and has her body inhabited by Cassanda (the "last human" supposedly destroyed last year in The End Of The World).
Russell T. Davies indulges himself in his own written mythology, with two aliens making a return to the series in New Earth. Unfortunately, this really just reminds viewers that there's nothing new to see here. The structure of the story is pedestrian, hampered by the return of that godawful 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 to stage-bound "satellites", "space stations" and now a "hospital". This episode was even publicized as new Who's first show to be set on an alien planet, but we're quickly shoved inside within ten minutes! No matter what the creators do, all interiors on the show seem to have a false feeling that never goes away, no matter how many CGI cityscapes the effects wizards greenscreen into every window!
David Tennant has already proven himself a worthy successor to Christopher Ecclestone in The Christman Invasion last year, but it's a little disappointing that New Earth doesn't give him much opportunity to expand on the role. The only new impression we get from this episode is that he's more of an action-man (would Ecclestone's Doc have slid down an elevator cable with Rose on his back?)
Elsewhere, the only really memorable aspect to New Earth was some fantastic make-up effect for the cat-like inhabitants of New New York, and some pretty good shots of the CGI hospital. Zoe Wannamaker is always good value, no matter how her ludicrous her character's return is.
Overall, by the time New Earth devolves into a zombie movie, the plot turns get more silly and unlikely (the over-used Cassandra body-swaps, the Doc's solution being a silly disinfectant idea, etc). Typically of a Russell T. Davies script, it just stinks of old-hat throughout and didn't offer anything 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 -- but for those of us who believe children's imaginations deserve to be stretched more, New Earth is just a silly run-of-the-mill adventure...
NEXT WEEK: The Doctor and Rose travel back in time to meet Queen Victoria and protect her from a frightening werewolf!
