Its Martha’s first time in the Tardis and the Doctor whisks
her away to the city of ‘New New York’ in the year five billion and fifty
three, what girl wouldn’t be delighted at such a trip? This episode is set on ‘New
Earth’ where the residents of a once great city are using the latest drug ‘Mood
Patches’ in order to repress their horror at what their world has become.
Martha is kidnapped by a young couple going by the names of
Milo and Cheen who needed a third passenger so as they could enter the elusive ‘Motorway’
and gain access to the coveted but rumoured haunted ‘Fast lane’ which would
allow them to travel 10 miles in a lightning 6 years so that they can raise their
unborn child in a new city that isn’t tainted by pharmaceuticals.
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You can’t help but feeling that there is a little bit of an
underlying meaning to this episode, as you see a version of Earth destroyed by
neglect, crime, addiction and pollution. The Motorway is so polluted that the
Doctor can only cope with breathing the fumes for a few moments and the people
of New New York are willing to take to an underground tunnel to live in a car
for 6 years in the hope that there is somewhere better out there for them. But
the evils of pollution are not the true villains of this piece.
Whilst making his way very dangerously down the motorway
towards the fast lane to find Martha the doctor is accosted by Novice Hame who
takes him to The Face of Boe. Novice Hame and her patient explain to the Doctor
that a virus known as ‘Bliss’ had mutated into a deadly virus that wiped out
the city in minutes, the only people who survived were the people on the
Motorway, they were being kept down there, they drivers had no idea of what was
going on above them. Now a horde of Macra has found its way into the Motorway
tunnels and is picking off everyone in the fast lane.
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Despite the dangers all around and the horrible image of
thousands of people dying at once from a virus that is so vicious that it takes
moments to spread, the real pinnacle of this story is the Doctor and the lives
of those he touches.
He frees the people of New Earth from a repression that has
haunted them for 20 plus years and he opens their eyes to the world around
them, he saves Martha and thousands more from the clutches of the Macra and
then he stays with the Face of Boe so that he can hear his dying words and his
last secret.
‘You are not alone’
Really heart wrenching, action packed and a great
introduction for Martha who has the sense to realise that she has run off with
a man in a box she’s never met before without taking the time to think, and
that perhaps that wasn’t such a good idea after all.
Plus David Tennant breaks the hearts of thousands of fan
girls around the world by holding a tiny kitten.
Solid 5/5
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