Apr 11, 2009
Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead
Ahh… One of the best times of the year, New Doctor Who episode day. 
Tonight was the first of the 4 (or, 3, I guess) last eps of the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant). More thoughts, spoilers, and whatnot after the cut…
Did I like it? Well, of course I did. Was it the best Doctor Who ep ever. Nah. But it was fun. The story was mainly forgettable aside from the end (more on that later). A few of the characters stood out:
First off we had Michelle Ryan as the one-off companion for this ep. Lara Croft with a more believable accent, she was, a Lady who is a thief. I imagine Ms Ryan was happy not to have to do her not-too-bad American accent that she used during “The Bionic Woman” remake.
However, the true companion in this ep, for me, was Malcolm Taylor played by Lee Evans. Scatterbrained nerd who even the Doctor thinks is a genius. I liked him. Bring him back, either here, on “Torchwood”, or on “Sarah Jane”!
Now then, the end of the story. The ep ends with a couple of interesting things. First, when Ms Ryan’s character does the usual “Well let’s go” standing outside the TARDIS, as per usual with Companions, the Doctor tells her, “No”. And this time it looks like the Doctor is serious, saying that he has “lost them all”, so never again. According to Wikipedia that means it only took losing forty-two of them to finally change his mind! (WARNING! That link contains spoilers for the final two Tenth Doctor eps, in that it says who the Companions for the next eps are. You know, in case you don’t already know.)
The other big moment was with the psychic lady from the bus telling the Doctor:
- That the Doctor’s song is ending
- That “it” is returning through the dark
- That “he” (= “it”?) will knock four times
Now, the first one, that’s easy. The second and third, hmm. The Master = “he”…”it”? I dunno. We shall see.
Finally, the best for last. Tonight’s ep contained perhaps the best line in the history of “Doctor Who”. It was yelled out with joy by UNIT Captain Erisa Magambo, as she defended London from those stingray things:
“I don’t believe it! Guns that work!”
You must pity poor UNIT. Always facing immensely more advanced creatures using weapons not much different from a slingshot in effect.