Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead. The Second Special of the 2009 “Gap” Year is Stunningly Average

Posted by ScuzzBuster

April 13, 2009

potd It was a big weekend for British science fiction as two cult programs made returns. While I’ll be covering the return of Red Dwarf after it’s decade long absence later this week, Doctor Who returned for the second of 4 specials to air in this “layoff” year after series 4. This also takes us one step closer to the close of David Tennant’s era as the lead actor in the longest running science fiction program in television history.

While Doctor Who is niche sci-fi in the U.S., in the UK it’s an instantly recognizable icon of British Television and as popular as it ever has been. Planet of the Dead was an enjoyable romp for the program, but in the typical fashion of much of the current era, David Tennant’s performance elevates even the most average material.

When Matt Smith steps into David’s shoes at the end of this year he is undoubtedly going to be facing the most daunting task since Peter Davison took over for Tom Baker in 1980 after 7 of the most successful seasons in the show’s history. What Smith hopefully realizes is that when Tennant is on his game and rolling he makes the role and the series his own work of art. When the material is of the highest class, we’ve had the opportunity to see some of the most outstanding drama in the show’s history. When the material is average or worse, Tennant still keeps the show supremely watchable. Is Matt Smith the caliber of an actor that can carry the show on his shoulders the way a David Tennant or a Tom Baker could?

Planet of the Dead is not the strongest hour of David Tennant’s era. It was a fairly entertaining, but rather simple story with a touch of rubbery monster suits, an overtly silly but fun climax involving a flying double decker bus, and a rather flirtatious sultry one-off companion that rides off into the sunset in the end.

As we often see in new Who’s solo, companionless outings, the story begins around the supporting characters and shortly intersects with the Doctor who is already in the midst of doing his own thing. The short version is that we all end up on a bus in London with the Doctor, some average bus passengers and an art thief played by Michelle Ryan. Of course, the bus gets mysteriously sucked through a wormhole that seems to appear out of nowhere and drops them all, bus included, in the middle of desert on a multi-sun scorched planet for no readily apparent reason.

At this point, enter the Doctor Who version of Vincent Price’s “The Fly.” No doubt that these were some of the cheesiest and most rubbery looking of just about any monster effects since the series relaunched in 2005. I’m willing to forgive the rather awful costume effects in this one based on the fact that the Fly creatures did not turn out to be the villains, but yet another group of travelers that got caught in the same predicament as the bus, so we didn’t have to rely on their realism or any thrills or chills.

leeevans For classic series fans, Planet of the Dead also brings back UNIT in rather prominent role. As has been since series 1, UNIT never really seems to have any defined identity as it did in the 1960s and 70s eras of the program. Yet again we simply have them as a placeholder for authority and as a touchpoint for the Doctor to play off while trying to resolve the troubles at hand, in this case a race of swarming sting-ray-like animals with metal exoskeletons that manage to survive by ripping open wormholes in space and bouncing from planet to planet devouring everything in their path. This time, we have the added touch with UNIT of a rather over-the-top performance by a stereotypical geeky UNIT scientist played by Lee Evans who is star-struck by the chance to finally meet UNIT’s mythical “Doctor” who is a UNIT legend in the current era.

While in this layoff year any new Who is nice to have, the strengths of Planet of the Dead are mainly found in Michelle Ryan’s supporting performance and some rather nice location work in the desert scenes. For a year where we’re only going to get one new episode every few months I’m a little perplexed by how unspectacular it was. While the budget was obviously blown on the location work as well as the CGI swarms, we just don’t seem to really get any real tension or drama mounting through the story itself.

The only real pay off for the audience was the Doctor being given a foreboding warning yet again that the his “song” will end soon from one of the apparently “psychic” bus passengers. The last time the Doctor got this warning was about a year ago. At that time, it seemed the warning that his “song would end soon” to be direct foreshadowing of the death of River Song, a character that we hadn’t met yet but was introduced later in the series and who met a rather tearful fate. In this case, with Tennant’s days numbered we know there’s really no wiggle room for any other interpretation beyond the fact that he is on the road to death and rebirth as the goofy looking, overly young Matt Smith in less than a year.

We also are going to have a seemingly unusual circumstance in this case where we have a regeneration sequence and passing of the torch from one Doctor to another with no regular supporting companion. Much of the drama in a regeneration story over the years has been how this change impacts the companions and how they view the character of the Doctor. From a series standpoint it also makes this demarcation line even more definitive driving up the risk factor for the massive change coming.
While I believe the program is supremely ready for a changing of the guard with Russell T. Davies handing the series over to the more than capable Stephen Moffat, there is a twinge of curiosity of what we would have been able to accomplish in Moffat’s first year had they managed to keep Tennant on board. He’s perhaps the most popular lead in the program since Tom Baker and deservedly so. He floats the show when the writing and production doesn’t. You have to give some serious consideration of how much is really at risk at this point. Every aspect of the show is going to change at once. New cast, new producer, new program. Matt Smith and Stephen Moffat have a daunting task ahead and the burden of the BBC’s flagship show on their shoulders.

od3 Ultimately, even for the hardcore fans of Doctor Who, if you live outside the UK and haven’t found an avenue for getting to see Planet of the Dead yet, you shouldn’t sweat it too much. It’s certainly entertaining, but it will keep a few months for DVD release or airing on the Sci-Fi Channel as long as you get your viewing of the final run of Tennant episodes before the 2010 series starts rolling.

Overall, a few endearing high points keep Planet of the Dead supremely watchable, but rather disappointingly run-of-the-mill for the only new hour of the show we are going to get for a few months.

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