It’s hard not to be bitter about the fact that we’re not in the midst of Doctor Who’s fifth season right now and instead have to content ourselves with just one hour-long episode. But I was determined to put that behind me and enjoy “Planet of the Dead”. After all, Michelle Ryan is a favorite of mine (ever since her turn in Jekyll). I must admit that I was generally underwhelmed by the episode. This would have been forgivable if it was mid-season, but it’s one of the last three with David Tennant. Is it so much to ask that it be super amazing and awesome?
Apparently so.
“Planet of the Dead” features a familiar setup — The Doctor boards a London bus sparsely populated with random people and somehow ends up going through a wormhole in space to a far-off desert planet. The other passengers are mostly just bystanders — the one we’re meant to watch is Michelle Ryan as Lady Christina, the cat burgling aristocrat who steals things for the adventure of it.
I think the only reason I didn’t find that bit of characterization annoying is that Ryan is such a great actress I feel she can pull off almost anything. She did make at least four episodes of The Bionic Woman watchable, and that was a feat.
Anyway, The Doctor and Lady Christina attempt to outdo each other in the cheeky and brilliant department as they try to figure out how to get back through the wormhole, what’s exactly in the storm front moving toward them, and why every marginally attractive young woman seems to immediately go into romantic entanglement mode about 10 minutes after meeting this particular Time Lord. Okay, I was the one trying to figure that last one out.
Why, why, why, I cried to the heavens, does Russell T. Davies insist on having women fall in love with The Doctor? Am I the only one who misses when he was mostly asexual? I feel I can’t take much more of this. And it’s bound to get worse when the changeover to #11 comes.
The episode wasn’t all bad. There was a good amount of adventure, some tangly moral issues, a cool new monstery thing, and quite a few black people. Though most of them got a non-annoying characterization, I did wince a bit every time the psychic woman started going on. The accent was just a bit too Miss Cleo for me. YMMV.
Speaking of her, I wonder what you all think of her parting words to The Doctor:
“You be careful. Because your song is ending, sir. It is returning. It is returning through the dark. And then Doctor… oh, but then… he will knock four times.”
One thing I find annoying about this is the talk of “The Dark”, which has become a bit of a theme on Doctor Who and Torchwood, but is never dealt with well, in my opinion. “The Dark” is so generic, and yet it’s always spoken of and used as if it has more of a specific meaning. Yes, many things come out of The Dark or The Darkness, but honestly, that’s not scary, RTD. Get a new theme.
I did like that she said “Your song is ending,” echoing what the Oood said to him in the last season. The “It” that is returning? I’d be interested in hearing your guesses on that one as well as who “He” might be.
1 • Cal said:
April 15th, 2009 at 10:16 am, permalink
Micehlle Ryan did a great job but i did not think the episode as a whole worked well.
2 • Rachel said:
April 17th, 2009 at 4:38 pm, permalink
I whole-heartedly agree with you on the need for companions who are NOT romantically linked with the Doctor. Donna is my favorite companion largely b/c she had a nonsexual relationship with the Doctor. I would have like Lady Christina a lot if it wasn’t for that whole kissing/romance thing…and the freaking out about dead people in her hair.
While I really loved that they introduced new villains/aliens, I did think this episode had some flaws. For example, how in the world did the Doctor know to call UNIT and not Torchwood? Or that UNIT would already be on scene and dealing with the anomaly? How come there was such a large gap between the leaders of the flying stingrays and the swarm so only a few got through the wormhole?
Plus I thought that while David’s delivery of the Doctor’s spiel as to why Christina couldn’t come along was good, the spiel itself wasn’t all that convincing. How long are they going to keep the Doctor in pity-party mode? I would love to see how the Doctor handles someone as self-assured and competent as Christina(male or female).
As for for who is coming out of the Dark…one obvious choice is the Master, which would be cool since we haven’t seen him in a while. All I know is that if the “it” is the Daleks or Cyberman I am going to extremely ticked off. I can handle it being just about anyone or anything except those two. Please, PLEASE say they’re giving those villains a break.
Something completely out of left field, but it could be really interesting if either the devil (from the Impossible PLanet/Satan’s Pit) or the being from Midnight were who the psychic was talking about. I can imagine the being from Midnight wanting vengeance on the Doctor and growing in knowledge and power before coming after the Doctor…yeah, that could be be awesome. Entirely unlikely though.
3 • Michael McGrath said:
May 7th, 2009 at 9:42 am, permalink
It’s Meglos. He’s trapped in a chronic hysterisis (fold in time). He might come back from the darkness and I’m pretty sure he’s got one hell of a grudge against the Doctor seeing as its him who made him end up there in the first place…
And I also agree about the companion thing. Get over the love interests. He never had them before and we don’t need them now. You know what? I want a male companion (for the Doctor I mean…). What happened to the days where he’d pick someone up, pick someone else up, drop one off, pick up two anddrop one off andend up with a continually changing group of companions? Adric, Romana & K-9… Ace and Mel… Peri & Mel… Peri & Jamie… Turlough, Kamelion & Peri… Also, the Brigadier joined a few times. I want those days back!
4 • Joao Torrao said:
June 28th, 2009 at 7:31 am, permalink
Remmember the drums? tum tum tum tum… four times…
5 • Michael McGrath said:
June 29th, 2009 at 8:53 am, permalink
Yeah I know. John Simm’s been confirmed to be on the cast again for the last 2 ’special’ episodes. Rose is back and so is Captain Jack. It’ll be told with flashbacks.
Still, I want Meglos back at some stage… =P
6 • anna said:
March 7th, 2010 at 4:46 pm, permalink
If you love it so much, don’ be such a critic!