Christmas Invasion and New Earth, now available to order on DVD from the UK.  |
 What
an episode! We are reacquainted with the new Doctor as he takes Rose on
a new date to a new date. The year 5 billion and 26 where human beings
have settled on a New Earth and named the city the 16th New York. The Doctor
receives a call from the Face of Boe on the psychic paper and heads off
to a hospital that can cure anybody of anything.
Cassandra, from Season 1s End of the World, reappears to take over Rose's body. Apparently her skin in End of the World was from her front this piece is from her back. Her intelligence is kept in a brain in a jar, (just like Morbius or Lister!) Cassandra-Rose gets to kiss the Doctor and help him find out what great secret is going on at the hospital. The Cat Nurses have used human beings as places to store their culture factory of 1000 diseases. The human meat comes up with a cure and so they can then cure any disease in the universe. The only problem is that the infected humans, thanks to Cassandra, have escaped and are now killing everyone they touch. There were hundreds of extras. Last year there was a competition to be an extra on Doctor Who. I suspect that this is where a lot of the winners ended up!
And look out for this line from Cassandra - 'It was the last time anyone told me I was beautiful' It's important! Action scenes including plummeting down an elevator to the bottom of the shaft but some minor holes were also evident in that it is unlikely the Doctor and Rose could climb that distance in only a few minutes, and why were the zombie-like infected hoards wearing 21st century hairstyles, and clothes. If they were just meat, why dress them?
|
There was
a lot of humour in this episode. Science Fiction fans will probably guess
everything that is likely to happen in this story while Rose is still struggling
to come to terms with understanding a lift with a disinfectant system.
If you watch it more than once you can usually spot the throw away lines
that tend to explain things. "We understand the machine" means that the
'meat' gained sentience and understanding of language and awareness through
their connection with the disease support system. (Maybe that's how they
learnt to cut their hair?)
Zoe Wanamaker
finally makes an appearance in this episode so we get to see what Cassandra
used to look like via her old film reals and a trip back in time. No mention
of the throwaway line from End of the World 'When I was a little boy...'
But, really,
the holes were minor and the episode was a fun romp through space and time.
It was a great 'official' first outing for the Tennant Doctor. Well worth
watching.
