Story #200 - Planet of the Dead (2009)

Harry -
Here's a story I probably haven't watched since around the time it was first broadcast. I didn't remember much about it aside from the setting of a London bus crashed on a desert planet, and the one-off character of Lady Christina de Souza.


Sarah -
It's definitely the first time I've watched it since 2009. I wasn't looking forward to watching it, remembering that I wasn't a fan of it the first time out. With expectations so low, I found myself not as annoyed by it as I expected, but not particularly engaged by it either.


Harry -
Watching it again the other day, the opening scene where Christina plunders a golden chalice from a museum brought to mind of all things the Cartmel Masterplan. If I'm remembering it right, Cartmel had planned to write Ace out of the show in 1990 and replace her with a cat burglar. History did not pan out that way, but Cartmel might have been amused to see the Doctor teaming up with a cat burglar years later.

Sarah -
I'm sure Cartmel would have had something to say about that. No one loves discussing his work more than he does.

I didn't remember much about the story besides Lady Christina and the bus, so it was a surprise to see Daniel Kaluuya as Barclay, long before his international stardom.

Harry -
That was definitely a "whoa!" moment.

There weren't many others here. After the museum alarm triggered a pursuit and bus chase, Lady Christina and the Doctor end up on the other side of the universe with a collection of baffled passengers. Back on Earth, the police call in UNIT, and the typical UNIT activities unfold. Roll in with heavy artillery, take total control and seal off the area until something Doctory happens.

Sarah - 
It was all a bit predictable, wasn’t it?

Harry - 
Things were a bit more interesting on the desert planet. The Doctor and Lady Christina strike up a friendship and go exploring. They discover another wreck, that of a spaceship piloted by anthropomorphic flies. The aliens were vastly superior in design to the buggy aliens from "The Web Planet", but they weren't given much to do. As characters go, they seemed to be as baffled as the folks back on the bus.

Sarah - 
Bafflement all around. It was sad when the aliens were killed while the Doctor was trying to get everyone back to the bus. 

Harry - 
To add some pressure to the situation of the broken down bus, the threat of a coming storm arises. The "storm" is in fact a swarm of metal-shelled, omnivorous flying beasties and it's feeding time.

So, the Doctor and Lady Christina utilize their skills and cleverness to figure out how to repair the bus, and the Doctor connects with UNIT to get their help in sorting out the mysterious portal through space.

Enter Dr. Malcolm Taylor. A force of nature all his own. I forgot that he was in this story as UNIT's brilliant and excitable scientific advisor. His scenes added some levity to the story, with a Quatermass gag thrown in.

Sarah - 
Malcolm is my favorite part of the entire story and I’m always down for a Quatermass reference.  It made me remember when we planned to watch one episode of The Quatermass Experiment at Chicago TARDIS and ended up staying up much too late to watch the whole story.  That was so good!

Harry - 
It was a great series.  The Holstian theme music still resonates.

And cue the race to the finish! The Doctor and Christina hoof it back with some fancy alien technology to power the bus. Malcolm rigs up the time portal, and UNIT stands by with guns ready. They went hog wild once the bus was back through with a few stray alien beasties, blasting them out of the sky and damn the consequences.

Earth saved, hurrah, etc.

Once the aliens are done away with, the Doctor helps Lady Christina slip away and escape on the alien-powered flying bus... which gave me a thought.

With a few tweaks, this could have been an Iris Wildthyme story. Swap her in for Lady Christina, give the story a more gin-soaked flavour, and find a way to introduce Panda. Maybe the crew of the second wrecked ship could have been tiny anthropomorphic pandas instead of insects. Iris rescues one and they become inseparable. Wahey!! The imagination runs riot thinking about this.

Sarah - 
Get Paul Magrs on the phone -- it’s time for a rewrite!

Harry -
Proof that it would not be too difficult to weave Iris into the show.  She would have made this one of the best stories ever.  I want this now!

Sarah -
The story is passable, I guess, but there’s little to inspire. 

Harry -
Well sure now that I've been whipped into a Wildthyme frenzy.

Sarah -
When Big Finish announced their Lady Christina series, I just shrugged. 

Harry -
I'll take Katy Manning any day.

Sarah -
I have no need to rewatch this episode anytime soon. 

Harry -
Are we still talking about this episode?

Sarah -
Ready for a trip to Mars? 

Harry -
Wahey!

Sarah - 
Best Line: 

Malcolm: Fifteen Malcolms. It's my own little term. A wavelength parcel of ten kilohertz operating in four dimensions equals one Malcolm.
Doctor: You named a unit of measurement after yourself?
Malcolm: Well, it didn't do Mister Watt any harm. Furthermore, one hundred Malcolms equals a Bernard.
Doctor: And who's that? Your dad?
Malcolm: Don't be ridiculous. That's Quatermass.

Favorite Moment: Malcolm meeting the Doctor.

Lasting Image: The bus is the most iconic thing about this story. 

4/10

Harry -
Best Line:

Captain Magambo: "I don't believe it. Guns that work."

Favourite Moment: Definitely Malcolm. "I LOVE YOU!!"

Lasting Image: the publicity shot of the Doctor and Lady Christina always comes to mind first.

5/10

Our marathon continues with Story #201: The Waters of Mars...

Story #199 - The Next Doctor (2008)

Harry -
The mind plays tricks, as Jackson Lake would attest.

It was surprising that we are got to this story so late in the Tennant era. It feels like it came much sooner, perhaps before we'd even met Donna Noble. But here it is, part of that handful of specials that mark the extra "half-season" that Tennant hung around for. Interested in other projects, but not quite ready to relinquish his hold on the sonic screwdriver, Tennant worked out a reduced load of stories with RTD so that they could enjoy one more year as Doctor Who's star and showrunner.

What I remember most about "The Next Doctor" is that from the moment this special's title was announced, speculation was rife that we'd catch a glimpse of Tennant's successor, and maybe even see a regeneration take place. After all, it had been one whole episode since the last time we'd been teased with a regeneration. Snark aside, there's not much else that stands out for me in rewatching this story. What were your memories going in, Sarah?


Sarah -
I definitely remember the chaos unleashed when David Morrissey turned up in the trailer for "The Next Doctor". The title was a clever ploy on RTD’s part. I imagine ratings for the Christmas special would have been higher than usual that year. 

I think the concept of having the Doctor’s memories imprinted on Jackson Lake’s brain is brilliant. It’s clever to have the Doctor think he’s meeting his successor when he’s not.


Harry -
As mindbenders go, it was positively Moffatesque.


Sarah -
In retrospect, I think it would have been a more interesting episode if the truth about Jackson Lake had been revealed later. The Cyberking nonsense is nowhere as compelling as the mystery of the Next Doctor.


Harry -
Oof!  The Cyberking.  I guess it was meant to shakeup a bog standard Cybermen-invade-Earth story.  In this case, the reveal came way too late.  Mercy Hartigan was totally forgettable as the villain-slash-human stooge.  Neither her backstory nor her motivation to conspire with the Cybermen was given much thought, making her one of the worst adversaries in the Tennant era.  Naturally, she got her just desserts in the end and the Cyberking got zapped out of existence.  I really would have liked to see the Cyberking in a different setting, maybe somewhere rural where you could really play up the wicker man folk horror aspects.  Cybermen feeding terrified peasants straight into the belly of the monster.  That sort of thing.  Hopefully somewhere out there is a fan fiction along those lines.

Anyway, it's all over, hurrah and happy Christmas.


Sarah -
I usually cut Christmas stories a lot of slack and try to just enjoy the episode, but this is the beginning of the Tennant lap of honour year so it’s bound to be more than a little annoying. I don’t really have much else to say.


Harry -
Same here.  Not much note taking took place during this rewatch.  Happy to move on.


Sarah -
Best Line:  If you could stand back, sir. This is a job for a Time Lord.

Favorite Moment: The Doctor’s confusion when he meets Jackson

Lasting Image: For better or worse, the massive Cyberman stomping around London 

4/10


Harry -
Best Line: I'm the Doctor. Simply, the Doctor. The one, the only and the best.  [loved the delivery, such oomph!]

Favourite Moment: Jackson unveiling his TARDIS.

Lasting Image: Terrified peasants being fed to my alternate-universe rural Cyberking.

5/10

Our marathon continues with Story #200: Planet of the Dead...