 Russell T Davies co-wrote this story with Gareth Roberts, the first writing partnership for the show since its 2005 revival.
For the fifth year in a row a new story that has been aried in the spring has achieved more than average viewing figures. "Planet of the Dead" is also the fourth highest watched story since the shows revival in 2005 - and 2 of those that are higher are Christmas specials "Voyage of the Damned" (13.3 million) and "The Next Doctor" (13.0 million). The other highest watched story is the revised shows opener "Rose" (10.8 million).
"Planet of the Dead" is the first of 3 special stories to be broadcast throughout 2009 and is the first Doctor Who story to be filmed in high definition, after a positive reaction to the visual quality of spin-off series Torchwood.
Michelle Ryan portrays Lady Christina de Souza, an adrenaline junkie and daughter of a recently impoverished aristocrat. As revealed by Director James Strong:
‘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 to 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’.
Michelle Ryan is more famous for playing the part of Zoe Slater in 478 episodes of the long-running BBC soap EastEnders (2000-2005). She also played the title role in the 2007 series Bionic Woman as well as Nimueh in the first season of the BBC drama Merlin.
Comedian Lee Evans plays Professor Malcolm Taylor, a UNIT scientist devoted to his predecessor, The Doctor.
According to Russell T Davies this story was influenced by several works. He has also described "Planet of the Dead" as ‘a great big adventure, a little bit Indiana Jones, a little bit Flight of the Phoenix, a little bit Pitch Black’.
To ensure that the desert scenes looked as realistic as possible, the production team filmed in Dubai for three days, sending several props - most notably, a 1980 double-decker Bristol VR bus - to the United Arab Emirates for filming. After the bus was unintentionally damaged in Dubai by a shipping container, Russell T Davies was forced to re-write the script so as to provide an explanation for the damage in the narrative. The production team also had to alter a second bus, that stayed in the UK for the filming of the internal bus scenes, so as to maintain continuity.
Filming in the UK took place at the peak of the February 2009 snowfall, where the sub-zero temperatures slowed filming and had a visible effect on the cast. To accommodate for the adverse conditions, Russell T Davies included a line in the script that specified that the Tritovore spaceship cooled as external temperatures increase.
Unlike the Christmas specials, the theme of Easter was not overtly emphasised in this story; right at the beginning, during the pre-credits introduction, The Doctor offers Christina a chocolate Easter Egg and wishes her a ‘Happy Easter’ – this being the first thing he says to her when they meet on the bus. Also there is another fleeting mention of the Easter holiday made with the line ‘robot bunnies carrying baskets full of deadly egg bombs.
Although The Doctor has never attempted to detect Rhondium Particles before, the Third Doctor used a Rhondium Sensor to detect Delta Wave Particles in "The Time Warrior".
The Stingrays operate in a similar way to the Nimon in the 1980 story "The Horns of Nimon". In that story, the half man, half bull creatures persuaded civilizations to build black hole gateways between worlds for them. Having arrived on a new world, these 'intergalactic locusts' would drain it of energy before persuading another world to build a new gateway to allow their great journey of life to continue.
Thanks to a Time Lord gift, most alien languages are usually translated for The Doctor and those around him if he is nearby and conscious. Sadly that's not the case for the Tritovores. Another alien language that could that could not be translated by The Doctor was that of the reptilian Foamasi in the 1980 story "The Leisure Hive".
"Planet of the Dead" was advertised as Doctor Who's 200th story. Russell T Davies admitted that the designation is debatable - based upon how fans counted the unfinished story "Shada", the four parts of the 1986 The Trial of a Time Lord season, and the Season Twenty Nine (New Series 3) finale consisting of "Utopia", "The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords". Russell T Davies has been reported as personally disagreeing about counting the 1986 The Trial of a Time Lord season as one story - arguing that it ‘felt like four stories’ to him - and grouping "Utopia" with "The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords", but agreed that it was only an opinion which did not override any others. Co-writer Gareth Roberts inserted a reference to the landmark - specifically, the bus seen in "Planet of the Dead" is numbered is 200. To confirm this landmark event Doctor Who Magazine ran a reader survey of all 200 stories in the magazine's 407th issue.
Busses have been used previously in Doctor Who - Renegade Time Lady Iris Wildthyme who features in numerous short stories, novels and audio dramas, travels on a twentieth century London 'Routemaster' double-decker bus (the No. 22 to Putney Common) which is in fact her TARDIS.
The end of this story contains a trailer for the next story "The Waters of Mars". Interestingly this trailer is overlaid with the sound of the Cloister Bell - The warning sound heard within a TARDIS when there is impending danger.
To accompany this story BBC 3 broadcasted an hour after "Planet of the Dead" the first Doctor Who Confidential edition attached to the 2009 specials. Titled "Desert Storm" it was narrated by Noel Clarke and featured improved graphics in its opening and closing credits sequences. An extended version of this programme (with an extra 5 minutes) was released on the individual DVD for this story, in June 2009, and in The Complete Specials Box Set released in January 2010.
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The Firsts:
The first of 3 special stories to be broadcast throughout 2009.
The first Doctor Who story to be made in High Definition.
The introduction of companion Lady Christina de Souza played by Michelle Ryan.
The first Doctor Who story to be filmed in Dubai and in a real desert.
The first writing partnership, in the revamped series. This being between Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts.
Tracie Simpson's first involvement in the show as Producer.
Debbi Slater's first involvement in the show as Associate Producer.
The first Doctor Who story to be released in High Definition on BlueRay.
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(Position = 99 out of 200)
(Position = 4 out of 10)
