Doctor Who: The Planet of the Dead in brief

[spatch]

It was very easy to tell that Russell T. Davies wrote this Doctor Who episode with a collaborator (in this case, Gareth Roberts.) I have not yet seen the Doctor Who Confidential for this episode, but I am reasonably confident in myself and in Mr. Davies' abilities to create for you the following guide so that you can easily and unmistabkly identify when each of the writers took a turn at the script:

If something reasonably cool or even awesome is happening, that's Gareth Roberts' doing.

If something trite, cliché or just downright face-palmingly bad is happening, that's Russell T. Davies' doing.

The 200 level class will take place tomorrow.

Yes, I know Gareth Roberts is responsible for The Shakespeare Code too, but it felt like there was a very distinct dividing line in this episode that kept clearly marking where one writer left off and the other picked up.

Comments

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

It's not that RTD is a terrible writer, per se. It's that he has particular themes re DrWho storytelling, which were underlying components of some very good scripts (early on) but have now metastasized into something blatant, omnipresent, and ugly.

My rule of thumb is, if the Doctor is getting a round of applause, it's RTD letting his kinks off the leash. (If the Doctor's round of applause actually saves the planet, it's time for RTD to go. Note that that was a year and a half ago.)

What you said.

[zhym.livejournal.com]

I am so sick of seeing people applaud the Doctor with overly loud John Williams-esque music in the foreground.