Dwardus Prime - Entertainment Blog

I enjoyed the Doctor Who Christmas Special – the Doctor was ace as always, the supporting cast good and the towering robot pretty awesome, but I couldn’t help feeling something was missing – namely a companion for the Doctor. After all this was the first episode since Catherine Tate’s Donna left the show.

Yesterday’s Easter special “Planet of the Dead” began with a black-clad jewel-thief descending on a wire ala Mission Impossible in order to snatch a heavily guarded (and very expensive) ancient cup. We soon realise that this is Lady Christina De Souza (Michelle Ryan), an adrenaline junkie who escapes with the cup on the number 200 bus. A close up of some converse boots reveals that the Doctor has also stepped onto the bus. The police, are in hot pursuit until the number 200 literally vanishes in a tunnel. The bus, that was part-ruined in transit (watch Doctor Who Confidential and you’ll learn this wasn’t intended!) emerges from a wormhole on the planet of the dead, a vast sun-baked desert of nothingness.

This is the best episode I’ve seen in a long while. It is funny, original, all of the supporting cast are very good (including the bumbling Lee Evans complete with his invented names for measurements, e.g. Bernards!). Also the aliens are cool. The main antagonists aren’t Daleks or Cybermen with plans for world domination, but masses of feral metal-bodied stingrays that live to eat. Therefore the Doctor doesn’t even try to reason with them. We also meet the Tritovores, fly-headed aliens with their own crash landed ship where The Doctor and Christina must retrieve the crystal and its pedestal from. The Doctor and Christina make a really great pair and it’s a shame she won’t become his companion. For one thing, she’s on the run from the police and sort of an anti-hero. Also, as soon as she starts to descend the shaft within the Tritovore ship she begins to act and sound a lot like Lara Croft. I felt bad for Michelle Ryan after The Bionic Woman – I’d not watched her in Eastenders but she seemed really cool on Jonathan Ross and the show wasn’t quite as bad as all that.

Russel T Davis mentions how he’d like to see Lady Christina de Souza’s return. Hopefully this’ll happen, too. I can’t say I’m thrilled about Tennant’s departure but he’s got three adventures left in him yet.