Planet of the Dead

[alexsarll]

Five hours or so since the first new Who in months, and not a whisper of it on my friendslist? Curious. Is that because it was neither worthy of an OMG 'This is awesome!' nor a 'I was on the internet registering my disgust' before people headed out to their Saturday evening festivities? I can understand that. Better than any of the christmas specials since the first, but still hardly a classic. Michelle Ryan remains someone who ought to be better, cooler, sexier than she actually is, even when she's got the material. Tennant...his 'food, home' speech was Tennant by numbers, and yes he's still great, but he brought nothing new here, and didn't get me a fraction as teary as the end of Finding Nemo beforehand.
The ad on the side of the bus for Neon mobiles - "tomorrow is here" - that's going somewhere, isn't it? Spotting this stuff is in danger of stopping being fun. Similarly, I worry about the 'four knocks' stuff at the end, because that sounds like the sound of drums, which implies the Master, which suggests that the appalling tabloid suggestion as to how the Tenth Doctor ends might be true, which would suck, because neither Rose nor Donna can be brought back without it all going horribly wrong.
But if we pull back from the future to the present of the Time Lord...I liked non-human aliens. It's not as if hegemonising swarm entitites are new to Who - hi there, the Cybermen - but non-humanoid aliens are still too rare. The fly-chaps died too soon and too pointlessly, and I would have liked to see one coming back to Earth even if the resulting comedy might have been an embarrassment. Malcolm, against all odds, was brilliant, though I don't see what was gained by the UNIT captain's suddent burst of Evil Military Efficiency - and if you're doing a black female UNIT officer, why not bring Bambera back? She was ace.
Oh, and one of my favourite bits - early on, where the Doctor mentions that he was at the first Easter, and "what really happened..." - I know that's never going to get followed up. But in my head, the possibilities include:
Captain Jack bums Jesus back to life.
The Doctor, with respiratory bypass &c, stands in for Jesus on the cross. Ideally the Fifth, because that ties in with the stuff in Timewyrm: Revelation where he's crucified on the Doctor's brain-stem.
Jesus is in fact the Master, the Resurrection being one of his cunning escape plans.
Was it really necessary, though, to have one of the most generic episode titles ever?
Could have been a lot worse. Should have been better. I'm grasping for an angle here; it was OK.

Comments

[thedavidx.livejournal.com]

This is all very well, but how was Mr Solo?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Jolly good, though the audience were underappreciative. That's going to get its own entry at some point, which will also include both of the week's Indelicates shows, and probably the robot in plastic at the NFT.

[msdaccxx.livejournal.com]

I just watched it and am going with a thumbs up! Brownie points for the Quatermass ref

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I did like that, but as with the flying Daleks, the Quatermass references had already been done in underrated eighties classic Remembrance of the Daleks.

[xandratheblue.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say it was a mediocre episode. Certainly not a Moffat Classic, but compared to the "middling" RTD stuff, it was bloody Shakespear/didn't have massive plot holes even amusing psuedo-science couldn't cover up.

Also, is it just me, or are those giant mental sperm who spunk their way out of a giant space penis onto other planets?

[xandratheblue.livejournal.com]

*metal. I suck at spelling when drunk.

[amuchmoreexotic.livejournal.com]

Everyone was letching over Michelle on Twitter. I hope they keep her.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

The Rusty interview I read recently said that before casting her for this, he had to check Moffat didn't want her for the next series. Which could be misdirection, but I feel like she would work better as an occasional recurring character than a full companion (much like her predecessor in bus-driving Doctor-snogging, Iris Wildthyme).

[miss-sheldon.livejournal.com]

This was the first episode that bored me from start to finish. There was nothing in it that captured my attention. It went nowhere, it was predictable Who by numbers, it had too many things in it that just fizzled out and didn't go anywhere (fly people, the title - planet of the dead, even those metal rays could have been more involved), Michelle Ryan was annoying (I agree with your comments - she should have been so much better) and the flying bus was just lazy. The only thing I liked was the reference to the Master (he will knock 4 times) Malcolm was ok too, I guess but that's it. The rest of it was drivel. Definitely one of the worst Doctor Who episodes I have seen since it came back with Eccleston. And for a 'special', that's just not good enough.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Really? Worse than '42' or those New Yoik Dalek atrocities? Or even that hotch-potch of a Kylie special?
(I think it perhaps suffers compared to the christmas specials simply because people aren't so certain to be drunk when they watch it)

I was glad that the metal rays *weren't* more involved, were left as an instinctive, inhuman threat - I was dreading the introduction of a cackling B-list soap star announcing that they were the Metalrayite Queen or similar! But I agree with you about the fly-people - seemed unfair that the humans all get back for their chops, but the Doctor couldn't make them a similar promise about a big pile of crap.

[moleintheground.livejournal.com]

I think my favourite aspect of the show was Michelle Ryan's lovely big tits.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I can't say I particularly noticed them, but you seem to be expressing a popular opinion.

[missfrost.livejournal.com]

I definitely thought it was a bit mediocre, and not as well done as the very similar scenario in the last series (I don't know titles, the one where he went off on a tourist trip leaving Donna behind?) I also noticed the bus advert said something like 'global communication' and thought hmm, that's going to be relevant...
It was just middling, with the only excitement being in the last ten minutes. Not that I'm saying an episode needs to be exciting all the way through, but there was a complete lack of tension and will they/won't they throughout the rest. I also would have liked a tag-on where he replaced the stolen cup, and how's she going to evade the police for long in a flying bus?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought of that one too ('Midnight'), but only early on in the piece, when it briefly looked as though the story might just be about what would happen to a London bus suddenly marooned in an alien desert.

Following up on the cup would have been nice, yes. The bus...well, it looks like it can go faster than police helicopters!

[publicansdecoy.livejournal.com]

I watched it, precisely because I wanted to know what the flip everyone was talking about on LJ, and am most disconceerted by the silence. It was OK - certainly beetter than the second part of new Red Dwarf. I no longer think Michelle Ryan is attractive, though.

-x-

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I have yet to watch the second part of Red Dwarf - after the first, I think I'm sort of putting it off...

[renegadechic.livejournal.com]

one problem i found with the episode was that the first 15 mins of it was all "get to know everyone!" at which point, everyone else on the bus became basically irrelevant and superfluous other that the mildly psychic lady. i mean, i know they werent really important, but why go so into it? rhoda brought up midnight, and i know we didnt find out a great deal about the characters there, but they had a point. was it just to add some weird resemblance of empathy for their fear? i didnt feel it.

michelle ryan... i dont know what it is but i never feel like she does believeable naughtyness or derring-do. she looked far more naieve and out of her depth than even martha jones did and she didnt seem down to earth enough compared to any of the others. it was more "here is my game i will prove i am your equal" compared to "goodness you are fabulous and though i know my place, you shall love me for my inadvertant wonderful humanlyness". know what i mean? hmm. she probably does need an award though for providing instant fanboy hardons despite not showing an inch of flesh. i suspect is was the clothing assisted grativy defiance of her boobs and had non-anorexic looking quite nice figure rather than her face

[renegadechic.livejournal.com]

ugh typos. i am struggling a little on this mini asus eee keyboard of my sisters

[darkship.livejournal.com]

When I first heard 'Planet of the Dead' was the title, I thought "Man, George A Romero's going to be pissed about that".

I thought Lady Christina was good actually, even if she was just Lara Croft, but Michelle Ryan came off a bit 'stage school' if you catch my drift: perhaps that's just the plummy accent she affected (unless that was her real voice?), but she seemed a bit overrehearsed and not very natural. As you say, a companion who can do stuff for once would have been a change, although possibly grating long-term. I quite liked the Lee Evans character as well.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I'm honestly not sure what her real voice is, but this didn't sound that different to how she talked in Jekyll and the little I could bear to watch of Bionic Woman.

[boxcat.livejournal.com]

I felt it was final proof that these 4 specials were a bad idea - RTD has run out of ideas.

The episode was hugely light on actual plot - once we've set up Lara Croft, and met the Clapham Omnibus crew, we've wasted a huge amount of time.

Other than that, it was a straightforward escape story, with 2 niggling plot holes - namely that the Doctor hasn't actually stopped the Swarm from munching on other inhabited worlds - and no credible explanation of how he's going to do that is given, and the "womhole has widened" bit, which just made it less credible that so few of the Swarm followed the bus through before Malcolm closed it.

One point of order, though. The black female UNIT Captain previously appeared in Turn Left, and I'm wondering if that's somehow relevant.

I'd take issue with "better than any of the Christmas specials" as well - I'd place it behind The Next Doctor and Voyage of the Damned but in front of The Christmas Invasion and The Runaway Bride (in that order).

One final thought - we don't have any clue as to how much subjective time is passing between the specials. It won't happen, of course, but I for one would love to see Tennant's acting (and make up) aging the Doctor - perhaps subtly in the penultimate, and more visibly so in in the last special - a kind of "Mature Tenth Doctor". I think that's because I've rewatched the Library episodes in the last week, and have decided that if we are going to see more of River Song, some plot support might be nice.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

The widening wormhole was a bit of a hopeless idea all round, wasn't it? Stopping flight over the area is one thing, but unless it's a really strange shape, won't it also be across all the adjacent streets for however many miles?
I didn't mind the rather throwaway explanation of how he'll deal with the ongoing threat of the swarm, though. Making anything telegenic out of that would have involved compromising the concept of the aliens, or worse, some really dodgy FX like the motorway TARDIS or similar.

The lack of much in the way of plot I quite liked - or could have done if it had been handled better. RTD has been too prone to having every story involve the potential destruction of Earth, and where he fell down here was by going back to that. I would have quite liked just the Doctor and some random people stranded in the desert, with the clock ticking, trying to find a way back home.

You didn't like The Christmas Invasion? That's the only one of them which really worked for me (hence that crucial 'since the first'). I'm noticing that a lot of people seem keener on Voyage than I was, but I just found it really dragged, a series of setpieces in search of a through-line. And The Next Doctor, while it had some absolutely lovely moments, similarly failed to really hang together.

The BBC are doing a load of books making the most of the amount of time the Doctor can spend wandering around unattached during this year of the show, I know that much. I do like that idea, but I think the River Song story maybe works better if it's always in the future - and I think there's a way of reading it whereby her Doctor wasn't necessarily the Tenth.

[myfirstkitchen.livejournal.com]

I've seen spoilery pictures. None of the blonde yet, though. More than that I shall not reveal.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

'None of the blonde' leads me to infer that you have seen the ging. This does not bode well unless handled *very* carefully, and even that could too easily become farce ("Oh no, there's a Dalek in the kitchen and the vicar Donna's at the door!").

[(Anonymous)]

Captain Jack bums Jesus back to life.

Yes you mentioned this. Weird boy.

Lady Xtina was so hot, I am going to try being a jewel thief. Do you think I'd be good? :P

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

Me clearly!

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

I liked PotD - not the greatest episode ever, but by no means the "underwhelming" bus wreck that every "proper fan" commentator on t'podcasts seems to have dubbed it. Last chance for a good old romp before three episodes of presumable funereal misery (though, given that the regen is going to happen over Christmas, maybe it WILL be a festive panto-style episode after all)?

Actually I really liked Michelle Ryan, and not on the basis of any physical attributes she may or may not possess. I thought she had a really good flirty rapport going with the Doctor, that I would not have been sorry to see continue into a few more episodes. Also, I kind of miss girl companions selected for reasons completely unconnected to their acting ability...

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

If Cribbins is the companion for the final specials, there's going to be a limit to how thoroughly doom-laden they can be.

And I fear the general public was as underwhelmed as the 'proper fan' types, both from the viewing figures (losing to ITV? The shame!) and conversations with the casual watchers I know.