Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1026 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-06-29
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 58 minutes

DVD Description
Bionic Woman and Merlin star Michelle Ryan plays the mysterious Lady Christina de Souza who joins the Doctor on a bus-trip which takes a very unexpected detour into danger. British comedy star Lee Evans also joins the cast playing a character called Malcolm whose life becomes connected to the Doctor's under extraordinary circumstances and Noma Dumezweni returns as Captain Erisa Magambo - last seen helping Rose and Donna save the world in Turn Left.

Planet of the Dead is the first of four Doctor Who Specials which will air in 2009. Written by Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts, the episode will be screened on BBC One in Spring 2009.

Synopsis
Michelle Ryan (BIONIC WOMAN) and comedian Lee Evans guest star with David Tennant in this DOCTOR WHO special. The Doctor finds himself on a mysterious desert-planet after the London bus he was riding on takes a substantial detour off course.

Customer Reviews

Refreshing new adventure for the Doctor and his new friend
I approached this 'special' episode with trepidation because I hadn't been too keen on the last one, and felt that the sense of character continuity and chemistry the Doctor had built up in the last full series of Doctor Who had been lost. However the bond between the Doctor and his one-off companion Lady Christina (played so saucily by Michelle Ryan) is very swiftly established and keeps going throughout the story.

The story rattles along at a fair pace, the Doctor making us laugh while staying serious, and entertaining us throughout. The plot is clearly a rip-off of an old James Stewart film, Flight Of The Phoenix, and principal writer Russell T. Davies admitted this, however at least it was a good idea he copied, and the story fits the new, slightly lonely Doctor well. Tennant's portrayal is up to his usual standards, and there is a small ensemble of supporting actors to move the drama a long.

The alien races encountered here are not very original (insect-people and flying manta rays), as is often the case they are just adapted from animals we already know (like so many in the last four years). However this doesn't detract from the drama of the story; the bad aliens are very well-realised by computer graphic effects and the sheer speed at which they move makes them frightening. The good aliens are also brought to screen believably, and made me feel like we were dealing with real alien people, rather than just a 'monster'.

Supporting all this back on earth are UNIT, a reassuring presence in the form of Captain Magambo, and her dead-pan practical nature are a welcome foik for Lee Evans's manic scientist Malcolm.

Framing all of this is the brilliant cinematography. The sight of the Doctor and Christina strolling out on miles and miles of untrodden sand will long live in my memory, as much as the images of the London bus stranded in the desert.

I recommend this to anyone who enjoys Doctor Who, it's a good one!

Bring on the Moff
I have to say that I was thoroughly disappointed by the latest of this year's Doctor Who `Specials'. Perhaps the hype and anticipation were just too much (I had to wait for the DVD as New Zealand hasn't yet bought the broadcasting rights) and I was delighted when the DVD arrived and I finally got to see what it was all about.

The problem for me was that the story just wasn't `special' enough. As the first in a new series it would have been okay, but the basic plot just didn't go anywhere, the CGI monsters were disappointing, the alien Tritovores whilst superbly realized were woefully underused, and one-off companion Lady Christina de Souza didn't have nearly enough to do. I can hardly bring myself to mention the flying bus - making this more and more like Mary Poppins in space, hackneyed UNIT soldiers, yet another kiss for The Doctor, and actors so wooden they'd put Pinnochio to shame.

I so wanted to love this, but apart from the entertaining UNIT scientist Malcolm played by Lee Evans, there was precious little to love. As for the psychic woman who foretold The Doctor's future in cryptic fashion "he will knock four times", this was just another well-worn modern Doctor Who get-out clause and just made the whole thing even more silly.

On a more promising note the forthcoming `Waters of Mars' looks like taking things up a notch, and as The Tenth Doctor moves inexorably towards his final curtain, it is to be hoped that he will have a better legacy than Planet of the Dead.

disappointing filler.
The first Doctor Who Easter special sadly turned out to be anything but. The story of a London bus stranded on an alien world failed to live upto the hype and expectancy generated by the absence of a proper series this year.
I get the impression that, given a quota of four specials to fill, the production team have struggled to come up with something worthwhile before the inevitable quick fire trilogy to be shown towards Chrsitmas. The location filming might as well have taken place against a blue screen for all the impact it made. The bus passengers, once briefly introduced, are just deserted (excuse the pun) by the Doctor and left to their own devices. And what on earth was the significance of Lady de Souza's apparent link with Joan from The Family of Blood? This is never adequately explained and probably never will be. At the conclusion we have the now seemingly obligatory "You are not the last" twist; a trick which has been used so often now it is beginnning to look like a parody of itself. Presumably it was shoehorned in at the last minute as a way of telling the disgruntled viewer "hey, stick with it, we know this was average, but the thrills are yet to come". Here's hoping.