New Earth

Well the waiting is over once again and David Tennant has made his first full entry into the folklore of Doctor Who. Whereas Chris Eccleston's opening season was almost all filmed in very dark and sombre backdrops, the first thing that is obvious about season two is how colourful it is going to be. From the moment Rose stepped into the Tardis on a bright old earth day (what has happened since Christmas I wonder??) to the arrival on New Earth with its rich blue skys and apple green grass, to the white and clean interior of the hospital - this was a new brighter Doctor Who.

A typical RTD script gave a generally light feel to the story, although the scene of the plague victims was pretty well Land of the Zombies stuff and quite scary for younger viewers. The humour was well paced with superb performances from David Tennant, Billie Piper (excelling herself as always) and Zoe Wannamaker. The plot was however somewhat rushed and left no time to explore the history of this wonderful (??) new earth and its inhabitants - in fact it moved along so quickly that when the Doctor and Rose took Cassandra back to her past, there was a feeling that the Doctor had very quickly abandoned the mutants - what was to become them - how would they be educated??? Indeed the character of Cassandra was far more interesting this time round - she was not the major villain we suspected from her first outing. But how had she got to be in the hospital - how had she still got spider spies and where did they disappear too? Many unanswered questions. I suspect that the first story was intended to "break the audience in" for what appears from the clips shown to be a rollercoaster of very exciting and fast paced adventures to come.

The air of mystery came from the returning Face of Boa - he spoke of a third encounter with the Doctor when a secret will be revealed - hmm stay tuned! All in all I enjoyed this first adventure. I suspect however that the best is yet to come and I have very high hopes for next week's "Tooth and Claw" which looks set to be a classic!! Oh - and every time I see a glimspe of the Cybermen it sends a shiver down my spine. What a great 12 weeks left!!!