So series Two began with hope
That the Who would not begin
A downward slide
Down that slippery slope
Where familiarity sets in
And comparisons are as regular as the tide.

So Number Ten smiled forth with pride
That belied menace within
Like ‘god’ to act
With power to decide
The fate of Spotties –the new human-
And procrastinate His ordination as a fact!

So effects vivid and profuse
Nicely shaping a city
Of great advance,
Which made strangely obtuse
Elevators of my century
And basement corridors; the new quarries perchance?

So Russell delivered once more
A script of charm and ideas
Logically
Linking secrets in store,
Zombies to inject fears,
And under-using felines made-up brilliantly.

So too many themes, too briefly
Explored with little detail,
And break-neck speed
Sequences, too quickly
Flashing by, makes us think of the tail
Pandering to youth, setting Who’s agenda indeed?

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?

The wait is over, the Doctor is back, and, erm, the season seems to have opened with a pantomime. The 45 minute format should be a canvas for creating richer stories than the 25 minute format of yore, with greater emphasis on characters and their plight, not an excuse to fill the show with bad jokes and improbable set pieces. I was looking forward to having my fears about David Tennant proved wrong, but after watching him gurn, shout and simper for the duration of the episode, I'm still to like him at all as the Doctor. Every single previous Doctor has been played with some weight, a distinct feeling that this character is ancient and that behind his humourous nature there lies a huge alien intelligence. Instead, here we get him saying 'I've still got it' when Rose/Cassandra kisses him, and generally being a bit damp for the whole episode (and not just during the disinfectant shower). Once he settles into the part and decides on a coherent portrayal I'm sure he'll be many people's favourite Doc, but for now, to me at least, he's David Tennant playing dress-up.

Thematically this episode not so much borrows as steals outright from other sources. It's a shame that Doctor Who, of all shows, is reduced to stealing ideas from lesser programmes. I spotted elements of Farscape, The Matrix, Star Trek and The Outer Limits that had been lifted outright. Suspending disbelief was a chore throughout, with dodgy CG vehicles, worryingly contemporary sets and garb, and something of a cop-out ending. RTD is a wonderful ideas man, and has brought the Doctor back in such a way that a current audience will accept him, but after the superb Christmas Invasion, New Earth is an enormous let down. The episode has already instantly dated thanks to the use of the term 'Chav'.

Its one saving grace, for me at least, is the gorgeous Billie Piper. What a girl! She handled the hackneyed possession subplot and cringe-inducing dialogue really well, and no doubt made Dads up and down the country grin while 'examining' herself when possessed by Cassandra.

Actually, it did have another saving grace, and that was the onscreen appearence of Zoe Wanamaker as the human form of Cassandra. I was very impressed with the final scene, not just her performance, which was spot on, but also the scripting of the scene; the kind of scene where RTD really shines. This pleased me immensely.

Maybe I am being a little harsh about the episode. No doubt kids loved it, and I am ecstatic that the BBC and the crew have put so much blood, sweat and tears into making the Doctor an icon all over again, its just that they can do so much better than this. SO much better. They have some of the finest talent in the world, and this is their chance to show those damn Americans how to make original science fiction. They did it it the last series, here's hoping that this one improves rapidly.

However... The teaser for next week's episode looks utterly brilliant (not to mention the looped trailer on BBCi- the rest of the series looks superb). Here's hoping.

New Earth- 4/10 for the story, 10/10 for Billie.

Having endured the flatulent self-indulgence of Aliens of London and the infantile pop culture references of The End of the World and Bad Wolf while somehow managing to bite my tongue, I can do so no longer after wincing my way through New Earth.

Was I watching a different programme to the one most Outpost Gallifrey reviewers saw last Saturday? Judging by many of the comments posted thus far, yes. To my mind, this was the episode that, more than any other, saw the light shine through the Emperor's New Clothes. Flabby, smug and erratically paced, it managed to squander some genuinely intriguing ideas amid a sea of painting-by-numbers CGI, ghastly incidental muzak, and gratuitous sexual innuendo.

Aside from some nauseating (if predictable) canoodling between Doctor and companion and a garbled, rather nonsensical 'explanation' of the new colony's origins by the former, the story started out reasonably enough, introducing some amusingly larger-than-life incidental characters and posing interesting questions about the true nature of the impressively realised hospital. The feline nurses were nicely underplayed, and there were some refreshingly subtle references to topical issues such as MRSA - proving RTD does have it in him to use allegory to make a point about the present, rather than simply transplanting Big Brother wholesale to an implausibly far-flung future.

For a good 15 minutes or so it trots along merrily, with our hero letting his curiosity lead him, headfirst, into trouble in refreshingly traditional Who vein. But then it all goes terribly wrong...

I won't bother itemising everything that, in my view, lets this episode down. If I simply confine myself to saying that the whole experience left me with a tremendous sense of deja-vu related to uncomfortable memories of Time and the Rani, I'm sure readers will get my drift. Villainous diva with doting grotesque as sidekick poses as Doctor's companion; otherwise decent Doc forced to ham it up in crassly scripted 'instability' scenes; garishly colourful costumes and effects; frenetic 'rent-a-score' drum beats undermine any iota of tension...Need I go on? Hell, even the Centre of Leisure made an appearance near the end, when Cassandra appeared in her evening dress at that chintzy nightclub. (Incidentally, the dinner suits were 'sooo Five Billion', weren't they?)

To be honest, I am sure this episode was a genuine misfire and that far better is to come later in the season. Next week's trailer looked promising (though I, for one, hope the much-vaunted "Tarantino" camerawork is kept to a minimum to allow the tale itself room to breathe), and the clips of School Reunion and The Girl in the Fireplace bode well. Sooner or later, though, questions must surely be asked about why it is that RTD's own episodes have been so comparatively sub-standard? With the exception of the surprisingly thoughtful Boom Town, none of his episodes have paused for breath. And this "restlessness" (as Nick Courtney describes it incisively in his new autobiography) is starting to become, at best, exhausting and, at worst, tedious.

Yes, RTD deserves praise and gratitude for resurrecting this beloved show and attracting writers and actors of calibre to bring it back to life. Yes, he is a good dialogue writer (though the extent to which this is demonstrated in his Who scripts is open to debate). But look beyond the surface sheen of Saturday's episode (and, let's face it, with the money and technology now at the production team's disposal, they have little excuse for it to look anything but polished) and is there really much there of substance? Referring to the Doctor and Rose, RTD commented in his recent Radio Times interview that there is "an overconfidence" about them at times which could prove "their downfall". On the evidence of New Earth, he'd be wise to bear these words in mind himself...

Twenty years ago, fans were ready to lynch JN-T for the slightest concession to slapstick - or even, dare I say it, popular culture. Today, some are deifying RTD for doing much the same thing. Devoid of today's budget, though, would the wilder excesses of his 'new vision' for Who really compare any more favourably with the work of his predecessor? I think not.

With 'New Earth', the TARDIS finally lives up to the DIS part of its name, a long-running gripe of mine about the reincarnated series. New Earth itself looked a bit painted to me, but the set up of the feline-run hospital with a secret was intriguing, and I enjoyed the gentle pace of the first half as the series explored a new location & the viewers explored a new Doctor. A reprise of Cassandra, one of the most interesting creations of last year, was welcome -- though RTD seems to be developing positively Whedonian resurrection capabilities.

But... the plot, once it eventually kicked in, was not so much holey as absent (and haven't we seen those one-track-mind zombies before, once or twice?), and all that body swapping got old rather quickly. The Face of Boe teaser was just annoying -- last year's Bad Wolf breadcrumbs worked so well because they were crumbs: this was more like a sandwich where someone had nicked the filling. Like many eps last year, 'New Earth' really suffered from the single 45-minute format: several shorter episodes would have given the abundant ideas here time to breathe.

I'm withholding judgement on Tennant's Doctor for now: so far he's not really grabbing me, but it took me half the season to warm to Eccleston's portrayal. A Rose-lite episode, though Piper got to show her acting chops, outshining Tennant much of the time.

Amusing in places, but so many wasted opportunities.

New Earth, same RTD mixture. For those new viewers tempted to tune in by reports of an award winning series which had restored the concept of family viewing and made people care again about a series which was fading long before its demise in 1989 I’m not sure this offering will persuade them to watch again. This would have sat better as a mid season filler perhaps but as ever there’s so much to enjoy that to overly criticise seems a little mean….

After Tennant’s magnificent debut in the Christmas Invasion he seems at times to have taken a step back here, almost trying too hard at times. But I remain convinced he is an excellent choice to play the Doctor and I’m sure he will settle into the role perfectly well- and very often the quality of the scripts bring out the best in the actors, as in Christopher Eccleston’s brilliant confrontations with the Daleks. On the plus side, although the Doctor’s “cure” at the end was an extremely rushed and poor resolution it did at least show a Doctor sorting a situation rather than relying on others, a trend started in the Christmas Invasion and it was again noticeable that the balance of the Doctor/Rose relationship continues to swing in favour of the Doctor with Rose at times seeming to be in dreamy-eyed awe of him in this story.

By contrast Billie Piper is given a chance to shed her Mockney accent and have a ball as the Cassandra-possessed Rose, and she shines in this episode. Interestingly whilst there has been a deliberate attempt to restore the Doctor as the central figure it’s noticeable how confident and settled Piper has become so that she was again the main attraction anyway.

I don’t get as wound up as some do about Davies’ love of innuendo but for those who loath his scripts I can only suggest they don’t watch this again as it encapsulates all that some find so offensive about new Who. However the overall success of the show at the moment outweighs such anxieties. Like him or loath him RTD does seem to be more in touch with what a modern audience will respond to than some of us will ever admit.

Self confessed “deeply atheist” Davies has his customary pop at religion as the Doctor tells the Cat Nun in no uncertain terms that there’s no higher authority than him. If he carries on like this he might as well invite Richard Dawkins to write a story for the series- what a great title the Blind Watchmaker would have made and we would get better science than we’re getting at the moment-but that aspect doesn’t bother me as much as it bothers others. Strange then how a man who can’t possibly believe in anything that smacks of the mystical can conveniently employ mystic endings when it suits, as in Rose’s god-like powers in the Parting of the Ways.

The sisters of plenitude are beautifully realised, and the effects generally good, but even allowing for the fact that mankind is starting over on a new planet with a nostalgia for all things retro I’m a little concerned by the continued existence of pulley-operated lifts and disinfectant in the year what was it?Five billion and 23?Come on.

As for whatever plot there is, as usual RTD tries to do too much at once, so mixed in with the mystery of what lies within the bowels of the hospital(nods to the Tomb of the Cybermen and the Ark in Space there) we have the whole Cassandra thing and the Face of Boe threatening to appear once more and reveal something profoundly significant. Whatever sense of poignancy the ending might have otherwise induced is surely diluted by the mystery of why, after all those long years of struggling to stay alive, Cassandra should wish now to end it all without a whimper.

An entertaining but unengaging romp which sits uneasily as a season opener. Judging from next week’s clip we haven’t quite escaped Bad Wolf!