Doctor Who has had its fair share of poor season openers over the years, but fortunately New Earth will not be remembered as one of them. The episode featured an enjoyable story, some good set pieces, and high quality acting and was visually colourful and brilliant. Some plot elements may not have been that original (i.e. the living dead, murderous goings on at a hospital and body swaps), but these elements – along with a few twists – were made interesting enough to keep the show entertaining for 45 minutes. The Face of Boe storyline was also clever as it hints at something interesting to come in the future, which should keep viewers watching.

The highlight among a series of good performances was undoubtedly Billie Piper’s portrayal of the Cassandra possessed Rose, which was frighteningly like the Zoл Wannamaker original. David Tennant’s performance was also very encouraging. He looked comfortable in the role of a Tenth Doctor who seems more eccentric than his immediate predecessor. Yet, Doctor Ten is a complex character who can be just as passionate about injustice as his forebears as his reactions to the Sister’s treatment of their ‘patients’ in ‘intensive care’ showed. The episode also proved the ‘new new Doctor’ is funny and retains the traditional mix of serious and humorous personality traits that have made the character so endurable. Tennant did well to so convincingly convey such a rounded character in his full adventure.

The design and effects work in the story must rank as some of the best in Doctor Who history. The futuristic landscape looked really impressive and showed a lot of imagination and creative talent. The Sisters were also well realised and it is clear that a lot of time and effort went into creating them. The make up used on the disease victims was very convincing and they looked like they were genuinely the victims of some horrific condition. It is also worth noting that the Face of Boe and Cassandra (the trampoline version) looked even better than they did last year. Even the music seemed to work well and fit in with the mood of the story. This is all indicative of the high production values established last season being raised even further.

All in all New Earth represents a solid start to the new season.

Ok. I've never submitted a review before, as I've always thought that I would just end up rehashing what others have said. But the time has come.....

As a massive fan of series old and new I feel that I should come to the defense of New Earth, as from what I've read in the reviews so far is that it wasn't loved as much as i think it should be!

Firstly let's deal with the story. Fantastic! Russell T always has so many ideas, and I for one don't see this as a bad thing. As RTD has often said, he wants new Who to be fast paced and packed with adventure. Remember this is a FAMILY show, attention spans are short, and Doctor Who needs to grab by the throat and not let go! If the action stops for a moment, there go the kids. Do we need to know how long the Sisters Of Plenitude have been growing the 'flesh'? Not really - does it make a difference whether they've been experimenting for months, years, decades? Of course not - the point is that they're doing it, it's wrong and the Doctor's going to stop it. Cassandra's back and we get all the explanation that we need about it. On with the show! The Face of Boe drops hints about a secret that he'll tell the Doctor about next time they meet. Goody! We all like a bit of a mystery and I'm sure the resulting information will be shocking (and a very clever progression for the show come season 3). Zombies, Cats, a new planet and the 2 main characters having fun? Bring it on! The Doctor and Rose are friends. Friends have fun. Friendships ALWAYS have their problems (and if you read the Radio Times, RTD alludes to the fact that the Doctor and Rose start to get over-confident "which could be their downfall"). Russell T Davis is a very clever man who does all these thing for a reason. As for zombies dressed in clothes - it's a FAMILY show - we can't have them running around naked now can we?!

Next we'll move on to David and Billie. All I can say is FANTASTIC!! David brings a new spin to the role, which fans should be used to now. He is Doctor 10 after all. He has a fabulous energy that kids will love (much easier to play-act than Eccleston!) and because of this, his moments of fury at wrong-doing are all the more engaging. Billie continues to be brilliant in her portrayal of Rose, and clearly enjoying having Zoe Wanamaker make use of her mind!! The comedy aspects are perfect for a FAMILY show (that's the third time I've said FAMILY isn't it?!) and who really cares if Cassandra would never use the word "chav"? How does anyone know she wouldn't? Again the chemisty between the Doctor and Rose is great, and this is obvoiusly down to David and Billie getting on so well, and in response to those who feel that the relationship is a bit tacky, would we really want our 2 main characters bickering? Surely we've got the 6th Doctor and Peri for that (or Eastenders).

On to the special effects. Pretty damn good! Loving New New York, was great to see Cassandra's spider again, and the lift shaft - wow! No complaints from this man.

Murray Gold's music was again in turns beautiful, exciting and haunting.

On the whole I'm one very happy (30 year old) man, who believes that the show is most definately on the right track. New Earth may not be the best story ever, but we can't expect to have the best story ever, every week! My friends 8 year old loves it. And surely if the kids are happy, us old timers should be happy too. New Who was never intended as a "treat" for the fans. It's for this generations kids and their families (that word again) and I for one feel all the younger for it. Doctor who has always been my little sanctuary, my secret fantasy, where that strange man and his time machine are always close by and keeping thing safe. It never once bothered me if I didn't get a complete history of a bit player in one adventure or another, and it doesn't bother me now. It's a weekly escape from reality and I love it!

It's back, New Earth and New Doctor! Was it worth the wait? - God yes!

While I know there will be people out there complaining that it was another RTD script with echoes of The End Of The World, I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the sinister nature of the Cat Nuns and the light hearted fun of Rose vs Cassandra, there was some subtle (and not so subtle) humour in the dialogue that I felt worked as well as the visual humour!

Billie Piper steps up another gear in her acting (is that possible?) and was fantastic while imitating Cassandra. We got to see the new Doctor show his darker side from the end of The Christmas Invasion, his speech about there being no other higher authority was chilling, this Doctor has balls! (as Cassandra pointed out when she took over his body)

David Tennant continues to grow on me apace, he draws your attention with his intense looks and cheeky smile and a brilliant balance of light and dark moods.

So what did New Earth give us?

The Doctor and Rose FINALLY on another planet, great effects with the flying ships and the futuristic buildings ... how many New's was it?? Not much relationship development between them but I expect that is to come, step forward Episode 3 I would think.

Cassandra back with a larger part in the proceedings, a contrived but satisfying end for her (note to RTD though - Margaret, Cassandra - not every character deserves such an ending)

The Face of Boe - did someone say Bad Wolf? Setting up the thread of the series in a slightly less subtle way. My only question is: in "The Long Game" he was pregnant - what happened to the child as he is now the only Boe left?

The Cat Nuns, oh how I wish they could have had more scenes! We got to see one clawed paw and that was all, surely we haven't seen the last of these feline creatures?

Overall a much stronger opener than in series 1, straight in with the action and setting an expectation that the next episodes will just get better. Having seen the 9th Doctor's relationship with Rose grow so strong last series it will be interesting to see how she adapts to the new one.

Having seen brief glimpes of the next few episodes I shall be willing the next 12 weeks to go as soon as possible .. Saturday nights are back in business!!

First off, this is SEASON 2. Not Season 28 or whatever. Season TWO. The SECOND season of the NEW SERIES. Number TWO in a SERIES that is A NEW PRODUCTION with DIFFERENT PRODUCTION COMPANY.

Sorry, getting that off my chest.

Now then:

First off, if anyone noticed, this is the first time the new series has actually left Earth (or vicinity) and visited an alien world. So of course, they go to... New Earth. Um.

So we're at a hospital. Run by cats. I wonder if the "universal symbol" for hospitals being a crescent moon is some sort of commentary on the use of a red cross as it currently is in the Western world. Look closely at ambulances on the news when they're showing bodies blown apart in Iraq and you'll see a red crescent.

Ah ha! Two familiar faces now -- the Face of Boe and Lady Cassandra. Boe gets the plot moving but Cassandra figures into it a bit more.

"Oh my God, I'm a chav!" Oh come ON... yeah yeah, commentary on fandom, I know. Seems to me Rose is most chavish HERE being possessed.

And that's another thing -- the Doctor and Rose spend half the story being possessed by Cassandra. How does this show how the characters *themselves* are to new viewers? Remember, this is only the second story with the 10th Doctor, and he was incapacitated for most of "The Christmas Invasion." So, er... I'm not really getting any sense of what this Doctor is all about quite yet, beyond he's a bit bouncier and smiley than Eccleston, perhaps more conventionally attractive and Doctor-looking, and he's given to trying to shout like Keifer Sutherland at the odd moment. So is he still as haunted as the 9th Doctor? Would HE have quite as psychotic reaction to Daleks? There's a lot more that needs to be built up here, and so far spending 3/4 of one story incapacitated and part of another one possessed doesn't impress me much.

Not Tennant's fault by any means -- indeed, it's the same situation with Paul McGann's Doctor. I loved the actor's performance, but the story(ies) haven't really told me dick about the character. McGann turned in an excellent performance, but a) his Doctor came in only 1/4 through the story b) half of which was spent amnesiac [a common problem with regeneration stories, really] c) in the very end, the Doctor didn't really DO all that much. On this hand, Tennant is good so far, yet the Doctor is leaving me a bit blank at the moment.

...although maybe he needs to keep the glasses on.

Anyway.

Billie was great in this, having to play basically two different characters, one the embodiment of negative fan stereotypes about Rose. Fandom was all afluster about that kiss in the early trailers, but oh, wait, possession again!

Liked the cats, liked the Matrix-looking clone disease farm idea, but a "New Earth" with a "New New York" just seems, I dunno, done before. Even in Doctor Who, I can think of at least 2 novels with a New Earth.

And the Face of Boe is such a tease, innit he?

Overall... I liked the episode, but really wanted to love it. "Rose" was a bangstart, this one is a bit more steady, and I'm not sure it was the way to go. Still tho, 12 more episodes to go. Werewolves, ooo...

Series two is back, but after three long months of waiting for more Tenth Doctor was it worth the wait? Quite frankly I felt not.

This was a disappointing story where everything but the storyline felt right. The acting was superb, especially the leads, the visuals were of the highest quality and I have no complaints about the sound. The locations had atmosphere and you could smell the hospital reception.

Everything that went wrong with this episode fell down exactly in the same places of RTDs efforts of season one. Notably the over the top writer self-indulgence with completely irrelevant, almost fetish, investigation of some characters and the taking of unwanted side tracks with plot threads. The latter were agonising as it took time away from what could have been a far deeper and more interesting plot. The death ridden flesh stock was a fantastic idea and could have been worked well, instead they instantly turned from lifeless corpses (a psuedo realistic hard line cure) to Joe Bloggs with a slight cold seemingly just to make a happy ending. The theory of them containing every disease was interesting, yet the Doctor took twentyish cures and instantly they are fine. As for the body-swapping, we've been there and done that; the "lets swap every couple of seconds" also made it painful to watch. Cassandra was bearable in series one and should have been left there. Her desire to live was the key to the character until the plot line said otherwise.

My idea on seeing the script would have Swap Cassandra for other more interesting points, for example the cat people, who were they and why did they care so much for selected humans?

The positive's were there. David Tennant's Doctor was excellent. The portrayal of the Doctor was moody yet controlled and consistent, something even Christopher Ecclestone took a while to do. Rose took a more mature approach, and I thought Billie handled the body swap well. The latter saved the episode from complete farce.

After such a long wait I was disappointed and even felt my self reaching for the remote after half an hour. I felt myself asking if RTD and the BBC team would accept such scripts from the third party writers. I think not!

RTD has proved in the climax of season one he can write, and the historic guest writing has been superb. Hopefully, and I also believe this will be the case, things will get better and this meaningless plot was a blip. Roll on the rest of season two, I've waited long enough...

Mixed emotions about this one if IВ’m perfectly frank but the positives still far outweighed the negatives. It was a typical RTD story, crammed with ideas, imagination, fantastic dialogue, excellent characterisationВ…no complaints on any of those scores. It also had some murderously funny moments too, which for once are entirely performance driven rather than inherent in the script.

My biggest problem was with what we didnВ’t see. This felt like a much longer story squeezed into fourty-five minutes, you can literally feel the plot bursting to be free of that minute time frame and allowed to breathe. The plot isnВ’t, so the viewer isnВ’t either than the episode moves so fast you donВ’t have any time to consider anything that is going on. There is just far too many ideas here for any of them to be dealt with satisfyingly; the mind invasion, the sinister nuns, New Earth itself, CassandraВ’s return, the mutant rampageВ…any one of these concepts could have held the episode up but instead they all command your attention. What is it like to have your mind taken over in such a perverse manner? Why did the citizens of New Earth come to this particular planet? What is their culture like? How long have the Nuns been experimenting on humans? How did Cassandra end up under the hospital? What happened to the mutant population after their release from the diseases? There is so much potential here, so much to explore that this would probably have been better had it been one of the books, with their unlimited running time and chance to get inside the characters heads.

But what about everything we did getВ…

The look of the episode was fantastic as we have come to expect but to actually have the Doctor and Rose step out onto a new planet with spaceships whizzing by and a whopping great alien city in the background is marvellous and proves the show is willing to go much further this year now they have won over their audience. What with the Sycorax and now the Cat Nuns they are clearly ready to experiment with some more imaginative looking aliens too and the Nuns look painstakingly realistic, and shockingly beautiful. Add to this some stylish sets (arenВ’t they huge?), some clever visuals (such as the expanse of mutant cells) and a foot tapping (if repeated from last year) score from Murray Gold.

I can say with my hand on my heart I know I am going to absolutely adore David Tennant as the Doctor; a far more laid back and fun loving Doctor than Christopher EcclestonВ’s exciting portrayal. He creates a great deal of entertainment just being on screen, regardless of the story and director James HawkesВ’ comments that Tennant is bounding with energy in each shoot is apparent with every take. Whilst he clearly hasnВ’t forgotten his past he is far more willing to let go, with the ninth Doctor it was more like he needed to show Rose wonders to convince himself the universe is still a marvellous place but with the tenth it is like he is re-discovering that joy for himself. That great image of him lying back on the apple grass, hands behind his head, spaceships floating by, flirting like mad with RoseВ…he is clearly loving every second of his life. Which is what makes his stronger moments all the more shocking and his reaction to the Nuns mutant battery farm is astonishingly good (В“HOW MANY?В”). Unpredictable, just as he should always be. Even better is his ecstatic reaction to curing the diseased humans and brilliantly, cuddling up to one of them.

IВ’m sure there will be people out there who are horrified at the whole mind swap plot but for me this was the best part of the episode, a chance for Billie Piper to truly let her hair down and show us what she is made of. I expressed my dissatisfaction at RoseВ’s characterisation in The Christmas Invasion because she was a bit useless (I know I know that was the point but it still rankled) but here she is right back on top. Her excitement at stepping out of the TARDIS onto an alien planet is affecting and the relax atmosphere between herself and the Doctor bodes very well for the future. But surely she steals the episode with her interpretation of Cassandra (В“IВ’m a chav!В”), who ever knew Billie was capable of being such a bitch! ItВ’s brilliantly funny (especially when she snogs the DoctorВ…oo-er!) and things get even more slapstick when Cassandra dives into the Doctor allowing Tennant to really do some scenery chewing of his own. Frankly Cassandra in these two is so much fun I wanted her to stick around at the end.

Once again I am amazed at RTDВ’s skill at making something so insanely absurd extremely poignant. He pulls it off a few times here. The whole mind invasion is clearly being played for laughs until suddenly Cassandra jumps into one of the diseased and back into Rose and her description of their loneliness and desperation to be touched is real reality booster. But even more compelling is the ending, which sees Cassandra (a totally ridiculous character) travel back in time and visit herself when she was still flesh and blood and tell herself she is beautiful before dying in her own arms. It is written and performed beautifully and if IВ’m perfectly honest I found this ending more affecting than the end of Parting of the Ways. Something about the way the shallow human Cassandra suddenly realises what she is being told and her selfless attempt to save the life of somebody she has never met. Plus it is great to see Zoe Wanamaker in the flesh.

So what weВ’ve got here is a fast paced, enormously entertaining and surprising episode, leaving you feeling shortchanged only because as a two parter it could have been so much more. It is a confident and stylish opener, rich with performances and special FX and is more than enough to keep the kids happy.