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butterflySo, "Midnight" was "Voyage of the Damned" turned inside out and inverted, but "Planet of the Dead" continues that theme by reversing many of the qualities of "Midnight".
Both VotD/PotD feature a helpful female one-off companion who asks the Doctor if she can come with him, both feature the Doctor promising to save the group, and showcase the better parts of humanity. RTD has actually talked about how he wrote "Midnight" as a darker mirror of VotD: instead of a large ship, it's a tiny one; instead of humanity's better side showing, it's their worst.
PotD has the small bus, but it's much brighter than either of the earlier episodes. He gets to save all the people he promises he will, in PotD.
Both Astrid and Christina want to travel very far, yet they are quite different characters, even just in their basic biography: Astrid is a poor waitress from an alien world, while Christina is both human and someone with both riches and rank. Both of them take initiative and risk their lives to save the day, but Christina, instead of getting Astrid's path and fate, has Mr. Copper as her template (both bent the law to escape their boring lives, both receive the Doctor's help to escape the law, both ask to come with him and get turned down).
In the last episode, the Doctor explained to Jackson why he wouldn't be taking any more companions on ("they break my heart") and he stands by that with his very firm 'no' to Christina. Yes, he really enjoyed spending an adventure with her and that's exactly why he wants to say goodbye now -- if he'd said good-bye to Rose after "Rose" and never seen her again, if he'd said a very firm good-bye (no invitation) to Donna in RB, it wouldn't hurt to remember them (and it clearly does -- his memory of Donna calling him 'spaceman' was very reminiscent of how he spoke of losing Rose in "Runaway Bride"). He would have said 'good-bye' and remembered them fondly, he likely believes. Oh, Doctor.
I loved the relationship shown between Carmen and Lou -- they trade off the cooking and cleaning up, they use her ability for only small, consistent wins, and he's very supportive of her gift. They seemed happy and healthy and just all-around good people (so did everyone on the bus, really. It was nice).
So, we've got Carmen's prophecy for the Doctor. It seemed comprise three main pieces.
"Your song is ending soon" as the Ood said in "Planet of the Ood".
"It is returning" (similar to what the seer at Pompeii said about Rose, but with a vital pronoun difference) "it is returning through the darkness" (what happened in JE was called 'the darkness' but it may or may not be related)
"he will knock four times" ( 'he' in this point)
Probably all these things are connected, I would expect: it's returning through the darkness, he will knock four times, and the Doctor's song will end. Regeneration. The end of this Doctor.
*shivers*
Also, I liked the Doctor reversing Christina's words on her: she says that he looks human, well, to him, humans look like Time Lords. It's all a matter of perspective.
Both VotD/PotD feature a helpful female one-off companion who asks the Doctor if she can come with him, both feature the Doctor promising to save the group, and showcase the better parts of humanity. RTD has actually talked about how he wrote "Midnight" as a darker mirror of VotD: instead of a large ship, it's a tiny one; instead of humanity's better side showing, it's their worst.
PotD has the small bus, but it's much brighter than either of the earlier episodes. He gets to save all the people he promises he will, in PotD.
Both Astrid and Christina want to travel very far, yet they are quite different characters, even just in their basic biography: Astrid is a poor waitress from an alien world, while Christina is both human and someone with both riches and rank. Both of them take initiative and risk their lives to save the day, but Christina, instead of getting Astrid's path and fate, has Mr. Copper as her template (both bent the law to escape their boring lives, both receive the Doctor's help to escape the law, both ask to come with him and get turned down).
In the last episode, the Doctor explained to Jackson why he wouldn't be taking any more companions on ("they break my heart") and he stands by that with his very firm 'no' to Christina. Yes, he really enjoyed spending an adventure with her and that's exactly why he wants to say goodbye now -- if he'd said good-bye to Rose after "Rose" and never seen her again, if he'd said a very firm good-bye (no invitation) to Donna in RB, it wouldn't hurt to remember them (and it clearly does -- his memory of Donna calling him 'spaceman' was very reminiscent of how he spoke of losing Rose in "Runaway Bride"). He would have said 'good-bye' and remembered them fondly, he likely believes. Oh, Doctor.
I loved the relationship shown between Carmen and Lou -- they trade off the cooking and cleaning up, they use her ability for only small, consistent wins, and he's very supportive of her gift. They seemed happy and healthy and just all-around good people (so did everyone on the bus, really. It was nice).
So, we've got Carmen's prophecy for the Doctor. It seemed comprise three main pieces.
"Your song is ending soon" as the Ood said in "Planet of the Ood".
"It is returning" (similar to what the seer at Pompeii said about Rose, but with a vital pronoun difference) "it is returning through the darkness" (what happened in JE was called 'the darkness' but it may or may not be related)
"he will knock four times" ( 'he' in this point)
Probably all these things are connected, I would expect: it's returning through the darkness, he will knock four times, and the Doctor's song will end. Regeneration. The end of this Doctor.
*shivers*
Also, I liked the Doctor reversing Christina's words on her: she says that he looks human, well, to him, humans look like Time Lords. It's all a matter of perspective.