Doctor Who - Planet of the Dead

[iainjclark]

"I'm the Doctor. Happy Easter!"

Pretty good. Not bad. Inoffensive.

It certainly doesn't set my world on fire, engage me mentally, or indeed manage to escape a slight feeling of weariness. Even Tennant is merely good. There's nothing very sparkling or characterful or inventive -- nothing on the order of a Stephen Moffatt script. Instead it's as if several prior episodes were placed in the blender and then reassembled in a different order, so much so that the script even feels the need to nod at 'Midnight'. The Doctor gets to reassure people in distress, make overblown promises about saving them, Officially Notice his new companion in waiting, snog said companion.... check, check, check. It's just not that invigorating by now. If we leave aside the cat burglar overtones, all the licks with Michelle Ryan and the Doctor sparring are pretty much de rigeur for a new companion introduction. (I know she turns out not to be the new companion, but that's the slot she fills in the story). There's not even a huge amount of plot, so the pacing feels slack. The only new elements are superficial in the main: a desert, a flying bus, Lee Evans and Michelle Ryan as Lara Croft. Oh, and the reasonably cool Pitch Black style alien monsters. (But even they are offset by yet another set of blokes in overalls with the heads of Earth creatures)

The production values are undeniably excellent, although a lot of the desert stuff feels so unreal that it may as well be effects work. Michelle Ryan is sparky enough as a sidekick. The moral ambiguity of the Doctor siding with a thief is odd; I liked it when he rejected her, then was less sure when it was all about Donna Angst, and even less sure when he freed her from the police. The reminder that the Doctor stole his Tardis is interesting, but surely we can equate that more closely with stealing a flying bus than wilfully staging Pink Panther-esque thefts of multi-million pound historical artefacts.

What I will say in its favour that it avoids the Total Bollocks Overdrive of most of the Christmas specials, and feels instead like an extended season opener. That's very welcome. It's the most controlled special since 'The Christmas Invasion', and certainly a better opener than 'Partners in Crime'. I like the use of UNIT, and even Lee Evans' performance is not gratingly annoying (for some reason, even though I normally dislike him and he's playing a very particular stereotype). I also like, in principle, the "your song is ending" foreshadowing, even though the execution is about as subtle as a brick.

It passes the time amiably, and I'm starved of Who enough that I enjoyed it while it was on. But when the best thing about the whole special is the preview of the next one (which looks great), that's probably not good.

Comments

[ajr.livejournal.com]

The reminder that the Doctor stole his Tardis is interesting, but surely we can equate that more closely with stealing a flying bus than wilfully staging Pink Panther-esque thefts of multi-million pound historical artefacts.

You've gone and reminded me of something else that bugged me about the episode; the Doctor goes and ruins said multi-million pound historical artefact, with no later consequences at all! I look forward, then, to the episode where he travels to Iraq and participates in the looting and destruction of the museum there. Ah, well, that's a bit of hyperbole, maybe. But still, I thought that part of the plot was particularly poorly conceived.

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

I think it's quite Doctorish to favour the survival of actual human beings over a valuable artefact.

He also notes that he visited the period it came from - which makes me think the Doctor could reasonably have a very different view of the value of ancient artefacts.

[badbookworm.livejournal.com]

I agree on the Lee Evans thing. I usually loathe him with the red hot passion of a thousand fiery suns. And the "genius" = "needy, bumbling dork" stereotype makes me ill with rage. But for some reason, he pulled this off to such an extent that it merely made me go "meh". In a slightly affectionate way, even.

Michelle Ryan annoyed me. There was bugger all depth to her character, which came as a disappointment after Donna, who went around gleefully smashing stereotypes into smithereens (apparently shallow, raucous and not terribly bright, but in the crunch empathetic, thoughtful and very capable).

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I didn't like her at all

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

I thought she was okay. She was obviously meant to be a bit spiky around the edges, and so I didn't feel I was being bludgeoned into liking her the moment she appeared. The main bit that annoyed me was her getaway, which reminded me of the similarly smug ending to 'The Doctor's Daughter'.

I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to Who and I suspect I may have enjoyed this special more if I'd been in a different mood. As it was I liked it, and even laughed out loud a couple of times, but didn't love it. It felt like Doctor Who on autopilot.