DOCTOR WHO: "New Earth"

[rj_anderson]

I hate to write two negative reviews in a row, especially for two of my favorite shows, but... wow, that was dumb.

No, really, that was really, really dumb. In fact, I am beginning to think that Russell T. Davies should be forcibly prevented from writing any more episodes.

The moronic, done-to-death body-switching scenario, for one. The rubbishy science that doesn't even try to be remotely plausible even in its vagueness -- gotta love these terrible nameless diseases which infect you instantaneously, yet don't prevent you from all kinds of physical exertion (hello, Russell T., did it never occur to you that humans grown as flesh who have spent their lives in an incubator will have no muscle tone, let alone enough muscle to climb ladders and shove doors open? Have you not even seen The Matrix, for pity's sake?) and are just as instantaneously cured. I know Doctor Who has never purported to be hard SF, but this wasn't even soft SF, it was just plain sloppy.

It wasn't that witty, either -- not even up to RTD's usual standard. And I agree with those who've said that the Doctor/Rose moments seemed kind of forced.

Ech.

Holding out good hopes for next week, though. The previews look really cool.

Comments

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

That would indeed have been much cooler.

But -- correct me if I'm wrong -- didn't the Doctor say that each of "the flesh" had been infected with all the diseases -- like about a thousand diseases each? In which case there'd have been nothing for the Doctor to guess, he'd just know that he'd end up exactly like every other test subject in the incubators, all covered in pustules and whatnot.

The more I think about it, the more completely unworkable the whole plot becomes. We saw two of the diseases that "the flesh" was being afflicted with, and one turned you to stone while another one turned you red and left you hanging in midair making odd blipping noises ("Marconi's Disease"). So how was it that "the flesh", in spite of being afflicted with these very same diseases, were still spry and mobile (and flesh-coloured)?

Not to mention that having even ten different serious diseases at once would leave you completely incapacitated, let alone the thousand that "the flesh" were supposed to be carrying. Oy.

If Russell T. Davies were a six-year-old, I'd be congratulating him on a great story. But otherwise... not so much.

[kerravonsen]

He needs a beta-reader.

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

"But -- correct me if I'm wrong -- didn't the Doctor say that each of "the flesh" had been infected with all the diseases -- like about a thousand diseases each? "

Well, yeah, Which is daft, as you note. So I was imagining the somewhat more plausible scenario that, say, each "floor" of the "intensive care" place was used for studying a different disease, or something like that. Which would be a far more useful way for the cats to be studying them.