How nice of RTD and co to do a Pesach special.  Anywho…

I think if you retitled this episode Vanilla no-one would know the difference.

Planet of the Dead is fun – for the most part – but also totally forgettable.  For me, it’s the first real sign that we’re coming to the end of RTD’s era from a creative perspective.  The plot is paper thin.  Nothing particularly clever or mind blowing happens.  And there’s this lingering feeling that we’ve seen all this before.

David’s not bad – doing all his trademark Davidy things that he does so well.  You know, all that I’ll save you all / your mundane lives are so special guff.  And it works, because David sells it so well.  And the thing is, what I really like about DT, is although there’s really not that much in the script for him, he runs with it and sells it.

Michelle Ryan is good – but basically her character is an extended plot contrivance.  We need her to get off the planet of the sand dunes.  And she’s someone the Doctor can be sassy with.

Lee Evans is dreadful.  The I Love You scene easily the worst moment of the episode.

The secondary characters were all totally forgettable.  And why does the Doctor recommend that both of the young guys be drafted into UNIT?  Where did that come from?

The episode also ends with technobabble bollocks which always irritates me.

I like the sand dunes.  I liked the exterior of the Tritovores ship, I even think they looked pretty cool.  The swarm monsters were OK and it was nice to have a monster that was basically doing what it did because of its true nature.  Some of the lines were very snappy.  And while the CGI was high on the dodge-o-meter, the flying bus was a nice idea.

But that’s about it

Other than that, the best bit of the episode was seeing what’s her face from Rome who’ll be in the next episode (which looks like a cross between Impossible Planet and the attack of the water monsters).

Anywho, there’s not much more to add.  I could have done without the little jab at Easter from the Doctor (even as a Jew it made me cringe).  But even that bit didn’t really rile me that much.

I think in future years people will be struggling to remember what the Easter Special was called.

5/10