Planet of the Dead
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Standard DVD
5-episode
box set
NTSC Region 1
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Standard DVD
5-episode
box set
PAL Region 2
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Standard DVD
1-episode
volume
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See below for Blu-Ray options
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(Doctor Who Story No. 205, starring David Tennant)
- written by Russell T. Davies and Gareth Roberts
- directed by James Strong
- produced by Tracie Simpson
- music by Murray Gold
- 1 episode @ 59 min.
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Story: Hot on the trail of Rhondium particles and
the rip in the time/space continuum that they signify,
the Doctor takes the bus.... and UNIT is quickly called
in to seal off the area where the double-decker vanished.
What purpose lays behind the creation of an interplanetary
wormhole? What secrets are to be discovered in the endless
sands of San Helios? And what haunting terrors is the
storm sweeping towards the Doctor and friends?
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DVD Extras include:
- Doctor Who Confidential featurette: Desert Storm (57 min.) (also available on the 1-episode volume)
- David Tennant's Video Diaries (box sets only)
- Deleted Scenes (box sets only)
Buyers' Guide Review
by Martin Izsak
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(A more in-depth analysis, containing "SPOILERS" and intended
for those who have already seen the program, can be accessed
here.)
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This tale had a similar effect on me as many of
William Hartnell's Season Two Doctor Who stories:
A lot of fascinating and cool elements drew me into the story, but in the
end, most of them delivered far less than what I'd been hoping for.
"Planet of the Dead" earns many points for creating anticipation, but
not so many for creating satisfaction.
Having now gotten four Christmas specials under its belt in as many
years, Doctor Who now tackles Easter. I'm left wondering why? Seriously,
the Doctor shows up in this adventure simply wandering onto a bus. There
is no sense that he is someone that roams the universe here, otherwise
he could be showing us an alien culture with holidays that we've never
heard of before. The TARDIS makes a pitiful showing in this adventure.
Despite the anticipation of an alien planet created by the story title,
a very disappointing Earth-bound stigma surrounds this adventure.
An interesting comparison is
"Turn Left" (story no. 202), because despite it
having a higher percentage of Earthly footage, it created a greater sense
of the Doctor and his TARDIS taking us viewers to new places.
Michelle Ryan's character of Lady Christina is rich and exciting,
and easily far more suitable and interesting for the Doctor to start
traveling with than Rose ever was. Nice one.
Combined with the situation that unfolds,
the parallels to the character of Kate on "Lost" are huge. Ryan does
great work portraying the character.
After declaring that the setting just isn't as alien as I'd hoped,
I'm now floored to learn from the extras that they actually went to the
enormous expense of shipping the cast, crew, and a double-decker bus
all the way to Dubai to shoot this. Holy waste of money! Seriously,
we got just as good an effect when
"The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" (story no. 155)
gave us a bus in a quarry, while also delivering better action
surrounding it, and a more interesting cultured alien planet to boot.
In fact, the Season Two William Hartnell story
"The Chase" (story no. 16)
also gave us a very similar looking desert
and a better story to boot without shooting very much outside of the studio.
Perhaps this is why the extras on the "Planet of the Dead" DVD can go on
just as long as the show itself - it is almost more interesting to learn
how this story was made than to watch the story itself. Writers
Davies and Roberts (not to mention Gardner) would be better off
focusing on story than on production stunts. There is nothing wrong
with your local English quarries, guys. Just get the stories right.
Perhaps emphasizing that the story is too Earthly, UNIT is called in
to occupy a major quantity of screen time. We can be thankful that the
crew finally saw enough of the light to bring back a UNIT character that
had appeared on the show before, settling on Noma Dumezweni's
Captain Magambo who had previously worked with Rose in "Turn Left".
Good move. While I might have preferred Colonel Mace and/or Captain Price,
Dumezweni begins here to add the odd touches of humour and flavour
to help bring Magambo to life to a greater degree than was managed when
the role was smaller in "Turn Left". Her entrance is actually quite
unendearing however, scripted as she is to be such a poor listener to the man
who requested UNIT's presence in the first place. NOT the move of a
wise leader at all.
But of course, amongst the UNIT ranks, the completely new character
of Malcolm Taylor steals the show, thanks to a constantly inventive
performance from actor Lee Evans. Fans may well be demanding his return
in future stories, and with good reason. The character takes command
of an entire plot strand and leads the story through many important beats,
while being thoroughly entertaining at the same time.
I think we have to acknowledge the work of director James Strong and his
editor(s) here, in picking just enough of the right moments of Evans'
performance to make the humour and the story work best, because judging
by Evans' appearance in the extras, he's constantly being over-the-top jokey
and giving more than one could tastefully use in the program. A very
good collaboration in the end!
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If I had to single out only one other character to talk about,
it would have to be Carmen, the woman aboard the bus with the amazing
psychic abilities. She becomes a very useful tool for the scriptwriters
in creating and maintaining tension and anticipation during this story.
This story needs Carmen badly, and it's great to see
that she worked so well. Ellen Thomas plays the role with absolute
sincerity and makes her easy to believe in.
Early on, anticipation is built up for an encounter with some kind
of alien mastermind behind the whole plot....
and if you haven't yet seen the story, I think I'll stop there.
If you have seen it, why are you reading this page? Go to the
in-depth analysis version of this review
and get the full scoop.
It's very
surprising to see Russell T. Davies share writing priveliges with others
outside of the middle of a proper season, but he doesn't seem to acknowledge
any contribution by Gareth Roberts during the extras,
while Roberts himself does not appear. Wierd....
At this point, the story seemed very reminiscent of the season three
opener "Galaxy Four" (story no. 18). Anyone
familiar with that story will recognize the similarities in the plot
situation. If that brings the Tritovores into comparison with the Rills,
I think the Rills will come out on top as being more alien and in owning
their own culture and characters. Still distant and having translation
difficulties, both the Rills and their technology have their own voices
and come through with their own characters. "Galaxy Four" also had a lovely
point to the whole adventure. Davies gives a big explanation on the extras
why "Planet of the Dead" needed to deal the Tritovores the ending they got,
which perhaps demonstrates why the exploration of this planet didn't really
benefit from being framed by everyday Earth.
One of my favourite bits of this story are all the visuals brought up
on the Tritovore ship's screens and the story points behind them,
including the identification of the planet as San Helios, within
the Scorpion Nebula. Great stuff.
In fact, that's where and when the TARDIS should have taken us,
were we exploring the universe properly as we should. By the way,
how long is the San Helian / Titovorian year, by which we're measuring
the age of this recording?
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Music by Murray Gold
A suite of original music new for this story
is available on:
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"A Pressing Need to Save the World",
"A Pressing Need to Save the World",
"Corridors and Fire Escapes",
"The Greatest Story Never Told" (a),
and an alternate version of "Midnight"
are available on:
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An alternate version of "The Doctor Forever"
is available on:
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"UNIT"
is available on:
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Story structure is actually fairly good for a Davies script, given
what elements we're working with, suggesting perhaps that his collaboration
with Gareth Roberts brought some benefits. While the first 2/3 of the story
is drawn along quite strongly by exploring places and ideas, although not
as many interesting character points as would be ideal, the final third
is a fairly logical escalation of several successful action sequences.
Sadly this last third offers few surprises and is quite predictable.
As such, some of it seems to go on too long. I'm particularly surprised that
so much expensive CGI footage of one particular element was ordered up,
when character logic would suggest it would be finished with far sooner.
But it's not bad. Predictable and decent.
Well, though this story may have been less than what I'd wanted or
hoped for, it is still very well done, and does take us to an alien planet
and another part of the universe like this show should, so it's still good.
I do still prefer the previous tale
"The Next Doctor" as a story,
although this one certainly beats other specials like
"The Christmas Invasion" (story no. 171) and
"The Runaway Bride" (story no. 182)
by a long shot. And in terms of the three stories that Gareth Roberts
has written, this one is certainly the best.
And now it looks like David Tennant's era will be coming to a close
soon. Too soon for me, I think.
But, perhaps the best of all is yet to come....
"Planet of the Dead" has become available on DVD and Blu-Ray,
and is the first Doctor Who story shot in high definition
for the Blu-Ray format.
Click on the Amazon symbol for the location nearest you
for pricing and availability:
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DVD NTSC Region 1
5-episode box set
for the North American market:
in the U.S.
in Canada
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DVD PAL Region 2
5-episode box set
for the U.K.
|
Standard DVD
1-episode volume
NTSC Region 1 - U.S.
NTSC Region 1 - Canada
PAL Region 2 - U.K.
|
Blu-Ray
1-episode volume
NTSC Region 1 - U.S.
NTSC Region 1 - Canada
PAL Region 2 - U.K.
|
Blu-Ray NTSC Region 1
5-episode box set
for the North American market:
in the U.S.
in Canada
|
Blu-Ray PAL Region 2
5-episode box set
for the U.K.
|
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