Planet of the Dead (DW Easter special)

[Bounty]

Youtube, low quality but watchable. I guess they weren't tired of the "...of the dead" titles just yet.

As for the episode itself -
Spoiler

Okay, I admit I'm intrigued. The setting and the bus look pretty cool as a background, plus it looks like the aliens are new. At least it's not Victorian London and Cybermen again.

[Stark]

What DW needed to revitalise it's writing standards was to rip off Pitch Black.

Is Vin Diesel in it? This could be a deal-breaker.

[mr friendly guy]

So thats supposed to be Michelle Ryan, ie the bionic woman?

I will most probably find a way to watch this even if its not shown on Australian television. If its good I might get the DVD.

[Crazedwraith]

What DW needed to revitalise it's writing standards was to rip off Pitch Black.

Oh dear. I seem to be following the same thought patterns as Stark.

Still asides from being Pitch Black with the lights on. The trailer's not half bad and it doesn't seem to resort to the stuff that make trailers of naff stuff look good. So I'm cautiously optimistic.

[NecronLord]

Ffft. Ripping off Pitch Black - I can live with that. At least it's not daleks again or some such.

[Darth Onasi]

You know the Doctor should just learn to not use public transporation.. ever. It always ends badly.

[Zor]

You know the Doctor should just learn to not use public transporation.. ever. It always ends badly.

I thought double decker buses were for tourists nowadays.

Anyway the whole scenario seems rather random. Doctor and a bus get sucked up and dropped onto a dry sandy world full of airborne manta rays. There better be a good reason for this in the plot.

Zor

[NecronLord]

Could be anything, really. I wouldn't think it'd be random (Unless a lot more than one vehicle has been hit) but it could be someone directly after him, or it could be something he does. There's lots of ways to explain it.

[Darth Onasi]

I thought double decker buses were for tourists nowadays.

Here in London double-deckers are still quite common as normal public transport.
It's usually the open top models that are used for tourism, which this one clearly isn't.

[Bounty]

Less than an hour to the episode. Should I start a proper review thread or can a mod edit in a poll?

[NecronLord]

Poll edited in!

[Crazedwraith]

Lamest poll ever. Plus doesn't the word 'trailer' need to be edited out?

[NecronLord]

Lamest poll ever.

Bah, I did it at short notice! I'd like to see you edit one in that's better than that, oh wait.

Also, why does every UNIT officer need to be a jackass?


"I don't believe it! Bullets that work!"

[Crazedwraith]

Well that was head, shoulders, knees and Toes above the last couple of outings and reminder that RTD isn't half bad if you don't let him use the Daleks or anything old. I'm reminded of Season 4's Midnight quite heavily.

One thing I thought was a bit iffy, was the stated size of the worm hole that it was supposed to be ten miles wide and up in the sky possing a threat to planes. Yet everyone emerged at the same place in the tunnel entrance and if the wormhole was then miles wide wouldn't it be tering great huge chunks out of london?

Plus The Doctor really needs some kind of gizmo that just zap the TARDIS to his location. He's been in this 'stranded' position quite a lot recently.

[NecronLord]

I'm reminded of Season 4's Midnight quite heavily.

Well, that's probably due in no small part to the bus.

Also, when they said that it was now three miles wide and hovering above London, I was hoping for a Valiant type thing, hovering in front of a wormhole, shooting hundreds of omnivores. Battlestar Galactica's battleporn has spoilt me.

[Bounty]

I liked it. A few small niggles bugged me, but overall it was a very solid stand-alone. I liked the proper old-school aliens in the proper old-school space ship. I liked the straightforward plot, very Flight of the Phoenix-esque, and the final solution was silly but it made sense. The cast put in good performances, even the guy playing Bernard - sure, it was slapstick, but he managed to be genuinely funny. Plus UNIT was there and useful.

On the downside, there's a few typical RTD touches that grated - the completely random psychic in the group throwing out random ominous bullshit was annoying and completely unnecessary, as was the supposed "drama" over Bernard closing the wormhole. Christina was a decent stock character (I'm sorry, why not call her Lara and get it over with?), but the epilogue with the Doctor was just horrible (once again the whole "I travel alone LOL" speech, him making the decent point that she's a criminal and should go to jail, but then he... sets her free?). It would have helped if they'd made the Doctor's position on her a bit clearer - does he condone her stealing because otherwise he'd be a hypocrite, or did he just fall for a pretty face?

I'm going to pretend the retarded foreshadowing in the final two minutes didn't happen because it's just another round of bog-standard "ZOMG ultimate evil is coming!!!" bullshit. It's tired and doesn't work.

Overall though, good effort. It deflated a bit towards the end (right when the foreshadowing and shipper crap starts... who'd have thunk) but for 80% of the runtime it was a fun, well-made adventure. 4/5.

One thing I thought was a bit iffy, was the stated size of the worm hole that it was supposed to be ten miles wide and up in the sky possing a threat to planes.

I think they said it was ten miles and "growing upwards". Maybe the centre point moved upwards as the tunnel grew?

[Jawawithagun]

even the guy playing Bernard

His name was Malcolm. He named that unit he used for measurement Bernard (after Quartermass) after already having used up his own name for a different one.


The ending to that episode was just painful.

[NecronLord]

As far as I can tell, UNIT would actually have saved the Earth on their own there; the Doctor just rescued the guys in the bus.

[Jawawithagun]

They were on the right track but Malcolm had to get a final hint from the Doctor to make it work.
On their own I think UNIT might have run out of time before getting the job done

[Darth Onasi]

I have to ask, what kind of moron tries to make a getaway on a bus? At the very least she could've kept her head down.

[Darth Nostril]

I cringed when I originally saw Lee Evans listed as a cast member, however he did work as the lunatic absent minded genius.
Nice to see UNIT being competent handling a threat to Earth, it did take the Doctors help to seal the wormhole but they were more than capable of taking out the fliers that got through.

The "hearing voices woman" and the foreshadowing at the end dragged it down though, they were totally unneccesary.

4/5

[Captain Seafort]

I cringed when I originally saw Lee Evans listed as a cast member, however he did work as the lunatic absent minded genius.

Even as a highly-strung crackpot he grates, regardless of the fact that that was probably how he was meant to come across.

Nice to see UNIT being competent handling a threat to Earth, it did take the Doctors help to seal the wormhole but they were more than capable of taking out the fliers that got through.

As far as I remember UNIT have always been competent when they run into an alien menace that isn't immune to bullets. I'm still waiting for the Brig to show up though.

[Darth Onasi]

By the way.. "Humans on buses, always blaming me." reference to Midnight?

[Jawawithagun]

I cringed when I originally saw Lee Evans listed as a cast member, however he did work as the lunatic absent minded genius.

There were a few scenes of him that where it looked like if he were to play this kind role in a serious drama, somewhat darker, he could really make that work.

Nice to see UNIT being competent handling a threat to Earth, it did take the Doctors help to seal the wormhole but they were more than capable of taking out the fliers that got through.

They went a bit wild with the shooting in every direction at once but they got the job done in the end.

The "hearing voices woman" and the foreshadowing at the end dragged it down though, they were totally unneccesary.

It's the usual "how do we get some foreshadowing and warning in?" thing that kept her in there.

[Bounty]

They went a bit wild with the shooting in every direction at once but they got the job done in the end.

Well there were at least three of those squids flying every which way. Trying to hit those would look... random, I'd imagine.