New Earth

Like some other fans, knowing this was written by RTD did little for my pre-broadcast expectations. But I bore it in mind that the Christmas Invasion suggested that RTD had, perhaps, listened and learned.

New Earth shows that RTD has learned a lot. My only criticism of this story is that it would have been better had it been longer. The tension could have built up, the secrets kept a little longer if it had been in the older format of three 25 minute installments. But in modern TV we probably can't have that so let's deal with what we do have.

Some of the ideas here are straight out of 70's Doctor Who...the Doctor and his companion visit a place that is apparently a benevolant hospital in a happy city, where cures for terrible diseases have been found and are routinely administered to patients who would otherwise die. But we find something is wrong, and not what it seems. That is central to "old style" Doctor Who, but RTD has cleverly made it all seem so contemporary.

We also have Cassandra, who has survived "The End Of The World" along with a servant, and is hiding in the basement of the mysterious hospital. She too wants to know what's so sinister and secret about the intensive care section. Crucially she is used as a character essential to the plot, not merely returning to guarantee ratings. And we learn more about her, fleshing out her character and even allowing some sympathy.

I won't give any more plot details away, but I will say it seemed illogical that Cassandra initially needed a machine to transfer herself into Rose's brain...but thereafter could move from person to person at will. This seemed silly at first, but served a great purpose later in the story.

Thankfully there is no deus ex machina ending. The Doctor himself (with help from Casandra, in Rose's body) saves the day. It may seem an all too simple solution but no more so than previous Doctor Who stories. Again, more time would have allowed for greater explanation. Nonetheless it was exciting.

So we have a good story, with Billie Piper putting in perhaps her best performance to date. Tennant is settling nicely into the role. The story, while quite contemporary in many ways, could have been acted just as successfully by Trouhgton or Tom Baker.

I thought all the ships flying overhead in the opening scenes were too much, amost FX for FX sake, but otherwise the visuals were of a high standard. Incidental music generally added to the atmosphere and was appropriate to the pacing of the direction.

Not one of the very best, but highly enjoyable and one I shall watch again. If this is the benchmark standard then we have a fantastic season to look forward to. My personal rating, 7.5/10