New Earth

❌(3.8) = VERY BAD!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

I find the pre-titles scene very underwhelming. It should be the last scene of the Christmas special, since it doesn't set up any danger.

It doesn’t take very long until this episode goes into full romance mode between Ten and Rose, and that always rubs me the wrong way. In this one, David Tennant is very unlikeable and smug, and Billie Piper is becoming more unbearable.

I like the production design, which combines very barren 21st-century sets and locations with futuristic, clunky CGI. The production's most successful aspect are the cat nun suits.

Also, I am not the biggest fan of the humoristic bits here (mostly the elevator scene).

Cassandra would not be my first pick of a villain to bring back, but she’s as ridiculously annoying and selfish as we remember her, with a stellar performance from Zoe Wanamaker. Despite not being a major threat, her presence in the story is unnecessary. She’s just here to allow for some body-swap comedy.

New Earth goes for the classic body swap narrative, and while that in itself isn't bad, what makes it so is the fact that first Billie Piper and then David Tennant turn even more unlikeable while possessed by Cassandra. All those scenes are very cringe-inducing (“Ooh, I’m beating out a samba!”), especially the one where they hang around the elevator shaft and Cassandra keeps switching bodies.

The guest characters are pretty awkward as well, chiefly the Duke of New New York as well as Cassandra’s henchman Chip. The cat nuns are intriguing characters, with fine performances.

That snogging scene, followed by "Yeah, still got it," is another example of RTD taking the romance thing too far and creating those Tennant fangirls and fanboys who still haven't accepted the fact that Tennant isn't the Doctor anymore.

The things that work here are the slightly more serious moments, such as the scene where it is revealed that the hospital grows cloned humans and infects them with every known disease to create their miracle cures, which greatly angers the Doctor.

So, the primary threat in this scenario is the presence of diseased zombie people. Although it lacks originality and interest, I believe it's necessary to infuse the second half with basic tension and action.

I sort of like the ending, which settles Cassandra’s story in a nice little way (even if she doesn’t deserve such a dignified ending).

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• Adjoa Andoh, who performs under heavy make-up as Sister Jatt, also appears in Series 3 as the mother of companion Martha Jones, and has appeared in several Big Finish audios.
• The villain's possession of Rose is a continuation of the Doctor Who tradition of possessed companions.
• For once, the Doctor is allowed to be a proper doctor and cure people.
• The end of this serial teases the next (and final) appearance of the Face of Boe in the Series 3 episode Gridlock, which in turn is part of the Series 3 arc.

So as someone who is going to be pretty down on Series 2 in general, with a handful of exceptions, I'm a little surprised to see such a low overall score for New Earth, currently.

It's not the best episode but I had a lot of fun with it. Billie Piper gets to have a lot of fun as Cassandra and I am here for it. New Earth is creative as a setting, even if a lot of the effects are kind of dorky. It's good fun, good world building, and I found the cat people relatively impressive in terms of make up. I just don't have much of an issue with this one. It works as a nice pseudo sequel to The End of the World, carrying on the somewhat hopeful tone of the ending and showing us the human race growing and spreading beyond their home world. Then everyone gets sick. Oh well, I still had a good time on my first viewing, and though it only holds up so much with time, I can't help but not be too hard on it. New Earth hardly feels like it is remotely as insufferable as some of the other episodes rated this low.

Looking at episodes with early growing pains around the Tenth Doctor, the content that comes before and after this feels way more uneven in comparison to New Earth, which is executed at least semi-competently. I guess it helps I am already a fan of other New Earth-adjacent content like End of the World and Gridlock, I suppose. As always, others fans mileage may vary and things do get pretty silly by episode end, so I do understand people's problems with New Earth even if I largely had a blast. I also think it is a pretty solid introduction to the Tenth Doctor, and feels a lot smoother and more inviting to the spirit of adventure and old-school romance than something like Christmas Invasion.

Our second trip in the so called “New Earth trilogy” has a lot of fun campery going for it. Sexy Rose/Cassandra hybrid, violent cat nuns, our leads soaking wet (with medicine of course). It’s a romp and shines brightly whilst all the moving parts are whizzing about but as it starts to wrap up, the resolution reveals itself to be some of the flimsiest, ill conceived nonsense the series has ever offered up - it fails to stick the landing.

Nanogenes could pass on a cure to all the gas mask zombies because an actual explanation had been written and seeded throughout the script. That does not mean that someone newly cured of all the new world’s illnesses can pass a cure on instantaneously just through touch. And hang on… why were the patients in the hospital not being cured instantly, since they are being fed the same intravenous drips?

Okay. I’ve lost the plot. The point is that’s it’s a a load of fun and the Face of Boe is cool and mysterious. And has a future message for The Doctor that he won’t spill right now.

The 10th Doctor and Rose have amazing chemistry and the jokes land throughout. All in all it’s a lot of fun. Cassandra gets the most beautiful death scene too. That’s where the emotional heart of the story lies, the real conclusion.