{"id":844,"date":"2009-04-23T07:28:56","date_gmt":"2009-04-22T19:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/?p=844"},"modified":"2009-04-23T07:29:31","modified_gmt":"2009-04-22T19:29:31","slug":"multifaceted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/?p=844","title":{"rendered":"Buzz Fare"},"content":{"rendered":"

You know how it is with buses – you wait for one, then two appear, then some dockers drop a container on it. So it is with ZeusBlog<\/em> reviews – except for the bit about the dockers, hopefully. Here’s our fly boy Foo with his Doctor Who review…<\/p>\n

\"planetdeadlogo_b\"<\/p>\n

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Format wise, I\u2019ve stolen from Jono, but hey, it makes it easier for me!<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Good<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Loved it. Almost.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The juxtaposition of Earth and the alien planet was very well done \u2013 almost a way of splitting the Doctor and companion without actually splitting them. I really like the idea of Doctor Who<\/em> trying out different things and believe it keeps the series fresh and alive \u2013 stories like Midnight<\/em>, Turn Left<\/em>, Love & Monsters<\/em> and Blink<\/em> are all a bit left of centre and this story partially fits into this category.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dubai \u2013 sand is sand is sand. But, it does feel that little bit extra special when you know it is foreign sand rather than British sand. I think the on location aspect did add something, but maybe next time we\u2019ll get a little culture thrown in as well as per Arc of Infinity<\/em> or The Two Doctors<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A very fun and fast paced episode that for me, blew three of the previous specials out of the water and left me yearning for more\u2026roll on The Waters of Mars.<\/em> I also had a little chill run down my back at the \u201cHe will knock four times\u201d line at the end of the story. Brilliant stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Mixed<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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UNIT, they should be tougher than the 70\u2019s crew but in Planet of the Dead<\/em>, they don\u2019t feel like it. Thinking about UNIT\u2019s treatment of Tosh in Torchwood<\/em> adds to the tough as nails impression, but in PotD<\/em> they fail to deliver. The exception to this was Captain Magambo threatening Malcolm with a gun…hmm; I don’t recall the Brig ever doing that to the Doctor!<\/span><\/p>\n

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It also bugged me about the way UNIT seems to regard the Doctor as a god like figure. I would have thought they weren\u2019t his biggest fan. Now, I\u2019m not sure why I feel this and perhaps it should be the other way round as the Doctor isn\u2019t too enamoured with military organisations.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Lady Christina de Souza had shades of Romana which I understand was the general idea but she doesn\u2019t seem to have a returning companion aspect. While she showed promise, I think a little more meat in the script would have helped Michelle Ryan.<\/span><\/p>\n

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With Russell and Gareth co-writing this episode, I didn\u2019t know what to expect. I love Gareth\u2019s novels, loathed The Shakespeare Code<\/em> and loved The Unicorn and the Wasp<\/em>, so wondered how the two would bounce off each others. I think that having a co-writer tempers some of Russell\u2019s more extremes and wish that we had more examples to see if this makes stories better or worse.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A solid plot and prior to screening, Gareth had made much of there being many disparate elements that work well together. I think the many plates being spun do work; however a little more complexity would have been nice. Yes, it was a romp, but can\u2019t we have more detailed brush strokes?<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Bad<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The people on the bus seemed a bit lacklustre \u2013 it felt like they were secondary to the main action and more of an afterthought. An attempt to relate to viewers as being normal, everyday people was done, but they simply came off as feeling 2D.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n<\/span>While the first half to two thirds was engaging, as was the conclusion, about two thirds of the way through I found things began to drag. I didn\u2019t feel on the edge of my seat as I had for, say, The Next Doctor<\/em>. While it picked up towards the end, the special effects were good but we have seen better. I always think that the specials should stand head and shoulders over other episodes, but for me, they rarely do. The twee ending with UNIT standing around clapping and Lady Christina flying away didn\u2019t help either.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Another review I read said Planet of the Dead<\/em> was as hollow as an Easter egg. I see it more as a Cadbury creme\u00a0egg where someone has stolen a third of the filling. More yolk next time please! <\/span>Thinking about it more and more, I realise I didn\u2019t love it as much as I thought I did. It\u2019s solid, but also very average. I\u2019m really looking forward to the descending darkness of the last three specials and expect this in turn to be swept away by a new Doctor, companion and Executive Producer.<\/span><\/p>\n

SB<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know how it is with buses – you wait for one, then two appear, then some dockers drop a container on it. So it is with ZeusBlog reviews – except for the bit about the dockers, hopefully. Here’s our … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2009-specials-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=844"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844\/revisions\/850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeusblog.tetrap.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}