Doctor Who:
Planet of The Dead
By Gareth Roberts and Russell T.
Davies
“It is returning. It is returning
through the dark. And then, Doctor? Oh, but then he will knock four times.”
Planet of the Dead is the second
of the four specials that ends the Tenth Doctor’s era. This one came out before Easter and is
considered the Easter special. There is
even a line in it that signifies this as the Doctor is eating a chocolate
Easter egg and offers Christina some. It
is also the 200th episode and there is something that celebrates
this as the bus is numbered number 200 in honor of that achievement. The story on the other hand is not one that
is very memorable at all.
Planet of the Dead is
basically a very simple story that involves The Doctor finding a way to get the
passengers of the bus back through the worm hole to London. The problem is they need the bus working to
get through the worm hole as the metal will protect them from the dangerous
hazards that are in the worm hole. In
fact going through without being protected will kill you as we learn when the
bus driver runs through it despite The Doctor’s warning and gets himself killed
and there is nothing left but his skeleton.
Oh there is one more thing. There
are killer Sting Ray creatures on the way to kill them also and what makes the
threat even more deadly is that those creatures took a thriving planet and devoured
it into the desert it is now.
The story was ok. I don’t really hate it or like it. It is not a story I go out of my way to
watch. It is just a very basic story in
which The Doctor saves the day. You know
he is going to find some way to do it and when he find the crashed spaceship
you knew he was going to take the technology from it to retrofit the bus to get
back home. It just wasn’t very original
and it was something we have seen before in different variations and done a lot
better.
I really did not like Christina
de Souza at all. She just had the wrong
attitude. Here you are on an alien
planet and you’re the only passenger who is not fazed by it. Everyone else is freaked out by it and she is
standing there with that stupid grin on her face and ready to take charge. Not that believable and come on she was more
freaked out by the sand in her hair than she was of being on an alien planet. Plus she was just plain annoying. They cast Michelle Ryan as another character
who instantly falls for the Tenth Doctor when this character could have been a
lot better.
I also found Malcolm to be
annoying as well. The typical geek type scientist
character who has a man crush on The Doctor.
The interaction between him and The Doctor were pretty annoying to watch
and I know Malcolm was there for comic relief but it was just eye rolling time
when he was on screen. I’m sure there
were some who were hoping that Capt. Magambo did shoot him. The fly looking Tritovores were not a good
creature. They were just a guy in a fly
mask in overalls. Surely one of the
weakest aliens they created and cheapest but that is probably down to filming
in Dubai and how much it cost to get everything down there.
Planet of the Dead is not an
overly exciting story but it did have a few entertaining moments but not enough
to save it from mediocrity.
Grade C
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