(753) Planet of the Dead

Officially this is the 200^th story in Doctor Who but due to the way that I have worked things out this is in fact the 202^nd. This is the first of three episodes to be broadcast in 2009 due to Tennant wanting to do other stuff and the BBC desperate to keep him happy. This is what I class as the first of the specials because The Next Doctor is more attached to the 30^th series. The buzz around this episode was that the show filmed in the United Arab Emirates and a double-decker bus that was used for this story was damaged quite badly. Cleverly though RTD used this to his advantaged and worked it into the story. This is the first story that lays the groundwork to the departure of David Tennant’s Doctor. Having become use to Christmas Specials, it was somewhat of a treat to have a special that aired over the Easter weekend.

This special sees Michelle Ryan play Lady Christina de Souza who is the guest companion and starts the episode by pulling off quite the heist. She’s not a very good robber cause the police have pretty much caught her before she boards the 200 bus. To be honest I don’t think that she is that good really. I thought that she was cast purely cause of her looks and sadly I think that her past as a soap star might be something that works against her. When her character is sort of seen as a good character I still don’t care.

UAE doubles for San Helios and filming it here helps make it feel like an alien world instead of loads of sand being dumped in a Welsh studio. In one sense, this is the only thing that makes this story memorable. The interior of the bus scenes are filmed in a studio but it still looks good enough.

The Bus Driver who allowed Christina to board the bus by paying with her diamond earrings was the first to die by walking through the barrier. To be honest he would have become an annoyance had he lasted much longer. The rest of the bus passengers aren’t that good because they are all quite unlikely or believable. When they are back home I still found myself not being that bothered with them. Carmen (Ellen Thomas) is the only interesting character of the supporting characters. She is the one that can hear voices and guess how many fingers the Doctor has behind his back. Her most significant moment comes when she tells the Doctor that he will knock four times.

This episode sees UNIT return but sadly its more of an amusing UNIT. Lee Evans guest stars as Malcolm who has managed to name a measure of time after himself. I don’t really understand why UNIT are even in this story cause they don’t really add anything to the story.

If Jamie were in Doctor Who now then he would describe the monsters as timerous beasties and they are able to create wormholes by flying in formation. I think that this is a really good idea and infact their design is a good idea which bearing in mind that RTD is clearly on the wind down it makes the idea more impressive. The sight of a London Double Decker bus flying is a barmy yet great image to see in Doctor Who.

This has been a bit of a disappointing Doctor Who story. There have been some interesting things that have happened in this story but for some reason I just found myself watching it and not really enjoying it. Since I finished watching Journeys End I have found myself not enjoying the show as much. I wonder whether its because I know that the Tennant era is coming to an end or whether its just that everything was thrown into that two parter that it seems like the show is running on empty and just keeping things ticking over until Steven Moffat and Matt Smith take over.