New Who Easter Special: Planet of the Dead

[strange_complex]

Yep, I enjoyed that!

Sure, so there was quite a lot of silliness - particularly the Magic Flying Bus. I wasn't too convinced by the concept of the Swarm making wormholes in space by flying round and round planets REALLY FAST, and Christina de Souza was a bit of an all-round cliché. But this is a Special - so long as it delivers the laughs, the thrills and the squees, it's done its job.

My particular squees were:

• Malcolm Taylor (the UNIT scientist) squeeing over the Doctor like a great big meta-referential fan - especially when the Doctor asked him if his favourite of the stories in the Doctor's file was the one with the giant Robot, and he then turned up at the end to give the Doctor BIG HUGS wearing a scarf! Oh, the Four-love...
• The stuff with the Doctor having to communicate with the Tritovores in their own language, because the TARDIS was not there. And that whole issue was nicely clarified, too, when he said that he spoke 'every language' - so we now know for sure that it is basically his (telepathic?) abilities that allow him to communicate in any language, and the TARDIS that then extends that to his companions.
• Psychic paper as Oyster card.
• Christina telling the Doctor that 'the Doctor' isn't a name, it's a psychological condition.
• A black woman running UNIT, and telling the white guy (the police chief) where to get off when she comes to take control of the tunnel and the wormhole.
• The Queen not minding when the Doctor parks the TARDIS in the Buckingham Palace gardens.
• And of course exciting pointers towards the remaining specials courtesy of the psychic lady at the end. "He will knock four times," eh? The Master?

In short - that will do nicely, thank you. MOAR PLS!

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