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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Comments

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Hmm, the Black Guardian is a nice thought. I'd prefer that to the Master, personally. But whoever it is, a prophecy in the first story of what passes for a season this year is about as much build-up as they can get, so...

Pity Red Dwarf has gone swerving merrily off the rails, though.

[rhube.livejournal.com]

I... am reserving judgement about Red Dwarf. A surprising number of people commented that they felt it would have worked a bit better with a laughter track before I actually managed to see it, and... I found myself surprisingly in agreement. Like, that's just not how Red Dwarf rolls. There were some bits that fell entirely flat, especially earlier on in the episode, and it felt a lot like rehearsing old roles that they've semi-forgotten... and yet I still didn't hate it as much as the last two seasons. They *did* have it in places. Chris Barry was on form, I thought (and the Cat has kept surprisingly trim! Lamé is not forgiving and... there was nothing to forgive (except, you know, taste).)

It was only the first act. I'm prepared to wait and see. The new holo-gal annoyed the hell ut of me, but... I'm willing to risk it for old times sake. Hell, if I risked teh last two seasons, why not this?

Back to Who: the fact that they don't have time for build up is why I don't think they'll go Master on this one. On the other hand, I do feel a tinkling in teh force that suggests to me it migth be something of Old Gallifrey. Maybe it's a pipe dream, but I think the prophecy indicates that something he's met before will get him again, and I just sorta feel the programe makers might be feeling the need for some kind of power for the Doctor to rub against like I am. Maybe that's wishful thinking, but... Well, if they give me this much time to wish in I'll wish.

I'd vote the Rani if it were a female knocking. I would love to see them bring back the Rani. We could have glam jokes. I'm sure the writers would love that as much as the beard joke.

Ah, questions, questions...

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I didn't really watch the last couple of seasons of Red Dwarf, but from what I did see, I'm glad they've effectively just been ignored in the new version. The third episode tonight could turn everything around, but last night's offering was all just getting a bit too self-referential to work for me. It'll be OK if it all turns out to be a giant computer simulation, or some other kind of trick. But otherwise, not.

It would be a lovely end to the Tenth Doctor's arc to have some hint of the Time Lords re-appearing - it was him who really started talking about them again after all, not Nine. But again, I think this goes back to your point about not having enough 'time' (boom, tish) to develop the plot-line. I don't think even RTD can pull off all the things I've seen cropping up in spoiler photos and the return of the Time Lords in three episodes.

[chrisvenus]

It'll be OK if it all turns out to be a giant computer simulation, or some other kind of trick.

I'm catching up on LJ after the weekend and having watched all of red dwarf at time of reading I was amused by this comment. :)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Hee! Yes, the third episode did make things a lot better as far as I'm concerned. It still wasn't Teh Best Red Dwarf Evah!, but a nice little post-script to the series.