Discussion: Planet of the Dead
Welcome to the post-PotD Doctor Who world everyone! After weeks and weeks of speculation, rumours, theories and set reports, Planet of the Dead has just had its official debut on BBC One and BBC HD! The episode saw a London bus take a detour to an alien world, where the Doctor joined forces with the extraordinary Lady Christina to fight the mysterious planets’ terrifying secrets…
Please post your reactions to the episode below.
Naturally, this means that this news article is a SPOILER ZONE. Do not read any of the comments if you haven’t seen the episode and don’t want to know any details about it! We can’t wait to read what you have to say!
Oh, and well done to all of you Carmen’s out there who correctly guessed that number #4 of yesterday’s teasers was the red herring – you saw right through us!

5 STARS – AMAZING – HE WILL KNOCK 4 TIMES = THE MASTER !!!
LOVES THAT TRAILER…THE BELL OUT OF THE TARDIS WAS THE SOUND !! and ooo the ending was brill ohh everything is ryt in dwho world except david leaving lol.
When the woman said “he will knock four times” I instantly thought the master, I may be wrong though!
Even though I thought that the weird alien things were rather powerranger-ish, I still really enjoyed it.
And the end bit was rather confusing..
Will they meet again… who knows?
LOVED IT One Of The Best Episodes So Far I Bet It’s The Master!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bye
Kikass episode!
“He will knock 4 times”
Its gotta be the Master! No one else knocks 4 times! XD
EVERYONE!! LISTEN!!! HE WILL KNOCK FOUR TIMES IS A REFERENCE TO THE MIDNIGHT ENTITY FROM THE EPISODE MIDNIGHT. THIS CREATURE WAS NEVER REVEALED AND IN THE EPISODE THE DOCTOR KNOCKED ON THE WALL AND THE CREATURE KNOCKED BACK. 4 TIMES!! ALSO IF YOU NOTICE THE LADY THAT TOLD HIM THAT LOOK VERY SIMILAR TO THE PERSON THAT THREW HERSELF AND THE POSSESSED SKY SILVESTERY OUT OF THE TRAVEL MACHINE.
I THINK THAT THE MIDNIGHT ENTITY IS ACTUALLY THE MASTER’S ESSENCE OR SPIRIT OR SOUL.
IS IT A GOOD THEORY? WHO AGREES?
I REALISED THAT EVEN IF IT ISN’T THE MIDNIGHT CREATURE, IT WOULD BE THE MASTER, BECAUSE: tap, tap, tap, tapp! tap, tap, tap, tapp!. BUT I STILL THINK IT IS BOTH THE MIDNIGHT CREATURE AND THE MASTER AS THE SAME THING. SHE SAID “IT” INSTEAD OF “HE” AND “kNOCK” INSTEAD OF “TAP”
NOW THAT I READ THE DOCTOR WHO FEAR FORECAST THING, I’M NOT SO SURE. IT IS PROBABLY JUST THE MASTER, BUT IT WOULD BE GOOD IF IT WAS THE MIDNIGHT ENTITY, COS WE NEVER FOUND OUT ABOUT IT.
Reasons why I loved it.
The gags. A staple of Doctor Who, particularly in RTD’s episodes and they were used absolutely perfectly in this ep and I was laughing from the start. As usual, RTD has the gift of slotting in gags wherever possible whilst still not detracting from the tension and horror of the plot. Spot on!
The companion. Michelle Ryan was perfect for the role and reminded me a lot of The Doctor’s daughter with her action style. She was the perfect foil for The Doctor and even got in the obligatory kiss.
Malcolm. I adore Lee Evans and his role was the perfect bit of comic relief for this episode. Every scene with him in leaked brilliance and his over-exaggerated accent and slapstick had me giggling non-stop.
The plot. Over-stepped what I was expecting for this as I saw it as more of a filler before all of the heavy regeneration storyline got going. However, it was so much more than that and every time there was a sciencey little plot reveal I reacted in the same way that Rose would have (very spock). Although, I was expecting more from that psychic woman other than just the set up of the Master plot.
The monsters. Perfect Doctor Who monsters. Seemingly unbeatable but The Doctor always finds a way, with a little help from his friends.
So basically. Awesome. :)
Reading that comment about the midnight essence gave me chills, cos i know all the ties will come together.. I think its a very strong idea, and makes sense to me. The master’s four taps make up part of the theme music and it took me ages to work that out, then felt like i had been hit by a brick wall as it was so obvious by the end of series 3. I read somewhere that the mentioned song was the ood song for Doctor Donna, but his part is closing soon too. Does ood song contain the familiar four taps, even if subliminally as that was how the master ruled the world..
The Master was on Midnight? Oh, I love that theory. And they referenced Midnight how many times? “Humans on buses” “he will knock four times” and you’re right, the hostess and Carmen looked kind of similar.
On a side note RTD said that this climax will be bigger for the Doctor “on a personal level”. Gotta be the Master. If not the Master and Rose (which I’m writing an AU fanfic about at the moment). But I really really hope they don’t bring Rose back. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. And relating to the finale, we also know the Journal of Impossible things is back, along with a descendent of Joan Redfern. That’s pretty personal, too, I guess.
And on a side note on the other side, didn’t everyone feel so sorry for the Doctor at the end? He’s a broken man. Hopefully the regeneration will heal him.
On another side note (this one must be diagonal) how about Gallifrey? So far, the titles have got a planetary theme. And RTD is undoing everything he’s done to give SM a fresh start (think the Master=not all the Time Lords are gone, new Doctor, new companion, new TARDIS, Davros is back, the Daleks are sort of back), so could that apply to bringing Gallifrey back? Could the Master do that? Unlock the Time War (Dalek Caan managed it) and bring it back, thus bringing back all the Daleks too (gotta take the bad with the good), and completely going back to where we thought we were in 2005?
Bit far-fetched, I know. Thoughts?
well, im going to watch the show again later on iPlayer, my little girl was acting up as i was trying to watch it so i only had half an eye on it, but i’ll have a detailed review up later!
It was amazing! It could be either the Master or the midnight things but it would be a whole lot more exciting if it was the Midnight creatures because we don’t actually know what they are. Maybe we didn’t find out for this reason. Did Carmen actually say ‘He will knock 4 times’ or ‘It will knock 4 times’?
Carmen said He. And mentioned the darkness. Not the crap band, but where the master has been imo.
Mmmm, but then again the ‘Darkness’ would always sound better and mysterious then something else. And Lucy Saxon picked up that ring after the Master got cremated or burned.
Is it possible that Lucy Saxon is a timelord and can bring the master back from the ring. Not sure, sounds far fetched I guess. Maybe the ring acts kinda like the watch and stores the masters essence, but in that case how did his soul supposedly go to planet midnight, unless that is hell like in the impossible planet episode..
Someone hinted online that the poster on the side of the bus is a key linking this years episodes together.. An advert for a mobile phone network as far as I can gather..
Been listening to the podcast, and David said that the knock three times reference, and when you think you have worked it out you are wrong.. Could be trying to mislead us..
Lee Evans AKA Malcolm was the best!
I love you Doctor!