New Earth

I had high hopes for David Tennant when he was cast as the tenth Doctor . I certainly didn't believe he'd ever reach the dramatic heights of Eccleston's performances as the eponymous time traveller but I knew he'd probably be much better at humour because I never found Eccleston's comedy repartee going beyond gurning . Perhaps a story like Boom Town would have worked slightly better if it'd been produced during the Tennant era ?

As it stands New Earth is quite a fun season opener for a show eagerly anticipated by millions of British TV viewers . If you're eight years old then a year is a very long time indeed and no doubt millions of children were delighted to see the return of the human trampoline Cassandra . The plot does descend in to areas of high camp in places but this seems tailor made for the tenth doctor and the enthusiasm of the cast draws the audience in to the fun . The make up is excellent and while the climax is a bit of a cop out ( it was written by RTD after all ) the final segment is genuinely touching

Rose (Billie Piper) takes her first trip on the TARDIS with the regenerated new version of the Doctor (David Tennant) to New Earth in the year 5 Billion and 23. Turns out after the Earth we knew blew up (as depicted in Episode 2 of the first series, or of the 28th series is you're a die hard Who fanatic), surviving Humans found a planet with the same elements of the original Earth and colonized it. But I digress, Rose and the Doctor are there to check out a urgent message the doctor got for his help sent by a rather old acquaintance who is being cared for by a mysterious group of cat nuns. But it seems that their old nemesis Cassandra, after surviving her 'death' in an earlier episode, is there as well. I'm not giving any more away to this episode then what I already have,but suffice it to say that this episode is a pretty solid one and if the rest of this series can be as good, it'll be a tad better than the first/28th (let's just hope the Slitheen never NEVER return)

My Grade: A

Having revamped the series to great effect with David Tennant's introduction in The Christmas Invasion, Russell T. Davies moves on to the start of the regular season with a basic Doctor Who story: fun, danger, and weird creatures. Sadly, it's a rather disappointing season premiere compared to series opener Rose.

In its own way, though, New Earth is a bit of a landmark in the revived show, in that it's the first episode that actually takes place on another planet (sorry, spaceships and satellites don't count), namely the eponymous new home for mankind, chosen as their home-world after the original Earth was destroyed (in Season One's The End of the World). Here, the Doctor and Rose have an encounter with a race of feline nuns that are able to cure a surprising amount of diseases. Inevitably, something's not quite right about it, and the situation worsens when it turns out that the villainous Cassandra (Zoe Wanamaker), presumed dead after the events of The End of the World, is actually scheming against the time-traveling duo.

Despite a steady pace and the welcome return of both Cassandra and the Face of Boe, the episode is let down by a distinct lack of the novelty that made the first season such a delight to watch. Part of the problem is that Davies usually writes with a bigger picture in mind, but in this case, notwithstanding an intriguing mystery regarding the Doctor's relationship with the Face of Boe, it just feels like a filler story thrown in to start the season.

On the plus side, as mentioned earlier, Wanamaker's bad "girl" (well, an abnormally stretched human face or whatever) is a hoot, and the Doctor/companion relationship is given plenty of room to evolve in light of The Christmas Invasion, even if the contrivance to make them kiss is rather bland, not to mention used too early in the series, as opposed to the truly touching romantic moment between Eccleston and Piper during the climax of The Parting of the Ways. Fortunately, there's 12 more episodes to prove the first season wasn't a fluke...

Twenty three years after The End of the World, the Doctor and Rose are drawn to New Earth by a psychic note, to a hospital run by cat nuns (honestly) where their miracle cures they promote. There's a couple of cast reunions, pussy lumpy lesions and coloured infusions, intimate exchanges without ablutions (several in fact) and an uprising or revolution that's the start of evolution, it's all a bit bemusing - just like chasing a ball of wool. All in a not too dissimilar story to Never Let Me Go (by Kazuo Ishiguro), though a lot more extreme, but with a happy ending, for those who survive at least.

Great episode, Tennant stole the whole damn show. What an amazing Doctor he is. =^]