Doctor Who Season 2 (28) Episode 1 Rewatch: New Earth

[Straha]

A note of timing: I think from now on I'm going to start one thread on Monday and one on Thursday. Considering that all these episodes are out already I don't think we need to keep ourselves to one a week. So starting next Monday I'll start the bi-weekly threads. (Unless someone like Stark or Thanas wants to start threads if I appear to be delinquent.)

That being said, it's been a week since our last poll! So now in our re-watching journey we move on to New Earth. Rose's first proper adventure with the new Tenth Doctor played by David Tennant. Watch as Rose travels with the Doctor to New Earth and New New York. Where we learn RTD has a furry fetish, all diseases can be cured by being sprayed with an IV, and that cures (like plagues) can be spread by touch. We also meet the last "pure human" trampoline who can take control of peoples minds by turning into coffee aroma. And we also meet the Face of Boe, who could be an old friend in disguise (or a water tank?)

So watch, observe and then rate!

[Straha]

Addendum: For those of you interested the average score so far on The Christmas Invasion is 3.158. Placing it, comparatively, just above Doctor's Daughter and just below Stolen Earth if it were compared to the other episodes already rated.

[Revy]

I gave it a 5. Don't kill me. Ok, it probably wasn't that good, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It didn't take place on Earth or modern day London, which wins it instant points with me. The cat nuns were great, I thought, the sets looked mint and the hospital felt nice and futuristic. It had nice touchesas well, like the apple grass.

I hated Cassandra when I first saw her, so I wasn't thrilled to see her again, at first. But at least she had the common sense to actually want to get out of her wretched form, and she went for Rose! Well it's no wonder, I expected her to have an interest in Rose when they first met, seing as how big an anomoly it was for the last human alive to meet another pure human, albeit completely intact. So her goal here made sense.

Loved the body hopping bits (I like that particular cliched plot element because it's something I'd love to do myself) and it was hilarious watching her react to the different people she was in - Oh my god I'm a chav! Finally! Someone said it!

I quite liked the closed loop for her that they put at the end as well. What did have me mildly miffed though was the dropping of the Face of Boe plot, which got postponed (I've read) til the season after. Which means I still haven't found out what he wanted to tell the Doctor. Bugger.

Really though, I liked this episode. It's the kind of thing Who should be IMO.

[Stark]

Pretty much rubbish. Nothing really important happens, Cassandra returns for some slapstick, and the 'main' plot is retarded. There's some chemistry, and Cassandra is at least entertaining, but it's all largely forgettable nonsense. Not as bad as Gridlock, but the same sort of stuff. Tennant's Doctor has already become less interesting than the Christmas special suggested.

I think I should say '1... okay it probably wasn't that bad lol' to invalidate my opinion.

[Minischoles]

Bearable is the only word i can think to describe this episode, nothing really happens, nothing really interesting or exciting, its just a very poor episode overall, but theres also nothing particularly bad to note about it either.

[Thanas]

I give it a three. The main plot is pretty bad, I think Cassandra should have better stayed dead and the cat nurses just seemed funny to me. However, there was some chemistry and the slapstick was not tiring at that point. At least it was entertaining.

So yeah, a three.

[DaveJB]

Probably the least memorable episode of the RTD era, which isn't really the sort of thing Tennant needed for his first full story. That cocktease with the Face of Boe was pretty needless as well. Other than that though, I can't think of anything really obviously wrong with it... so I'll give it a 3/5, if only because I enjoyed seeing Cassandra again.

[Ford Prefect]

Straha's descriptions are useful, as before. This wasn't terrible. I never actually saw the episode that introduced Cassandra, but she was kind of funny when she got into Rose's body. However, apart from that, it was essentially forgettable. Oh look, zombies! Watch me cure them all! Everybody lives Rose! It was a lot better in The Doctor Dances.

[Crazedwraith]

Cassandra had the most narcissistic way to kick it ever.

Gave it a 3. Nothing special and certainly ad many issues which I could complain about but nothing I can really be bothered bitching about as it didn't really break the flow for me that much.

[Ohma]

Wow, I completely forgot this episode existed. Eh, it was okay, nothing really particularly good or memorable about it, but nothing I felt really singularly bad either so 3 out of five for me.

[Atavarius]

Main plot was weak.

No character development.

Cassandra was retarded from the beginning.

Face of Boe tease annoyed me.

Felt like less than a filler episode to me.

Hmmm lemme think something good... uhhh well that thing with the uhhh....hmmm.... yeah I got nothing.

Rating it a 1 since their isn't a 0.

[El Moose Monstero]

This episode did irritate me a little as we basically had yet another 'horde of enemies walk slowly towards you whilst you run away' episode. There seem to have been quite a lot of them - Cybermen, the gas-mask men, even the daleks before they started whizzing around in the air, the unquiet dead etc. etc. It was getting a bit stale.

There were lots of moments that were entertaining, I did enjoy most of it - I'll give it a 3, but my gut feeling says that for all the various cliches involved it should probably get a 2 (lets face it, body swapping is always a bit of an easy joke to pull - it basically writes itself 'OMG, I Z IN UR BODY, MIMIKIN UR PERSON'). It doesn't even need much thought for material, although it did work well enough in this episode I suppose.

[Straha]

I really can't say I liked this episode. The Boe plot was good but the rest...

A. They really shouldn't have brought Cassandra back at all. She was an annoying character before, but she was meant to be and it fit the role, but she's even more annoying now and that just makes the entire episode irritating. On top of that he plan makes no sense. "I'm going to lure someone here, snatch their body and walk out. Except, as I will demonstrate repeatedly through the episode, I can take over people's bodies by breathing right, and there's nothing they can do about it." So instead of just taking over her slave (which she seems to have no problem with later) walking out the backdoor and then grabbing someone in the city she lurks around as a trampoline in the basement hoping against odds that a human will come by whom she can take over before her clone helper dies leaving her defenseless and alone (as she would have been in a couple hours if Rose hadn't shown up.) BRILLIANT!

B. The plague carriers. They just annoyed me from conception to end. "Which diseases have they got?" "All of them." Except, they don't. They have spots on them. That is clearly different than having, say, Ebola. Or AIDS. Or any number of diseases. Would it have been so hard for the doctor to say "It looks like they have all of them here. This floor is the Talaxian Pox, that's the Black Death. That floor looks like Ebola... don't go there." etc.? And I'm not even going to start on the ending. "Pass the cure amongst yourselves by sorta rubbing each other..."

I desperately want to give it a two. But I just can't. It kept me watching and I enjoyed it somewhat. But I just can't find it in me to overlook its gaping flaws.

[Revy]

I feel kinda stupid for giving this a 5 now. Can we quickly move on to reviewing the next episode? I promise to utilise more brain cells before voting again.

[Stark]

You should have felt stupid when you voted 5 and then immediately said 'lol nah it's probably not worth a 5'.*

[Revy]

Well if it makes you feel better, I did when you pointed that out the first time.

[Straha]

I feel kinda stupid for giving this a 5 now. Can we quickly move on to reviewing the next episode? I promise to utilise more brain cells before voting again.

The thread's about to go up. That being said, I can see where you're coming from. There's something about this episode that made me desperately want to like it. I watched through to the end wanting it to get better over and over again, but it never did. Unlike, say, Doctor's Daughter, Journey's End, Last of the Time Lords, 90% of the dreck RTD has done, etc. I didn't want to thrash my computer by the time the episode was half-way through. I wanted to watch it, see it to the end, and find some redeeming qualities in it that would let me say "Sure, it's not great. But it could certainly be a lot worse."

Unfortunately I really can't see any truly redeeming qualities. Like I said, pretty much every plot line was shitty through and through and the entire episode feels like it could be loads better if it was just given five or ten minutes in the hand of an editor who could see the potential in RTD's ideas, scrub his bad ideas and bring out the good in the rest.

[Big Orange]

I give it a 2.5 out of 5 (or 6 out of 10), nothing brilliant but nothing horrific.

"New Earth" was a good enough test run for alien planets, aliens and industrial enviroments, Cassandra came back with typical diminished returns but had a decent final send off and Tennant/Piper/Wanamaker imitating each other was moderately fun. But arguably my least favourite RTD story and "Smith & Jones" was much bette .

Also "Love & Monsters", "Gridlock" and "Partners in Crime" had their issues, but I found them more entertaining in most respects, sorry.

[Crazedwraith]

2.5/5 is 5/10. Why are you ranking an episode more highly on the out of 10 system?

[Big Orange]

Maybe make it 5.5 out of 10?

Anyway "New Earth" seems awfully dry and bland on hindsight (apart from the sinister small talk between Cat Nuns), at least the first three quarters of "Love & Monsters" and "Journey's End" had much more 'go' to them.

[Revy]

Maybe make it 5.5 out of 10?

Anyway "New Earth" seems awfully dry and bland on hindsight (apart from the sinister small talk between Cat Nuns), at least the first three quarters of "Love & Monsters" and "Journey's End" had much more 'go' to them.

There is nothing redeemable about Love & Monsters. It is 100% pure drivel. I admit I may have overrated this episode, but I have no doubt about how atrocious Love & Monsters was.

[Straha]

"New Earth" was a good enough test run for alien planets, aliens and industrial enviroments, Cassandra came back with typical diminished returns but had a decent final send off and Tennant/Piper/Wanamaker imitating each other was moderately fun. But arguably my least favourite RTD story and "Smith & Jones" was much bette .

Except it wasn't alien at all. It was a Earth hospital, with humans running around as the main characters with the most dialogue on a planet which was specifically designed (both in universe and out) to be like Earth. It would be just as alien if the Doctor went to Australia. And they've already done the industrial environment before, a number of times if I recall correctly.

[Stark]

2.5/5 is 5/10. Why are you ranking an episode more highly on the out of 10 system?

Because he's an attention-whoring cretin? Let's all, from now on, describe our ratings in different bases for no fucking reason! My 3/5 for T&C is really more of a 6/18, or perhaps 7/20. Look at me!