“New Earth” is…fine, I suppose?

It delves into familiar territory for Davies - he seems to have an affinity for the banality of evil, with societies taking a theoretically-well-intentioned turn into darkness. Unfortunately, I think it’s handled better in episodes like “Turn Left” or even Torchwood’s “Miracle Day” (which I remember enjoying the one and only time I watched it, which I know is a very unpopular opinion).

For all the talk about DW being a low-budget show at heart, the makeup and production design were frequently top-notch, even back then. It’s really the VFX end of things that lagged behind the rest of the industry. The cat people in particular look great in this one.

Cassandra’s back! Uh…yay? Probably not who I would have picked as a returning series one antagonist, but here she is, talking out of her ass. I don’t think she’s used particularly well here - her motivation to uncover the secrets of the hospital is unclear (maybe I missed something), and her human supremacy goes largely unacknowledged in favour of some basic classism.

And of course, much of the fun of the episode involves Cassandra possessing Rose and the Doctor. Piper and Tennant do fine with this individually, but they do not seem to be playing the same character to me. Overall, Tennant’s seems to be more authentically Cassandra, but even he is upstaged by Sean Gallagher at the end, when Chip is possessed.

I don’t really know how to feel about the final scene where Cassandra dies in her own arms. I know it’s meant to be touching, but she’s also a vain murderer, so there’s an upper limit to how much I care about any of this.

The test subjects in the hospital vaccilate between intelligent and mindless zombies as the plot requires, and the resolution of spraying disinfectant all over them is pretty convenient, even for this show.

A pretty middling episode all in all, and I don’t think it’s a great introduction to this new incarnation of the Doctor for anyone who missed “The Christmas Invasion” some four months earlier.