At the same time on the dunes, the Doctor and Christina are found and captured by a fly-like alien who holds them at gunpoint with a blaster. She quickly attempts to stroke it out. As a result of the edit, the episode ends uniquely, with the traditional "howlaround" sound replaced instead with a single tolling of the cloister bell. The Doctor replies they will generate more doorways; it is part of their natural life cycle and something they can't help, but he'll try to nudge them onto uninhabited worlds. As the alarms go off, she dashes out of the museum and unmasks; she is Lady Christina de Souza, an expert thief. Legend of the Sea Devils. The Doctor and the two aliens try to bring up the source manually, but the entire system is unresponsive, lacking power. Their velocity as a pack is reaching a speed that creates static build-up with enough energy to pierce open the fabric of space. Christina impresses him with some articulate knowledge of the French language herself; "Oui mais pas si nous allons vers un cauchemar." Rules vary by the story's medium. It was simultaneously broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 11 April 2009. The Tritovores, in turn, become more friendly; the telepathic translation devices they use enable them to know the Doctor is not lying. Additionally, she wants to come with him for adventure and excitement, telling him that is why she steals. This piques the Doctor's curiosity, but he is distracted when Angela asks for a key to get the bus running. She tells him she was going far away, not giving away her thievery. [37] The final viewing figure 
Much like birds being sucked into an aeroplane, he suspects a stingray got pulled into the ship.
Unsure of the number, he dials Pizza Geronimo by accident. [6][7][31][32] James Strong recalled the reaction of the production team to the damage to the bus in an issue of Doctor Who Magazine: One morning in the first week of February, I was leaving my flat when Julie Gardner phoned. She replies she was going home to her family, Mike and Suzanne; thinking about them calms her and abolishes her panicky state. The Doctor asks Christina where she was going; she is the only person on the bus with something to hide. According to the BBC report, the damage to the bus a twin to one being used for filming in Cardiff prompted a rewrite of part of the script to add a few references to the bus being damaged going through the wormhole. It might seem foolproof, but the one thing the guards haven't counted on is a sleuth attempt to pilfer the cup from above High Wire Heist - Doctor Who - Planet of the Dead - BBC. Featuring: The two major filming locations of the episode: the desert of Dubai was used for scenes on the "planet of the dead"; and the Queen's Gate Tunnel in. [4] The starting point for the story was Roberts' first novel The Highest Science. Christina takes charge, introduces herself and the Doctor, then everyone introduces themselves: Nathan, a young adult with slicked up hair, Barclay, about the same age and the one who confronted the Doctor, Angela Whittaker, an older blond woman, Louis, who goes by the nickname "Lou," and his wife, Carmen. We called an emergency meeting. Captain Magambo and Malcolm await the Doctor's escape plan. [19] After a showing of a trailer for the episode on The Justin Lee Collins Show, Ryan described the "fantastic" time she had filming in Cardiff and in Dubai. The Doctor points his sonic screwdriver at her handcuffs and frees her hands. The Doctor has them scan the approaching sandstorm and finds that it is actually a swarm of stingray-like aliens that are destroying the ecosystem. Contrary to common belief, season 10 kicked off in the last week of December 1972 not in 1973, as would be expected. These included a space opera about a giant war, possibly featuring the, This story was nominated for a 2010 Hugo Award in the category of "Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form," as was, In this special, Christina becomes the next on the list of companions who have, According to the episode commentary, it was planned from the beginning to kill the, This was the only special released on the. "It's a storm who says it's sand?" The implication of this prophecy fills the Doctor with dread. [6][30] After an emergency discussion by the production team, they agreed that the damage was unintentionally artistic and decided to include the damaged bus in the episode;[6] instead of shipping the spare bus from Cardiffwhich would have delayed the already hurried filming In Australia, the DVD was released on 29th of June 2009, Blu-ray on 1st of October 2009 and included the same special features as the UK release.
Once Malcolm is ready to close the wormhole, Captain Magambo orders him to close it to protect the Earth, despite the fact the Doctor and the passengers of Bus 200 are still trapped on the other side. Christina and the Doctor pop open the 200's hood to find it gummed up with sand. After examining countries such as Morocco and Tunisia, the production team decided to film in Dubai because the area was more amicable to the filming industry and viable filming locations were nearer to urban areas than other locations. "Planet of the Dead" was the first Doctor Who episode to be filmed in high definition, after a positive reaction to the visual quality of spin-off series Torchwood and the financial viability of HDTV convinced the production team to switch formats.
On the bus, Carmen shudders as her visions tell her these things are a storm that devours. When she asks him why, he replies sadly, "People have travelled with me, and I've lost them. Three of the stingrays have followed the bus through the wormhole; furthermore, if they don't close the wormhole in time, the entire swarm will come through and devastate Earth. When Barclay is distressed over how deep the wheels will run, Christina produces a fold-up spade from her rucksack to begin digging them out, then a small axe for Nathan to unearth the seats more quickly. he notes mysteriously. Her husband Lou notes she has had a gift of foresight since she was a girl which has helped them make small wins on the lottery. Trapped in the Desert - Doctor Who - Planet of the Dead - BBC. Two weeks previously, one of the two 1980 Bristol VR double-decker buses bought for filming had been substantially damaged when a crane accidentally dropped a container in Dubai City Port. Christina turns off the electric barrier in the Tritovores' ship. In response to her claim of nobility, the Doctor says he is a Lord of a "big estate". He leaves the call hanging at the sound of beeping from the Tritovore ship's controls. Alien creatures who might be hostile. [33] Davies personally disagreed about counting The Trial of a Time Lord as one serialarguing that it "felt like four stories" to himand grouping "Utopia" with its following episodes, but agreed that it was only an opinion which did not override any others. "love-it-or-hate-it" stand-up comedy. He is able to make the bus lift out of the sand and into the air, flying back through the wormhole to Earth.
Then a few lines were added to the script to explain the sudden change in the buses's appearance. The engine cranks and coughs, but fails to get going.
It had taken us a month to find the one we had. It didn't hurt that POTD had all the elements of a cracking good story: The Doctor and friends trapped on an alien planet, on the other side of the universe, with no easy way to get home. Malcolm figures out a way to do it and starts on the process immediately. Scenes set in London's Oxford Street were filmed at St Mary Street, Cardiff. Main enemy: As the Doctor flies the bus across London, he attempts to dodge the stingrays whilst helping Malcolm overcome some technical difficulties via mobile phone. The other passengers of the bus witness the driver's skin and tissues incinerating, before he disappears into the wormhole with the same rippling effect as the sand. Several bus passengers discuss the events surrounding the relocation of Earth to the, The Doctor mentions, "Humans on buses, always blaming me", referring to, Carmen says, "Your song is ending", which is what the, An alternate reality Captain Magambo appeared in, Christina refers to the economic crash of, Malcolm named his unit of measurement the Bernard after Professor, When Captain Magambo tells the Doctor it is an honour to serve him during a phone conversation, he gets the notion she has saluted him over the phone, which she hastily denies. The bus has been wrecked in the process of landing, with smoke hissing from its engine and parts of its double-decker roof sheared apart. She's different from any of the companions we've ever had in that she doesn't particularly want to get caught up with the Doctor. He and Christina learn they are in the Scorpion Nebula on the planet San Helios, which is on the other side of the universe from Earth; the Doctor comments on how Christina got her wish of being "so far away".
It looks like the vehicle is about to be pulled over, but whilst chasing the bus through a tunnel, the police witness it disappear in front of their eyes; startled, they set up a perimeter around the area. He looks on silently as D.I McMillan proudly arrives to confront Christina with the charge of suspicion of theft. Planet of the Dead introduced the "he will knock four times" and "something is returning" arcs, something which would come up again in the following story, The Waters of Mars and ultimately conclude in the two-part serial The End of Time. Producer: for the initial broadcast was 9.54 million viewers on BBC One and 200,000 viewers on BBC HD, making it the fifth most watched programme of the week and the most watched programme aired on BBC HD at that time. Simon Brew of science fiction blog Den of Geek said the episode was "by turns ambitious and predictable" but "still quite entertaining". To control it, he persuades Christina to give him the gold chalice, which he smashes, using it to interface the bus's controls with the mountings. They fly back through the wormhole just as Malcolm closes it, but not before three stingrays sneak through, which UNIT quickly kill with Stinger missiles. It was also the first to be filmed and broadcast in high-definition.
and swings the bus violently around. [6] Carmen's warning evoked memories of the Ood's warning to the Doctor and Donna in the fourth series episode "Planet of the Ood". So the film crew sent photos of the damage back to Cardiff and there the crew made similar 'alterations' to that bus so they would - almost - match. Smiling down at the Doctor, Christina happily tells him, "We could have been so good together", revealing no hard feelings over her rejection.
As such, the bus featured in the episode was named the 200, in celebration. Russell T Davies co-wrote the episode with Gareth Roberts, the first credited writing partnership for the show since its 2005 revival.
It's back to basics: she's probably more of a traditional, romantic kind of Thomas Crown Affair kind of heroine, if you like. The Doctor explains to the passengers on the bus that they went through the wormhole by accident, but Carmen tells him with some surprising knowledge that it was a doorway put there for a reason. Part of the episode was filmed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The other, in rage, prepares to fire its weapon at the Stingray, but before he can, he is eaten as well. It is returning through the dark, and then Doctoroh but then he will knock four times." He pulls her attention off the subject and exclaims, "Allons-y!" When Lady Christina climbs back up after stealing the cup of Athelstan, she is on the roof, but in the next scene, she is still inside. Russell T DaviesGareth Roberts He is joined in the episode by actress Michelle Ryan, who plays Lady Christina de Souza, a one-off companion to the Doctor. The damaged bus was not the only problem to filming in Dubai: the first of the three days was afflicted by a sandstorm which left most of the footage shot unusable.
[33] Gareth Roberts inserted a reference to the landmarkspecifically, the bus number is 200[34]and Davies emailed the show's publicity team to advertise the special as such.
