New series, new Doctor, new squee levels from the fan girls, but was New Earth any good? Same old reviews here…
Yes, there are spoilers here. What were you expecting?
Um, no mister director person speaking on Confidential – no amount of special effects can make a windy and overcast Welsh clifftop look like paradise on (New) Earth. The CGI and other effects in this episode were top notch though.
As was the acting. Oh yes, Billie Piper had a chance to ham it wonderfully up and milked it for every drop, and then David Tennant joined in and raised it to camp factor ten. Ignoring the possession storyline, I liked Tennant’s take on the Doctor – playfullness with a dark undercurrent. It was recognisably the same person as before (most noticeably the same person as Ecclestone – as one would expect from the same writer) but with aspects brought to the fore. Which, of course, is just how it’s meant to be.
I said when I reviewed Rose I mentioned that Ecclestone had most in common with Troughton and Davison – actors who treated it as a character part – rather than with Pertwee or Baker who were more personality based. Tennant seems to be trying to walk the line between the two approaches and it will be interesting to see if he steps one way or the other as time goes by.
Now, the plot. Or plots. For 45 minutes there was a lot going on. Too much perhaps. Having two returning characters in two separate sub-plots plus the main threat of the week was perhaps too much for the season opener. Last year’s opener was equally packed but stayed focussed on Rose and her entrance into the Doctor’s world. This year there was no central focus and the whole thing felt rushed and confused.
So all in all, a nice round 7/10 I think
I see already that there was a fair amount of misdirection in the trailer shown at the end of The Christmas Invasion. We were expecting the kiss to be a plot point and here it is dismissed in episode one (double bluff? looks like there are more smoochies to come), but the line “bullets can’t stop it” was in amongst the Cybermen clips in the trailer, but now we see that it’s from next week’s episode instead.
Werewolf. Queen Victoria. And I’ll be totally knackered from a day at Salute. Bring it on.