New Earth

Attention, especially these days, is always more heavily focused on season openers than most other episodes in a series, apart from maybe the concluding episode. After all, if the first show flops, then who’s going to watch the rest? In 2006, viewers don’t stay as loyal to a programme as they did in years gone by if it fails to live up to expectation. So, when watching the first show, the critical eye is more ready to spot possible flaws in a script, especially, it would seem, if that script is written by a certain Mr. Davies.

The episode gets off to a good start, Rose saying good-bye to her Mother and Mickey, while the Doctor fires up the TARDIS’ engines. Then they’re off, further than they’ve ever gone before, and into the titles. A nice little sequence that does well in whetting the appetite for the adventure to come.

As for the story, it’s good to see the TARDIS land the Doctor and Rose on an alien planet at last, and the effects by which this is achieved are pretty good. I can’t believe what I’ve read from some reviewers that the city of New New York, the hospital and the air cars aren’t convincing. Sure, I suppose if you watch this sequence frame by frame with a magnifying glass against the television screen, it will probably not stand up to scrutiny, and maybe it doesn’t compare to such earlier astounding effects such as the Doctor’s encounter with the Skarasen in the last episode of Terror of the Zygons, or the totally convincing planet of frighteningly realistic insects in The Web Planet, but they are pretty damned good. In fact the whole scale of the episode has moved up a notch from the last series, and the overall look is much more “Sci-Fi” than anything we saw in Christopher Eccleston’s series. Although in one scene, it’s apparent that the same location was used as for the Nestene lair in Rose. Surely some other location could have been found, or it could have been shot differently.

However, after a nice piece of reminiscing from the Doctor and Rose, they receive a summons, via the Doctor’s psychic paper, to the nearby hospital - which is where their troubles start. I’m not going to explain every detail of the plot, as there are many places on this site where you can read that, and the majority of people reading this will probably have seen the episode anyway, but as far as originality goes, the plot itself isn’t exactly new, even though, with recent events from our own hospitals concerning MRSA and the like, it does appear pretty up to date and topical. But Cat people, plague carriers, mind swaps - all have been done in Doctor Who before, although not in the same story. Here though, these elements are presented well, with the sort of originality that doesn’t make you question too much of what has gone before in the series. The story moves at a brisk pace, and never seems to lag, which isn’t difficult as add Cassandra to the mix, and you have a script that is almost heaving under the number of elements put into it. The downside of this being that, towards the middle of the story, things get a little bit manic, as not only are we presented with the threat of the escaped plague carriers, but we then have Cassandra swapping bodies left right and centre. Even though this is very humorously done, maybe we were presented with one body swap too many and the humour diffused somewhat the menace of the plague carriers.

The music of Murray Gold continues to be very good, and certainly, in parts, sounds more like a feature film score, and the beautiful, haunting piece of music for the scenes with the Face of Boe is particularly memorable (had the tune in my head all evening). I know many people are not fans of Murray Gold’s music, but it’s a far grander sound than a lot of the music from the old series. My only objection being to the tweaking of the theme tune, both beginning and end. There was nothing wrong with the theme in the last series and I believe that if something’s not broken, you don’t fix it.

As usual with Russell T Davies’ scripts, if watched on a superficial level, they appear to be full of plot holes, such as the plague carriers having speech and being able to think for themselves. But if you actually watch and listen to the dialogue, all of these issues are covered. Even the dodgy science of using intravenous solution, sprayed onto the carriers to cure them, suits the rest of the science of Doctor Who. After all, the series is about a man who can change his appearance, is 900 years old, travels time and space in a ship disguised as a telephone box and encounters monsters who, for the most part, want to take over the universe. If you accept that, then it’s slightly mad to then question other aspects of the series’ science, unless of course you decide on whether or not you’re going to like and accept a story based purely on who the writer is.

As for the supporting cast, again they rise to the challenge. The Cat nurses, while although guilty of a terrible crime against humanity, still allowed you to feel for them, because they truly believed that what they were doing was right. I really felt for the Novice as she was led away by the police at the end of the story, even though I knew I shouldn’t. And special mention must also go to Sean Gallagher as Chip, Cassandra’s loyal servant, who, having allowed his Mistress to inhabit him, meets with Cassandra as she used be, and in a beautiful piece of symmetry at the end of the episode, becomes to last person to tell her she was beautiful before dying in her arms. I had to admit, being the old softie that I am, to having a lump in my throat by this point, and was pleased to see that this series is obviously going to continue to trend that began in the last series of being more emotional.

The regulars are used well throughout this story, with Billie Piper showing that she has a good flair for humour. And what of David Tennant? Did he live up to expectations? The answer has to be yes! He manages to bring across a Doctor, who is humorous, ruthless, fun-loving and like a dog with a bone when something gets into his head “you should have a shop,” and manages to achieve all this within minutes of each other without it looking forced or unnatural. I loved Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, I think he managed to break the mould where the characterisation was concerned. But his portrayal did have one down point, and I found out what that was when I was watching New Earth for the first time - The Doctor is back! The ninth Doctor was so different, that for much of the last series, he didn’t feel like the Doctor. David Tennant does!

New Earth is basically a fun romp, a story that’s there to launch a series and to be enjoyed without being over analysed to the exclusion of all else. And in that, it succeeds.

8/10