Review - New Earth

Back into the swing of things again with the new Doctor, this time taking a trip far into the future to meet an old enemy on New Earth.

Season 2, Episode 1 - New Earth

We get very early hints at the villain in the form of the spiders from The End of the World. Just to be safe we're also given a verbal reminder by The Doctor talking about Earth burning. Of course this leads to a very early reveal of Cassandra and her new attendant, Chip.

Of course this early reveal is a bit of a fake-out, because whilst Cassandra is up to no good, she is clearly not the main issue here.

The Sisters of Plenitude were a solid set of Agent Goons, set up nicely as the sort of villains that think they're doing good. Of course there are all sorts of subtle moral questions at play here, and it's funny because I can sort of sympathise with the Sisters here. I suppose it depends on how you feel about things like cloning and animal testing.

It's a perfect excuse to see Angry Doctor though.

I like how they worked in an explanation on how the clones can communicate. It may have been a bit half baked, but it was worked in naturally and didn't really need to be expanded any further. The clones themselves were yet another "move forward slowly and menacingly" Zombie-like type of Monster Goon. 

Grrrr! Arrrrgh!

The Doctor's eventual solution seemed a little glossed over and was rather simple. I get why the disease would be instantly transferred on touch, but why was the cure also transferred? The cure liquid was somehow strong enough for the residual amounts transferred by the brush of a hand to be effective on those heavily infected clones, but used on the patients it took days to work? Hmmmmm.

Cassandra's ability to disembody and possess a new body was similarly glossed over. Was that a side-effect of the Psycho Graft? Why didn't she just possess a Sister and get the info she needed that way? I suppose inhabiting a non-human body would probably have been distasteful for her. Didn't stop her possessing The Doctor though.

A good chunk of this episode was devoted to re-establishing The Doctor as a love interest for Rose. It seemed they had decided by about mid-Season-1 that the relationship was platonic (apart from that bizarre kiss cure at the end of The Parting of the Ways) but now he's looking younger and hotter, seems Rose is back on the Hunka hunka burning Doc train. First we see poor Mickey getting played again:

"I love you."

"See ya."

Then we've got all of Cassandra's teasing and In-Who-Endo when she possesses The Doctor. Of course Cadsandra herself gets in on the action:

To be fair, if you'd been a flap of skin for a few hundred years,
you'd probably jump whomever was handy.

The Doctor's reaction to it is a weak, "I've still got it." Now that's a classic line and was played well. Sadly it doesn't fit The Doctor at all. There is clearly a strong push to make this relationship romantic from early on.

Cassandra's end this time around was much better though, much more Doctor-like than Nine's murder through inaction. It was a good way to end the episode. Not quite enough to fully salvage it though. Ultimately there wasn't much to this episode beyond setting up the Doctor / Rose romance. I could really take or leave this one.

5/10

Can we fix it?

Of course the first thing I'd do here is ease up on the romance. The subtle hint with Rose not reciprocating Mickey's "I love you" was enough. All of Cassandra's teasing and The Doctor's reaction to the kiss can go. The kiss is fine, but The Doctor should push Rose away and be all, "What the hell are you doing?" This behavior from Rose should be as much of a clue something has happened to her as her not caring about the clones.

I'd add a bit more explanation to how The Doctor's cure worked. This would involve a bit of an expansion to the explanation of how the clones work. Essentially the clones are infected with everything and their modified immune systems are producing huge amounts of antibodies for all their diseases. In order to ensure the clones stay sick (and continue producing antibodies) they all have one specially designed cancer that somehow draws the antibodies into special tumours around the clones' necks and faces, where they are syphoned off by the Sisters of Plenitude to give to patients.

The Doctor determines that curing this "keystone cancer" will allow the clones' immune systems to distribute the antibodies and cure them. After some thinking and tinkering and mixing of cures, the overall solution plays out the same way with The Doctor adding a line about how the cure will be taken up and replicated by the clones and excreted from the skin once the tumours are no longer collecting it, meaning it can be passed on by touch. Once their immune systems have destroyed all of their multitude of illnesses they return to normal.

Just a little extra depth to make the ending easier to swallow. It'd still not be a favourite, but they can't all be, can they?