An Earthly Child is... well, honestly a disappointment. Dialogue alone can't make a proper Doctor Who episode. I need to see or at least get a description of what the characters(particularly the Doctor) are doing to get invested into it. But that's not the only flaw.
The story was very basic. An alien intelligence is trying to conquer the Earth by tricking the inhabitants into believing they're good. There's something about an evil United Earth, but they just drop it. The Doctor(having picked up Susan's distress call) returns to the 22nd century and saves the planet, only to be shunned by his great-grandson and his offer to travel declined by his granddaughter.
Paul McGann gives a decent performance as the Eighth Doctor, but he's the kind of actor you really have to see on-screen for the charisma to come across. It's his innocent face, the way he moves, the way he smiles, everything... I just didn't get that here. He has a few good lines and I liked how obsessed he became at the end with getting Susan to join him again, but I say again... he's not made for audio dramas. Give the poor guy a spin-off. You'd make a lot of money.
Hearing Susan again would've been nostalgic had I not seen The Dalek Invasion Of Earth only a month ago. Still, it's good that she's really grown up. I was hoping she'd accept the Doctor's decision at the end, but now that she decided to stay... I'd actually like to know what happened to her during the Time War.
Alex was unrelatable. No offense to Jake McGann, but I just didn't see anything of the Doctor in this character. And can humans and Gallifreyans even have children? I'd rather think he was non-canon.
A nice sentiment was the original 1963 theme, but next to a horrible rendition of the TARDIS noise...
Overall, it just failed.
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