Planet of the Dread

I might as well combine today's post with the Doctor Who episode I watched a few hours ago, entitled "Planet of the Dead". Warning though, this will have spoilers in it, so if you haven't seen it, you might want to get out now.

The episode started off fairly well. Not a whole lot can go wrong with a simple robbery scene. The problems come when the bus goes through the wormhole and they end up in another planet/Dubai.

Alright, first point of contention. Michelle Ryan. Everyone seems to have enjoyed her performance as Christina de Souza. Personally, I was having issues with her early on. Firstly, she was always smiling. She smiled at everything. No matter how bad the situation. It looked like she was trying to suppress a smile the entire time. Her character then had the cheek to criticise The Doctor for smiling.

Second point of contention. The Tritovore. If you don't recognise the name, it's the half-fly/half-man alien race people. They looked absolutely awful. Their costumes looked like a halloween outfit. A bad one at that. James Strong (director) said that it was "A new monster, the fearsome half-fly/half-man Tritovore, makes its first appearance with creators hoping it will become as iconic as Daleks and Cybermen." The hilarity of this comment need not be emphasised.

One little thing bothered me a lot. When The Doctor asked the Tritovore what made their ship crash, they shrugged their shoulders. Christina said "That means 'I don't know'". This seems fair enough on a simple level. However, if you look a little deeper, it's annoying. In different cultures, body language means different things. For example, in Greece, if you nod your head, it means "No", whereas in places like the UK and the USA, it means "Yes". I somehow doubt that an alien species would have the same body language traits as humans, let alone humans who consider a shrug of the shoulders to mean unawareness. You could say it's artistic license, however there is only so much artistic license left when you have men in boiler suits and fly masks running around the desert being chased by some bad CGI monster things.

Another point is the cheesy dialogue. When The Doctor is flying the bus (a sentence that I should never have to write), he unloads the bus puns left, right, and centre. An example would be "Next stop: Earth". The Doctor and Christina said "Earth" at the same time. Nuff said.

The final point I'll mention is from the end. Christina was a thief and The Doctor refused to take her with him as a companion. This made sense, it was good. It was a good lesson. No matter what you do, you must do the time if you do the crime. However right at the end, The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to undo the handcuffs and allow Christina to get away in the flying bus. Now that is a good lesson for the kids.

I'll mention the good things about the episode.

Lee Evans was funny. Like, properly funny. I didn't know he was in this episode and I'd love to see him in more. He really showcased how he can act a real role. He was a near-perfect casting selection.

Another point is that David Tennant's performance was as strong as ever. Apart from the odd piece of bad dialogue, he really was his typical self, which is a good thing. David Tennant really will be missed as The Doctor and Matt Smith will have big shoes to fit next year.

Overall, I was disappointed with the episode. If you've seen the episode "Midnight", you might see the similarities. However in Midnight, you were interested in the lesser-known characters. However in Planet of the Dead, they were nobodies. They had no strong opinions or ideals. They were boring.

Well that's it. Yeah, big post for today.

Night,
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