Julie Gardner: Planet of the Dead is Doctor Who adventure romp
Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead
There’s soon to be a new Doctor in the house, but fans can celebrate one of the final adventures of David Tennant’s Doctor Who with “Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead.”
The first of four Doctor Who upcoming DVD specials featuring Tennant as the 10th Doctor will be released July 28. “Doctor Who” features a 900-year-old human-looking alien who can travel through time and space, righting wrongs and saving the innocent.
Julie Gardner
Julie Gardner, who executive-produced “Doctor Who” until earlier this year, talked about the final days of the current Doctor, and the 2005 revamp that put the long-running British sci-fi program back on the map.
“‘Planet of the Dead’ is the last big adventure romp,” Gardner said. “It’s a great chase and a great kind of survivor story.”
In “Planet of the Dead,” the Doctor is on a bus that travels through a rip in space that deposits the bus and its passengers on a faraway, dangerous planet. He’s teamed with a jewel thief, played by Michelle Ryan, to figure out a way to safely return the bus through the rift.
Gardner says she thinks “Doctor Who” caught on in the U.K. again in 2005 as people were hungry for family drama.
“We were able to reach a family audience. A lot of research said the family is disjointed and people aren’t watching together – ‘Doctor Who’ in the U.K. proves that not to be the case,” Gardner said. “It’s got to be intelligent and witty and fun and engaging, and not always easy.”
Gardner has now passed the torch on “Doctor Who,” much as the Doctor himself is about to do. (The next Doctor will be played by Matt Smith, 26. Gardner works in Los Angeles at BBC America. She thinks change is key for “Doctor Who’s” appeal.
“It’s a show that, written into its very DNA, is regeneration,” she said. “I think it needs new vision every four, five, six years. Because as a show that has such a robust format, you could look at ‘Doctor Who’ and say this could still be on air in 20, 25 years. But I think in order to do that, it needs to be given the space to reinvent itself.”
By Matthew Price
From Tuesday’s The Oklahoman
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This was a very fun episode and Michelle Ryan did a great job as a one and done episode as the Doctor’s companion. She is not just a pretty face, she can act as well.