So we have seen the first full
outing of the new Doctor. My first
thought was that David Tennant was clearly made for the role. He simply IS the Doctor – there is none of
that feeling of awkwardness while waiting to see how the new Doctor settles
down that usually accompanies a regeneration.
Christopher Eccleston had taken some getting used to, though I shed a
tear at the hologram speech in The
Parting of the Ways. Five minutes
into New Earth, and it was a case of
Christopher Who?
Cassandra, on the other hand was a
revelation. I had not really taken to
her in The End of the World. I found her character a bit, well,
two-dimensional. Putting her into Billie Piper’s body dealt very effectively
with that problem. Much as I like Rose
as a companion, I found the bitchy Cassandra/Rose a fascinating twist, and
would have been quite happy for Cassandra to stay put for a while. It was
rather strange to have a story involving body-swapping so soon after the
introduction of a new Doctor, but David Tennant coped very well. I wonder if Zoë Wanamaker has forgiven him
yet?
Overall, though, there seemed to be
rather too many disparate elements crammed in to the episode. Next week looks like an improvement.
That was better. Pauline Collins was an excellent Queen
Victoria, and the CGI werewolf worked well.
But kung fu monks in Victorian Scotland? What can Russell T Tarantino
have been thinking? Perhaps the plan is
to use them later as station idents and thus save the Beeb some money. I wonder
what the production team have against the Royal family though. In The
Christmas Invasion they were reportedly on the roof (I would have been up
there too), and now it is being suggested that they are werewolves.
Now we’re getting somewhere. This could have been terrible, but
fortunately was brilliant. Anthony Head
was great as the creepy Headmaster, and as for Lis Sladen, well, either she has
a picture in her attic, or L’Oreal has missed an advertising opportunity. Billie Piper got to do some seriously cheesed
off acting as a dinner lady, and a lovely bitchy act with Sarah Jane. And Mickey has discovered his role in life.
At the end when the Doctor said goodbye to Sarah again and left her with K9
mark whatever, I was quite overcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment