Planet Of The Dead

April 11, 2009 11:14 AM

On the subject of returning British television classics.. Doctor Who returns tonight for the first of four specials to be aired this year in lieu of a proper series. British MeFites watch David Tenant run through the sand as I type this while others wait anxiously for other means of viewership to become available.

The four specials, the first of which, Planet Of The Dead airing tonight make up the final three stories (the last two comprising a single story) of David Tenant as the arguably most beloved Doctor in franchise history. Tenant reportedly cried whilst reading his final moments as the 903 year old time traveler slash star of the longest running Science Fiction program in television history.

Tonight's story is said to be a "fun romp", in preparation of the dark and sad stories to come that bring the end of a highly successful era led by Russel T Davies and transition fans into a new chapter in the shows history. Led by Steven Moffat and Matt Smith as show-runner and star, respectively.

posted by mediocre (47 comments total)

Tennant has two "n"s.

Also "903 year old time traveler slash star" means more than you think it means.

just sayin'
posted by tzikeh at 11:45 AM on April 11 [9 favorites]

as I type this while others wait anxiously

I gotta say, Syphy has dropped the ball on this show about as badly as I can imagine. And that's saying a lot, considering the way they dropped the ball on BSG. A whole lot of ball dropping happening over there, is what I'm saying here.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:48 AM on April 11

Between all this slash and ball dropping talk I'm getting flustered over here..
posted by mediocre at 11:49 AM on April 11

He's no Tom Baker.

Still, I'll be grumpily waiting for this on CBC or Bbc America or Syph or whatever channel shows it late and in truncated form.
posted by Artw at 11:51 AM on April 11 [2 favorites]

Oh, and the same goes for Moffat Who AKA The Young Doctor Who Adventures.
posted by Artw at 11:53 AM on April 11

No one is going to spell the name of the Syphilis Channel right ever again, are they?
posted by Artw at 12:01 PM on April 11 [3 favorites]

Oh, and the same goes for Moffat Who AKA The Young Doctor Who Adventures.

Matt Smith won't be too much younger than Peter Davison was way back when by the time S5 of this show finally starts, though (or Tennant was, for all of that). I mean, Smith wasn't the most immediately interesting choice (he might be great; I think all I've ever seen him do was make breakfast for Billie Piper in an episode of Secret Diary of a Call Girl, so really, who the hell knows), but his age...eh, so what.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 12:05 PM on April 11

No one is going to spell the name of the Syphilis Channel right ever again, are they?

Dude, I did spell it right. It may look clean, but...
posted by kittens for breakfast at 12:05 PM on April 11

It was better than the godawful Victorian Cybermen Christmas special. I'll give it that.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 12:13 PM on April 11 [4 favorites]

It was better than the godawful Victorian Cybermen Christmas special. I'll give it that.

You take that back right now. That episode had a 100 foot tall steampunk cyberman. This one had the Flying Harry Potter Bus of Harry Potterness, so you take that back right the hell now.
posted by permafrost at 12:19 PM on April 11 [4 favorites]

The only reason I knew when Easter fell this year is because Doctor Who is showing. And of course, BBC Canada isn't showing it yet. Wondrous.
posted by Lemurrhea at 12:31 PM on April 11

Isn't CBC part funding it anymore? Of course after the first Christmas so they seemed to give up on showing the specials close to the UK dates.
posted by Artw at 12:50 PM on April 11

I gotta say, Syphy has dropped the ball on this show about as badly as I can imagine.

In one of the recent seasons, SciFi was quite a bit behind from when they actually aired in the UK, and as my wife and I were watching them, we were pretty content to just watch them as they showed up on the DVR here, but then one of the eps was a to-be-continued, and she wasn't having any of that shit. She simply turned to me and said, "We're not waiting. Go get it."

As a dutiful husband, I naturally complied and I figured, "Well, as long as I'm here..." and I got the rest.

I'm glad I did too, because it turned out that in one of the final episodes of the season, SciFi cut a whole bunch of footage from the domestic version, footage that actually made the episode make a lot more sense in context.
posted by quin at 1:04 PM on April 11 [4 favorites]

(not that much more)
posted by Artw at 1:11 PM on April 11

I've often wondered if Mad Martha is a degree removed from the BBC's employ, as that user has become a predominant source for Doctor Who fans. The show producers must know of his/her efforts, and while they're probably not aiding MM, I wonder if they're keeping the Beeb from taking any action against the uploader.

It's a good workaround for them...the show producers get to keep feeding their cult audiences around the world, they keep their hands clean, and the licensing agreements (and money) from BBC America, SciFi, etc. remain un-endangered. (Or maybe a lot of shows function like this, and I'm just to the Realization Party.)
posted by greenland at 1:19 PM on April 11

Er, I mean "late" to the Realization Party.
posted by greenland at 1:20 PM on April 11

You take that back right now. That episode had a 100 foot tall steampunk cyberman. This one had the Flying Harry Potter Bus of Harry Potterness, so you take that back right the hell now.

Oh, God, so it's one of those Davies episodes. I can wait to see that.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 1:31 PM on April 11

I think they're all like that until 2010. Not undiverting, though.
posted by Grangousier at 1:37 PM on April 11

I enjoyed it for what it was. 60 minutes of light, knockabout fun, with a bit of banter, some good one-liners and a smokin' hot Michelle Ryan. It wasn't the best episode ever, but with the next episode in November (November?) you couldn't have a big complex story-arc, it had to be all neatly wrapped up in an hour.

Ryan's character was interesting and the CGI was better than usual (though still a bit dodgy). The teaser at the end looked great (November?).

And there was a flying bus.
posted by afx237vi at 1:48 PM on April 11

Well it wasn't too painful, was fairly lively towards the end - though they dragged the epilogue out for forever... but I followed it up a bit later with some proper Who ('Ark in Space') and, taking into account the sfx, stretched budget, etc the newer version don't compare too well
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:58 PM on April 11 [1 favorite]

He's like Peter Davison....meh. The new Doctor remind me of the post Baker years. Pertwee and the others before were good, but come on. Baker set the bar so high that anyone else is just going to fall short in the role. The new shows are OK but really seems hacky at points. It is like they know they can't top the old material so they are doing a Xena style show that has a tongue in cheek approach. I can appreciate it for that, but I certainly don't have it set to record on my DVR nor do I have it in my "Watch Instantly" Netflix Que (Thank you Xbox 360!!!!). What I do have in my WI que is a buch of old episodes of Dr. Who, especially The Pirate Planet which was written by Douglas Adams. YAY!!!!!! Still, the new show is better than most SciFi crap churned out by Hollywood today so I'll give it that but only by a small margin.
posted by GavinR at 2:16 PM on April 11

Oh and I can't think why the made the fuss of going over to film in Dubai... they could have just stuck the bus down a quarry and CGIed an alien planet in. Was'nt like the CGI they had was exactly brilliant
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:16 PM on April 11 [1 favorite]

One thing they've been very good at is playing the British media. The "free" publicity they get for the cost of shipping a small crew and a few actors over to Dubai is far more effective than the above-board publicity they could buy with the same money.
posted by Grangousier at 2:19 PM on April 11

just downloaded the special, now i have to wait for my wife to get home. the waiting is what kills!
posted by edmcbride at 2:25 PM on April 11

He's no Tom Baker.

Talking of which....

What's the best way to get multi-serial sets of past shows? I kindof don't want to acquire hundreds of DVDs piece by piece. Stuff like the yet to be released E-space collection or the pricey Key to Time collection seem sortof like a step in the right direction, but still not as easy as I'd like.
posted by weston at 2:38 PM on April 11

Linking to a non-public torrent site just ain't cool
posted by Catblack at 2:44 PM on April 11 [2 favorites]

Alternately to waiting for the great MadMartha, thebox.bz has a non-hd version up already, and shortly an HD one, I'm sure.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 3:42 PM on April 11

Also "903 year old time traveler slash star" means more than you think it means.

*cries*
posted by feckless at 5:05 PM on April 11

No one is going to spell the name of the Syphilis Channel right ever again, are they?

That's the new SyFy channel, right?
posted by Catblack at 5:17 PM on April 11

they dragged the epilogue out for forever

But the epilogue totally had the part where that gigantic neon sign appeared above London, reading in twenty-thousand point font, "THE MASTER IS COMING BACK, YO." It was extremely subtle.

Warning: the proceeding sentence was only written in a sarcastic style to cover up the fact that I'm more psyched about that than I should be.
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 6:43 PM on April 11 [4 favorites]

other means of viewership to become available.

I dunno, I downloaded the torrent hours ago. But we are saving the viewing till Easter.

You take that back right now. That episode had a 100 foot tall steampunk cyberman.

Seconded! Steam punk cybermen are a match made in Who Fandom heaven.
posted by MrBobaFett at 6:55 PM on April 11

But the epilogue totally had the part where that gigantic neon sign appeared above London, reading in twenty-thousand point font, "THE MASTER IS COMING BACK, YO." It was extremely subtle.

PLEASE let it be a regenerated Master who isn't screamingly camp. I mean, that was great once -- once -- because it was so unlike the super-serious goateed Master. But come on, let's have him be an unambiguous badass this time. Like, the equivalent of the Eccleston Doctor. I'd be psyched to see that.

This special? I liked it. I thought Michelle Ryan was awesome, which is weird, because she was kind of a pretty but unremarkable presence in Jekyll, and...uh...let's not even discuss Bionic Woman (read: Dollhouse 1.0). Not as out-and-out great as the Christmas episode, but fun nonetheless, and that's really all I hoped for.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:04 PM on April 11

So I'm confused, did the Xmas special ever play in the US?
posted by octothorpe at 7:29 PM on April 11

So I'm confused, did the Xmas special ever play in the US?

Nope. No word as to when it'll possibly appear, either. I wouldn't be surprised if they package it with the fifth series for overseas broadcast, or wait until after Christmas 2009, at least.

I was really happy with the special. That, and the most recent Christmas episode, felt so old school sci-fi and super pulpy that they've been kind of a breath of fresh air after the heavy fourth season's ending. Glad to get confirmation of The Master, too.
posted by greenland at 8:49 PM on April 11

Linking to a non-public torrent site just ain't cool

It says registration is open?... I got in.
posted by jinjo at 10:51 PM on April 11

Oh yeah and if you want the role of the Doctor, from now on you sign a minimum 6 season contract. We are running out of regenerations.
posted by MrBobaFett at 11:16 PM on April 11

Oh yeah and if you want the role of the Doctor, from now on you sign a minimum 6 season contract. We are running out of regenerations.

Except, didn't the Master undo every previous regeneration near the end of the third season when he turned the Doctor into that weird little gnome, effectively wiping the slate clean regeneration-wise? I'll bet that's the excuse they'll use, anyway.
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:20 PM on April 11

Well, one thing you've got to admire about Who is it's strict internal logic and refusal to resort to handwaving.
posted by Artw at 11:24 PM on April 11 [7 favorites]

We are running out of regenerations.

Canon is something that is mined in Doctor Who, not deferred to. He could regenerate into a giant budgie and they'd find some way to justify it.
posted by Coobeastie at 2:23 AM on April 12 [2 favorites]

Oh and sudden psychic powers to hand out plot points... that's lazy as fuck writing.

I'll bet that's the excuse they'll use, anyway.

Jesus Who
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:43 AM on April 12

Well, that was actually worse than the new Red Dwarf, if you can believe that.
posted by ninebelow at 6:24 AM on April 12

I'm hoping for a much scarier person coming back than The Master. With any luck, we're going to get The Valeyard. (Unfortunately I doubt it).

And there have been half a dozen ways for the Doctor to get new regenerations (without going into The Curse of Fatal Death) - I'm expecting none of them to be used. I am, however, expecting an end of season finale to be used to give him more regenerations.
posted by Francis at 1:35 PM on April 12

Thanks for the reminder. Now I'll remember to download it.
posted by Lokisbane at 2:38 PM on April 12

And there have been half a dozen ways for the Doctor to get new regenerations (without going into The Curse of Fatal Death) - I'm expecting none of them to be used. I am, however, expecting an end of season finale to be used to give him more regenerations.

Said it before, say it again: tea cozy of Rassilon.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 5:17 PM on April 12

Well, that was awful.
posted by Magnakai at 5:39 PM on April 12

Good thing we have the excellent Newswipe to cheer me up.
posted by Magnakai at 5:39 PM on April 12

"Like, the equivalent of the Eccleston Doctor. I'd be psyched to see that."

Oh please let them have Eccles play the Master. Timelords can control their regenerations to an extent, right? The Master seems like the type who'd enjoy regenerating into a past incarnation of the Doctor, just to fuck with him. MOFFAT, I KNOW HOW YOUR TWISTED MIND WORKS. READ MY THOUGHTS AND MAKE THIS HAPPEN.
posted by Eideteker at 9:03 PM on April 12 [2 favorites]