Revisiting Doctor Who – Series 2, Episode 1 – New Earth

Revisiting Doctor Who – Series 2, Episode 1 – New Earth

The Doctor paces around the TARDIS, pressing buttons and pulling levers. Rose bids Jackie and Mickey goodbye, ready to leave on another adventure, further than they’ve ever been before…

Cue title sequence…

They arrive in the year 5,000,000,023 in the galaxy M-87, at New Earth. Cars are flying around, and the landscape is frankly bloody amazing – I wish we had a futuristic landscape like this nowadays, and ‘apple grass’ that smelt amazing, rather than of cow poo. They link arms, look into each other’s arms, and tell each other how much they love travelling together, and once we’ve wiped up the vomit that’s just come out at them being so lovey-dovey, we move on. They’re being watched however by someone and their toy spider robot, and they seem excited that Rose is ‘pure-blood’. 

The Doctor explains that New Earth was founded after the original Earth was destroyed in The End of the World in Series 1. They’re in the city of New New York (technically the 15^th of the name). Being observed again, we hear someone who sounds awfully like Casandra from the same episode...It IS Cassandra! I thought she’d popped?  Anyway, The Doctor had a message on his psychic paper asking him to come to ‘Ward 26’, so they’re off to the local hospital. It appears to be full of cat people doctors, which understandably shocks Rose, but The Doctor tells her not to stare, as her own human-pink and yellow person will probably look strange to them. He gets into a lift to Ward 26, but Rose is too late and has to get into the adjoining one – the strange guy helping Cassandra has control though, so The Doctor heads up, whilst she heads down. The disinfection process that The Doctor tries to warn Rose about takes her a bit by surprise though, blasting water at her, before drying her off. I HATE being wet. That would be HELL for me.

Rose arrives in the basement, only to bump into the creepy guy helping Cassandra, who says in his best creepy voice, ‘The human child is clean’. He tells her to follow him, so she picks up a metal weapon before doing so, which is a good move I’d expect.

The Doctor makes it to Ward 26, lamenting the lack of a shop, but smiling when he realises that it was the Face of Boe who called for him. Although he’s dying of old age, so there’s no cure. Apparently he’s thousands, or even millions of years old.

Rose enters a room where an old film is playing of a party with a lady who Rose recognises as a younger Cassandra, who it turns out is just behind her, with her helper Gollum Chip. She still needs moisturising.

At this point, I'd like to moan about how I'd spent another hour and a half writing up the majority of the rest of this review, only for what I'd typed not to save and I lost the entire bloody lot. However, I've noticed that my reviews seem to be getting longer and longer, and surely can't be much fun for anyone to read, and if you're anything like me it's probably the comments below the recap of the storyline that you're actually interested in, so from now on I'm going to try and shorten the recap down considerable. With that in mind, here's the rest of the recap, in very short form as I still can't find the energy to do it in detail:

Cassandra puts her mind into Rose's body, which comes across as bizarrely erotic due to Billie Piper's posh accent (or is that just me?). The doctor suspects something but doesn't realise that it's Cassandra. When they investigate the strange fact that illnesses that shouldn't be curable yet are being cured, they go in search of the reason, heading into a secret part of the hospital, where the secret is revealed - there are thousands upon thousands of human bodies kept in pods, grown specifically to be infected with every single disease, so that they can come up with the cure quickly. When The Doctor confronts some of the cat doctors, they claim that they are doing it for good, but The Doctor orders them all to be shut down, and also wants to know what they've done with Rose. Cassandra reveals herself at this point, knocking out The Doctor and placing him in a pod, but when the cat people threaten her she releases all the patients. Bye bye all cat doctors in the vicinity.

And that's where I got up to, so back on with the show.

The Doctor and Rose/Cassandra flee, and Cassandra decides that this would be a great time to try being The Doctor, freeing Rose and taking over his consciousness, in what must be one the greatest camp performances in science-fiction history. They flee up an escape shaft, as the plague victims flood the hospital. Swapping back and forth between Rose and The Doctor, she eventually has to get inside a plague victim to aid the escape, getting a hint of how lonely they are. When they finally make it back into the main hospital, it looks like the 'healthy' patients are going to try to break quarantine, so The Doctor and Rose/Cassandra flee down the lift shaft with a load of medicine bags. At the bottom they make a medicine cocktail, and then start the lift disinfection process using it, soaking them all with the antidote to their ills, which spreads amongst them, curing everyone. The Doctor's pretty excited that he got to play at being a doctor. I just can't help but wonder why he didn't change into dry clothes immediately.

Before they leave New Earth, The Face of Boe promises to meet The Doctor one last time and tell his secret then. There's also the matter of Cassandra being in Rose's body still. Cassandra leaves Rose to be in Chip's body, but as he only has a half-life, his body begins to fail. Cassandra/Chip refuses any extra medical aid, saying it's time that she died, and as one last act of kindness The Doctor taken her/him back to a party that she attended in her younger days, when she wasn't a sheet of skin. Cassandra tells her younger self how beautiful she looks, before dying. The Doctor and Rose leave in silence.

Series 2 is up and running, and it's an interesting start. Visiting New Earth far in the future is exciting, as is seeing all the aliens in the hospital. The main theme of the story, breeding humans to have supposedly never learned to feel anything so that others can be cured is one of those that can inspire great debate (think of the argument of whether animals should be tested on to develop cures for humans and it's basically the same thing), as you can understand where the cat doctors are coming from, although it's clear really that they're wrong. It's this, along with the chemistry between Tennant and Piper that is already developing marvellously, that make up the episode's strongest points. 

The ending is a bit of a let down, to be honest. Cassandra goes from complaining and whining whilst in Rose's body, to sudden acceptance in Chip's, and it's a bit too abrupt a chance to be believable. Still, they had to end the episode somehow I suppose, but I've seen much stronger finishes. It's still a good episode, with excellent humour in places, but I'm not desperate to see it again soon.

In terms of the characters, when Rose links arms with The Doctor after their arrival on New Earth, and tells him how much she loves travelling with him, it’s pretty obvious again what her heart is really saying. His reply that he does too, whilst less than obvious than Rose’s declaration, marks the start of the real path down their romantic link, which will culminate in the finale, Doomsday. Well, it’ll truly reach a conclusion in the Series 4 finale, Journey’s End, but that’s the meta-Doctor, so doesn’t count here. It’s a controversial move for many fans, having The Doctor and companion fall in love, but it’s only with hindsight that we really recognise it on his part at this point. Cassandra in The Doctor's body spells it out at one point, as she comments on how she knows that Rose thinks The Doctor is foxy.

The episode has some hilarious moments, as we've come to expect at this point. Having lost half of my review, I can't pinpoint all the classic moments, but there are plenty. What I can remember are little snippets, such as Cassandra (in The Doctor's body) declaring that 'no matter how difficult the situation, there is no need to shout! whilst they are being chased by the plague victims, or her horror as she realises 'I'm a chav!' when she first goes into Rose. It's classic modern Who humour, and it's carried on perfectly from Series 1. Both Piper and Tennant as Cassandra are wonderful. Whilst Piper plays her as being very seductive (seriously, there's something incredibly sexy about it all), Tennant goes for the giddy excitable side, which is a wonder to behold. 

This is such a small thing, but it’s one bit that I’ve always loved about the Tenth Doctor – when The Doctor first gets into the hospital lift without Rose, he shouts down to her a few times to watch out for the disinfectant, which she mishears each time, so he just says ‘Oh, you’ll find out…’ to himself. Whenever I think of Tennant’s portrayal, a large part of it is taking up by him talking to himself like this, so it’s great to see it back so early on. Wasn’t that a lovely little point to talk about? I think so.

In another small aside, Mickey gets a kiss goodbye (on the lips!) for a change, but still no return to his ‘I love you’ from Rose – poor lad.

David Tennant has already slipped into the role brilliantly, displaying lots of the characteristics that make him one of the most popular Doctors of all time. No matter how great Ecclestone was, he's already forgotten now.

Hats off to Billie Piper once more - her performance as Cassandra is excellent fun, and she shows her acting chops well when Cassandra has just returned to her following being in a plague victim's head - the despair she feels is obvious.

How Does It Fit Into The Series As A Whole

The Face of Boe says that The Doctor will meet him one final time, and reveal his great secret. This will happen in Series 3 - ill resist posting a spoiler.

Overall

It's not the greatest episode, but there's a strong moral conundrum to debate, and Tennant and Piper are playing off each other wonderfully, with great performances as Cassandra in turn.

7/10

Doctor Who - Celebrating Christopher Eccleston As The Ninth Doctor

Doctor Who – Celebrating Christopher Eccleston As The Ninth Doctor

I’ve just finished watching Series 1 of the modern Doctor Who – you can see all the episode reviews elsewhere on my blog, or you can read the series overview for a general review of it. As you’re no doubt aware, this was Christopher Eccleston's sole series as The Doctor, so it’s time to pay tribute to his work.

With David Tennant following him, and Matt Smith being the most recent Doctor (before Peter Capaldi takes over), Christopher Eccleston tends to get forgotten a bit. In a way it's understandable - he was the first to play The Doctor in modern Who, he was only in it for one season, and Tennant and Smith are more alike than either is with Eccleston. It's completely unfair to him though, because there are so many strengths that he brought to the role:

His strengths as an actor
First off, Christopher Eccleston is an absolutely fantastic actor. If you've seen him in anything else you'll know this, and there were moments in Series 1 that were some of the best acted in the whole of Who history. The two moments in particular that come to mind are firstly when The Doctor is shouting at the Dalek in Dalek, and is taken aback when he is told 'You would make a good Dalek'. You can see on his face just how badly he is struck by this, and it's from this point on that he slowly starts to try to forgive himself for what happened in the Time War. Secondly, there's the part of the finale when the Daleks taunt him about having to destroy Earth to stop them, and he tells them that he can't and chooses to be a coward, unable to do again what he did once before with the genocide of both the Daleks and his own people. These two moments are two of the highlights of the series, and the emotion running throughout helps to show why this programme is so special.

Fantastic!
Whilst the Ninth Doctor doesn't have the same manic energy as the Tenth or Eleventh, there's still plenty of excitement in him. Whenever you see his manic grin from ear to ear, like a school boy in a sweet shop, you smile along with him, no matter what he's getting excited about.

He's Northern
I'm not highlighting this just because I'm Northern too - it's because there's something just so wonderful about his Northern accent and mannerisms make him so different than all the other Doctors, past and present. There's the grumpy side and the sarcastic side in particular that make me laugh every time, perfectly reminiscent or plenty of people I know, and not what you expect in a science-fiction show.

His chemistry with Billie Piper, Camille Coduri and Noel Clarke
Aside from the Dalek moments mentioned above, one of the main highlights for me was the relationship that The Doctor shared with Rose, Jackie and Mickey. He and Rose worked so well together, him the veteran of the stars and her the wide-eyed newbie, but in many ways his relationships with Jackie and Mickey were even better, just because they were so damned funny. I still laugh thinking about Jackie meeting him in the pilot, talking about how there's a strange man in her bedroom, and his reaction to it. It really is comedy gold.

Without him, there'd be no Tennant or Smith
Well, David Tennant was the strong rumour to play the role before Eccleston llanded it so maybe that's a little untrue, but certainly I can't imagine Matt Smith getting the role of the Ninth Doctor. The fact that Eccleston's Doctor is that bit more subdued was essential for re-introducing the character to modern audiences. Can you imagine Matt Smith as the first Doctor following the show being off the air for 16 years? I absolutely love Smith's performance, but I just don't think anyone quite that manic and eccentric would have worked first time - it feels like a natural progression for The Doctor to get a little more manic each time he regenerates at the moment, and the fact that we expect Peter Capaldi to be a more serious Doctor and therefore breaking this mould is fine because of the dark theme that we expect the 50th Anniversary Special to have. A Doctor coming straight out of the horrors of the Time War had to be that bit darker like Eccleston, and I think Tennant is much better having that ever so slight removal by starting in Series 2.

The Final Word
Christopher Eccleston was a different Doctor to Tennant and Smith, but for all the right reasons - he introduced us to a Doctor who has just committed double genocide and is at odds with himself, and he allowed this pain to ease in time for Tennant to take over. He was equal parts grumpy and excited, and provided us with some of the best-acted moments in Who history. He's a remarkable actor, and though it's undoubtedly a shame that we didn't get to see more of him than just a single series, perhaps we can look back at his impact on the series now and appreciate it all the more for this reason.

Today, I Discovered...The Agonist

Today I Discovered...The Agonist

Ah, the 'new, regular feature'. If you've ever tried to have a regular feature of your blog, you probably know that all of a sudden you feel desperately under pressure to produce the goods...well, regularly. There were a few things I wanted to do regularly when I started this blog, 'Classic Covers' being one of theme, where I would pick the best music covers from YouTube to blog about, but a many months on and I've still only done the one so far. So, it's with a certain amount of uncertainty that I've decided to create an ad hoc feature called 'Today I Discovered...'. The idea is that anything knew I find that I love, I'll blog about, in the hope of getting my three subscribed members (at the very least) looking it up.

So, what's first?

Congratulations, Canadian Metal band The Agonist, you're the first entry!

Who?

The Agonist are a Canadian metal band who consist of Alissa White-Gluz (vocals), Danny Marino (guitar), Pascal 'Paco' Jobin (guitar), Chris Kells (bass, backing vocals) and Simon McKay (drums, percussion). Thanks for that Wikipedia. They've got, in my mind, a mix of Melodic Death Metal and Metalcore, so imagine Arch Enemy mixed with early Trivium, in no small part due to the fact that Alissa White-Gluz is the best female vocalist at growling that I've heard since Angela Gossow. As a bonus, she also has a fantastic clean vocal too.

I came across the video for Thank You Pain today (fine, last week, but I'm not about to destroy the integrity of this regular feature's title already), and it blew me away for several reasons:

1. Alissa White-Gluz's vocals, both growled and clean, immediately make you sit up and think hell is being unleashed. whilst mantaining some wonderful melodies
2. The guitars are wonderfully heavy and melodic
3. The subject matter of an accused criminal being interrogated by the prosecution in court is played wonderfully by the harsh vocals of the prosecution vs the clean vocals of the defence.

Take a look and have a listen:

I don't know about you, but I bloody love that track.

Of course, one song a great band does not make - I've checked out many other songs, and there are some fabulously melodic tunes from this band. I love a band that can sound heavy as hell, yet still bring the same emotive quality of a haunting piano piece to the table.

So, What Are You Telling Me To Do?

Listen to Thank You Pain, then go out and buy any of their (as of today) three albums. Play then loud, play them again, play them a third time, and remind yourself just how powerful the same of the female growl is, particularly when backed up by a band who can create brilliantly heavy yet wonderfully melodic at the same time.