Doctor Who 2x01 - "New Earth"

[Ross Hendrie]

Seeing as Danny is away atm and all that, I thought Id create this topic so we can start off the discussion. Danny can move it to the appropriate forum when he returns.

In this weeks' episode, the Doctor takes Rose to visit mankind's new home, in the far future, but the Lady Cassandra is out for revenge.

So what did everyone think?

[Chris Britton]

It was a real let down, after The Christmas Invasion i had high hopes for the series as a whole, but a bad plot, messy acting by David Tennant left me unconvinced, especially after TCI which i thought he did very well. I was really wondering what he was thinking, and i did not feel moved in this plot like did on other episodes like 'Dalek' or 'The Lonely Child' two of the best episodes which left me sad or scared. This plot was a mess. Billie was as wonderful as ever, and seeing Cassandra back was a nice twist. but this better nto set the standard for the whole season, or i am sure Doctor Who will dissappear again. I give this episode a 3 out of 5, and i am being generous, as i was going to give it a 2.

[Ronnie Rowlands]

That episode wasnt as great as I thought it would be, but i have high hopes for the next episode. I think Davids acting has IMPROVED from TCI, he seems to have calmed down a bit, and he seems a lot more convincing by not solving a problem with complete ease (as shown in TCI)

[Ross Hendrie]

I would tend to agree with you guys, I thought the plot was poor, but David Tennant definately made the best of a bad situation. I didn't think he was as good as in TCI right enough.

[Chris Britton]

Looking back, i did say in the TCI review that i thought David tennant was acting very well, and this time he let me down, i can put that down to a bad plot and/or script, But i do hope things get better. I agree with Ross's last comment

[Danny Stewart]

I enjoyed the episode, but only in a shallow, superficial way. I thought the quality of the writing was at a new all-time low for the series. I know RTD generally produces the poorest-written episodes of the show, but even for him, this one was pretty bad. The problem and the solution were both too clean, too clear-cut. And also it bothers me that he likes round numbers so much, with "1000 diseases" and all that. Just like in series one, with the years 200,000 (exactly) and 200,100 (exactly). I just find that annoying. I am expecting things to pick up dramatically after next week's episode.

There are two things I would like to mention though. First is David Tennant -- I don't know what you people are talking about, because in my opinion David Tennant was able to better his slightly over-the-top performance in "The Christmas Invasion." Whatever way you look at it, the man's downright brilliant and I'm expecting that as time goes by, it'll take more than your fingers and toes to count the reasons that he's perfect to play the Doctor. He hasn't let me down even by a single iota yet. (The writing, maybe, but David Tennant, no.)

The other thing I wanted to mention was the music. I'm a bit disappointed in Murray Gold because I noticed that a bunch of the music in the episode was just reused or recycled music from series one. Come on, it's a whole new series, new season, new year, so give us some new music instead of just reusing old stuff from before! (I have nothing against the music itself, just the reuse of it.) Also, he has reused the "Christmas Invasion" themes for both the opening (sort of a combination of his series one opening and closing themes) and closing (the BBC National Orchestra of Wales version with middle eight section of the theme). Just something to note.

Anyway, that's my two cents on the episode. Hope you enjoyed it.

[Chris Britton]

Fair enough Danny, i look back and feel David Tennants actign was hampered by the poor writing and plot, especially after The Christmas Invasion. Im hoping things will pick up soon