Tacticalin An absolute waste of money
Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Michelle Ridley The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
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.
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 engers 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, able 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 ed 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 able 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 '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.
bob the moo It took me a minute or two to get round to watching this first of the specials that will see David Tennant give up the role of Dr Who to a teenager who won the role in an online raffle. Anyway, I'm not a massive Who fan or anything so I only approach Planet of the Dead as a piece of entertainment and, if it can entertain me then it is god enough for me. As it is though this special just seemed like it was in some sort of holding pattern in almost every regard. In of building up to Tennant's exit, it doesn't do anything other than end with a cryptic warning of the future but it is in the rest of the special where the "doing the basics to the time" aspect comes over.The plot is a bit like Pitch Black but of course this is a Saturday evening family piece of entertainment so the darker, more thriller stuff is limited to what kids can cope. This is not a massive problem but it is when you temper it with so much noisy and silly stuff that it prevents the adults accepting it as well. This happens here as we have the usual "big, colourful" Doctor doing his stuff but too much silliness, weak comedy and daft action sequences that lack a reason to care or believe – they all pile up and the end result is a special that will work best for children and not the family as a whole. Things get a bit better in the second half as the creatures are introduced but even then the colourful spectacle of it all takes precedence over the rest. This in turn produces those terrible "cringe" moments that Doctor Who has occasionally – moments that remind you that this is not a massive American production but a BBC Wales production aimed at the Saturday evening telly crowd.Indeed on such "moment" is all through the special, and that is the presence of Michelle Ryan. Fresh from her attempts to break America (how she got the opportunities she got mystifies me), Ryan attempts to be light, flirty fun while delivering an action character. The problem is that she never feels natural doing it at all. She attempts to match Tennant's larger-than-life approach but she hasn't got the acting skills nor the charisma to make it work and she ends up coming over either wooden or like she is overacting in a "big smile, lots of teeth" way. Tennant is his usual solid self and matches the "fun" approach of the special even if he doesn't have much else to do here aside from the usual running and shouting stuff. Evans is amusing but a bit too obvious while Dumezweni, Kaluuya, Ames, Thomas and others are all TV-standard.Overall, Planet of the Dead will suffice for those younger viewers of Dr Who as it produces the standard requirements of the show. However for the casual viewer it will unavoidably come over as overly noisy, colourful and all a bit silly. As a "holding" film then I suppose it does the job, but the next few specials will need to step up their game somewhat as this is the sort of special/episode that you can forgive as the exception, not as the norm.
dannydavies Not the best Doctor Who episode but certainly not the worst. Thought the storyline was a cross between Pitch Black, Entrapment, On the buses and that program about a time traveler in a blue box. Seriously it was OK not as bad as some comments say it is on here, the thing about Doctor Who is if you had the Daleks, Cybermen or the Master every week now eventually that would be boring. Dr. Malcalm (Lee Evans)is a cool character but maybe a bit over the top with the I love you Doctor stuff. Christiana played by Michelle Ryan comes straight out of the movie Entrapment and then once they reach the desert in the double decker bus you almost expect Vin Diesel to turn up. Them flying stingrays must be exceptionally hungry as one can eat two larger than life human sized flies in one after another!
