New Earth

More than anything, this opener to season two (or 28! We may get to see season 30 yet!) made me long for the old days of longer stories. In 45 minutes it was OK- as a 4 parter it would have been superb.

To start at the beginning though- Rose kisses Mickey goodbye with affection , reaches new earth, and promptly talks about her and the Doctors first date. Ho hum. Mickey is indeed a tolerant boyfriend. Moving on.....the New Earth immediately presents as being effectively realised. Enter the hospital, and the mystery begins......the cat nurses are wonderfully different. The dominant species of a planet now colonised by humans, reaching out to them motivated by a mixture of philanthropy and profiteering- or not being infected by them perhaps. Not a hint of wanting to conquer the galaxy. A good change of breath.

Getting through the humorous disinfectant scene , things really kick off. Rose meets Cassandra! Who this time, in my view, gets a much better episode. END OF THE WORLD , for me, was likeable for the poignancy of the earths demise and the beginning of the Time War revelations, but the actual murder plot was too fast to be engaging or convincing. Here she gets a better plot. The hospital plot was good, and Cassandra's bit worked better.Partly, at least....

Her initial mind swap with Rose was okay, and allowed her liberty to roam. Yes, she probably wouldn't have known what a chav was, but oh well. Billie Piper acted it all well, but thereafter it became tedious. Halfway up a ladder she bodyswaps as easily as breathing- several times-cueing increasing camp reactions from Piper, Tennant and a plague-human. Unbeleivable and irritating, though her inherent "poshness" and consequent dislike of Rose was likeable humour. Less time on camp reactions and bodyswaps and more time to expand the main plot would have been better.

This said, I liked the fact that the fact she had released the bred humans from their cells (and didn't those cells look good? very cybermen!) unwillingly bonded them together for a while, and her understanding of one such human's loneliness was poignant. In really living again she learns to accept dying. Cue a nice, if treacly, ending for her. Nice. If only it had had more room to breathe.

Regarding the hospital plot itself, battery farmed humans is not a breathtakingly original concept but it works nontheless. The plight of these humans (where did they learn to talk however?), the Doctor's moral outrage, and their realease- all good stuff. But these scenes really could have been more horrifying- creeping infected humans need to scare the pants off us. James Hawes can do it, we know that from EMPTY CHILD. Maybe they are saving the scares for later......

And the Doctor saving the day? Good solution, if again way way fast. The Duke of Manhattan's secretary made a good foil at the end- it makes for good character drama when people are obsessed with their petty problems while there's a bigger picture at stake. The disinfectant bit worked but it was all over so quickly......

Not a bad starter, in the end a better one than ROSE for me. Just needed more time to breathe. TOOTH AND CLAW looks better though- and the Cybermen are back!!! Yeah!!!!Wrapping up, I really like David Tennant. He is commanding when he needs to be and grasps both the comedic and serious aspects of the role. His fianl "life will out!" was a bit OTT but fitted the episode's themes well- Natural evolution vs Cassandra's stagnation natural life vs the sister's experimetns, etc etc. And precisely what do we still have to learn from the Face of Boe?