Planet of the Dead is a fun episode. Anyone coming into it expecting something as profound as Journey's End is going to be disappointed, but as an Eastertime special, it's fun and worth watching. David Tennant, nearly a year after last portraying the Doctor (and having spent months playing Hamlet in the meantime) slips easily back into the role, and Michelle Ryan is a lot of fun as cat burglar-turned-companion Lady Christina. I disagree that she's just a clone of Jenny. the Doctor's Daughter. In fact she's her own remarkable character, and possibly the closest the revived series has seen to Romana (a classic companion of old). There were rumors that Lady Christina might actually turn out to be a Time Lord but this isn't the case (though there's a tongue-in-cheek line of dialogue probably aimed at those wishful thinkers). Fortunately her character doesn't follow in the footsteps of Kylie Minogue's ill-fated wanna-be companion in Voyage of the Damned, suggesting we might see her again.
The reaction to this episode by so-called fans who seem to expect every episode to be groundbreaking, and forgetting this is supposed to be a fun SF series aimed at families, suggests Russell T Davies and Tennant are leaving at a good time as clearly the fanbase has tired of them, just as Trekkies tired of the production team behind Star Trek. The new production regime and new Doctor will, in turn, have the fanbase turn against them in a few years too. As far as I'm concerned, however, Davies and Tennant have rarely made a misstep.
The only element of his special I didn't like was Lee Evans' walking cartoon of a character, Dr. Malcolm. He plays it almost like a send-up, and that's not how Doctor Who works. Yes, it's a show about giant flies and giant swarming metal insects, but the actors play it straight, which is why it works. Still, he does get in a few great lines as well as a terrific shout out to another UK science fiction icon.
Planet of the Dead is a "fun romp" as they used to say, which ends with some rather sombre predictions of things to come. In an interview with Doctor Who Confidential, Davies indicated that this was the last chance for the Doctor to have fun before the run-up to his regeneration begins (indeed the preview for next special, The Waters of Mars, which plays at the end of Planet of the Dead, shows a rather dark episode ahead). As such, Planet of the Dead does the job.
The reaction to this episode by so-called fans who seem to expect every episode to be groundbreaking, and forgetting this is supposed to be a fun SF series aimed at families, suggests Russell T Davies and Tennant are leaving at a good time as clearly the fanbase has tired of them, just as Trekkies tired of the production team behind Star Trek. The new production regime and new Doctor will, in turn, have the fanbase turn against them in a few years too. As far as I'm concerned, however, Davies and Tennant have rarely made a misstep.
The only element of his special I didn't like was Lee Evans' walking cartoon of a character, Dr. Malcolm. He plays it almost like a send-up, and that's not how Doctor Who works. Yes, it's a show about giant flies and giant swarming metal insects, but the actors play it straight, which is why it works. Still, he does get in a few great lines as well as a terrific shout out to another UK science fiction icon.
Planet of the Dead is a "fun romp" as they used to say, which ends with some rather sombre predictions of things to come. In an interview with Doctor Who Confidential, Davies indicated that this was the last chance for the Doctor to have fun before the run-up to his regeneration begins (indeed the preview for next special, The Waters of Mars, which plays at the end of Planet of the Dead, shows a rather dark episode ahead). As such, Planet of the Dead does the job.