Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead
April. 11,2009A meeting in a London bus with jewel thief Lady Christina takes a turn for the worse for the Doctor when the bus takes a detour to a desert-like planet, where the deadly Swarm awaits.
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Reviews
Absolutely the worst movie.
It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
I suppose they wanted a family fun story, before the nightmarish Waters of Mars.After a big scale theft, Christina jumps on a London Bus, escaping Police capture, The Doctor plonks down next to her, the bus sets off, it and its passengers disappear through a Wormhole and end up in a far off baron planet. A plan is formed to get back, and psychic passenger Carmen has a vision of death approaching. Back on Earth, the Doctor is aided by Malcolm, a genius drafted in by UNIT. The Doctor and Christina see a storm on the Horizon, made of metal. Another crash victim comes to help and The Doctor discovers the planet they're on has been utterly ravaged and turned to sand. The storm on the Horizon are actually a swarm of ravenous flying monsters that eat anything in their path, they plan to get to Earth through the Wormhole. Christina proves a useful companion to the Doctor.UNIT have become more semi regular, and Captain Magambo makes a second appearance after Turn Left.Sadly the appearance of Lee Evans turns this into a bit of a kid's story, a comedian I truly love, was not right for this part, and why did they have to make him WELSH!!! It's OK for the first 20 minutes but then loses it a little.I did enjoy Michelle Ryan's performance as Christina, she's good fun, a good match for Tennant. One of the highlights of the episode.It's passable enough, but it's lacking in too many areas, some good effects, some fun performances, but nothing to get under the skin. The best moment is the brilliant pace changer right at the end, when Carmen confronts the Doctor with 'Be careful, your song is ending, it is returning through the dark, he will knock 4 times.' A very tense moment, brings the show back up to adult theme. 5/10
Planet of the Dead is a fun episode. Anyone coming into it expecting something as profound as Journey's End is going to be disappointed, but as an Eastertime special, it's fun and worth watching. David Tennant, nearly a year after last portraying the Doctor (and having spent months playing Hamlet in the meantime) slips easily back into the role, and Michelle Ryan is a lot of fun as cat burglar-turned-companion Lady Christina. I disagree that she's just a clone of Jenny. the Doctor's Daughter. In fact she's her own remarkable character, and possibly the closest the revived series has seen to Romana (a classic companion of old). There were rumors that Lady Christina might actually turn out to be a Time Lord but this isn't the case (though there's a tongue-in-cheek line of dialogue probably aimed at those wishful thinkers). Fortunately her character doesn't follow in the footsteps of Kylie Minogue's ill-fated wanna-be companion in Voyage of the Damned, suggesting we might see her again.The reaction to this episode by so-called fans who seem to expect every episode to be groundbreaking, and forgetting this is supposed to be a fun SF series aimed at families, suggests Russell T Davies and Tennant are leaving at a good time as clearly the fanbase has tired of them, just as Trekkies tired of the production team behind Star Trek. The new production regime and new Doctor will, in turn, have the fanbase turn against them in a few years too. As far as I'm concerned, however, Davies and Tennant have rarely made a misstep.The only element of his special I didn't like was Lee Evans' walking cartoon of a character, Dr. Malcolm. He plays it almost like a send-up, and that's not how Doctor Who works. Yes, it's a show about giant flies and giant swarming metal insects, but the actors play it straight, which is why it works. Still, he does get in a few great lines as well as a terrific shout out to another UK science fiction icon.Planet of the Dead is a "fun romp" as they used to say, which ends with some rather sombre predictions of things to come. In an interview with Doctor Who Confidential, Davies indicated that this was the last chance for the Doctor to have fun before the run-up to his regeneration begins (indeed the preview for next special, The Waters of Mars, which plays at the end of Planet of the Dead, shows a rather dark episode ahead). As such, Planet of the Dead does the job.
Personally, I thought Planet of the Dead was very good, or at least extremely entertaining. Sure, it's not the best episode of Doctor Who to ever air but it's more than sufficient. Now I can see that a few people wouldn't like this, and I suppose it is quite similar in tone to quite a few other episodes. However, there still is a feel of magic to it, and anyone who outright hates it must be rather...stingy.The beginning was splendid, and a fun, ridiculous way to open the episode. David Tennant was, as usual, on top form and Michelle Ryan was brilliant as Lady Christina de Souza. It was a huge pity that she didn't stay on to accompany the Doctor. The episode was witty, entertaining, and action packed, just as Doctor who should be. There wasn't much heavy material except for the end prophecy, which leaves you with a sense of foreboding as you know David Tennant's time as the Doctor is coming to an end. Overall, GREAT!
This episode of Doctor Who is watchable and no more. No drama or tension and most of the performances seem forced and pathetic. The aliens were boring and had very little effect, the humanoid aliens were a direct homage to the original version of The Fly, which was made in 1957 but nevertheless proved more interesting than this episode of Doctor Who. Don't fear however, not all is lost. The old woman at the back of the bus psychic ramblings may have been irritating at first, but pay off in the end when she warns the doctor of things to come.Considering how poor this episode was and the Christmas episode was, does not bode well for the specials coming later in the year. New doctor who fans are beginning to lose faith in the series, so Russell T. Davies better have something spectacular planned if he wants Doctor Who to be popular with the younger generation once more. If not, more and more families are switching to ITV for their Saturday night TV line-up....