The Doc and Christina hunt for the plot
Two things will be clear by this post a) I am something of a fan of Doctor Who b) this is a bit of a rant. Apologies that I haven’t edited it at all for content.
I have liked Doctor Who for a good number of years, since I was “knee-high to a grasshopper” in fact. In the history of the show there have been many high and low points but overall I have stuck with it because, in general, it is rollicking good TV. Since Russell T Davies (RTD) brought Doctor Who back in 2005 the show has become the yardstick by which all “family” entertainment is judged, such is the quality of the writing (mostly), production values (practically always), and the acting (without exception). There have been occasions where the show produces an episode that somehow misses the mark, leaving the viewer with a mild feeling of dissatisfaction that cannot quite be placed. “Planet of the Dead” was just such an episode.
Billed as an Easter special and slightly longer than a normal episode, “Planet of the Dead” is the beginning of the end for the Tenth Doctor (still played by the ever wonderful David Tennant) who will be regenerating at the end of the year after 3 more specials. The weight of the need to really pull something wonderful out of the bag is clearly heavy on RTD and so it should be as his tenure in the top spot will soon be up. Enough exposition already, you know all of this.
The main thing missing from this episode of Doctor Who was originality. This in itself is not strange Doctor Who has a long tradition of “borrowing” from Sci-Fi. During the original run there were many references and complete steals from Quatermass for example, there are more but I might digress again. “Planet of the Dead” was “Midnight” meets “Pitch Black” via “Tomb Raider” and yawn. I could go on, but I won’t.
Furthermore, and perhaps this is the crux of my dissatisfaction, with the exception of Christina (a good performance from Michelle Ryan) none of the characters had any meat to them. Not only did I not know anything about any of the guys on the bus, I’m not sure that I really cared what happened to them. Since the ressurection of Doctor Who I’m not sure that I can say that about any of the stories. The set up of folk on a bus put in danger was used brilliantly by RTD in “Midnight”, the small group of characters was exceptionally well defined and utilised. Not so here, the rest of the cast was left alone in the bus while The Doctor and Christina go off wandering around in the desert in search of I don’t now what. The giant fly people looked rubbish and served no purpose other than to add a few laughs. I never felt that anyone was in any danger at all.
Actually, that is it! Simply and in one sentence, there was no sense of danger. That is completely what was missing. Where “Midnight” had a sense of danger and claustrophobia, “Planet of the Dead” had neither. When the oncoming swarm got to the flying bus (if you haven’t seen the episode yet, well you’ll see) it just sort of hovered there for a while before setting off as if they weren’t that bothered about the manta ray aliens either. Were the boys at the back of the bus mooning them before they pushed through the wormhole? Perhaps it was the sight of those bare bottoms that meant only 4 manta ray aliens (MRA) followed them through the wormhole. Even once the MRA got to earth they were not even a bit of threat. Rather than going off to devour the planet like you’d expect they circled around waiting to be shot by UNIT (who appear to have had some shooting lessons since the 1970s by the way).
POTD has been described as a romp (mostly by RTD). That it was, it was a pointless, frolicking gambol of an episode that, while fun, left one feeling that something was missing. One vital Doctor Who ingredient, danger.
However, the trailer for the November episode (do we really have to wait that long?) looks fantastic. According to RTD things are about to get very difficult for the Doctor as he reaches the end of his tenth regeneration. I can’t wait.
Technorati Tags: Doctor Who, rant
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The Paisly Umbrella blog has posted an excellent review of God of Malfunction.
Although God of Malfunction is the Contrast’s seventh full-length album, it is technically the British band’s debut for the 
Carl are discussing. 
Carl 12:15 am on April 13, 2009 Permalink |
You make good points, but I kind of liked that nothing happened with the people on the bus. There are always a whole slew of character in the Who universe who are just there to fill time. Midnight was an exception because they existed to show humanity betray the Doctor. They really had no inner life of their own. These characters existed more as someone for the Doctor to save. I thought they worked in this context.
If it were up to me I would have given them more to do and not bothered with the thief character, but I guess they wanted lots of publicity about hiring Michelle Ryan.
Dan Wilson 3:50 pm on April 26, 2009 Permalink |
Sometimes I want to get RTD, and force him to look at his plots and say: “don’t you think they look tired?”
POTD was a fairly pedestrian outing for our favourite Timelord, and that I think was its redeeming defect. It was small scale and the better for it. Almost, an aside for the Doctor. The human race wan’t really at risk and we didn’t have daleks, or cybermen or the Master. Nice little romp.
I also think it’s worth mentioning Lee Evans in despatches. He was really rather good. Funny. And the children loved it.
Marc A. Price 5:11 pm on April 26, 2009 Permalink |
@Dan
You’re quite right, Lee Evans was really entertaining. I would have liked to have seen more of him. Perhaps we will in the future.
As for the scale. They have shown (in things like Midnight) that they can downscale really effectively. I felt like this was a but of a rerun that didn’t quite work out. It was effectively a Troughtonesque base under siege adventure but there was no siege or threat. It was OK, but I will file it under dalliance. As there is so little “Who” this year I had hoped for more.