Written by Russell T. Davies & Gareth Roberts
Directed by James Strong
“Humans on a bus…always blaming me.”
Warning…SPOILERS ahead…
Planet of the Dead: a light & fluffy, chocolate-sweet pastry of a Doctor Who special…with no pretentions of being anything else.
It’s never going to be the deepest — or most remarkable — of episodes. The supporting characters exist to either (a) do exactly what they’re supposed to do, and nothing else, or (b) be re-runs of previous character-types, and we’re simply expected to take them at face value. In particular, Carmen the psychic is a good example — the revelation of her powers is fairly straightforward, uncluttered by any backstory…or any need for a back story. It gets the plot moving, but it’s not exactly screaming with depth.
Then there’s Lady Christina, the aristocratic thief. She’s a straightforward amalgam of movie chacters, scattered across a variety of films, from Mission Impossible to Entrapment. Nothing new, and much of her character traits could have been written by a hack on the back of a napkin. It’s only Michelle Ryan’s sly performance that gives her the added slinky/sleazy undercurrent that seems to leave the Doctor on the back foot.
So…shove all those complaints aside, and what do we have? We have an unpretentious romp, in every sense of the word…and guess what? We deserve it! When was the LAST time we had such a fun, uncomplicated runaround? The Unicorn and the Wasp, that’s when (and look…Gareth Roberts wrote THAT as well). Between then and now, we’ve had extraordinary moments of depth, darkness, defeat, triumph and melancholy…right up to The Next Doctor, this past Christmas. But with David Tennant on the cusp of departing the world’s greatest TV role, Russell T. Davies was determined to give him one last adventure where he gets to run around & be…well…just brilliant! Meanwile, UNIT returns with eccentric staffers of its own, and the boys with guns get to shoot aliens that AREN’T immune to bullets!
David Tennant is responsible for about 75% of this episode’s success…in fact, you could call this The 10th Doctor: Unplugged. In 60 minutes of screen time, Tennant delivers a magnificent taste of every aspect of his Doctor: his obsessive love of danger, his insatiable curiosity, his breathtaking heroism…and his sad, lonely soul. He fills every moment…even when he’s just a voice on the phone!
But there’s plenty of other loveliness to find here: (1) Lee Evans, utterly hilarious as Malcolm, UNIT’s new science boffin; (2) Noma Dumezweni is fantastic (and surprisingly full of frightening steel) as Captain Magambo; (3) the filming in the Dubai desert aids in the creation of a suitably exotic and beautiful alien location; (4) the fly-inspired Tritovores — so deliciously B-movie that their deaths will actually make you sad…; (5) the fabulous, heroic climax, complete with best-of-British musical score, and a dark warning of what is to come…
Yes…Planet of the Dead is paper thin in terms of plot and character development. But it’s also very funny & exciting, full of sparkling dialogue, great actions scenes, and David Tennant at his idiosyncratic best. There will be many complaining Doctor Who should be more than this…and it certainly can. But Doctor Who can also be just like this: the type of episode designed to make 9 year old squee with glee…and make all of us still 9 years old at heart squee right along with them! Considering what is yet to come, Russell Davies’ strategy to give us a final light-and-fluffy fling with the 10th Doctor is perfectly fine in my book. We don’t get such episodes regularly, and they don’t tend to stick very long in the memory…but they’re damned entertaining while you watch them! :D
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