New Earth
After watching two seasons of Battlestar Galactica in quick succession, I was so very ready for Doctor Who to return. There’s something so refreshing about a series that can go anywhere and do anything. Especially in Russell T. Davies’ revival, there’s a freewheeling, exciting vibe that always soothes me. Not that I don’t like Battlestar Galactica. But a balanced diet needs variety.
So I was really looking forward to ‘New Earth’. Not just because it was Who, but because it was written by Davies, because it was a sequel to ‘The End of the World’, one of my favourite stories from the first season. I expected silliness, hilarity, action, and some genuine emotion. I got all those things. For a first episode (and the first proper episode for the Tenth Doctor), it sets the character up nicely, showcasing a whole range of his emotions. And a few of someone else’s. And in comparison to some of Davies’ early scripts from last year, there’s not an awkwardly stretched out climax in sight.
Having seen off the Sycorax,1 the Doctor and Rose leave Earth again, and go to 5,000,000,023 AD to see what’s been happening in the 23 years since the Earth exploded. Once there, they find a hospital with a dark secret, and their old enemy Cassandra O’Brien — last ‘pure’ human on earth and part-time trampoline. While the Doctor finds and gets angry at the aforesaid dark secret, Rose gets herself posessed by Cassandra, which leads to much silliness.
What’s particularly impressive is the chemistry and dialogue here between the Doctor and Rose. I suppose I am used to the whole regeneration thing, but it is impressive to see them picking up pretty much where they left off. Something I particularly liked was the new Doctor’s single-mindedness — quite happy to wander off without Rose and leave her to her own devices. This is both funny and useful as a splitting the plot into two device. Things only get funnier as the Cassandra-Rose starts wandering about with, snogging,2 and eventually posessing the Doctor. There was some absolutely fantastic work from Billie Piper here — playing the bitchy, sultry Cassandra hilariously.3 It’s also gratifying to see the Doctor’s proactive solution to a bunch of randomly wandering sick zombies.
But here’s the trick. If this was, say, a Buffy episode, we could stop right here. There’s a bunch of zombies infected with heaps of year-five-billion viruses. They’ve been used to make cures for all those viruses. The cures can be sprayed on some of the zombies, and those that touch other zombies pass on the super-cure. The End. Does that satisfy you? If yes, you probably enjoyed this story greatly. If no, you might well dislike the whole story and start making plot holes up in order to diss it further.4 Given the energy of the story, I tended to wander closer to ‘yes’ — but it must be said, if we wanted touch-carried cures in the year five billion, all we had to do was not have them delivered intravenously for the rest of the episode. That’s all. Perhaps this was a design cock-up, or perhaps it was quick re-writing at the end that caused the problem.5
So the question comes to this: does every episode of a TV show have to be all things to all people? Can some just be light, silly fun? Is it acceptable to put a low priority on the science? Is Doctor Who science fiction. All I know is, taking this story too seriously may cause severe symptoms of not enjoying it at all. There’ll be serious stories to come, I’m sure. But they may not always have that joyful Davies touch. Enjoy it while you have it, and on its own terms. After all, this is what Who is.6
- In the commentary, Davies speculates that they may have hung around on Earth for some time. It certainly looks a lot less wintery. But the TARDIS has moved. Perhaps they’ve had a few small trips. I’m sure the livejournal community can come up with some explanations involving lots of sex. ↩
- “I’ve still got it.” The 21st Century Doctor’s attitude to sex remains pretty much note-perfect. ↩
- And looking very hot. And getting some of the best lines. ↩
- Amongst the best (worst) ‘flaws’ found online: calling the cat people one dimensional and “eeevil” despite the presentation of at least one cat person who really believes in what she’s doing and makes a reasonable, impassioned case for the cause; claiming that the episode is an outright shout against stem-cell research, even though what we have here are fully grown human clones; not liking the Doctor’s moment with Cassandra driving. Well, I suppose that last point is personal opinion, but how can a person not love that? I suppose anything’s possible in this infinite multiverse. ↩
- Davies says in the commentary that the initial plan was to kill them all, until some gentle ribbing from Steven Moffat convinced him otherwise. ↩
- Let’s not get caught up on what it was. The ever-interesting Simon Forward comments that ‘New Earth’ lacks the “degree of re-watchability that’s in the classics”. I can think of about 10 classics that are truly re-watchable. Maybe twenty. And by “truly rewatchable” I mean for people who aren’t necessarily die-hard fans. Let’s face it, new Who is fluffy at times, but recently it’s been wonderfully padding-free. ↩
Tom
April 18th, 2006 at 1:00 am
It’s been suggested that there’s no clear evidence that the cures are delivered intravenously… but my argument is that if you’re making a show to be transmitted in the 21st century, and you don’t want people to think the cures are intravenous, then don’t hang them up in bags that look just like that.
Plus, according to some guy on the internet (the most reliable source in the world), the Doctor actually calls them “intravenous solutions” at one point.
Andy
April 18th, 2006 at 2:28 am
Nice pic. I’m a guy on the internet and I remember the doctor saying intravenous solutions. I liked the whole not being touched thing for the clones but the end was ruined by the use of the intravenous solutions non-intravenously. That was the only plot hole that bothered me. Saving the zombies is what I expect from the Doctor. It’s the kind of thing he should have done more of last season. Being the hero, I mean – there was a saving zombies episode.
The disinfecting showers were made sense in a hospital and very amusing, just the intravenous thing’s odd; the year 5 billion should give the writers plenty of freedom to make up new technologies. I was little disappointed by the state of things generally in the year 5 billion. We don’t use live humans for research and we seem to manage. Cell cultures and rats are a good substitute. Is the claim about the stem cells from the same guy who complained about the refugees? Maybe Russell T. Davies is against cloning fully grown humans. That madman. Cat people are eeevil, for the record.
I liked the Doctor and Rose acting as Cassandra, they’re both excellent actors, and glad to be rid of the trampoline body. While fine for a one-off quirky bad guy, it cheapened her as a returning character. I found Rose’s display of cleavage very integral to portrayal of Cassandra. I was happy to accept the mind transference device, but thought the Doctor might have been resistant to it, but then that would have led to no jumping back and forth hilarity. I was more sympathetic to Cassandra’s desire to survive than certain other aliens from last season.
If you did American history Tom, you’d’ve heard the quote “You can make a tv series that’s all things to all people some of the time, you may even make a tv series that’s all things to some people all of the time, or some things to all people all of the time but you cannot make a tv series that’s all things to all people all of the time.” Doctor Who should include silliness. It’s not a straight drama and the range of potential situations is ideal for light silly fun, like Stargate. There’s plenty of room for drama and comedy. While a short season may yield great episodes, there’s a long time in between to build up expectations.
The doctor did seem happy to let Rose wander, but she’s not a first year american college student anymore. Plus he’s not expecting danger or a dark secret.
Will we get another Face of Bo episode this season? Don’t answer that. I don’t like spoilers, although I will conjecture that with their guaranteed third season they won’t.
I’ve nothing against fan fiction (as long as it is done in the privacy of own’s home) but many of those people would be more suited to writing pornogrophy plots than dramatic Sci-fi. Fan-fiction writers rarely venture outside of the main characters having sex plotline. They’re not too cluey about the use of sexual tension in tv.
The splash pic is good too.
Tom
April 18th, 2006 at 3:11 am
The Doctor was expecting a dark secret. Remember the psychic paper? Plus, just on average, there’s a dark secret. But I’m glad he’s willing to let her investigate on her own. It means we don’t have to awkwardly split them up every episode.
Clearly they’ve needed to succumb to this human testing thing due to the crazy new diseases. I love “petrifold regression” as a name for petrification, by the way. That’s quality technobabble.
I quite liked the recursive Cassandra plotline. Some people have complained that the Doctor helps her at the end, or that he’s making things worse — I think they’ve missed the point that he’s clearly fixing up time and making sure that she compliments herself at that party. That would explain why he’s so grumpy. Apparently a scene was lost that had the Doctor reiterate her villainous actions on Platform One.
I think the idea is that now he’s free from his Time War guilt, the Doctor’s much happier to stick his oar in and meddle openly. This doesn’t mean that they’re no longer treating him as a proper character though — from what I hear he has a character arc plotted out for this season too.
Jack
April 19th, 2006 at 12:25 am
It does seem to a case of compromising a character in the name of comedy.
Cassandra is a murderer after all. The Doctor was more than happy to let her die in The End of the World. This new, “no second chances” Doctor is quite happy to give her a second chance, rather than hold her accountable for her actions. I don’t think it’s fair to say people unhappy with this have missed the point – I think they just weren’t expecting the Doctor to be the sort of person who let something like that slide. Or maybe they just didn’t want him to be.
Anyway I’m expecting Lawrence Miles to come out with a thesis explaining exactly how this episode condones murder. I’m not sure he’d be satisfied with the “lost scene” defence. It doesn’t really hold up.
Ooooh. Subtext
Tom
April 19th, 2006 at 7:02 am
The Doctor doesn’t give her a second chance — she’s dying, and he takes her to die in front of herself. If anything it’s a learning experience for her at the end of her life. Second chances would only have come into it if she hadn’t accepted her fate.
Jack
April 21st, 2006 at 12:04 am
Well supposedly she grows up to be a nicer person because of that encounter. Possibly. I can’t remember.
Tom
April 21st, 2006 at 8:21 am
I don’t think she does. She already remembered that encounter at the start of the episode. Taking Chip back in time would seem to cement the timeline Rose and the Doctor have experienced, and make her the murderer that killed all those nice people.