Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead
Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead
| 11 April 2009 (USA)
Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead Trailers

A meeting in a London bus with jewel thief Lady Christina takes a turn for the worse for the Doctor when the bus takes a detour to a desert-like planet, where the deadly Swarm awaits.

Reviews
Actuakers One of my all time favorites.
Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic
Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Mabel Munoz Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?
derbycoman This is virtually a remake of 1982's widely unloved "Time Flight", only with a bigger budget and a worse Doctor. Too wildly lit, underwritten, paced for an audience with an 8 second attention span, too noisy, too much emphasis on quirk over character and too talky from the massively over-rated David Tennant and that damned sonic screwdriver! - so, pretty much par for the course for a post revival Dr Who. Russel Davies seems love peppering the series with cartoonish fanboy dialogue and seems, by this point in the series to be ruling it as a personal fiefdom much the way John Nathan Turner did in his reign. The new Dr Who as always unoriginal and more marketing oriented than quality driven, and by this episode, that had become tedious.
jc-osms This Dr Who Easter special from 2009 tantalisingly dangles a potential new companion before the viewer in the shape of feisty cat burglar Michelle Ryan's titled bored rich girl character only for the Doc to turn up his nose and continue to fly solo. Beforehand, they share a moderately exciting adventure when after daringly stealing a closely-guarded golden artifact Mission Impossible-style, they find themselves sat together on a red London bus just about to take a trans-dimensional trip to anther world, naturally, where they encounter another world-threatening species, ditto naturally, before saving said world yet again in the nick of time - naturally to the power 3!Borrowing some ideas from Harry Potter (a flying bus, the Doctor's "parseltongue" type dialogue with the Dead Planet's initial batch of aliens) the story's okay if lacking somewhat in excitement or surprises. There's the odd smattering of humour and a nice frisson between Tennant and Ryanm but Lee Evans as a Doctor-adoring UNIT boffin gets too much screen-time.With no single antagonist to act as a focal point, the story struggles to really create tension and thrills and by the end relies far too much on CaGen SFX as the flying menace targets earth for occupation in their millions.Seasonal specials and Dr Who tend to go hand in hand, but this episode failed to really take for me.
Robert McElwaine As the first of four one hour specials being aired this year, Planet of the Dead marks the first Easter special Writer's Russell T. Davies and Gareth Robert's offer up an episode which has a rather interesting premise and a morally dubious character in Michelle Ryan's Lady Christina Da Souza. An attractive young thief who as the story opens is seen to steal a priceless gold artifact from a museum. Having to make a hasty getaway when she accidentally triggers an alarm and is pursued by the authorities. She jumps on to a double decker bus. It would seem she has made her escape and that her problems are over. Nothing could be further from the truth. Especially when the Doctor boards the bus as well and sits right next to her and as you well know. Wherever the Doctor goes, trouble is not far behind him. Before you know it, the buses passengers find them self being sucked through a wormhole and trapped on an alien dessert planet on the other side of the universe.What follow's is an inoffensive, passable time waster. Nothing spectacular. Which although not bad, you can't help but feel it could have been so much more. The episodes first half get's off to a cracking start with the museum robbery which instantly grabs out interest and contains an elaborate well choreographed scene. But once the action shifts to the bus then the pace begins to slow down and what we're left with is a leaden bit of exposition as we're introduced to a number of throw away characters who offer little to the plot.Tennant once again is as wonderful as ever as the heroic Time Lord. At least offering something of interest to proceedings and he's adequately enough supported by Michelle Ryan who although fine as the feisty, flirtation Lady Da Souza, Isn't totally convincing in the role. It doesn't help however that she is lumbered with a two dimensional character who's sole purpose is to flirt with Tennant. Not to mention some of the cheesy dialogue she has forced upon her. Da Souza is so irritating post feminist. An attempt by Davies and Robert's it seems to foist a 21st century proactive heroine on us. Independent, confident. When all she comes across as is a reject from 'The Avengers'.Once the action shifts and see's Tennant and Ryan venturing in to the planet's dessert plains then the pace really begins to get moving again and the story begins to unfold. Which although not entirely original and seems to borrow much from the Stepehn King mini-series, 'The Langoliers' as well as 'Pitch Black'. But never the less, there's still something to enjoy here. Lee Evan's manages to elevate things with his performance as the comically eccentric Prof. Malcolm Turner. Effecting a welsh accent and having some inspired moments with Tennant's Doctor who seems to have met someone more quirky than himself.The overall result is a passable runaround which sadly is a bit of an anti-climax. While Davies and Roberts inclusion of a middle aged black woman who has psychic powers as a way to hint at what's to come is a unsubtle contrivance which has already been done to death through the series.I wouldn't expect too much from 'Planet of the Dead'. It's an undemanding, fun and serves as nothing more than filler before the upcoming 'Waters of Mars' and Decembers Christmas specials which will see Tennant bow out of the show. But if this outing is anything to go by. Then Tennant's swan song may be something of an anti-climax. But who know's. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.
pstancer Well, David Tennant is pretty much going through the motions these days, and it seems Russell T. Davies is doing the same.Nothing really catches your eye in this 30 minute episode needlessly stretched out to an hour. Even the monsters don't make much of an effort; just a bunch of flying alien stingrays, and not a Steve Irwin joke in sight.If your birthday is after 1998, then this might just keep your interest, but that's about it.I'm keeping my fingers crossed there are better things to come, and that Matt Smith (the new Doctor Who) will not be the 21st century's equivalent of Sylvester McCoy and end up killing the franchise for another 15 years.