I’ve experienced a bit of
structural whiplash in listening to The
New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield in order. The first box set seeing Benny face off
against the Daleks has a loose story arc running through all of them having one
episode be a complete story, but it leads to each other very smoothly. The second set having Benny face off against
Sutekh in four stories that are all interconnected with Sutekh having a huge
presence in all four of them. They’re
all part of one story in the same vain as The
Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure.
The third set however doesn’t have stories that lead into each
other. Yes there is a defined arc, but
these stories really have nothing to do with each other which causes this
whiplash when listening to the series in order.
It however is really the only problem that intrudes on Guy Adams’s Planet X, the rest of the story is just
great.
The Doctor has offered
Benny trips in the TARDIS to any planet, but the TARDIS is dying so it can’t go
anywhere else in time. Benny has the
Doctor take her to the titular planet X, famous for being boring. It’s a planet where nothing interesting ever
happens, so much so that nobody has ever been to planet X. Benny being an archeologist wants to see what
the entire fuss is about with this planet and the Doctor wants desperately to
avoid it. The time spent in the TARDIS
arguing about going down to the planet is just hilarious as the two larger than
life personalities play off each other in differing ways which is just
funny. Adams’s script is really good for
a lot of things for the story. They of
course go down to the planet, but it turns out the real reason Planet X is the
most boring planet in the universe. It’s
not because it’s just boring, but it’s actually a planet run under a fascist
Orwellean rule where if you are any emotion other than bored, you are executed
by death squads. Seriously, this is just
a terrifying concept which is great from Guy Adams. The Doctor is immediately arrested for being
too interesting. Benny is fine because
archeology is boring. Yes archeology is
boring so she can run free. I think this
is hilarious and Benny’s reaction is priceless.
She gets excited over a trowel and the prospect of digging things up.
Benny works to overturn
the regime by turning Millie, one of the inhabitants to whom she gives the name
Millie. Children are assigned numbers
and Millie is the shortening because Millie is one of the millions of girls on
this planet. Benny actually weasels out
Millie’s human emotions and it turns out she was in love with a boy who was killed
for being too smart. Yes the intelligent
are killed and Millie nearly was killed in this way, but she got a few
questions wrong so she gets to live.
Sophie Wu gives a heavily nuanced performance as well as Lisa Bowerman
as they want to overthrow the government.
Their plot gives well with the Doctor’s plot as the story is split
between them which is for the best.
Bowerman is enthusiastic in her role as she’s pretty much reversing the
brainwashing of Millie. It’s done really
well and Bowerman and Wu enjoy every minute of it.
The Doctor actually is
allowed to the government as they want to use his knowledge to help their
planet before killing him. He meets the
Prime Minister, played by Julie Graham, and they are allowed to have emotions
because they have dampeners that suppress the emotions from the death
squads. It was really something that
allows the audience to see how the Doctor has changed while the universe dies
around him. This is what the box set is
using as an arc for its stories as the Doctor kills half the government
indirectly, now people say he may not be responsible. That’s false as he is actively the one who
takes off their dampeners which kills them.
Warner does a great job as the Doctor, playing up almost a psychopathic
nature that was present in The Library in
the Body, but very subtle. Yes this
Doctor kills people without having real remorse which makes you really want to
explore what is off with this Doctor.
It’s really quite good and makes the story interesting.
To summarize, Planet X is a definite improvement over The Library in the Body as it is a story
that while suffering from structural whiplash, it manages to tell an engaging
story. It’s almost a macabre comedy
seeing a totalitarian state having a lot of things all for the suppression of
individuality and emotions which is a brilliant idea. It is something that would have to work for
the story and the acting in this one is perfect with all the characters giving
across exactly what they’re supposed to give across. 95/100.
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