I mostly loved "Planet Of The Dead," which is just as well since it's the last new Doctor Who we'll get until November's scary-water episode, "The Waters Of Mars." POTD was pretty much everything you've come to expect from Russell T. Davies' Who: crazy adventures, slightly cartoony characters, clever dialogue, moments of sheer silly fun, a childlike solemnity, a miraculous save, bombastic music, and one woman who's held up as being the most special person ever.

It didn't hurt that POTD had all the elements of a cracking good story: The Doctor and friends trapped on an alien planet, on the other side of the universe, with no easy way to get home. Alien creatures who might be hostile. A deadly swarm coming to tear our heroes apart. And UNIT on the other side of the wormhole, trying to come to grips with this almost unimaginable threat.

It felt like a bit of a mash-up of "Midnight" with "The Impossible Planet," with a dash of "The Daemons" in the UNIT stuff. (Was I the only one who thought of Osgood when Malcolm started talking about oscillations?) Luckily, "Midnight" was one of RTD's best scripts in ages, and "Impossible Planet" was also among the best episodes in recent years, so I'm happy to see them recycled a bit.

The main weak spot, for me, was Michelle Ryan's character, the Lara Croft knockoff Lady Christina. She was the first RTD heroine who actually filled me with revulsion, although she did have some great moments: the bag full of every possible gadget, the clever "heist" where she grabbed the crystal stuff in the ship, the fact that she knew what a Faraday Cage was. But the clip above pretty much sums up why she annoyed me: She's just learned that an entire alien world, full of unimaginable beauty and teeming with life, was wiped out - and she's grossed out that its remains are getting in her hair. WTF? Oh, and she's willing to sacrifice the lives of everyone on Earth to keep her gold cup intact. In general, her smugness annoyed me and felt like a throwback to the early 1990s, when every female character had "attitude." (Attitude, meaning cuteness, pouting, a constant smirk and no genuine personality.)

I was actually stoked when Lady Christina got arrested at the end, and after she got away, I started fantasizing that the police shot down her flying bus in a burning pile of scrap metal five minutes later. Everyone has to have a dream.

Oh, and one other giant nitpick: Captain Mogambo was absolutely right that Oswald, I mean Malcolm, should have closed the wormhole as soon as he figured out how to. At the very least, I didn't get why only three of those swarm creatures made it through the wormhole when there were thousands of them right behind the bus, and the wormhole was still open for a good minute after the bus came through. Enough swarm monsters should have made it through the wormhole to strip the Earth bare. So yes. I am getting a bumper sticker which says "Mogambo Was Right."

All in all, though, it was a pretty solid adventure with a reasonably cool set of monsters. And the fly people were actually sort of cute once you got past the boiler suits and the funny heads. And David Tennant was on pretty great form, dishing out the technobabble and being serious and awestruck when the situation demanded it. Once again, he connected with the "regular" humans by learning about their average everyday lives - chops and gravy! Fantastic! Rainy night! Catching a cab! Fantastic! - and made wild, possibly-not-realistic promises about getting everyone home safely.

Oh, and the Doctor is now UNIT's main recruiter. I'm starting to wonder if there's a small army of UNIT privates who were all recruited to the organization by the mysterious time traveler, and they run around getting almost killed by alien menaces and cursing the Time Lord under their breath. That sounds like a spin-off!

And then finally, in the end, we had the obligatory bit of foreshadowing, where the psychic woman tells the Doctor his song is ending (in a callback to the Ood Doomsaying) and that "he" will knock four times. Oooh! I can't wait to see it.

So what did you think?

Talking to the British Guardian newspaper, Ryan has much fonder memories of the show than we do:

I have very strong legs from dancing... One day I was on set and I had to kick this stunt guy. I warned everybody that if I kicked him, I would probably put him through the set wall - but the stunt guy was like, 'Yeah, whatever.' So I kicked him and he went through the wall. I loved it! We really established a fan base and I did think she could be a female Bourne. I love those films and that's the kind of dark, fast, stylish mood we were going for.

Maybe Ryan saw a different Bionic Woman than we did, but if the show had been dark, fast or stylish in any way whatsoever - never mind anything like the Bourne movies - it would probably still be around. If nothing else, I would've loved to have seen something that had the complexity, ambiguity and clarity of purpose of Bourne rather than the confusing "She's bionic and working for, uh, some guys who, like, might be dicks or something?" of the actual show. At least now I can be comforted with the knowledge that they were trying to do something worthwhile, even if they failed... and tortured by the possibilities offered by the show that wasn't.

Take me to your Tardis [Guardian.co.uk]

If you looked at those set photos we ran last week, you saw David Tennant and costar Ryan sitting in a double-decker London bus. According to Den Of Geek, that bus, or one like it, was meant to be transported to Dubai for filming there. (If it's true that Dubai is standing for an alien planet, then maybe the London bus gets whisked off to another planet?)

Sadly that London bus — which is essential for the plot — was damaged in shipping, so badly that it can't be used at all. This has forced writers Russell T. Davies and Gareth Roberts to rush back to the drawing board, rewriting the episode to suit the newly trashed state of the bus. (Or write the bus out altogether?)

Meanwhile, I couldn't help perusing those images a bit more closely, and noticing a few things. Like, what's Tennant holding in this picture (and a few others)? It looks like some kind of timey-whimey detector:

And notice an ad over Tennant's head for a book called Ocean Of Noise by E.R. Butler. There's no such book — I checked — but "Ocean Of Noise" is a song by Arcade Fire, a group which includes Win Butler. In-joke? Or does the book Ocean Of Noise figure in the plot somehow?

Who's this woman standing next to Michelle Ryan? She's not wearing a reflective vest like the rest of the crew, so is she another actor? Or is she a producer and I'm just not recognizing her?

And finally, are these horseback police officers — who looked like pumpkin-headed monsters in the thumbnail version — part of the story? Or just local color? (Please let there be horses. Tennant on horseback is always a major plus.)


Images by WENN.

According to the BBC, Ryan is playing Lady Christina de Souza, "a woman with a mysterious past who's going to have a huge impact on the Doctor." Her one-off appearance doesn't mean she can't return in 2010 as a regular companion, since Donna Noble already achieved a similar feat. (And those of you who saw Ryan's cringe-making Bionic performance should bear in mind, she's a better actor when she doesn't have to fake an American accent.)

Last night, fans observed the filming of a scene where Tennant and Ryan were riding the bus to Victoria. Also, there was a scene of Ryan in an alleyway, where she burst from a doorway and ran into a crowded city street. And policemen seemed to be arresting a businessman in a pink shirt.

Meanwhile, comedian Lee Evans will play Malcolm, "whose life becomes connected to the Doctor's in unusual circumstances." [BBC and Doctor Who Forum]

Images by WENN, except for top image by BBC.

Ryan may be best known to Americans as the lead in the failed Bionic Woman reboot from 2007, but prior to that, she had appeared in British drama Jekyll — written and exec-produced by new Doctor Who boss Steven Moffat. According to British tabloid, the Sunday Mirror, an anonymous source involved in Who production said,

Michelle's been in secret talks with BBC bosses. They are likely to announce her as Doctor Who's new assistant very soon. She is perfect for the role. She is goodlooking and the right age to star alongside Matt. Everyone agrees they look great together and reckon fans will think they're the perfect team too.

If true, the decision would make sense — through Bionic Woman and current BBC series Merlin, Ryan has become comfortable with genre television fans, and a high-profile role on Who may give her career a boost in the same way that it did Billie Piper's.

Doctor Who's New Assistant Set To Be Ex-Eastenders Star Michelle Ryan [Mirror.co.uk]

Speaking to the UK's Radio Times magazine ahead of the show's launch in Britain, Ryan talked about the show in the past tense, but seemed defiant about any criticism thrown in the direction of the series:

The show had so much potential. It's had creative changes; some things didn't work, but in launching a TV show that's all part of the process... To get six months on air - or even the three that we did - is an achievement. To have a hit show that runs for years... the likelihood is one in a million.

Well, apart from the viewers, of course.

Ryan believes in 'Bionic Woman' potential [Digital Spy.co.uk]

It's a case of she-said/she-said, but a quick visit to Roadrunner's blog shows that other attendees heard her dissing Bionic Woman, while others missed it altogether. Unraveling this mystery might be harder than finding out who the 12th Cylon is.

One thing is for sure: Katee has learned a valuable lesson. Do not fuck with LiveJournal fans.

But, really, WTF is up with this week's constant referencing of 1990s bestselling retro-dating manual The Rules? (According to its authors, "women who call men, ask them out ... or offer sex on the first date destroy male ambition and animal drive.") "[T]hat book is seriously antifeminist" counters Becca when Jaime informs her that calling a boy would be breaking one of The Rules. Neither Jaime nor Becca has done anything to lead us to think they're feminists in the first place, what with Jaime usually needing Jay, Jonas and Nathan to save her bacon at the end of the day, and Michelle Ryan's limp mouthing of lines about how bad it is to be treated like a very expensive object. Ironically—or not—this week is the first time we're allowed to see Jaime act like she has some balls. Of course, it's when she declares they're going back in to save Tom, whom she latter castigates for not calling her in a Rules-approved timeframe.

Over at the Berkut Group, Jaime's true worth is revealed. Nathan's watching Tom on Jaimecam when he blurts, "Keep your grubby hands off our $50 million piece of ..." "HEY," interrupts Antonio (apparently he's learned a thing or two about keeping his mouth shut after that debacle at his last place of employment).

Where are you when we need you, Sarah Corvus? And while we're asking questions, given all that circuitry in Jaime's head, why doesn't the Berkut Group dial directly into her bionic ear instead of calling her on the phone?