Having just pulled off a heist, a cat burglar called Lady Christina de Souza boards a London bus to evade the police. She finds herself sitting next to the Doctor, who's tracking a mysterious energy signal. Suddenly, the bus is catapulted through a wormhole to San Helios, on the other side of the universe. The planet seems to be one enormous desert, but stranded Tritovore traders explain that it should be a bustling world of billions. While the Doctor's biggest fan, Dr Malcolm Taylor of UNIT, struggles to bring the bus home, it becomes clear that the wormhole and the devastation on San Helios are linked -- and Earth may be next.

Midway through 2006, Doctor Who executive producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner decided against making a full season for broadcast during 2009. Instead, a handful of specials would bridge the gap between Season Thirty in 2008 and Season Thirty-One in 2010, marking the end of both Davies' and Gardner's tenures on Doctor Who. What was unclear at this point, however, was the precise number of specials which would be made, and their airdates. By May 2007, it was anticipated that the 2008 Christmas special would be followed by two adventures in 2009 -- probably one at Easter, when each new season of Doctor Who had debuted since its return to television in 2005, and then the other at Christmas -- plus a third special in 2010, which would lead into Season Thirty-One. It was expected that all of these episodes would be made together, as an extension of the Season Thirty production calendar.

Over the summer, the dates for the specials drifted to Christmas 2009, New Year's Day 2010 and Easter 2010. But it had now become clear that the tentative recording plan was unworkable. David Tennant had committed to appearing in Hamlet and Love's Labour's Lost for the Royal Shakespeare Company from July 2008 to January 2009. As a result, little time would remain between the completion of the 2008 Christmas special and the start of his RSC rehearsals. Furthermore, it was uncertain whether the length of Tennant's availability after he finished his run with the RSC would accommodate the production of three specials.

It seemed impossible to begin production in January to be ready for transmission in April

Several alternatives were considered. One option was to cut back to just two specials -- either Hallowe'en and Christmas 2009, or Christmas 2009 and New Year's Day 2010 -- although neither Davies nor Gardner was keen to lose one of their final stories. Gardner proposed filming the first special in two parts, split in half by Tennant's RSC commitments. Davies, however, was concerned about the likely loss of continuity across the two recording blocks, and so it was agreed that all of the filming would have to take place from mid-January 2009. But even this timetable was problematic, because there was still a desire to broadcast one of the specials around Easter 2009, in order to avoid having Doctor Who off the air for more than a few months in a row. Unfortunately, it seemed impossible to begin production on a special in January and have it ready for transmission in April.

Finally, by April 2008, the production team's plans had started to come together. It was decided that the first special would be an effects-heavy space opera, with a number of sequences which would be created entirely via computer animation. Effects house The Mill could therefore begin work on the episode before any filming had taken place, allowing enough time for recording and post-production to be completed ahead of the intended Easter airdate.

However, it was also clear that another element of the plan -- that Davies would write all three specials himself -- would have to be abandoned. He was now extremely busy coordinating and writing Children Of Earth, the massive five-part event which would comprise the third season of the spin-off series Torchwood. As a result, Davies conceded that he would have to partner with other writers on at least some of the Doctor Who specials. They would prepare a detailed storyline and early drafts of the script from concepts suggested by Davies, who would then polish the script to its final form. This was not a new approach; indeed, it had already been employed for a number of Doctor Who episodes. On previous occasions, however, Davies had opted to relinquish any scriptwriting credit. Gardner now insisted that he be formally acknowledged as a co-writer for the specials, because his name on the scripts would help attract prominent guest stars.

As his collaborator for the Easter special, Davies' thoughts immediately turned to Gareth Roberts, whose most recent Doctor Who story had been The Unicorn And The Wasp for Season Thirty. Davies also fondly remembered some of the novels Roberts had written for Virgin Publishing's Doctor Who: The New Adventures range -- most notably 1993's The Highest Science, Roberts' first professionally-published Doctor Who work -- which he felt represented exactly the kind of colourful, entertaining Doctor Who adventure he wanted for Easter.

One possible storyline for the Easter special involved a Star Wars-style dogfight

At this point, Davies was toying with two possible storylines to hand over to Roberts. One involved the TARDIS materialising in the midst of a Star Wars-style dogfight in space. The Doctor would befriend a female pilot, who would become his companion for the adventure, and they would defuse the conflict by employing a weapons-jamming device. Davies thought that this would be an effective subversion of the genre.

Alternatively, Davies considered reviving a notion which he and Gardner had discussed in 2004, while developing their initial ideas for Doctor Who. They had noted that its longevity on television was rivalled by only one other science-fiction property: Star Trek, which had debuted in 1966. Originally chronicling the adventures of the starship Enterprise as it explored the frontiers of space in the twenty-third century, Star Trek had spawned four sequel series as well as a number of feature films. The current iteration of the franchise on television was Star Trek: Enterprise, and Davies and Gardner had toyed with the possibility of coordinating a crossover between that series and Doctor Who. However, they had to drop the concept after Star Trek: Enterprise was cancelled in 2005, without any indication that another Star Trek show was forthcoming. Davies now thought that he might invent a thinly-veiled Star Trek parody, with the Doctor finding himself aboard the starship “Endeavour”.

At the same time, Davies was concerned that a spoof might not be the best way to utilise one of his final episodes, and so it was the war-in-space concept that he asked Roberts to develop. He suggested that it might pit humanity against the Chelonians, the aggressive turtle-like aliens which Roberts had introduced in The Highest Science. Davies also encouraged Roberts to adapt another element of the same novel, which had seen a modern-day train carrying everyday British passengers teleported to the planet Sakkrat. He suggested that Roberts' story might feature a London double-decker bus which passed through a wormhole and appeared in the midst of the space battle; the Doctor could be one of the passengers.

By the end of April 2008, Tennant had confirmed that he would be leaving Doctor Who after the specials, alongside Davies and Gardner. As a result, it was decided that the concluding special would be split into two episodes. Meanwhile, Roberts was working on a storyline for the Easter adventure. Initially, he began incorporating a subplot about an extraterrestrial hotel where humans were being implanted with alien eggs, as an allusion to the custom of giving eggs as an Easter gift. However, the hotel setting veered too closely to “A Midwinter's Tale”, an idea Davies had originally considered for the 2008 Christmas episode, and which he had now given to Phil Ford to develop for the special which would follow Roberts'. At the same time, Roberts and Davies had become concerned with several inconsistencies in their developing narrative, such as the conundrum of how the bus passengers would be able to breathe in space.

Russell T Davies decided that overseas location filming would better serve the Easter special

The result was a major refocussing of the narrative. Davies and Roberts decided to move away from the space battle setting; the bus would now be transported to another planet, in a more direct parallel of The Highest Science. Davies was worried about the practicalities of creating a believable alien world in the United Kingdom, but he had also been investigating the possibility of overseas location filming for Tennant's concluding two-part story. Having decided that the Master would return for the Tenth Doctor's swansong, he envisaged a climactic battle between the two Time Lords which would take place in a vast desert. Davies now decided that the desert setting would better serve the Easter special, which guided Roberts' conception of the alien planet, San Helios. Instead of animating a vast battle in space, The Mill would be asked to create scenes involving a horde of deadly flying stingray-like aliens.

The change of setting also meant that a new concept was needed for the Doctor's temporary companion, since the spaceship pilot was no longer appropriate. Instead, it was decided that the companion's role would be filled by Rebecca, a tour guide on the bus. Roberts developed her as a cheery, overweight woman in the mould of Tracy Turnblad from the 1988 movie Hairspray. Stuck in a dead-end job, Rebecca would be shaken out of her complacency by her experiences with the Doctor; the story's conclusion would see her become an ambassador to the Chelonians.

However, Davies came to feel that the Rebecca character was simply too unengaging, and that she was ill-suited to the style of story he envisaged. Instead, in late July, he came up with a cat burglar named Hermione. She was inspired by the Black Canary, a DC Comics superheroine whose adventures were first chronicled in the pages of Flash Comics during 1947. Hermione would be introduced in a fast-paced opening segment in which she stole a priceless jewel, drawing upon the well-known heist sequence involving Tom Cruise's secret agent in the 1996 movie Mission: Impossible. Hermione would then board the bus to evade the police, where she would encounter the Doctor. Davies envisaged the Doctor and Hermione as having a relationship akin to Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in the 1963 thriller Charade.

Meanwhile, it was recognised that the change in setting meant that Roberts' script could no longer include the Chelonians. The extreme heat which would accompany location filming in a desert environment would make it impractical for an actor to wear the bulky costume necessary to bring the turtle-like aliens to life. The Chelonians would instead be replaced by half-man, half-insect aliens called Tritovores, who would turn out to be friendly. The concept was partly inspired by the 1958 horror film The Fly and its 1986 remake, in which a scientist's experiments inadvertently merged his genetic structure with that of a common housefly.

On August 11th, Tracie Simpson was named the new producer of Doctor Who

On August 11th, Tracie Simpson was named the new producer of Doctor Who. Simpson had worked on the show as a production manager since its revival, most recently on Season Thirty's Turn Left. She would produce both Roberts' episode and the two-part adventure which would conclude Tennant's time as the Doctor. However, because of the tight deadline involved with the Easter installment, Simpson would be replaced for the middle special by Nikki Wilson. Having previously been credited under her maiden name, Nikki Smith, she had script edited Season Thirty's The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky. Wilson had also been a script editor on programmes such as Trial & Retribution and The Bill; more recently, she was the producer for the second season of the Doctor Who spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Around the end of August, Davies was once again reconsidering the companion figure in the Easter special, having become concerned that the audience would find a jewel thief too unrelatable. Instead, he suggested that the woman who boarded the bus might be a middle-aged housewife called Eileen, who was trapped in a loveless marriage to a man named Trevor. After delivering his first draft on September 10th, Roberts agreed to consider how the adventure might play out with Eileen in place of the cat burglar, whom he had renamed Christina. By the 16th, however, it had become clear that none of the potential actresses available to play Eileen were compelling enough to encourage the production team to make the switch, and so Roberts was told to retain Christina.

By December, Roberts' story had gained the title Planet Of The Dead. Having written the Unified Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT) into the narrative, Roberts seized the opportunity to include Captain Erisa Magambo; the character had been created by Davies for Season Thirty's Turn Left, and Roberts had been delighted with actress Noma Dumezweni's performance. Planet Of The Dead would be the final Doctor Who work for director James Strong, who had most recently handled the Season Thirty premiere, Partners In Crime. For the location shoot, the production team had considered venues such as Tunisia -- where numerous scenes in the Star Wars movies had been filmed -- before settling on Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Not only did it offer a desert location which was not far from the production base, but UAE-based Central Films had a pre-existing relationship with the BBC after working on a 2006 episode of Holby City.

Planet Of The Dead would be the first Doctor Who story to be recorded in High Definition

It had now been decided that Planet Of The Dead would become the first Doctor Who story to be recorded in High Definition, replacing the 625-line format which had been in use since 1967's The Enemy Of The World. Consideration had been given to making Doctor Who in HD ever since the series' return in 2005, but the adoption of the new standard had been deferred due to concerns about the resulting escalation in visual effects costs. Instead, with the BBC HD channel having been trialled from May 2006, it was decided that Torchwood would be made in the new format as an experiment. On the basis of its success, the standalone nature of the specials offered an excellent opportunity to introduce HD to Doctor Who. Unfortunately, a misunderstanding within the BBC led to some of the funding for the transition to HD becoming unavailable. As a result, Davies was forced to shift moneys to Planet Of The Dead from the next special, The Waters Of Mars.

Two double-decker buses were purchased for Planet Of The Dead. One was despatched for Dubai via boat in early December, after air transport was ruled out due to the weight of the vehicle. On December 2nd, Strong, Simpson and production designer Edward Thomas travelled to Dubai for a recce, and to take plate shots of the desert which could be used by The Mill.

The script for Planet Of The Dead continued to evolve as production loomed. The coda in which Carmen gave the Doctor a dire premonition of his future was originally meant to be an element of The Waters Of Mars. A lot more material involving Malcolm was added when Davies found that Roberts' script was seriously underrunning. In addition, both Doctor Who Magazine editor Tom Spilsbury and one of its regular contributors, Benjamin Cook, had pointed out that Planet Of The Dead would be the two-hundredth Doctor Who story -- depending on how some debatable cases were counted, such as the four segments of 1986's The Trial Of A Time Lord, or the conjoining of Season Twenty-Nine's Utopia and The Sound Of Drums / Last Of The Time Lords. Delighted, Davies decided that the bus should be dubbed the Route 200.

Meanwhile, Tennant's successful run with the RSC was disrupted when a longstanding back injury began to take its toll. He was forced to step aside from Hamlet on December 9th, immediately prodding the British press into a frenzy. Reports began circulating that Tennant's return to Doctor Who was in jeopardy, but the panic was largely a tabloid invention, with the issue resolved following a routine operation. Although Tennant was unable to participate in publicity for the 2008 Christmas special, The Next Doctor, he was healthy enough to resume his performances in Hamlet on January 3rd, 2009, two weeks ahead of his return to Doctor Who.

Shortly before Christmas, Michelle Ryan was cast as Lady Christina de Souza

Shortly before Christmas, Michelle Ryan was cast as Lady Christina de Souza. She was well-known to the viewing public after starring on EastEnders for five years, and her profile had been further enhanced by virtue of her starring role in the short-lived American series Bionic Woman. Another member of the cast for Planet Of The Dead was Adam James, playing DI McMillan. He was not only a good friend of Tennant's, but also the godson of Third Doctor Jon Pertwee, and the son of Polly James, who had appeared in 1984's The Awakening. Less well-known at the time was Daniel Kaluuya, the actor chosen to play Barclay. He had only been acting professionally for three years, with credits including multiple episodes of shows like Skins, Silent Witness and FM. He had also unsuccessfully auditioned to play Cline in Season Thirty's The Doctor's Daughter. This was only the start of a decorated career which would see Kaluuya nominated for two Academy Awards, including a win for his supporting role in 2021's Judas And The Black Messiah, about the Black Panther organisation.

The dawn of 2009 greeted the production team with a brand new crisis. On January 8th, they were informed that there had been an accident at the docks in the UAE port town of Jebel Ali three days previously: an eighteen-tonne cargo container had been dropped on the roof of the double-decker bus, which had just arrived. It was briefly suggested that the second bus, kept behind in Cardiff, might be hastily transported to Dubai in time for filming. However, a bus would also be required for domestic recording both before and after the UAE shoot, and there was no guarantee that a third bus could be located and purchased in time. The only feasible option was to amend the script so that the bus suffered structural damage while travelling through the wormhole. A design team was quickly flown to the UAE to ensure that the damaged bus could still be used safely during production there. A third bus would still have to be acquired -- albeit with less urgency -- so that it could be similarly damaged and used for filming in Cardiff alongside its undamaged counterpart.

David Tennant initially struggled to recapture his performance as the Doctor, after so many months of playing Hamlet

After being stood down for eight months since the completion of The Next Doctor, the Doctor Who team sprung back into action on January 19th. Most of the domestic location filming for Planet Of The Dead took place in Cardiff, beginning with the Welsh National Museum for Christina's burglary at the start of the episode. The 20th and 21st saw scenes at the fictional Gladwell Road Tunnel recorded at the Butetown Tunnel on the A4232. Tennant joined the team on the 21st, although he initially struggled to recapture his performance as the Doctor, after so many months of playing Hamlet. On January 22nd, Christina's escape down the alleyway took place at The Friary, while shots of the bus in motion were captured along Lloyd George Avenue. The rest of the day took the cast and crew to Doctor Who's usual studio home in Upper Boat, for special effects work involving the bus. The 23rd was another studio day, during which Strong concentrated on scenes in UNIT's mobile HQ. This was the first day on Planet Of The Dead for noted comedian Lee Evans, who had been cast as Malcolm at short notice. Evans brought along a set of oversized false teeth to wear for the role, but it was quickly agreed that they would not be used.

After the weekend, January 26th saw the Doctor and Christina board the bus at St Mary's Street, while the 27th and 28th were spent back at the Butetown Tunnel. Scenes aboard the bus were recorded at Upper Boat on January 29th and 30th, despite Tennant suffering from a weak voice. The team again had the weekend off, before more bus material was taped on February 2nd. The only British location outside Cardiff to be used for Planet Of The Dead was Mir Steel in Newport; the production team had previously used the same facilities when they were known as Alpha Steel. Sequences aboard the Tritovore ship were filmed there in frigid conditions from February 3rd to 6th. To explain the actors' breath being plainly visible, the script was amended to introduce the notion of the vessel's hull being made from photafine steel, which inverted the outside temperature. Then it was back to Upper Boat for two more days -- February 7th and 9th, straddling a day off on the Sunday -- when Strong taped additional scenes aboard the bus, as well as various effects and insert shots.

On February 10th, necessary members of the cast and crew flew from London to Dubai. The excursion became unexpectedly eventful during the trip from the airport to the hotel. Of the three minibuses hired for the journey, one -- carrying Tennant and Ryan -- was pulled over by the police, while a second was briefly lost in the desert after taking a wrong turn. No filming took place on the 11th, which was used purely as a recce day for the location at Margham, a half hour's drive outside Dubai.

The UAE shoot was meant to take place over the next three days. Unfortunately, an intense sandstorm arose on February 12th: the worst the region had seen in months. Although the Doctor Who team tried to press ahead that day, it soon became clear that Strong would be able to complete virtually none of his planned shots. With time now extremely tight, it appeared that significant material would have to be cut, and other scenes remounted at a suitable venue in Wales. Happily, the weather improved tremendously during the 13th and 14th, and Strong was actually able to film more material on these two days than he had anticipated accomplishing across all three. Buoyed by this change of fortune, the Doctor Who team returned to the United Kingdom on February 15th.

The last day of recording for Planet Of The Dead was February 18th. It took place at Upper Boat, and dealt with various pick-up and effects shots, most notably Ryan's wirework for the opening heist scene and the sequence in the gravity well. The race was then on for The Mill to complete the effects work for the story. The tight deadline meant that, unusually, there would be no press launch for Planet Of The Dead: the episode simply wouldn't be ready in time.

A minor panic arose in early April over a mock advertisement on the side of the bus for a mobile phone billed as “Neon by Naismith”. It was meant to foreshadow the introduction of the wealthy Joshua Naismith in the final two-part special, The End Of Time. However, after filming had concluded, AT&T in the United States had introduced a cell phone called the LG Neon, and concerns were expressed within the BBC that Planet Of The Dead might appear to be providing the product with free publicity. The matter was dropped when Gardner pointed out that the Neon ad had already appeared in production photos -- although she did not mention that it was barely visible.

Planet Of The Dead debuted on Easter Saturday, April 11th. The broadcast marked the fifth consecutive year that Doctor Who was transmitted either during or close to the Easter weekend. Given the change in recording format to high definition, Planet Of The Dead became the first Doctor Who episode to air simultaneously on BBC One (in standard definition) and BBC HD. At this stage, however, those watching in high definition were few, barely exceeding two hundred thousand viewers and representing just two percent of the total audience. Nonetheless, from this point on, the practice of simulcasting Doctor Who on the two channels would become the norm.

• Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #25, 8th July 2010, “Planet Of The Dead” by Andrew Pixley, Panini Publishing Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Complete History #61, 2016, “Story 200: Planet Of The Dead”, edited by John Ainsworth, Hachette Partworks Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale -- The Final Chapter by Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook (2010), BBC Books.