New Earth (Doctor Who)

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For other uses, see New Earth (disambiguation).

168 – "New Earth"
Doctor Who episode
Cast
Others
Production
Directed by
Series 2
Running time45 minutes
First broadcast15 April 2006 (2006-04-15)
Chronology
← Preceded by
"The Christmas Invasion" (episode)
"Attack of the Graske" (interactive episode) 		Followed by →
"Tooth and Claw"
List of Doctor Who episodes (2005–present)

"New Earth" is the first episode of the

science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One
on 15 April 2006.

The episode is set five billion years in the future on New Earth, a planet humanity settled on following the destruction of the

Face of Boe makes his second appearance before his last appearance in "Gridlock
", the third and final sequel episode to the "New Earth Trilogy".

Plot

Synopsis

The

Face of Boe telepathically summons the Doctor to a hospital ward in New New York. In the ward, the Doctor notices humanoid feline nuns of the Sisters of Plenitude have been curing incurable diseases. Meanwhile, Rose is separated from the Doctor and is tricked by Lady Cassandra
into having Cassandra's mind implanted in Rose's body.

The Sisters of Plenitude as shown at the Doctor Who Experience

The Doctor and Cassandra discover that the hospital houses thousands of pods containing artificially grown humans in what is supposedly the intensive care unit. The artificial humans are forcibly infected with every disease in the galaxy so that the Sisters can discover the cures as a way of dealing with the influx of settlers and the diseases they brought with them. Cassandra reveals she is in Rose's body and knocks the Doctor out with a perfume gas, locking him in a pod. Cassandra then approaches Sister Jatt and demands payment in exchange for keeping the human test subjects secret. The Sisters refuse, and Cassandra releases the Doctor and some of the humans as a distraction. The infected humans release others from their pods and soon a zombie-like attack begins, with those infected trying to attack others in the hospital.

The Doctor and Cassandra reach the Face of Boe's ward and grab all the intravenous medical solutions, emptying them into a disinfectant shower installed in a lift. They apply the mixture to a group of infected humans, who within moments become cured of their diseases. The Doctor encourages them to go and spread the cure to the other infected people, and soon the attack is over. The police arrest the surviving Sisters, while the Face of Boe tells the Doctor that the message for him can wait until they meet for the third and final time.

The Doctor orders Cassandra out of Rose's body. Cassandra's servant Chip volunteers to accept her consciousness. Chip's cloned body begins to fail, and Cassandra finally accepts her death. The Doctor takes Cassandra back to see herself on the last night someone had called her beautiful. Cassandra, in Chip's body, approaches her younger self at a party and tells her that she is beautiful, before collapsing and dying in her arms.

Outside references

Cassandra uses the UK

Cockney rhyming slang. Rose refers to Chip as "Gollum
".

Production

The Face of Boe last appeared in The End of the World. His role was elevated from his previously incidental role.

Russell T Davies said of the episode "I promised Billie [Piper] an episode in which she'd be funny. So episode one of the new series is very much based around comedy for Billie."[1]

The exterior scenes on New Earth were shot at

The Mill.[3]

The producer's and director's credits have been amended slightly since "The Christmas Invasion", so that now the credit is in lower case and the name of the crew-member is in capitals. This was the result of a suggestion from a Doctor Who Magazine editor, who felt the previous arrangement had made the job seem more important than the crewmember.

This episode is set twenty-three years after the events of the 2005 episode "

ontological paradox
.

Also in the commentary, Tennant noted that the TARDIS has moved since "The Christmas Invasion". He speculates that there might have been many off-screen adventures, or (observing that it no longer seems like Christmas in the introduction) perhaps that the Doctor "lived there for a bit".

Cast notes

Adjoa Andoh returned to Doctor Who in five episodes of Series 3 and the final two episodes of Series 4, as

Year of the Pig
.

Broadcast and reception

Overnight ratings for the episode peaked at 8.3 million viewers in the UK,

TARDISODE
.

The Canadian

Ztélé
, under the title Une nouvelle Terre.

This episode was released together with "The Christmas Invasion" as a basic

boxset on 20 November 2006. *Copies of the DVD from the complete Series 2 set distributed to Netflix customers contained an error: at the 32-minute mark, the playback switched abruptly to a scene from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. Netflix has pulled the disc from their inventory while they work out the issue with the BBC; this only seems to have affected Netflix copies.[8]

IGN rated the episode 7.2 out of 10, concluding, "Although this was an entertaining episode, it did not have the dramatic impact of the previous episode. Overall, 'New Earth' featured more than a few interesting moments, such as the scenes with the Doctor and the Face of Boe, and Billie Piper's performance as the Casandra-possessed Rose was hilarious; but the zombie attack felt quite out of place for a Doctor Who episode".[9] Nick Setchfield of SFX questioned whether the "brash, colourful and occasionally howl-out-loud funny" tone was appropriate enough to start the series, but he praised the concept of the cat nuns as well as their prosthetics, Tennant's performance, and the ending that "alchemises the broad strokes comedy into something genuinely moving".[10] Writing for The A.V. Club in 2014, Alasdair Wilkins gave "New Earth" the grade of "C+". He noted that, likely due to production difficulties, it "too often feels like it is missing vital context" and suffered from unconvincing special effects. Furthermore, he criticised the story for being "caught between two irreconcilable tones" and featuring a "baffling" ending that wished to redeem Cassandra. Nevertheless, he found Tennant's performance to be impressive though not as coherent as he eventually will be, and he praised Piper despite the fact that the story lacked Rose's character.[11]

Notes

  1. ^ The natural destruction of the Earth caused by the sun expanding is depicted in the 2005 episode "The End of the World".

References

  1. ^ Radio Times, 8–14 April
  2. ^ "Walesarts, Worm's Head, Rhossili, Gower". BBC. Retrieved 30 May 2010.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Doctor Who New Earth location guide". BBC. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
  4. ^ Mcalpine, Fraser (2015). "'Doctor Who': 10 Things You May Not Know About 'New Earth'". BBC America. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
  5. ^ "Doctor Who attracts eight million". BBC News. 16 April 2006. Retrieved 21 January 2007.
  6. Broadcasters' Audience Research Board
    . Retrieved 29 March 2012.
  7. ^ "none", Doctor Who Magazine: Series Two Companion, no. 14 – Special Edition, 9 November 2006
  8. ^ Bement, Jeremy (20 January 2007). "Netflix needs the Doctor". Outpost Gallifrey News Page. Archived from the original on 20 January 2007. Retrieved 21 January 2007.
  9. ^ Haque, Ahsan (2 October 2006). "Doctor Who: "New Earth" Review". IGN. Retrieved 15 August 2011.
  10. ^ Setchfield, Nick (30 March 2006). "Doctor Who: New Earth". SFX. Archived from the original on 9 May 2006. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
  11. ^ Wilkins, Alasdair (26 January 2014). "Review: Doctor Who: "New Earth"/"Tooth and Claw"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 27 May 2014.

External links

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