S28E01 - New Earth

[loup-garou]

One thing that irritates me about Tenant is his received pronunciation. Some actors hypercorrect their accents, tending to make them sound (and look) false no matter what they are portraying. Whenever Tenant speaks on screen, and especially when we see his mouth move, we subliminally react to every microminiature muscle-wrangle involved in the adoption of a false voice. As if the mouth that years of speaking in a Scottish accent has moulded moves in obscure and perverse directions that threaten to tear its unity and history to shreads. No matter how good his acting skills, he can't conceal the basic inauthenticity of his speech, which divorces and fractures his screen presence. What's so bad about a Scottish accent (aside from the comparisons it would invite with the seventh doctor)?

As a broad mancunian (I went to the same school as CE), the obvious adoption of received pronunciation strikes (and irritates) me as a theatrical hangover of the 20th century that wagers on dramatising Tenant's true acting skills whilst actually staking the whole show. It is no little irony then that in the New Earth episode Billie Piper's adoption of a plummy accent to portray Cassandra was screen-stealing, because it demarcated her Rose far more characteristically than Tenant is able to identify his Doctor.

And although I thought that one of those cat creatures was very, very, cute in a sordid and almost perverse way , I'm still wincing at those claws and the now-you-see-it-now-you-don't special effect "illnesses". Yes its a thumbs down from me, and I agree that Billie Piper has carried this doctor so far this season.

Cam on noo laddie, get it in gear.

[Fluffy]

I like Tenant. I think he is already better then Eccleston. I think the problem lies with the quality of the script and not with hem.
If we will ever get a decent episode with him I suspect people will start thinking better of him.
And I'm getting more and more respect for Billie. She is doing a great job.

[loup-garou]

I like Tenant. I think he is already better then Eccleston. I think the problem lies with the quality of the script and not with hem.

Yes, I find Tenant likeable still, but not more so than CE. And I would definitely agree that the scripts are wrong-footed. But I'm not sure we have identified just what "the problem" is. In my opinion the writers are trying to be too clever, interweaving too many little segments of wider arcs in the style of Douglas Adams or Iain Banks but because of the format having to compress every scene into its tightest and highest pitch. The storytelling is done on the run at all times. Every sign or utterance points elsewhere and this has the effect of emptying the episode out of any substantial content. There is no touchstone, no magical moment when the episode actually comes into its own and delivers itself to us, because there is no pause for our characters, no slow and silent transformations of sentiment, only a breakneck spectacular, an FX-fest. Thats why I guess we feel a little underwhelmed. I would describe the feeling after having watched New Earth episode as being not too dissimilar to the feeling I would have if I had missed most of it and caught only a glimpse of the final moments. 

On the other hand, none of the scripts I have ever wrote have ever made it past the inkjets on my printer so I'll curb the sharper edge of my criticism regarding the writer. I'll wait eagerly for a taste of the steak in his sandwich though.

[Eiphel]

I have to say, when I saw Casanova, I never for one moment thought that wasn't Tennant's natural accent...

[ㆰἳЛ੭פּਦ]

Well, my verdict on the episode.. a disappointing 2/5.  It was slow paced (I was sitting, waiting for the story to start, and I looked at the clock and it was quarter to already with hardly any action), but got better at the end.  SFX, Crappy.  Tennant, brilliant.  Not quite as brilliant as Eccleston, but it's early days.. And I don't think it fair to compare them; they are two completely different Doctors of different personalities, and shouldn't be compared.

On the whole, David and Billie's acting was great, given the script, which wasn't so.  RTD should stand down and let someone else write for a bit.  His stories have all been the worst of the series - not BAD, by a long shot, but certainly not as good as others, like Mark Gattis (Unquiet Dead), Robert Shearman (Dalek) or Stephen Moffat (Empty Child/Doctor Dances).  By the way, RTD's writing the next one.

SFX - 1/5 - Boils suddenly fading into the face?  ...Meh.
Performance - 4/5 - As best as can be given, given the script.
Writing - 2/5 - Points for originality, but none for giving the plot enough detail, trying to cram two plots together, etc.

Overall - 2/5 - Could do better.  Hopefully will.

[Kronk]

Added more thoughts in my blog. Takes too much time to be copying them backwards and forwards always.

I suppose different people enjoy different things. SFX is not that big a deal for me. Bubble-wrap monsters with a great script would do me. Good effects are a bonus of course.

One bit of mitigation for RTD: In a series, you can't hit the same note every time. If every episode was Dalek or Empty Child, that would get samey too. So the gripping ones are balanced with lighter ones.


Tend to agree with Loup's thoughts about too much being packed into too short a time.

Loup, if you're a budding writer, it's fair game to learn from what works and doesn't work in other people's writing. The "I've never been published so what right do I have to critique RTD" would only be to the point if you were saying "RTD - what an incompetent jerk" and "I could do better".

That's actually why I find it interesting to analyse Who in so much detail.

People often say we learn more from failure than success. And we can certainly learn a lot more if we can contrast examples of what succeeded with examples of what failed than if we only had successes to look at.


It's also why Tamino tends to be more interesting than a lot of forums, where there is either unadulterated squeeing or one-sided ranting.

[loup-garou]

I have to say, when I saw Casanova, I never for one moment thought that wasn't Tennant's natural accent...

Received Pronunciation is no-one's natural accent (hence the name) although those who learned to speak in the home counties like to believe that it approximates to their accent. Actually it differs substantially. "BBC English" was another 20th century invention that people only originally spoke on-screen. There are only regional accents and dialects, there is no such thing as standard English, only the attempt at standardisation (that coincided with modern media). Maybe i'm more alert to it because of study but my argument was that people speaking RP historically did so in order to present information authoritatively, meaning without embodiment (the ideal being of course the "scientist" voice-over in advertising), hence it lacks the emotional inflections and idiosyncrasies that make a good "literary" character, who is always embodied. Modern theatre doesn't even use it, sounds too much like the "I'm a classically trained actor you know" type. Hearing Tenant speak in his own voice gives him a solidity and tangibility that touches on a basic being-concerned-about-him-as-a-fellow-being (his Casanova wasn't really meant to elicit any empathy as such but needed that cool awe of a Bond-like detachment). So the theory of accents suggests that if we are to care about and get involved with a character optimally, she or he had better use their own voice (and their own emotional experience of course). I felt somewhat sad to say goodbye to Eccleston but I doubt I will feel the same way towards Tenant, and I beleive that one of the reasons (in a constellation of other factors that should not be disregarded, such as the script - see previous post) will be his dummy voice in this role.

[Eiphel]

Well, my verdict on the episode.. a disappointing 2/5.  It was slow paced (I was sitting, waiting for the story to start, and I looked at the clock and it was quarter to already with hardly any action), but got better at the end.

See, I thought it started well and got worse...

I suppose different people enjoy different things. SFX is not that big a deal for me. Bubble-wrap monsters with a great script would do me. Good effects are a bonus of course.

But the difference is that they believe they're good CGI, and will continue to do this sort of thing. With bubble-wrap monsters, they were aware they weren't up to much, but it was the best they could, and they would have done better if they could.

Received Pronunciation is no-one's natural accent (hence the name)

Put it down to naievete, then, but I did think it was his in Casanova. Anyway, Tennant's Who accent isn't RP. Yes it's all very clipped and everything's enunciated, but it's not devoid of inflection.

I also ought to say that I thought Billie's acting was great, and I blame the writing for it not seeming like Cassandra.

[Sven]

See, I thought it started well and got worse...

Strong agreement with this sentiment.  The concept of "New Earth" was good (minus the overdone, finally just silly "New New York", "New New New New New fifteen-times New York", "New New Doctor", ahgawd-awful-writing);  the "Duke of Manhattan" was interesting;  the Face of Boe was a welcome re-introduction that sadly fell flat seemingly without purpose (just like Cassandra) at the end;  even the Matrix-like style of the patient pods was suitably enigmatic and creepy.  These early bits definitely hooked me into a sinister something-really-bad-is-happening-in-this-hospital vibe, and I loved it.

I feel the hasty rushed seemingly-nonsensical plot thread wrap-up was to blame, and cheapened what could have been any number of interesting single-stories (Ex #1, Doctor saves pod-incubated humans but cannot fully cure them, essentially becoming a new leper colony a la Terminus, Ex #2, Cassandra flees into a new body (perhaps even Rose's) and becomes a much more modern/mobile/dangerous villainness, Ex #3, the Face of Boe actually dies rather than "faking it" for 80% of the episode, possibly imparting his great secret to the Doctor, or perhaps not, Ex #4, the protagonists actually *visit* some of the cities of New Earth, showing the audience another variant-evolved human civilization, rather than lingering around a single isolated hospital, Ex #5, the cat-people and tattooed-snake-people are explained rather than mysteriously introduced and reduced to look-i-have-claws/look-i'm-flamboyantly-effeminate stereotypes).

I am truly not as bitter or jaded as I sound... but I *do* think the writing deserves some particular attention (and correction) here.  The new 42-minute format cannot (sadly) bear out the old multi-episode arcs of Who legend, which we fans accept, but the propensity to jam too much arbitrary hand-waving/silliness with clumsy last-minute mop-up will ultimately degenerate the series into a very different juvenile entity (instant-gratification, slapstick-Tennant-physical-comedy, Billie-Piper-unzipping-top, Jack-Harkness-unclothed-posterior, aliens making fart jokes) -- not terrible in and of itself if it hooks new viewers, but sort of a shame given what the show used to be.

Anyway:  I am looking forward to next week's episode, and can suspend my cautious disbelief/optimism for another four or five days.  =)

-- Sven

[Kronk]

Has anyone listened to the commentary yet? (Downloadable from Beeb site btw).

I haven't but apparently in it RTD says that in the first version of the script, the Doc *kills* all the lab-rat zombies.

Now that would have been so much more powerful. Though far too downbeat for a season opener perhaps.

[Kronk]

Btw, a major topic of discussion elsewhere has been the Ten!God tendencies in TCI and New Earth.

I don't think we've mentioned it here. But the curing sickness with a touch bit reminded me.

[melata]

He should have killed them. It would have been dark and unsettling and would have stopped people from saying it was too silly.

[Fluffy]

Or him contemplating killing them because at the moment there seems to be no alternative for saving the planet, and him remembering how Bill the emperor dalek called him The Great Exterminator.
THAT would have been great!

[melata]

Ooh, that too. Not just the big moment where everybody lives again.

Also, it might have made the bit with Cassandra better, too, because it would have shown how different things were. Much more effective than the Doctor running off his mouth in TCI about how different he is.

[Abs]

Well, here are my five pounds worth. No-one can call me cheap!

I did enjoy the humour - thought perhaps it was playing a leetle too much with the 'OMG LIKE I'M A CHAV!' bit, but meh - and thought the performances from both the leads were enjoyable. Billie, who I admit, when I first saw in the CE series, I hated, is reallt growing on me and Tennant is appealing simply for the aspect that he seems to be a tad more cheerful. I, like Fluffy, think it's the scripts that are letting them down. I liked the Face of Boe... oh, how I wish this had been more about him - I think RTD just wants to stretch him out like Cassandra (and the point of her was...?)
Still, it was Who. So I'm reasonably happy.
And my Maths teacher wishes it to be known he would like to drive a nail through the skulls of the CGI people. I rest my case.

CGI: I know nothing!
Performances: 4/5, for effort.
Script: 1/5.
Idea/Plot: Could have been a high 4 or even 5, but the silly Cassandra shot it down to a 3.

Abs x
Mudz - there is no slightly about it. ^_^