Planet of the Dead
200 – "Planet of the Dead" | |||
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Doctor Who episode | |||
Cast | |||
Companion
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Others
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Production | |||
Directed by | 2008–2010 specials | ||
Running time | 60 minutes | ||
First broadcast | 11 April 2009 | ||
Chronology | |||
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"Planet of the Dead" is the first of
The episode depicts Christina fleeing the police from a museum robbery by boarding a bus that accidentally travels from London to the desert planet of San Helios, trapping her, the Doctor, and several passengers on board the damaged vehicle. After the bus driver dies trying to return to Earth, the
"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. To ensure that the desert scenes looked as realistic as possible, the production team filmed in Dubai for three days, sending several props, including a 1980 double-decker Bristol VR bus, to the United Arab Emirates for filming. After a shipping container unintentionally damaged the bus in Dubai, Davies rewrote the script to explain the damage in the narrative.
The audience gave the episode an Appreciation Index of 88[2]—considered excellent.
Plot
The gentlewoman burglar Lady Christina de Souza steals a gold chalice once belonging to King
While the others attempt to repair the bus, the Doctor and Christina scout ahead and spot what appears to be a sandstorm on the horizon. They encounter two alien flies called Tritovores, who take them to their wrecked spaceship. They explain they were going to pick up supplies at San Helios, which had recently housed billions of people but now is totally desert. The Doctor has them scan the approaching sandstorm and finds that it is actually a swarm of alien stingrays that are destroying the ecosystem. He suspects the swarm is generating the wormhole to travel to their next planet to feed upon, and they must hurry and close the wormhole before the aliens can reach Earth. Christina uses her burglary skills to retrieve a power crystal and its mounting from the Tritovore ship, but accidentally wakes an alien stingray, which consumes the Tritovores.
With the swarm nearly on them, the Doctor uses the crystal's mounting, an anti-gravity device, to enable the bus to fly. 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. Christina asks the Doctor to take her with him, but he refuses right before she is arrested; however, he allows her to escape from the police and fly off on the bus before they can stop her. As the Doctor departs, Carmen, a bus passenger who has low-level psychic abilities, warns him that his "song" is ending and "he will knock four times".
Production
Writing and casting
Russell T Davies co-wrote the episode with
Unlike the Christmas specials, the theme of Easter was not emphasised in the story; the episode only contained a "fleeting mention" of the holiday instead of "robot bunnies carrying baskets full of deadly egg bombs". The episode's tone word—"joyous"—was influenced by Davies' realisation that "every story since 'The Fires of Pompeii' [had] a bittersweet quality" and his subsequent desire to avoid the recurring theme.[3] The starting point for the story was Roberts' first novel The Highest Science. Davies liked the image of a train on a desert planet and rewrote the train as a bus. Davies nevertheless emphasised it was not an "adaptation as such" because tangential elements were constantly being conceived and added.[3]
Michelle Ryan's casting as Lady Christina de Souza was confirmed by the
Ryan was rumoured to be in line for a role as full-time companion to the incoming
Ryan was interviewed by
Ryan's character Lady Christina de Souza is an
It's back to basics: she's probably more of a traditional, romantic kind of Thomas Crown Affair kind of heroine, if you like. [...] It echoes to me of Rose, in that there may be a good old fashioned romantic connection between them. She's young, she's beautiful, she's sexy, but whereas Rose was a very ordinary, normal girl, Lady Christina is a lady, she comes from a very privileged, very elite background. 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. She's got her own thing going on, so she's very much a match for the Doctor and very much an equal. Often in an adventure the Doctor will take control and everyone will do what he says. She's very much in control – the two of them are in a sparring way, battling against each other to get through this adventure.
— James Strong, Digital Spy interview.[19]
Comedian
The episode was influenced by several works: Davies described "Planet of the Dead" as "a great big adventure, a little bit
- David Tennant
- Really, from this moment on, the Doctor's card is marked. Because when we come back in "The Waters of Mars", it's all become a little bit darker.
- Julie Gardner
- And as we know, David, he really does knock four times.
- Tennant
- Yeah, absolutely, and if you think you've figured out what that means, you're wrong!
- Gardner
- But when you do figure it out, it's a sad day.
— David Tennant and Julie Gardner, Doctor Who: The Commentaries, "Planet of the Dead"[6]
Filming
Pre-production on the four specials started on 20 November 2008—four days before scheduled—because the episode's overseas filming in Dubai required the extra planning time.
Production began on 19 January in Wales.
Filming began at the
Filming in Dubai[location 4] took place in mid-February 2009. 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.[5][29] 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;[5] instead of shipping the spare bus from Cardiff—which would have delayed the already hurried filming schedule—the production team decided to partially reconstruct the bus in Dubai, damage the spare bus in Cardiff to match the bus in Dubai, and rewrite part of the script to accommodate and mention the damage to the bus.[5][6][30][31] 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 said, "there's been a little accident with the bus [...] it's a disaster; the bus is fucked." When I got into the office, I was handed a photograph–and my initial reaction was absolute horror. We called an emergency meeting. Russell came in [...] and we discussed our options. We had bought an identical London bus to film on in Cardiff, so could we send that out to Dubai? We could have got it out in time if it'd left Cardiff, literally, the next day, but we'd have had to find a third bus, an exact replica, to film on in Cardiff a week later. It had taken us a month to find the one we had. It was even mooted that we'd have to forget Dubai and opt for a beach in the UK. But Russell's response was "Okay, let's embrace it. Let's say that the bus was damaged on its way to the alien planet. [...] He wove it into the narrative. We're not trying to hide the damage at all. In fact, we show it off, enhancing it with special effects, smoke and sparks. It works rather marvellously. That London bus, damaged and smoking, in the middle of the desert–yeah, it looks incredible, especially in gorgeous hi-def.
— James Strong, Doctor Who Magazine issue 407.[24]
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.
200th story
"Planet of the Dead" was advertised as Doctor Who's 200th story. Writer Russell T Davies admitted that the designation was arbitrary and debatable, based upon how fans counted the unfinished serial
Broadcast and reception
Overnight figures estimated that the special was watched by 8.41 million people, a 39.6% share of the audience. An additional 184,000 watched the programme on BBC HD, the channel's highest rating at that time. The initial showing had an Appreciation Index of 88: considered excellent.[35][36] A BBC One repeat, two days later, gained an overnight figure of 1.8 million viewers.[35] The special was therefore the second most watched programme of the day, beaten only by the premiere of the new series of Britain's Got Talent.[36] The final viewing figure 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.[37] Including repeats in the following week and viewings on the BBC iPlayer, 13.89 million viewers watched the episode in total.[38]
The episode received average critical reviews. Simon Brew of science fiction blog Den of Geek said the episode was "by turns ambitious and predictable" but "still quite entertaining". The first part of the review mentioned an objection from his wife that the bus trapped in the sand "[looked] really fake", despite the episode being actually filmed in Dubai, and then mentioned Brew's appreciation of the concept of people stranded in the desert and concluded that "made a fair fist of it". Brew positively reviewed Michelle Ryan's performance—believing it similar to her role in Bionic Woman than to her role as Zoe Slater in EastEnders—and Lee Evans' performance as Malcolm Taylor, calling him the highlight of the episode because of his dialogue. He closed his review by saying that "'Planet of the Dead' was passable enough": he thought it "never really gelled" for him; but he thought it was overall entertaining and was excited for the remaining three specials as a result of Carmen's prophecy.[39]
Charlie Jane Anders of io9 "mostly loved 'Planet of the Dead'", commenting that it was a standard Russell T Davies script:
POTD was pretty much everything you've come to expect from Russell T. Davies' Who: crazy adventures, slightly cartoony characters, clever dialogue, moments of sheer silly fun, a childlike solemnity, a miraculous save, bombastic music, and one woman who's held up as being the most special person ever. 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. Alien creatures who might be hostile. A deadly swarm coming to tear our heroes apart. And UNIT on the other side of the wormhole, trying to come to grips with this almost unimaginable threat.[40]
She compared it to two previous episodes, "The Impossible Planet" and "Midnight", both of which she enjoyed. She criticised three aspects of the episode: Lady Christina, who was the "first [Russell T Davies] heroine who actually filled [her] with revulsion", leaving her hoping that the character would be killed off-screen, Malcolm's reluctance to close the wormhole and the implausibility of only three stingrays travelling through it. She thought that the episode was "a pretty solid adventure with a cool set of monsters".[40]
Ben Rawson-Jones of entertainment website Digital Spy gave the episode two stars out of five. He characterised the episode as being "as hollow as a big chocolate Easter egg" because it was "lacking in the enthralling drama and compelling characterisation that has been the lynchpin of the Russell T Davies era". His main criticism was towards Ryan's character, describing the romantic tension between Christina and the Doctor as "feeling forced" and arguing that Ryan was "utterly unconvincing" as Christina. Conversely, he was appreciative of Strong's direction and the UNIT subplot. Specifically, he approved of Evans' performance, noting that "the fact that Malcolm names a unit of measurement after himself is both inspired and hilarious". His review ended by describing the episode as "lifeless for much of the hour" and expressing his hope that the ambiguous entity from Carmen's premonition would "hurry up".[41]
Orlando Parfitt of IGN gave the episode a 7.1 (Good) rating out of ten. Parfitt called it a "straightforward story" that did not elevate to the level of excitement typically seen in Doctor Who until the episode's climax, instead describing the majority of the story as being "taken up with Tennant and Ryan standing in the desert, swapping flirtatious banter in between proclaiming how dire their situation is", and criticised the writing of the part of the episode where the bus was on San Helios, claiming that plot devices such as the Tritovore or Taylor being held at gunpoint and ordered to close the wormhole as "feel[ing] forced and unnaturally shoe-horned into the script". His praise of the episode went to Ryan and Evans: although he thought of Christina as a "shameless Lara Croft ripoff", he said that the character "still proves a sexy and wise-cracking counterpart to the Doctor"; and Evans' acting alongside Dumezweni highlighted his "undeniably great comic acting" as opposed to his "love-it-or-hate-it" stand-up comedy. The last paragraph of his review focused on the climax, which he thought was "a cracker [that] just-about makes up for the previously plodding plot", and described the entire episode as having "enough enjoyable moments" to entertain fans before the transmission of "The Waters of Mars".[42]
"Planet of the Dead" was nominated for the
International broadcast
The special aired in Canada in July on
Soundtrack
References
- ^ Cook, Benjamin (7 January 2009). "Get ready for Planet of the Dead!". Doctor Who Magazine (404). Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Panini Comics: 5.
- ^ "Outpost Gallifrey: Doctor Who RSS News Feed". Gallifreyone.com. 14 April 2009. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
- ^ a b c d e Cook, Benjamin; Spilsbury, Tom. "2009 Easter Special: Planet of the Dead: Desert Storm". Doctor Who Magazine (407). Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: 6–7.
- ^ a b Hickman, Clayton; Roberts, Gareth. "Even Better than the Real Thing: Gareth Roberts". Doctor Who Magazine (406). Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: 30–33.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Desert Storm". Doctor Who Confidential. Series 2009. Episode 1. 11 April 2009. BBC. BBC Three.
- ^ BBC 7.
- ^ a b c "Michelle Ryan and Lee Evans to star in first Doctor Who special of 2009". BBC. 23 January 2009. Retrieved 7 April 2009.
- ^ Wilkes, Neil (23 January 2009). "Ryan, Evans for next 'Doctor Who'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
- ^ a b Luft, Oliver (23 January 2009). "Doctor Who: Michelle Ryan to guest star in Easter special". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 April 2009.
- ^ a b Wardrop, Murray (23 January 2009). "Eastenders actress Michelle Ryan to star in Doctor Who special". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
- ^ Thompson, Jody (13 February 2009). "Doctor Who: See David Tennant and Michelle Ryan on location in Dubai". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
- ^ a b Ryan, Michelle (6 April 2009). "Michelle Ryan teams up with Dr Who". BBC News. Retrieved 7 April 2009.
- ^ Ford, Louise (18 January 2009). "Doctor Who's new assistant set to be ex-EastEnders star Michelle Ryan". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
- ^ Jeffries, Stuart (10 April 2009). "Take me to your Tardis". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 April 2009.
- ^ Steve Wright (presenter) (9 April 2009). "09/04/2009". Steve Wright in the Afternoon. BBC. BBC Radio 2.
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- ^ a b Justin Lee Collins (presenter) (9 April 2009). "4". The Justin Lee Collins Show. ITV. ITV2.
- ^ a b Wilkes, Neil; Strong, James (7 April 2009). "James Strong (Doctor Who)". Digital Spy. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
- ^ a b "All aboard for next special!". Doctor Who microsite. BBC. 23 January 2009. Retrieved 25 January 2009.
- ^ Colville, Robert (11 April 2009). "Russell T Davies Doctor Who interview: full transcript". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 21 October 2011. Retrieved 11 April 2009.
- ^ Davies, Russell T (10 December 2008). "Production Notes". Doctor Who Magazine (403). Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: 4.
- ^ Davies, Russell T (7 January 2009). "Production Notes". Doctor Who Magazine (404). Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: 4.
- ^ a b c Cook, Benjamin; et al. (1 April 2009). "Seven Tales of Dubai". Doctor Who Magazine (407): 18–21.
- ^ Spilsbury, Tom (7 January 2009). "Get ready for Planet of the Dead!". Doctor Who Magazine (404). Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Panini Comics: 5.
- ^ "High-definition adventure". The Herald. 11 April 2009. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
- ^ "Walesarts, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff". BBC. Retrieved 30 May 2010.
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- ^ Evans, Catherine (30 January 2009). "Doctor Who plot rewrite after prop bus is wrecked". South Wales Echo. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
- ^ Paul O'Grady, Michelle Ryan (8 April 2009). "Interview with Michelle Ryan". The Paul O Grady Show. Series 6. Episode 33. Channel 4. Channel 4.
- ^ Ben Leach (28 January 2009). "Doctor Who filming disrupted as double decker bus wrecked". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 29 January 2009.
- ^ a b c Davies, Russell T (4 March 2009). "Production Notes". Doctor Who Magazine (406). Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Panini Comics: 4.
- ^ "Planet of the Dead Fact File". Doctor Who microsite. BBC. 11 April 2009. Retrieved 14 April 2009.
- ^ Spilsbury, Tom (1 April 2009). "Letter from the Editor". Doctor Who Magazine (407). Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Panini Comics: 3.
- ^ a b "Planet of the Dead – AI and repeat ratings". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 12 April 2009. Retrieved 15 April 2009.
- ^ a b "Huge audiences for 'Talent', 'Who'". Digital Spy. 12 April 2009. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
- ^ Hilton, Matt (22 April 2009). "Planet of the Dead – Final Rating". The Doctor Who News Page. Outpost Gallifrey. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
- ^ Hilton, Matt (2 May 2009). "Planet of the Dead: Total Audience". The Doctor Who News Page. Outpost Gallifrey. Retrieved 9 May 2009.
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- ^ "Planet of the Dead – Doctor Who". BBC America. 6 April 2009. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
Filming locations
- ^ National Museum Cardiff (International Gallery): 51°29′12″N 3°10′15″W / 51.4866°N 3.1709°W
- ^ Queen's Gate Tunnel (Gladwall Tunnel): 51°27′44″N 3°10′15″W / 51.4622°N 3.1708°W
- ^ Mir Steelworks (Tritovore Spaceship): 51°33′28″N 2°57′46″W / 51.5578°N 2.9628°W
- ^ Dubai Desert (The Planet of the Dead): 24°55′08″N 55°37′26″E / 24.919°N 55.624°E
External links
- Planet of the Dead on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
- "Planet of the Dead" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage
- "Planet of the Dead" at IMDb
- Shooting Script for "Planet of the Dead"