Comments on: Planet of the Dead, now with added wallpaper

By: Alejandra Gamgeek

Alejandra Gamgeek — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:05:05 +0000

I said it once, and I’ll say it again: Brilliant!

By: Hooligan Tuesday

Hooligan Tuesday — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:23:29 +0000

*Ring Ring* “Hello U.N.I.T, this is The Doctor, metal goes through the wormhole just fine so just drive a Tank or an APC through and we’ll be home in 5 minutes tops. Bye.”

I really wish i could turn my brain off when i watch Doctor Who. Or they spent a little more time at the planning stage so they didn’t have glaring flaws like that. If they simply left the phone plot line alone and had the aliens pick up techno-babble duty in the place of pantomime scientist i think it would have been a much stronger episode. With a ’small stranded group’ plot line like this you really need to keep your group isolated in order to keep any sense of danger about their situation, when you have them on the phone to a group with the desire, equipment and expertise to help them resolve their situation then you’re really selling the story short.

By: John Connors

John Connors — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:44:22 +0000

Oddly I have no reaction to it at all, kind of like the Xmas one. I just think RTD finished with the end of season 4 and is hanging around for no real reason. There were things I would have preferred, like the bus driver to not have been kille d and just moaned the whole time & for one of the Tritovores to have survived and been the only character who bonded with the bus driver! Michelle Ryan was great, the swarm were good (till all but three of them parked up instead of flooding thru the wormhole) and I liked the UNIT general but she should have shot the scientist! Had it just been an episode in a season it would have been fine but as our only DW for most of the year, I found it oddly uninvolving. Perhaps its just me..

By: Lewis Maddox

Lewis Maddox — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:22:14 +0000

I adore this picture - it’s currently my desktop. Hope you make more!

By: combom

combom — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:54:54 +0000

very interesting! great idea for a pic now do more modern eps as 60s eps thanx

http://lifetheuniverseandcombom.blogspot.com/

By: Paul Farnsworth

Paul Farnsworth — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 21:08:35 +0000

Blimey, I quite enjoyed it. And to be honest this is quite a concern. I don’t know whether it’s that my expectations have been lowered, or a kind of mellowing that comes with my advancing years, but the fact is that this episode didn’t make me nearly as angry as it ought to have done. I was shocked to find that I was not spitting blood at the lack of a coherent plot, nor was I tearing my hair out in apoplectic rage at Tennant’s decidedly unsubtle ‘love me I’m weird, honestly’ performance (actually I thought this was Dave at his best). I even laughed at one point - for real, out loud. Okay, so the obligatory snog still managed to occasion the perennial grumble that this running joke was never funny in the first place, and the clunky dialogue fell somewhat short of what we really ought to expect from the saviour of 21st century drama (well everybody who works for him seems to think of him in those terms), but I was happy to just sit back and allow myself to be entertained. Perhaps - and this it what worries me the most - I’m entering a phase when I’ll happily be diverted by any old junk. I must admit that, apparently flying in the face of popular opinion, I’ve quite enjoyed the new Red Dwarf episodes (actually I thought this was Dave at its best). What next? Will I cheerfully curl up on the sofa with a cup of tea and a chocolate digestive to watch Holby City or The Royal? Perhaps I’ll find myself laughing at reruns of My Family of The Vicar of Dibley. Hell, maybe that won’t be so bad. That said, my wife has strict instructions that if she should ever catch me watching Robin Hood, she’s to burn out my eyes with a red hot poker. After all, there are limits.

By: Colin

Colin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:17:51 +0000

Matthew, thank you. I need all the publicity I can get!!

By: Colin

Colin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:15:24 +0000

Actually, I’m now thinking it was more Harry Potter than Doc Brown. Either way, the flying bus grated, as did the round of applause when it landed…

The Waters of Mars does look promising, but the line “Water always wins” spoilt it - probably utterly trouser-dampening in context, but here it just sounded ridiculous!

By: Matthew Kilburn

Matthew Kilburn — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:11:50 +0000

Thanks, Colin - I have also spread the word to the potentially interested.

By: Colin

Colin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:06:02 +0000

OK Mark and Matthew, wallpaper now attached to original post. Looks all right, actually…

By: Colin

Colin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:47:19 +0000

Re the Hartnell image, I’ll see what I can do, but as it’s made up of screengrabs from a poor quality AVI of ‘The Chase’, it’s really not meant to be viewed any larger!

By: Matthew Kilburn

Matthew Kilburn — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:40:06 +0000

True, but I think that a greater consistency of tone was achieved overall.

I echo your Hartnell image request!

By: Mark Clapham

Mark Clapham — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:22:02 +0000

I enjoyed it a lot, although unlike Mr Kilburn I preferred the Next Doctor - there’s nothing in PotD that has the depth of Jackson Lake’s predicament.

Love the Hartnell image - can we have that wallpaper size please, Colin?

By: Thomas Swift

Thomas Swift — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:21:27 +0000

It was a fun, one off adventure, really really good actually, but i’d rather a conventional series to one movie any day. :p

Although towards the end it did become a bit obvious that it was Plot point A leads to B leads to C leads to D, a bit by the numbers, but no less enjoyable for it. I just wish there had been more than four ‘real’ characters in it as only the Doctor, Christina, Malcolm and the Unit captain had enough screen time and dialogue to really flesh out, and thats despite the necessary scene in the bus where everyone forcible reveals their forboils, and then is forgotten about for the rest of the play…
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By: Matthew Kilburn

Matthew Kilburn — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:48:24 +0000

Correction - it will be on the other side of the link in this comment (just add an ‘l’) - and it’s a mini-review because something longer is promised elsewhere.