Doctor Who:
New Earth
By Russell T.
Davies
“That's
right. Hey, there we go, sweetheart. Go to him. Go on, that's it. That's it.
It's a new sub-species, Cassandra. A brand new form of life. New humans! Look
at them. Look! Grown by cats, kept in the dark, fed by tubes, but completely,
completely alive. You can't deny them, because you helped create them. The
human race just keeps on going, keeps on changing. Life will out! Ha!”
The Doctor
takes Rose to the planet New Earth in the year 5 Billion. After looking around
and taking in the sites The Doctor wants to visit the hospital that is just
right outside the city. He explains to Rose
that he got a message on his psychic paper and he wants to see who sent
it. So the two travelers head to the
hospital to see who summoned them and it turns out to be someone they have met
before.
Unbeknownst to
them their arrival to the New New York Hospital did not go unnoticed. It appears someone else they have encountered
before is alive and well and looking for a body. The Lady Cassandra is still alive and wants
to get revenge on Rose and find out what the big secret that the Sisters of
Plentitude have hidden at the hospital.
Well to start
off with “New Earth” is not the best story ever but it isn’t bad either. Some of the highlights of this story and what
I liked best about it was the comedic aspect.
“New Eart” has quite a few funny moments in it and mainly centered
around Cassandra. For example when she
took over bodies and most noteably The Doctor and seeing David Tennant acting
like Cassandra was priceless. Especially
with Billie Piper as Cassandra. To see
her acting differently and charging her speech truly showed the audience that
she can act. David Tennant has some time to shine in this
episode also. Since he spent most of his time in bed during “The Christmas
Invasion” we get a chance to see what his Doctor will be like. His Doctor seems more hands on than his
predecessor who dropped hints and let others stand up for themselves.
It is apparent
that Russell T. Davies is against animal testing for medical procedures. The fact being that the cat nun nurses are
using human clones as their test subject is a reversal of what is happening now
and in “New Earth” he turns the tables and gets his message through. What was a bit of a problem for “New Earth”
was that it tried to do a bit much. With the Face of Boes message and the
Cassandra storyline it seemed to be a bit rushed to get it all in.
The ending to
“New Earth” was a letdown. Sure The Doctor was heroic jumping down the elevator
shaft and making up that IV cocktail. But
shouldn’t that stuff work inside the body and not out though? I think it would have looked better if if the
cure was in smoke form and not water it would have been a better effect I believe
if the sick clones breathed in the cure rather than bathing in it. Plus all through the story Cassandra was obsessed with cheating
death and then when she inhabits Chip and his body starts to fail she all of a
sudden takes a 180 and accepts her fate and dies. That just seems to be a bit bizarre to me
that she would accept that so quickly.
In all “New Earth” is a fun story to watch despite its flaws but still
entertaining all the same.
Grade C +
Yuck....
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