Friday, June 1, 2012

Doctor Who Season 2 Episode 2 "New Earth"



As an effort to justify our somewhat obsessive T.V watching Meghan (Of Coffee and Wizards and @MegTao on Twitter) and myself have decided to undertake a Doctor Who Watch-a-long. We'll be starting with the beginning of the 2005 relaunch and will be posting about one episode every Wednesday and Friday, on our respective blogs. We hope you'll join in – whether as a re-watch or to discover the Doctor for the first time!

*just a heads up each post may contain spoilers for that episode and then ones before it*



Episode Summary

Written by: Russel T Davies
Directed by: James Hawes
The Doctor uses the TARDIS to take Rose to the farthest point he's ever taken her, to the year five billion and twenty-three in the M87 galaxy. Humanity, after the destruction of the Earth, settled onto a very Earth-like world, called "New Earth", and Rose admires its beauty. The Doctor is summoned to "Ward 26" in a hospital in New New York through his psychic paper, and while he travels to the Ward, gets separated from Rose. In the Ward, the Doctor meets several humanoid feline nuns of the Sisters of Plenitude who are overseeing the patients, all who have incurable maladies but are somehow being cured by the Sisters.

Thoughts on the Episode
Rose and the Doctor have travelled all the way to "New Earth". I have mixed feelings about the so called New Earth right off the start. First I thought it was kind of morbid, like stuffing your dead dog. Then I thought it was inspiring the way humanity rallied together and put aside  to create a New Earth. And then the pessimism kicked in and I figured future humanity would probably mess this one up too. What can I say? I'm complex.

Anyway once they're on the planet they make their way to a hospital run by cat nuns. Yes cat nuns. These cat nuns decided the Hippocratic oath was not going to be a part of New Earth and infected an entire warehouse of people with EVERY DISEASE. And I don't mean one person for each disease. I mean each person has ALL THE DISEASES! All of this just reaffirmed my belief that cats are not to be trusted.



This episode also see's the return of Cassandra (The Last Human from Season 1). Her return and subsequent taking over the bodies of Rose and the Doctor adds some fantastic humour to this episode. Like her attempt to speak with a Cockney accent. , or David Tennant pretending to be a woman living in a man's body. David Tennant you are foxy - even when your mind has been taken over by an evil crazy lady.


All craziness aside this is a good episode. It asks some good ethical questions. Like when does medical research serve the greatest good and when is it harmful? And how long should life last? And is it any wonder the Doctor has a god complex when he created an entire sub species of humans?

And the most important question of all - why can't I pull a Cassandra and put myself in this situation



Favourite Moment
It's a toss up between when the cat nuns realize they're caught and they whip out the line "who needs arms when we have claws!" and when the Doctor straps the antibiotics for every disease (?) to his chest and slides down the elevator shaft.

The Doctor is my superhero.


2 comments:

  1. This was not my favorite episode, but there were some funny moments. When Cassandra took over a third person and said "Oh, look! I'm a walking doodle" I nearly spit coffee everywhere.

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  2. I can't tear my eyes away from the Doctor!Cassandra dancing gif. Unf unf unf.

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