Apr 13 2009
Doctor Who Easter Special Planet of the Dead
The Doctor’s latest Easter special gives us one of the more “fun romp” style Doctor Who episodes. We begin the “Planet of the Dead” with Lady Christina de Souza (Michelle Ryan) pulling off a Mission Impossible-esque heist of an ancient gold goblet from a museum. The lady thief barely escapes the authorities by paying off a bus driver–just seconds before the Doctor boards that very bus.
Tracking down small tears in the fabric of the universe, the Doctor is stunned when the bus stumbles directly into one of those suddenly very-much-larger-tears and spits the bus down onto a vacant, hot, desert planet. As the other passengers panic to varying degrees, including a psychic woman who hears the voices of death and fears oncoming dangers, the Doctor and Lady Christina do their best to puzzle themselves out of the situation.
The Time Lord and the Thief Lady make for a nice pair, discovering their similar interests in risk-taking, cleverness, and disregard for the rules as they lightly spar for dominance. Christina starts off taking charge, but like the Doctor, she’s willing to take help from those with skills in the areas she lacks.
Throw in a couple different scary alien races, danger to the Earth, elite military forces (led smoothly and efficiently by Captain Magambo (Noma Dumezweni)), a genius human scientist who worships/loves the legendary Doctor, and scared but gutsy civilians and you’ve got yourself a rip-roaring Doctor Who adventure that even includes a sexy snog between the Lady and the Lord.
*SPOILER ALERT* While most of this Doctor episode is standalone fun, we do get sucked back down into harsher realities twice. The first when the Doctor refuses to have another companion because he just can’t handle anymore loss. Rose was certainly a heartbreaker for him, but I think what happened with Donna really left its mark on him. And then the close of the episode, with the psychic’s prediction that something bad was coming that would basically be the end of the docto–well, you know when the Doctor looks afraid that things are bad.
With only two episodes left of David Tennant’s reign, we know that something big is about to happen. Unfortunately we’ve got to wait until Christmas to find out what…
Read all of my Doctor Who and Torchwood posts. Check out the Shrine blog for Doctor Who screencaps.
PHOTOS: David Tennant as Doctor Who and Michelle Ryan as Lady Christina de Souza, “Planet of the Dead”, Doctor Who, c2009 BBC.
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