Planet of the Dead

A simple episode, Tennant is excellent as always and plot isn't a complete disaster. Too bad that Christina didn't get the chance to be proper companion because her dynamic with the Doctor was splendid.

Christina de Souza's a thief, pursued by several police, now she's caught the wrong bus, there will be quite a fuss, and probably plenty of grief.

The Swarm will devour all whole, consume buses and bodies and souls, only dust will remain, a sandy-like grain, they move on through a series of holes.

Malcom Taylor's a Quatermass fan, he's managed to work out a plan, to close one of these holes, to prevent a dust bowl, and all from the back of his van.

Not the best Doctor Who episode but certainly not the worst. Thought the storyline was a cross between Pitch Black, Entrapment, On the buses and that program about a time traveler in a blue box. Seriously it was OK not as bad as some comments say it is on here, the thing about Doctor Who is if you had the Daleks, Cybermen or the Master every week now eventually that would be boring. Dr. Malcalm (Lee Evans)is a cool character but maybe a bit over the top with the I love you Doctor stuff. Christiana played by Michelle Ryan comes straight out of the movie Entrapment and then once they reach the desert in the double decker bus you almost expect Vin Diesel to turn up. Them flying stingrays must be exceptionally hungry as one can eat two larger than life human sized flies in one after another!

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

It took me a minute or two to get round to watching this first of the specials that will see David Tennant give up the role of Dr Who to a teenager who won the role in an online raffle. Anyway, I'm not a massive Who fan or anything so I only approach Planet of the Dead as a piece of entertainment and, if it can entertain me then it is god enough for me. As it is though this special just seemed like it was in some sort of holding pattern in almost every regard. In terms of building up to Tennant's exit, it doesn't do anything other than end with a cryptic warning of the future but it is in the rest of the special where the "doing the basics to pass the time" aspect comes over.

The plot is a bit like Pitch Black but of course this is a Saturday evening family piece of entertainment so the darker, more thriller stuff is limited to what kids can cope. This is not a massive problem but it is when you temper it with so much noisy and silly stuff that it prevents the adults accepting it as well. This happens here as we have the usual "big, colourful" Doctor doing his stuff but too much silliness, weak comedy and daft action sequences that lack a reason to care or believe – they all pile up and the end result is a special that will work best for children and not the family as a whole. Things get a bit better in the second half as the creatures are introduced but even then the colourful spectacle of it all takes precedence over the rest. This in turn produces those terrible "cringe" moments that Doctor Who has occasionally – moments that remind you that this is not a massive American production but a BBC Wales production aimed at the Saturday evening telly crowd.

Indeed on such "moment" is all through the special, and that is the presence of Michelle Ryan. Fresh from her attempts to break America (how she got the opportunities she got mystifies me), Ryan attempts to be light, flirty fun while delivering an action character. The problem is that she never feels natural doing it at all. She attempts to match Tennant's larger-than-life approach but she hasn't got the acting skills nor the charisma to make it work and she ends up coming over either wooden or like she is overacting in a "big smile, lots of teeth" way. Tennant is his usual solid self and matches the "fun" approach of the special even if he doesn't have much else to do here aside from the usual running and shouting stuff. Evans is amusing but a bit too obvious while Dumezweni, Kaluuya, Ames, Thomas and others are all TV-standard.

Overall, Planet of the Dead will suffice for those younger viewers of Dr Who as it produces the standard requirements of the show. However for the casual viewer it will unavoidably come over as overly noisy, colourful and all a bit silly. As a "holding" film then I suppose it does the job, but the next few specials will need to step up their game somewhat as this is the sort of special/episode that you can forgive as the exception, not as the norm.