Planet of the Dead Discuss and Grade SPOILERS!!!

[mirandafave]

I thought it was a great episode. I like how DW had the friend companion in the Ryan character lady Christine but he didn't take her on as his companion. He shouldn't have someone so soon after Donna and Rose.

Christine was done great I thought. An interesting match for him. The other characters were good but again the bus characters were a little underused.

As for the forecoming badness I think it might be obvious as to what it might be, with he knocks four times. But could be wrong.

Anyway a neat swift change of tone to a fun episode in light of the fact the following are going to lead up to No.11

 

[Samurai8472]

How about the trailer for The Water of Mars then huh? Now that episode looks amazing. Didn't RTD say that the last three episodes were going to be tied in to each other?

And one last thing, I wonder who this person that comes with "four knocks". Good old Doc mystery.

I think I read somewhere one of the last three specials will involve a Martian invasion.

 

[Cky]

And one last thing, I wonder who this person that comes with "four knocks". Good old Doc mystery.

Well, we've seen somebody knock four times before - he starts doing it at 1:50 in this clip- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDn1PLzQvGo

That is exactly what I thought. How about that, The Doctor having to regenerate because of the Master.

 

[matthunter]

And one last thing, I wonder who this person that comes with "four knocks". Good old Doc mystery.

Well, we've seen somebody knock four times before - he starts doing it at 1:50 in this clip- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDn1PLzQvGo

That is exactly what I thought. How about that, The Doctor having to regenerate because of the Master.

CoughLogopolisCough.

 

[biotech]

I liked the episode, only the size of the wormhole bugged me.

They said it had expanded to ten miles, and yet it was still inside that tunnel with unit standing just a few yards away.

The effect of the bus driver getting fried was very good though, very mars attacks.

I wonder what happened with Sheridan Smith though, several sources had her down as appearing in this episode.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

I voted above average - it was a good romp with plenty of cool bits but ultimately unfulfilling. The Waters of Mars looks more interesting.

And maybe I'm just too seasoned at the whole thing now but I really did think as soon as the 'four knocks' line was said that was pretty obvious who/what was being implied. I even started the tapping without realising.

I would have liked some kind of explanation about the psychic woman though. Maybe we'll get it later, but she seemed weird to me. There's 'light psychic powers' and then what she was foreseeing. Seemed a bit much to me.

 

[Cky]

^ Haha, I did the same thing, and I actually had to be told who they were talking about. I even did it rythm.

I wondered as well, the womans psychic powers... were enhanced by the other suns on the other planet... but then she seemed to become an oracle on Earth, weird.

 

[Samurai8472]

And maybe I'm just too seasoned at the whole thing now but I really did think as soon as the 'four knocks' line was said that was pretty obvious who/what was being implied. I even started the tapping without realizing.

*re elect Mr. Saxon*The arch angel network must be up*re elect Mr. Saxon*

 

[wamdue]

yes well I enjoyed it, well up to the flying bus, I was sitting there thing "oh no they are not going to do what I think they are going to do are they" then it started to fly, and I just went with it.

More to the point where does RTDs think Christina is going to go in this bus, its going to be hard to track her, and shoot her out of the sky, and the bus is hardly space worthy.

the BBC took some of the CGI up a notch in this episode, expect maybe the ariel shot of the bus flying above London.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

Overuse of flying bus >>>>>>>> Cyberking.

 

[wamdue]

Overuse of flying bus >>>>>>>> Cyberking.

expect I don't hate flying buses nearly as much as I hate giant robots.

and quelle surprise there is:

a) a big hole in the ground
b) someone goes up & down the hole

 

[Jim Steele]

I found it really weird that I was totally cool with the flying bus, considering how much I usually hate it when RTD pulls these things out of his arse (last year's giant cyberking, towing the earth, you name it - I've hated it). Didn't even occur to me, just enjoyed the ride.

Not a bad episode, but not a great one either. If this was the first episode of a full season I'd have said it was a brilliant opener - but in practice, there was nothing particularly special about this "special". And that was my major (only) beef.

Michelle Ryan was lovely as always. Enjoyed the performances all around.

I did come away thinking that PotD is the best supporting argument yet for the RTD/Tennant era to come to an end. It was just very predictable, formulaic... tired. Not bad or awful, but stale.

What it hammered home is that the show needs new blood. A new producer, new writers, and a new Doctor. Considering we all know that's pretty much what we're getting next year, I'd say times were pretty damn good for Whovians. Roll on series 5!

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I found it really weird that I was totally cool with the flying bus, considering how much I usually hate it when RTD pulls these things out of his arse (last year's giant cybermen, towing the earth, you name it - I've hated it). Didn't even occur to me, just enjoyed the ride.

Not a bad episode, but not a great one either. If this was the first episode of a full season I'd have said it was a brilliant opener - but in practice, there was nothing particularly special about this "special". And that was my major (only) beef.

Michelle Ryan was lovely as always. Enjoyed the performances all around.

I did come away thinking that PotD is the best supporting argument yet for the RTD/Tennant era to come to an end. It was just very predictable, formulaic... tired. Not bad or awful, but stale.

What it hammered home is that the show needs new blood. A new producer, new writers, and a new Doctor. Considering we all know that's pretty much what we're getting next year, I'd say times were pretty damn good for Whovians. Roll on series 5!

I know what you mean. There was nothing particularly wrong with the show, but there was nothing in particular to love about it either. I can't say anything about it bothered me enough to dislike it at all, but I see what you mean about it being stale.

 

[wamdue]

What it hammered home is that the show needs new blood. A new producer, new writers, and a new Doctor. Considering we all know that's pretty much what we're getting next year, I'd say times were pretty damn good for Whovians. Roll on series 5!

ill agree with that.

also if RTDs wants the Doctor not to want to take on a companion, he needs to learn to write characters that are not possible companions.

 

[cultcross]

Question: Why do insectoid aliens have internal comm units shaped for human ears? Well, timelord ears

Not a bad episode exactly, just cheesy, and nothing that compelling. The Doctor and Christinas' 50 minute mutual complimenting marathon got dull very quickly. "Good boy", "she's good" etc loses an edge quickly.

The basic mystery of the planet was fairly interesting, if derivitive. UNITs part in it was stupid, and after all that Doctorbating, they very casually decide to trap him forever. "Malcolm" was bloody annoying and not remotely funny.

The ending was ridiculously Stargate derivitive (WE NEED THAT IRIS CLOSED NOW! WE'VE GOT 500 JAFFA BEHIND US!!!)

I'm getting really sick of the 'magic negro' bit. Has it ever not been the black character who gets the crazy visions?

And did i miss something but was Christina uncuffed in the back of that police car, and could somehow open the door from the inside (this is disabled on police cars)?

All in all, wasn't particularly impressed, nothing more than average, and barely that really.
Its saving grace?
"You look... human"
"You look timelord."

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Question: Why do insectoid aliens have internal comm units shaped for human ears? Well, timelord ears

Not a bad episode exactly, just cheesy, and nothing that compelling. The Doctor and Christinas' 50 minute mutual complimenting marathon got dull very quickly. "Good boy", "she's good" etc loses an edge quickly.

The basic mystery of the planet was fairly interesting, if derivitive. UNITs part in it was stupid, and after all that Doctorbating, they very casually decide to trap him forever. "Malcolm" was bloody annoying and not remotely funny.

The ending was ridiculously Stargate derivitive (WE NEED THAT IRIS CLOSED NOW! WE'VE GOT 500 JAFFA BEHIND US!!!)

I'm getting really sick of the 'magic negro' bit. Has it ever not been the black character who gets the crazy visions?

And did i miss something but was Christina uncuffed in the back of that police car, and could somehow open the door from the inside (this is disabled on police cars)?

All in all, wasn't particularly impressed, nothing more than average, and barely that really.
Its saving grace?
"You look... human"
"You look timelord."

The Doctor undid her cuffs... don't know about the door.
Mickey didn't have visions, nor Martha, or any of her family... Maybe I'm just racially insensitive, but I never pick up on this "magical nergo" stuff. I mean there's plenty of white characters with the same traits, and plenty of black people without them.

 

[Starkers]

I liked it, but it wasn't anything brilliant, as others have said it felt more like just a regular episode of the series than a "special".

Nice to see UNIT kicking some Arse, and I liked that the Captain actually wanted to shut the Doctor in- Considering I find Lee Evans annoying at times I thought he was ok here, and I wouldn't be horrified at seeing him again, just don't over do him. The Malcoms and the Bernards were brill!

The flying bus was a trifle silly for me, but not enough to ruin the episode, I thought it was a cheap trick of RTD and Roberts to kill the insecoids off rather than any of the humans (bus driver aside)

One final point, I'd love to see more of Lady Christina, god Michelle Ryan is lovely, and this shows what she can do when not lumbered with roles like the bionic manakin!

 

[cultcross]

Mickey didn't have visions, nor Martha, or any of her family... Maybe I'm just racially insensitive, but I never pick up on this "magical nergo" stuff. I mean there's plenty of white characters with the same traits, and plenty of black people without them.

True, but that's not the point of the concept. It's just the idea in fiction of the ethnic minority character (usually black) who appears, often without explanation, to help the white protagonist, and is in some way 'special' - psychic or magical powers are jsut the sci-fi take on the idea, in regular fiction they often appear unusally wise, or in tune with nature, or in recent film, just much cooler or 'smooth talking' than everybody else. They act as plot devices to advance the tale, usually through imparting some great wisdom or prophecy which helps or serves the white main character.

A classic genre example that doesn't involve having psychic powers is Morpheus in the Matrix, an almost mythical, wise black guy who shows up in a pretty unexplained way, speaks in deep sayings and helps our white protagonist reach the setup of the story, enlightening him.
More recently, we can take a look at BSG, where our spiritual guide character who helps Roslin find her destiny... is a black woman preacher, neatly disposed of once her plot role is complete (to be replaced by the black Gemanese councilwoman, who shows up occasionally to answer useful spiritual questions to the advancement of Roslin). On a show heavily devoid of black characters, this sticks out like sore thumb.


Now any instance in and of itself is just a story choice, I'm not trying to say 'ZOMG DOCTOR HOO IS TEH RACIST' - I think you know me better than that it's just when you see the same thing happen again, and again, and again, across pretty much all genres of fiction, it's hard to pretend that you don't see it.

 

[Jon1701]

What it hammered home is that the show needs new blood. A new producer, new writers, and a new Doctor. Considering we all know that's pretty much what we're getting next year, I'd say times were pretty damn good for Whovians. Roll on series 5!

ill agree with that.

I'll echo those thoughts too.

Episode was ok, but I can't help thinking that the RTD whoniverse is going to disappear up its own arse soon. Aliens are invading Earth every week - no-one seems to give a shit any more. Think we need some sort of planet-wide mind wipe or something. And does every episode have to end with some sort of portent of doom?

"Your song is coming to an end, doctor".

Above average, but there was nothing new to see here.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I liked the episode, only the size of the wormhole bugged me.

They said it had expanded to ten miles, and yet it was still inside that tunnel with unit standing just a few yards away.

I didn't get that either.

The effect of the bus driver getting fried was very good though, very mars attacks.

It was very Mars Attacks. And somehow very RTD to me as well, I could just picturing him chuckling in a self-satisfied way about it, he'd probably use the word "brilliant" in describing it in some way.

They should have spent that money going to Dubai on the CGI bus shots, though maybe they'd look better on a TV screen, I watched this one in less than optimal conditions (though grateful to see it).

This reminded me of "Midnight", a somewhat toned-down Doctor trapped with regular people aboard an everyday conveyance minus his TARDIS trying to make sense of his plight and get everyone home safe.

I loved the fly's reason for coming to that planet, again very RTD. Their alien chattering was a nice touch but it was a bit annoying having to have the Doctor relay everything to Michelle Ryan (can't remember the character's name...).

Speaking of Michelle Ryan, she looked like she's a little more full-faced presumably back at her normal English weight than in Bionic Woman where I saw her last. I haven't played enough Tomb Raider recently to get the Lara Croft vibe, I thought it was a fun character. Speaking of "fun" characters, I hope the kids enjoy Lee Evans at any rate, he's a bit much for me. I'd rather have Jeff from Coupling someone referenced earlier. Harmless enough though and didn't kill the episode.

Something about this one didn't quite fire on all cylinders but was still an OK ride, I don't know what I'd actually grade it so I think I'll hold back on final assessment. I wish we had a real series of Doctor Who right now....

RTD isn't completely evil though, I couldn't help but think of the flys going through the wormhole exiting the bus and being mercilessly gunned down by UNIT troops which is probably too dark for a Who Special.