1 episode. Approx. 42 minutes. Written by: Russell T. Davies. Directed by: James Hawes. Produced by: Phil Collinson.
THE PLOT
The Doctor takes Rose further into the future than ever before, bringing her to the world of New Earth, settled during a wave of human nostalgia that followed the destruction of the original Earth. This isn't entirely a sightseeing tour. The Face of Boe is dying, but has a message to relay before he passes. Assuming he ever wakes up from his coma.
There is more afoot than just the Face of Boe. Cassandra, who survived her apparent death on Platform One, lurks in the hospital's basement. She knows that the humanoid cat-nurses are hiding a secret. When she sees Rose Tyler enter the hospital with this all-new Doctor, she uses stolen technology to lure the girl into her cellar. She transfers her consciousness into Rose's body, using Rose's relationship with the Doctor to find out what the hospital's secret might be.
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: Early in the episode, he half-jokingly describes himself as a "new new Doctor." It's an accurate description. The Ninth Doctor had a certain melancholy hanging about him, even in his lighter moments. He was, effectively, the shellshocked Doctor, always haunted by the ghosts of his past. The Tenth Doctor is exuberant, embracing all that life, the universe, and everything has to offer. The dynamic between him and Rose is more comfortable than the one Rose and the Ninth Doctor shared, and he seems perfectly fine with it when Rose describes their first sojourn into the future as their "first date."
Rose: Notice the difference between the way Rose says goodbye to her mom and to Mickey. She recites a series of effusive "I love yous" to her mom. When Mickey says he loves her, she simply responds, "Bye." Don't think Mickey won't be reflecting on that. She is still adjusting to the differences in this "new new Doctor," but she does seem very comfortable with his youthful new persona.
THOUGHTS
New Earth is not a good episode, but that should come with a qualifier. For 3/4 of its running time, New Earth is actually pretty good fun. My problems with the episode have little to do with the forced comedy, enough of which actually works to make up for the hackneyed body-switch plot. My problems have nothing at all to do with bad science at the climax. I don't care if the way the Doctor applies the cure for some nonexistent sci-fi diseases doesn't line up with real medicine.
No, my problems with New Earth rest almost entirely with its last 10 minutes. Everything's running along smoothly. The story is wafer-thin, but it is a fun action/comedy romp. Then Cassandra pops into the head of one of the zombies... and is apparently so overwhelmed by what she finds that she suddenly becomes a completely different character inside of about two minutes' screen time. "I'm dying... but it's all right" may be a noble sentiment. But it's one that goes against everything about a character who has been defined by clawing for more life, trampling over the lives of others in the process.
That could be effective, too, if it was the result of convincing character growth. But Russell T. Davies' teleplay simply takes one two dimensional character and flips her into becoming a completely different two-dimensional character. As a result, everything about the ending simply comes across as mawkish and false.
In an episode whose virtues were fairly mild to begin with, an ending such as this is a disaster. The result is the worst new series episode I've reviewed to this point... though worse will eventually come.
Rating: 4/10.
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