Clyde and Rani wake up one morning to find that they're the only people left on Earth. Nobody else, and no mobile coverage, TV, radio or anything. But then they discover another another human and when robots appear out of nowhere things get even stranger…
Gareth Roberts has proven himself to be an invaluable addition to the Dr. Who writing team. In the 1990's he wrote about a dozen Dr. Who novels and all were heavy on humour but tended to have ropey plots and The Doctor, Benny, Roz and Chris often acted out of character. Roberts has come a long way since then, and The Empty Planet is a good example of the knack he's developed for clever plotting as well as his ability to write excellent character pieces.
As Sarah Jane is missing for almost the entire story The Empty Planet focuses almost entirely on Clyde and Rani, who have to work out what is going on and save the world without any help. This is handled exceptionally well and their, er, relationship starts to develop some more. Much of the point of this is to give Clyde and Rani a chance to realise that they're not second best, they're not just sidekicks. In fact they're just as important as Sarah and Mr. Smith. It's also good to see the gradual evolution of Clyde and Rani from kids into adults. They're now in Sixth Form (the UK equivalent of Grade 12) and are really young adults, so the production team is being clever by not pretending they're still 13 year-olds.
Asides from it's strength as a character piece, The Empty Planet is remarkably eerie and has to be one of the most atmospheric pieces of children's TV ever. Seeing Rani verge on panic as she realises there may be nobody else left and watching them chased through the deserted London streets is a sight more at home in a sci-fi horror film than a CBBC programme, but it's handled in a way that shouldn't freak small children out too much. Oh, and there are cool robots. I like robots. :)
It's hard to say more about the plot than what's shown in the trailer without giving away too much, let's just say I didn't see the twist coming and the resolution really is very clever.
Overall The Empty Planet is another excellent story. Starting to sound like a broken record, am I? Well that's because this series is just so good!
5/5
