Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead!
Apr. 11th, 2009 04:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skywaterblueWOW. THAT ROCKED.
Where to start: okay well this episode sure wastes NO time with setting up the plot, eh? There's a cool setpiece where Michelle Ryan (Lady Christina) steals a golden cup ala every heist movie ever. And then the Doctor and Christina get on the bus together and it right away gets zapped to Dubai. It's like five minutes, tops. I did laugh that the Doctor has a bus pass, though. If I lived in Chicago I would SO make my psychic paper a bus pass just for the lulz.
Not REALLY sure why the episode then spends lots and lots of time setting up the other humans on the bus as if we have to care for them -- except for the two boys and the black woman who can see the future they don't have that much to do. None of them die except for the bus driver, and I think we're supposed to think he deserves it for taking a bribe from Christina in the first place.
I think the main reason is because obviously the Doctor learned something important from Midnight. He even references it.
Christina and the Doctor have a great vibe. I loved, "Oh, I'm a Lord too." "Of what?" "It's a very large estate." Snrt. And "You look like a human." "Well, you look Time Lord." And she calls him Spaceman and he gets all emo about Donna, and then tells Christina that he stole the TARDIS and it was all very chemistry. I'd ship it. He even busts her from the cops and gives her a flying bus!
He doesn't invite her on board, though she totally asks. It's a bummer, I would gladly watch that show. You've got to wonder because the Doctor seems so cheerful and open in this one, but apparently is emo as fuck about Donna.
The other thing I really, really adored about this episode is the Doctor using a mobile phone to call UNIT, and the UNIT science guy is so, so, so excited to get to work with THE Doctor. "I've read all your files!" "Oh? What's your favorite, the giant robot -- wait, no. Later." Ha ha ha. Too good. (I'm not /really/ sure why RTD just doesn't have Ten carry around the phone Martha gave him. Maybe they're worried that Ten /always/ having a cellphone on him is going to make it hard not to get him out of a plot - but I am SO OVER writers complaining that the cellphone makes it hard to write stories.)
Oh! And he hooks the two boys up with a UNIT job. I hope we see them again later in the finale? I'm /too/ amused by the thought of the Doctor giving all the people he likes jobs in UNIT. Just because he can.
HOW DID I FORGET THE FRIENDLY-BEMS? I liked them too, I got all sniffly when the Langolier ate the BEM. Even though it was also so clearly 'I don't want to have to explain BEMs at the end of the episode, die now my toys'. I'm not crazy about 'make David Tennant speak rhino/bug', because it embarrassment squicks me, even though I do laugh.
I'm a touch sad about 'The Waters of Mars' because it looks like an old school Troughton 'we're under siege in a space station' story and DAMMIT that's what my second spec script was about. Ah well, looks like good times.
Where to start: okay well this episode sure wastes NO time with setting up the plot, eh? There's a cool setpiece where Michelle Ryan (Lady Christina) steals a golden cup ala every heist movie ever. And then the Doctor and Christina get on the bus together and it right away gets zapped to Dubai. It's like five minutes, tops. I did laugh that the Doctor has a bus pass, though. If I lived in Chicago I would SO make my psychic paper a bus pass just for the lulz.
Not REALLY sure why the episode then spends lots and lots of time setting up the other humans on the bus as if we have to care for them -- except for the two boys and the black woman who can see the future they don't have that much to do. None of them die except for the bus driver, and I think we're supposed to think he deserves it for taking a bribe from Christina in the first place.
I think the main reason is because obviously the Doctor learned something important from Midnight. He even references it.
Christina and the Doctor have a great vibe. I loved, "Oh, I'm a Lord too." "Of what?" "It's a very large estate." Snrt. And "You look like a human." "Well, you look Time Lord." And she calls him Spaceman and he gets all emo about Donna, and then tells Christina that he stole the TARDIS and it was all very chemistry. I'd ship it. He even busts her from the cops and gives her a flying bus!
He doesn't invite her on board, though she totally asks. It's a bummer, I would gladly watch that show. You've got to wonder because the Doctor seems so cheerful and open in this one, but apparently is emo as fuck about Donna.
The other thing I really, really adored about this episode is the Doctor using a mobile phone to call UNIT, and the UNIT science guy is so, so, so excited to get to work with THE Doctor. "I've read all your files!" "Oh? What's your favorite, the giant robot -- wait, no. Later." Ha ha ha. Too good. (I'm not /really/ sure why RTD just doesn't have Ten carry around the phone Martha gave him. Maybe they're worried that Ten /always/ having a cellphone on him is going to make it hard not to get him out of a plot - but I am SO OVER writers complaining that the cellphone makes it hard to write stories.)
Oh! And he hooks the two boys up with a UNIT job. I hope we see them again later in the finale? I'm /too/ amused by the thought of the Doctor giving all the people he likes jobs in UNIT. Just because he can.
HOW DID I FORGET THE FRIENDLY-BEMS? I liked them too, I got all sniffly when the Langolier ate the BEM. Even though it was also so clearly 'I don't want to have to explain BEMs at the end of the episode, die now my toys'. I'm not crazy about 'make David Tennant speak rhino/bug', because it embarrassment squicks me, even though I do laugh.
I'm a touch sad about 'The Waters of Mars' because it looks like an old school Troughton 'we're under siege in a space station' story and DAMMIT that's what my second spec script was about. Ah well, looks like good times.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-12 03:06 am (UTC)RE: The cellphone. There's ways to get around any get-out-of-jail card if you're clever (case in point, the Grande Moff deciding that the 'Driver doesn't work on wood; which is an extension of Arty Dee's "deadlock" concept.) The whole of DW is having a character who's a walking pile of God-Tech and then finding as many ways to twart the God-Tech as possible. Usually the best way is the simple way, like in the Impossible Planet when they simply drop the TARDIS to the bottom of a pit. Hell, back in the Visitation, they just had one of the Terileptils straight up ice the sonic screwdriver.
Hands up everyone who wants a spin-off series about a sexy female cat-burglar with a flying bus.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-12 03:46 am (UTC)I of course, agree with you. It just seems like RTD is wary (for some dumb reason) of the cellphone becoming 100% part of the Doctor's kit. Even though the Doctor 'juicing up your cellphone' is now as standard a sign you're his traveling mate as is getting a key and he's got on one of his own the dash.