(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 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, I'm not begrudging
anyone their fun. But, for those of us who believe kid'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!
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Series 1 Boxset:
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).