Planet of the Dead

Planet of the Dead

by Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts

Originally Broadcasted: April 11th, 2009

Thief-on-the-run Christina hides aboard the 200 bus to escape the pursuing police, also onboard is the Doctor. All of the passengers on the bus are soon whisked through a wormhole and land on a desert planet. It's up to the Doctor to devise a way back to Earth, while trying to protect everyone from the approaching sandstorm that isn't all that it seems...

Planet of the Dead gave Doctor Who its first Easter special, although the holiday itself was only briefly mentioned in the pre-credits sequence. This was part of a string of specials in 2009 making up David Tennant's last year on the program. This was probably the most light-hearted of them all, the last time we got to see the Tenth Doctor at his comedic best. One common thing between all the specials was that the Doctor had a different companion each time, and this time we got would-be companion/thief, the Lady Christina de Souza. After frantically escaping from the museum she stole the Cup of Athelstan from, she boards the 200 bus to Victoria, which the Doctor has also boarded. The bus jumps through a worm hole and the passengers end up on a desert planet. And then to get home, the Doctor turns the bus into a flying bus, and that's also how Christina eventually escapes and goes off to other thieving adventures, thanks to the Doctor's help. I did find it a bit weird that the Doctor would help a convicted felon out, but oh well. In fact, the police try to arrest him too, so he says he'll just go lock himself in that Police Box. Clever. I thought the idea of the planet being full of sprawling cities just the year before was an interesting one, and gave us a "baddie" that really wasn't evil, but just was living out its natural life-cycle. UNIT comes back into the show in this episode, and while I think the modern UNIT pales in comparison to the classic unit with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, I did find a character in this story that I really loved, Malcolm. Malcolm, UNIT's eccentric scientific advisor knew of the Doctor and looked up to him as his idol, but had never met him. Supposedly, Malcolm was supposed to represent fans of Doctor Who, and that is readily apparent in the way he acts around the Doctor. He is literally starstruck, and his interactions with the Doctor are some of the nicest things I've seen in Doctor Who. When Malcolm finally gets to meet the Doctor at the end of the episode, he repeatedly tells the Doctor that he loves him. Planet of the Dead was the first episode of Doctor Who filmed in high definition, giving the show a broad new scope that is greatly made use of in this episode. Also, this was the 200th story of the show, a milestone that was greatly celebrated at the time. While not a groundbreaking or overly iconic episode of the show, it was a good, enjoyable romp that is well deserving to be the show's 200th story!

Luke's Rating: 8/10