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2.1 New Earth Review by Paul Kelly Rose: "I love this. Can I just say... traveling with you. I love it." If memory serves me correctly, this is the first New Who adventure to take place on an alien planet. We made it into outer space last year with "The Long Game" and "The End of the World." But I don't recall us actually landing on alien terra firma. And the visual effects team certainly went to town this week, making New Earth look as futuristic as possible. Good job guys! So a promising start to what's essentially the new Doctor's first full adventure. Rose's opening dialogue basically serves to draw a line under the doubts she's been having about the regenerated Doctor. That's all in the past now. We have achieved normality. Whatever normality is for this show. We've still got cat people and robot spiders. Oh, and the Face of Boe. So normal with a caveat. As soon as I saw the robot spider, I thought "Ah... Cassandra!" and indeed it was. She hasn't changed much. She's still the same old self-obsessed harridan. I'm really not sure where she gets her self confidence from. No disrespect to Zoë Wanamaker, but even before Cassandra became a stretched out wash leather, she wasn't exactly beautiful. Attractive, yes. But beautiful? I wonder if her future self telling her past self she was beautiful somehow instilled in her some kind of delusion that she actually was. Or was that Chip talking? If it was Cassandra then she's more narcissistic than I thought. And although for much of this episode Cassandra was as superficial as it gets, her life ended on a surprisingly poignant note. Did her "possessing" the clone somehow help her to sympathise with them? Is that how she feels inside too... alone... like she's never been touched? And taking her back to a happy moment in her life to die was a nice touch from the Doctor. A sad, but fitting end to a tragic character. If indeed this is the end. I though her exploding last season was the end too. You just never know. It was hard to judge Tennant's performance tonight, as he spent a hefty portion of the episode prancing around, pretending to be a woman. I know some people hated the silliness of this episode, but I have to say, I'm a pretty shallow viewer. If it's funny, I laugh. I don't worry too much about whether it makes the Doctor look stupid or not. So I found Cassandra camping it up as the Doctor pretty amusing. Similarly, I had a discreet chortle at Rose's "Oh God, I'm a Chav comment." True, it was a piece of clumsily inserted popular culture that served no grander purpose than to give us a cheap laugh (I mean, how would Cassandra know what a Chav was anyway?) But this is popular entertainment after all. And in addition to seeing Cassandra's stretched out mush again, this week also saw the return of the Face of Boe. There was some tasty dialogue on offer there. But they failed us in having the Face of Boe regain consciousness at the end. All that "lonely god" business sounded cool. So it was annoying to have no further elucidation. Oh well, postponed, but not entirely forgotten, I hope. All that "we'll meet for the third and last time" stuff has certainly whetted my appetite for more. I'm not entirely sure how you "pass on" a cure. Was it because those who entered the elevator were still wet from the medicine and simply transferred it to others via physical contact? Or was it something to do with the Doctor saying "I know a bit about medicine myself"? Did he do something to the formula to make it more effective? And surely the scene of the piece was Rose kissing the Doctor. Tennant's face was hilarious after she pulled away from him. And him muttering to himself "Yeah, still got it" was the icing on the cake. Unexpected, hilarious and superbly timed. Bits and pieces: -- Why did Cassandra not need the psycho-graft to move from Rose's body to the Doctor's? -- Some rather obvious Cockney rhyming slang this week. We had "apples and pears", which means stairs. Boat race, which means face. Would you "Adam and Eve it", which means would you believe it. And British slang term "Wotcher", which simply means "what are you" (and is generally short for 'what are you up to?'). -- In the episode "The End Of The World," Cassandra told Rose that she used to be a little boy. Yet her past self in this episode was female. So presumably this was after her sex change operation? Billie says... You know, when I see an episode like this one, I have to keep saying to myself: "Yes, but it's Doctor Who." There's still a touch of the children's show in this current version. It's not big with the logic, it isn't hard sci-fi, and it isn't even grown-up fantasy. Body-switching at will. Pouring a bunch of different medicines into a big vat and having it turn into an instant magical miracle cure. The overused plot of a victimized slave underclass enabling an oblivious overclass. But still, if you can put your suspension of belief aside, there were things to like about this episode. The cat sisters were just fun to look at; the make-up was great and looked oddly appropriate with the sister costumes. The pods of sick clones looked very Matrix-y. The body-switching had its moments, too. I thought Billie Piper did a very good Cassandra. And yes, David Tennant was way over the top, but Cassandra was an over-the-top character. In fact, I liked Cassandra a lot more this time. Having Cassandra die in her earlier self's arms was a tiny bit touching. It was also the ultimate in narcissism, which was fitting for her character. It felt to me like the flirtation between the Doctor and Rose just got a lot flirtier. The romantic chemistry between them is quite a bit stronger than with Rose and the previous Doctor. And I don't think it's just the age difference in the actors. What's a chav? Quotes: Rose: "So where are we going?" Doctor: "Further than we've ever gone before." Doctor: "So. The year five billion, the sun expands, the Earth gets roasted." Rose: "That was our first date." Doctor: "We had chips." Rose: "They're cats." Doctor: "Now, don't stare. Think what you look like to them, all pink and yellow." Cassandra: "Peek-a-boo!" Rose: "Don't you come anywhere near me, Cassandra." Cassandra: "Why? What do you think I'm going to do? Flap you to death?" Rose: "Right. So you're talking out of your..." Cassandra: "Ask not." Doctor: "Just let Rose go, Cassandra." Cassandra: "I will, as soon as I've found someone younger and less common." Doctor: "I'm the Doctor. And if you don't like it, if you want to take it to a higher authority, there isn't one. It stops with me." Doctor/Cassandra: "Goodness me, I'm a man. So many parts, and hardly used. Oh! Two hearts? Oh baby, I'm beating out a samba." Cassandra: "You're completely mad. I can see why she likes you." Cassandra: "Oh sweet Lord, I'm a walking doodle." View all comments or post a comment. |
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