Planet of the Dead - new observations

[Worf2DS9]

So I finally got around to watching "Planet of the Dead" on the box set, and I must say it's even better than before! I really think this is one of the most enjoyable DW adventures since the show was revived. Really! Quite fun! Anyway, here are a few new observations I made whilst watching.

1) I'm pretty sure there are a few bits & bobs in this DVD version that weren't in the TV version I saw here on SPACE. Nothing really significant; for example, when we return to the bus after it has crashed onto Tatooine, we see a close-up shot of Tennant's face (which doesn't really match the subsequent long shot of him, but anyway...), and I'm pretty sure that was cut out in the broadcast version.

2) "Humans on buses, always blaming me" -- was there an occasion in Classic Who where the Doctor was on a bus filled with people who blamed him for something? Or is this one of those lines that reference some unseen event in his long life?

3) When RTD is doing that section where he goes over past occasions where the Who production has taken the Doctor on-location, there was a clip for McGann's TV Movie that I don't recall. He and Grace have just entered the building where the atomic clock is and she asks him why it isn't possible for him to transform into another species, and he replies that he can do that, but I... and then the rest is cut off. Is that in the original version of the movie, or is that a cut scene? It's been a while since I watched it.

4) Hearing the crew talking about the assorted "disasters" in the desert (smashed bus, crappy weather, etc.) reminded me of the hardships faced with the Star Wars team while filming both the original Star Wars & Episode I.

5) The part at the end where the woman gave the Doctor those cryptic hints about his song ending, and "it's returning" and "he will knock four times" gave me chills. I guess with the music, the look on Tennant's face and knowing how it all pans out in the end, made those words all the more scary.

And I totally agreed with RTD when he said the Doctor and Christina would have made a fantastic pair in the TARDIS, and that you wanted him to take her away with him. Definitely one of those great companions that never was...

 

[RoJoHen]

2) "Humans on buses, always blaming me" -- was there an occasion in Classic Who where the Doctor was on a bus filled with people who blamed him for something? Or is this one of those lines that reference some unseen event in his long life?

I'm pretty sure he was referring to the bus tour he took during the episode "Midnight" from Season 4, where that lady was possessed by the weird alien, and all the humans went nuts and tried to kill him.

 

[Lindley]

2) "Humans on buses, always blaming me" -- was there an occasion in Classic Who where the Doctor was on a bus filled with people who blamed him for something? Or is this one of those lines that reference some unseen event in his long life?

I just took it as a reference to "Midnight".

 

[Worf2DS9]

^ "Midnight", of course!

 

[Samurai8472]

And I totally agreed with RTD when he said the Doctor and Christina would have made a fantastic pair in the TARDIS, and that you wanted him to take her away with him. Definitely one of those great companions that never was...

I don't know, eager companions willing to go with the Doctor usually end up in sad situations like Donna or Rose.

 

[davejames]

Eh, when it comes to RTD's Doctor Who, I've usually been pretty easy to please... but this was one story that really DID feel extremely thin and generic to me.

I loved the basic idea behind it, and the various set pieces, but for some reason the writing and execution just didn't come together well at all.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

It was certainly my favorite of the 4 specials. It was a fun romp without getting too melodramatic. I'm not sure it really feels big enough to be a special but it is a really fun Doctor Who story.

Here's hoping that kooky UNIT scientist comes back in future episodes.

And I totally agreed with RTD when he said the Doctor and Christina would have made a fantastic pair in the TARDIS, and that you wanted him to take her away with him. Definitely one of those great companions that never was...

She's certainly the hottest companion the Doctor has ever had. (She's like Gwen Cooper if Gwen would just get some damn orthodontic work!)

And it was nice that she was a very direct, commanding character. I think they need more companions like that.

I also think that actress would be a great choice to play Lara Croft in a Tomb Raider movie.

 

[RoJoHen]

I'm not sure it really feels big enough to be a special

This is probably my biggest complaint, but I did rather enjoy the story.

 

[Cutter John]

I'm not sure it really feels big enough to be a special

This is probably my biggest complaint, but I did rather enjoy the story.

Yeah, thats the feeling I was getting (plus a few other nitpicks). Would've worked fine as a regular episode.

And don't care what others say. I rather liked the swarming aliens.

Oh, and yes I would like to see Christina again. If for no other reason than to fill out her character.

 

[Bones2]

I haven't seen it since it aired, but I remember prefering it to The Next Doctor at least. At its heart, there's a decent sci-fi idea with the swarm, but there's also silly insect aliens, silly Lee Evans, and the idea that the Doctor lets her off being a thief because...I don't know, maybe he fancied her. Still, I prefered it to The Waters of Boring.

 

[wamdue]

I'm pretty sure he was referring to the bus tour he took during the episode "Midnight" from Season 4, where that lady was possessed by the weird alien, and all the humans went nuts and tried to kill him.

there is also a DWM strip with the 10th Doctor on a bus.

I would not to like the sun the flying bus again, personally I am of the opinon that UNIT scrambled Destiny Angel & co, to shoot the bus down, and steal the alien tech. Unless they didnt survive the Dalek attack on Cloudbase of course.

 

[Starkers]

I haven't seen it since it aired, but I remember prefering it to The Next Doctor at least. At its heart, there's a decent sci-fi idea with the swarm, but there's also silly insect aliens, silly Lee Evans, and the idea that the Doctor lets her off being a thief because...I don't know, maybe he fancied her. Still, I prefered it to The Waters of Boring.

He let her off because at heart he's a thief too (ever seen a receipt for that TARDIS?)...

..and because he fancied her!

The swarm was a silly idea-they can travel faster than the speed of light yet it takes them ages to reach the bus? I quite liked the fly aliens, and Lee Evans and would kinda like to see him return (though admittedly in small doses)

 

[DimesDan]

I'm pretty sure he was referring to the bus tour he took during the episode "Midnight" from Season 4, where that lady was possessed by the weird alien, and all the humans went nuts and tried to kill him.

there is also a DWM strip with the 10th Doctor on a bus.

I would not to like the sun the flying bus again, personally I am of the opinon that UNIT scrambled Destiny Angel & co, to shoot the bus down, and steal the alien tech. Unless they didnt survive the Dalek attack on Cloudbase of course.

I was under the impression that Valiant was lost with all hands over London in The Stolen Planet.

As for Planet of the Dead, what with some of the editing, lighting and camera work, it felt more than a usual episode, even story wise, it felt bigger and less contained than most other episodes and although I personally didn't think it was brilliant, it was still a rather good hour of television after a day walking in the sunshine round Chedder Gorge.

 

[John Picard]

2) "Humans on buses, always blaming me" -- was there an occasion in Classic Who where the Doctor was on a bus filled with people who blamed him for something? Or is this one of those lines that reference some unseen event in his long life?

I just took it as a reference to "Midnight".

Agreed.

 

[wamdue]

I'm pretty sure he was referring to the bus tour he took during the episode "Midnight" from Season 4, where that lady was possessed by the weird alien, and all the humans went nuts and tried to kill him.

there is also a DWM strip with the 10th Doctor on a bus.

I would not to like the sun the flying bus again, personally I am of the opinon that UNIT scrambled Destiny Angel & co, to shoot the bus down, and steal the alien tech. Unless they didnt survive the Dalek attack on Cloudbase of course.

I was under the impression that Valiant was lost with all hands over London in The Stolen Planet.

hence why I said "Unless they didnt survive the Dalek attack on Cloudbase of course."

 

[DimesDan]

there is also a DWM strip with the 10th Doctor on a bus.

I would not to like the sun the flying bus again, personally I am of the opinon that UNIT scrambled Destiny Angel & co, to shoot the bus down, and steal the alien tech. Unless they didnt survive the Dalek attack on Cloudbase of course.

I was under the impression that Valiant was lost with all hands over London in The Stolen Planet.

hence why I said "Unless they didnt survive the Dalek attack on Cloudbase of course."

Hence why I wrote what I did, I know what you wrote and how I understood it was that you were under the impression that Valiant wasn't destroyed and was just damaged in the Dalek attack. My mistake.

 

[wamdue]

I was under the impression that Valiant was lost with all hands over London in The Stolen Planet.

hence why I said "Unless they didnt survive the Dalek attack on Cloudbase of course."

Hence why I wrote what I did, I know what you wrote and how I understood it was that you were under the impression that Valiant wasn't destroyed and was just damaged in the Dalek attack. My mistake.

what I was questioning is, were the Angels planes destoryed along with the Valiant, or were they able to escape. However all hands would suggest that any stationed air craft were destroyed as well, before they could launch.

ok I think this mixed metaphor is now confusing the issue, and has gone beyond funny, and into "what the hell is wamdue talking about this time" territory.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

And I totally agreed with RTD when he said the Doctor and Christina would have made a fantastic pair in the TARDIS, and that you wanted him to take her away with him. Definitely one of those great companions that never was...

Here, I'll just quote myself from my blog.

I keep thinking about Doctor Who’s “The Water of Mars,” which I mused on the other night.

The episode felt like it was missing something, an ingredient that would have made the whole thing work. (Of course, I should point out that this will only make sense if you thought that “The Waters of Mars” didn’t work, as I did; if you liked the episode, then any criticism is going to seem pointless.)

It took a thread on Gallifrey Base, on whether or not the Doctor should have taken Lady Christina from “Planet of the Dead” as a companion, for me to see that “Waters of Mars” would have been far more compelling if the Doctor had had a traveling companion in the episode.

(I should note that, unless you’re a Gallifrey Base member, that link is completely useless.)

Once I got past the idea that the Doctor and Lady Christina would have made an interesting Doctor/companion pairing — she’d be the first companion to have an unambiguously sexual relationship with the Doctor, if the chemistry between them in “Planet of the Dead” is anything to judge by — I realized that what the Doctor needed in “Waters” was a reason to get involved.

The problem of the first half of the special is that the Doctor doesn’t want to get involved. He doesn’t want to be there. He tells everyone at every opportunity that he wants to bugger off at the first opportunity. He tells Adelaide Brook that he can’t get involved; this is a fixed point in time and space.

Yes, on the one hand, having the Doctor develop some sort of relationship with Adalaide is crucial to driving the story. But I never felt there was any depth to their relationship, probably because Captain Brook was such a professional. On the surface of Mars, hundreds of millions of miles from any other human beings except the eight on Bowie Base One, she had to be a cold, merciless professional. Lives depended on her.

Lives, however, did not depend on the Doctor. In fact, the episode tells us that, no matter what the Doctor does, everyone we meet in the episode has to die. It’s written that way in history.

And that’s where I think a companion, like Lady Christina, would have been invaluable in selling the episode’s ending.

Instead, I think that Russell T. Davies was relying on the cries of a million British children screaming at their televisions — “Doctor, why don’t you go and save them?” — to sell the change in the Doctor’s character. The end result of this creative decision, however, is that the Doctor’s change in behavior feels entirely like a handwave. The groundwork isn’t there.

However, try this.

What if the Doctor had taken Lady Christina with him at the end of “Planet of the Dead” and promised to show her the universe? What if they’d landed on Mars, and what if he had to make the arguments that he couldn’t get involved to Lady Christina? What if she’d goaded him into trying to make a difference, and he had to explain to her what a “fixed point in time” really meant?

And what if she’d gotten infected by the Flood? What if he’d had to abandon her on Bowie Base One, knowing that he’d brought her to her death, that he was as powerless to save her as he was to save anyone else at the base? What if, on his trek across the Martian plain, he decided that he had to go back, that while he couldn’t save Lady Christina any more, there were still people there he could save?

The problem with “The Waters of Mars,” as I see it, is that there were no stakes for the Doctor at all; he knew he couldn’t get involved, which made his decision (or breakdown, if you will) seem random and forced. But if there was a reason for him to get involved, shades of the fifth Doctor’s sacrifice for Peri in “The Caves of Androzani,” then the Doctor’s change in behavior would have grounding. It would make sense.

This isn’t isolated to “The Waters of Mars.” It’s something I’ve noticed in Davies’ other work. There are good ideas, but they’re often mishandled so the script can reach the spectacle and emotional points that Davies wants. But while we get the spectacle, the groundwork for the emotional points isn’t laid as well as it could be.

Maybe another draft? Or maybe a rethink in general?

Four months on, I still think that.

I thought Lady Christina was fab, and she and the Doctor would have made a great pairing. But I don't know that it would have worked as a long-term pairing, though perhaps her amorality would have kept the Doctor in check; he'd have to restrain his more dangerous tendencies because he'd have to keep her in line. You can kind of see "Planet of the Dead" as RTD's fifth season premiere, and if he had done a fifth season, you can see Christina as a long-term companion.

On a semi-related note, according to the latest issue of IDW's Doctor Who comic, Lady Christina has a cell phone with the Doctor's number, which implies that the Doctor went back to visit her at least once post-"Planet of the Dead," because she didn't have that at the end of the episode. A flying bus? Yes. The Doctor's mobile number? No.

I put Christina in the category of one-shot characters who should have been companions, alongside Richard Mace.

 

[DS9Continuing]

...and the idea that the Doctor lets her off being a thief because...I don't know, maybe he fancied her.

He let her off because at heart he's a thief too (ever seen a receipt for that TARDIS?)...
..and because he fancied her!

I've pointed out in another thread the reason why the Doctor let Christina go free - because his ego has grown to the point where he thinks the rule of law doesn't apply to him. He was going to turn her in at first, but then he thought, "You know what? I like her, she helped me, and even if she is a thief who should be behind bars, I don't care. I'm the Doctor, I can do what the hell I like, and no-one can stop me."

Hence leading directly into the issues of "The Waters of Mars" and "The End of Time."

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I've pointed out in another thread the reason why the Doctor let Christina go free - because his ego has grown to the point where he thinks the rule of law doesn't apply to him. He was going to turn her in at first, but then he thought, "You know what? I like her, she helped me, and even if she is a thief who should be behind bars, I don't care. I'm the Doctor, I can do what the hell I like, and no-one can stop me."

Hence leading directly into the issues of "The Waters of Mars" and "The End of Time."

I think you're misreading the Doctor. You're applying human moral framework to the Doctor that doesn't apply because the Doctor isn't human. The Doctor's morality has always been questionable from a human standpoint. Some Doctors are more "alien" than others -- the sixth Doctor stands out as particularly inhuman -- but there's always the undercurrent of uncertainty where the Doctor is concerned because he simply sees things differently than we do.

For what it's worth, I do agree that the Doctor's reasoning for letting Christina steal the bus was precisely as you said it -- "She helped me, so bugger it all, I'm going to give her a running start." But leading into "The Waters of Mars" and Time Lord Victorious? I don't see the causative chain. And the Doctor's opening scenes of "The End of Time" contradict the "dining on ashes" sense of foreboding that closes "Mars." There's no slippery slope here.