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Part 1 of 2 with co-Host Romana II & guest-host Darth Skeptical was Recorded on Talkshoe and sound may be spoty.

Synopsis On an alien planet the genocide of the Chimeron by the merciless Bannermen led by Gavrok is almost complete. The last survivor, Chimeron Queen Delta, escapes by the skin of her teeth clutching her egg, the future for her species. She makes it to a space tollport where the Navarinos, a race of shape changing tourist aliens, are planning a visit to the planet Earth in 1959 in a spaceship disguised as an old holiday bus. She stows aboard, as does Mel, while the Doctor follows them in the TARDIS. The Doctor and Mel have won the trip as a prize for arriving in the Navarino spaceport at the right time to be declared the ten billionth customers. No sooner has the tourist vehicle blasted away than the Bannermen turn up, ruthlessly hunting down the fugitive, and they kill the Tollmaster when he refuses to co-operate. The holiday vehicle from Nostalgia Tours meets an unfortunate collision with an American space satellite and is diverted off track, landing at a holiday camp in South Wales rather than Disneyland. However, the basic but cheerful Shangri-La holiday camp is happy to accommodate the visitors led by the ebullient Burton, who assures the travellers of a warm welcome while they wait for the driver, Murray, to repair their innocuous seeming transport. Mel gets close to Delta and uncovers the truth of her situation, including the hatching of the egg into a bright green baby that starts to grow at a startling rate. The Chimeron Queen supports this development with the equivalent of royal jelly given to bees. Delta tries to take her mind off the situation and goes to the Shangri-La dance, instantly capturing the heart of Billy, the camp's mechanic - and making an enemy of the smitten Rachel (or Ray), who loves Billy herself. Ray confides her situation to the Doctor, and they both stumble across a bounty hunter making contact with the Bannermen to tell them of the Chimeron's whereabouts. It is only a matter of time before Gavrok and his troops arrive. Delta and Billy head off on a romantic countryside ramble the following morning, but the Doctor wastes no time in persuading Burton to evacuate the camp, helping Murray repair the ship, and then heading off to find the young lovers while there is still time. Once they are found, everyone returns to the camp but the situation has become dire. The Bannermen have destroyed the Navarino bus with all its official passengers inside, taking Mel as a hostage, as Gavrok tries to work out how to capture the Chimeron. The Doctor's early attempts to intercede are futile, but he does rescue Burton and Mel from the Bannermen. Two Bannermen are holding prisoner two aging American agents, Hawk and Weismuller, who were tracking the missing satellite when they first arrived. The Bannermen were instructed by Gavrok to wait for the Doctor, Burton and Mel on the side of the road. Just before they left the Americans, they place a joined head lock device to prevent them from escaping. While the two Bannerman were placing a tracker on the Doctor, riding Billy's motorbike with Burton and Mel, in an attempt to disguise an ambush attempt, Ray manages to rescue Hawk and Weismuller head locks with an Allen key. They all make contact with the mysterious beekeeper Goronwy, who hides them for a while in his house. As the two Bannerman find that the Americans have been set free, they track the Doctor's party to Goronwy House. As they were closing in to the house, the Chimeron child Princess made a high pitched scream of warning which traumatised the ears of the two Bannermen, allowing Delta was able to shoot one of them, while the other escaped to inform Gavrok of the location of Delta and the Princess. At Shangri-La, before leaving to attack Goronwy House, Gavrok booby-trapped the outside of the TARDIS in an attempt to kill the Doctor. As Gavrok and his Bannermen approached Goronwy House shooting, and crashing into the rock-and-roll-music-filled house, only to have honey broken over them in the process. This then set Goronwy's bees on the honey-covered Bannermen. In the meanwhile, the Doctor and his party made it to Shangri-La to set up a defence. Billy rigged up the Shangri-La sound system to amplify the perfectly pitched scream of the Chimeron child Princess - a sound which is excruciatingly painful to Bannermen. Goronwy explains to Billy the purpose of royal jelly in the lifecycle of the honeybee, provoking the mechanic to consume Delta's equivalent that she has been feeding her daughter, in the hope of metamorphosing into a Chimeron. As Gavrok and his band of Bannermen attack Shangri-La, the amplified scream of the Chimeron princess traumatised the attackers, including Gavrok, who becomes so stunned that he falls into the beam of the booby-trap he placed on the TARDIS and is incinerated. Other Bannermen are so traumatised that they are easily rounded up. Delta and Billy leave together with the child and the prisoners, heading for an intergalactic war crimes tribunal. To their delight, The Doctor shows Hawk and Weismuller the missing satellite nearby. All is well and the next bus of holidaymakers, this time human, arrive at Shangri-La as the Doctor and Mel slip away. [edit] Continuity The Seventh Doctor's question mark handle umbrella makes its first appearance in this story.Sylvester McCoy can be seen wearing his glasses in certain long shots of him riding a motorcycle (consequently, the only time the Seventh Doctor is seen wearing spectacles, though he does produce a pair for use as an aid to hypnosis in the extended version of Silver Nemesis).The Navarinos are also featured in the novel Return of the Living Dad by Kate Orman. Production Serial details by episode: Episode Broadcast date Run time Viewership (in millions) "Part One" 2 November 1987 24:47 5.3 "Part Two" 9 November 1987 24:23 5.1 "Part Three" 16 November 1987 24:22 5.4 [2][3][4] Preproduction This was the first three-part story since Planet of Giants (1964), not counting the 3 x 45 minute episodes of The Two Doctors, which had been broadcast 2 years previously, and the first intended to be this length (Giants had been recorded as a four-parter and cut).Working titles for this story included The Flight of the Chimeron[5]. The eventual title is a reference to the British band Echo and the Bunnymen. The story title makes a single substitution using the phonetic alphabet and a slight change in the final word of the title.The character of Ray was originally created as a new companion for the Doctor as Bonnie Langford had announced she would be leaving the series at the end of the season. The serial, with the working title, The Flight Of The Chimeron, was originally scheduled to end the season. However, as the serial neared production, Langford had not yet decided whether she would leave at the end of Season 24 or during Season 25; that, plus the rescheduling of Delta and the Bannermen to earlier in the season and the decision by script editor Andrew Cartmel to create another replacement companion named Alf (later renamed 'Ace'), led to the idea of Ray as a new companion being abandoned[5]. Casting Features guest appearance by Ken Dodd, Don Henderson, Hugh Lloyd, Richard Davies, and American stage and screen actor Stubby Kaye. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who. Production The scenes at the Shangri-La holiday camp were shot on location at the Butlins Holiday camp on Barry Island, Wales. The holiday camp is no longer there, but the island was used again, this time as a stand-in for a bomb site in 1941 London, in the 2005 series episodes "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances".[6]The soundtrack of this serial contained a higher-than-usual number of recognizable pop songs, although due to licensing costs all were re-recorded by "The Lovells", a fictional group created by the show's incidental music composer Keff McCullough. The songs featured in the serial were: "Rock Around the Clock", "Singing the Blues", "Why Do Fools Fall in Love", "Mr. Sandman", "Goodnight, Sweetheart", "That'll Be the Day", "Only You", "Lollipop", "Who's Sorry Now?" and "Happy Days Are Here Again".The motorbike ridden by Billy in this story is a Vincent, made by British manufacturer Vincent Motorcycles.The guitar the Doctor is seen hugging at the end of the story is a Fender Stratocaster, although the model is not one available at the time the story was set. Commercial releases The story was released on VHS in March 2001 in the UK and June 2002 in North America, but music clearance issues prevented the release of the serial in Australia. A commentary by Sylvester McCoy, Sara Griffiths, Chris Clough and Andrew Cartmel has been recorded for the DVD release. The DVD will be released on June 22 2009. In print Doctor Who book Delta and the Bannermen Series Target novelisations Release number 131 Writer Malcolm Kohll Publisher Target Books Cover artist Alister Pearson ISBN 0-426-20333-X Release date 19 January 1989 Preceded by Paradise Towers Followed by The War Machines A novelisation of this serial, written by Malcolm Kohll, was published by Target Books in January 1989.

Radio Free Skaro's Warren Frey, while wearing his TechVibes hat (www.techvibes.com), and along with cameraman Kris Krug, sat down with Battlestar Galactica creator and head writer Ron Moore at the 2009 Banff TV Festival.

Check out other Doctor Who related stuff at www.radiofreeskaro.com.

Radio Free Skaro's Warren Frey, while wearing his TechVibes hat (www.techvibes.com), and along with cameraman Kris Krug, sat down with Battlestar Galactica creator and head writer Ron Moore at the 2009 Banff TV Festival.

Check out other Doctor Who related stuff at www.radiofreeskaro.com.

This is episode one of Small Press Big Mouth hosted by Stace W and the lovely Lee Grice what is a Brummie like innit and does not talk proper like me like whey aye man.

Welcome to another 55 minutes of geektastic entertainment blasting it's way through your headphones.

Dave returns from his secret mission against EPOCH and there is some talk about the episode with the non geek and Barry's thoughts on Legend of the Seeker finale.

News: A Team casting news, The Hardy men?, Where's Wally?..the movie!

Week that was: Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood, Artemis Fowl the graphic novel ,Numb3rs,Harpers Island, Primeval season finale(TV) and Fantastic Four

Main Feature: in this shorter main we take a few questions from our listeners involving Robin Hood and Ashes to Ashes

Look out for special mini podcast to reveal the Atomic Robo competition winner coming soon

Enjoy!

This is episode one of Small Press Big Mouth hosted by Stace W and the lovely Lee Grice what is a Brummie like innit and does not talk proper like me like whey aye man.

Welcome to another 55 minutes of geektastic entertainment blasting it's way through your headphones.

Dave returns from his secret mission against EPOCH and there is some talk about the episode with the non geek and Barry's thoughts on Legend of the Seeker finale.

News: A Team casting news, The Hardy men?, Where's Wally?..the movie!

Week that was: Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood, Artemis Fowl the graphic novel ,Numb3rs,Harpers Island, Primeval season finale(TV) and Fantastic Four

Main Feature: in this shorter main we take a few questions from our listeners involving Robin Hood and Ashes to Ashes

Look out for special mini podcast to reveal the Atomic Robo competition winner coming soon

Enjoy!

Wir gehen fremd. Und wir stehen dazu! Auf vielfachen Wunsch werfen Harald und Raphael heute eine kleinen Blick auf den neusten Star Trek Film - Star Trek. Wie gut der Reboot dabei wegkommt und ob die beiden von nun an dem WHOniversum fur immer den Rucken kehren werden? Hort selbst!

Wir gehen fremd. Und wir stehen dazu! Auf vielfachen Wunsch werfen Harald und Raphael heute eine kleinen Blick auf den neusten Star Trek Film - Star Trek. Wie gut der Reboot dabei wegkommt und ob die beiden von nun an dem WHOniversum fur immer den Rucken kehren werden? Hort selbst!

Waffle On about Political Satire on TV. Welcome to another edition of Waffle ON. On this episode Meds and Kell are joined by Pete Coleman and they discuss programmes with a political satire link. We discuss That Was The Week That Was, Frost, Report, Python, Yes Minister, The Day Today, Brass Eye, The thick of It and a few more. Politics never had it so good.

Waffle On about Political Satire on TV. Welcome to another edition of Waffle ON. On this episode Meds and Kell are joined by Pete Coleman and they discuss programmes with a political satire link. We discuss That Was The Week That Was, Frost, Report, Python, Yes Minister, The Day Today, Brass Eye, The thick of It and a few more. Politics never had it so good.

Waffle On about Political Satire on TV.

Welcome to another edition of Waffle ON. On this episode Meds and Kell are joined by Pete Coleman and they discuss programmes with a political satire link. We discuss That Was The Week That Was, Frost, Report, Python, Yes Minister, The Day Today, Brass Eye, The thick of It and a few more.

Politics never had it so good.

Waffle On about Political Satire on TV.

Welcome to another edition of Waffle ON. On this episode Meds and Kell are joined by Pete Coleman and they discuss programmes with a political satire link. We discuss That Was The Week That Was, Frost, Report, Python, Yes Minister, The Day Today, Brass Eye, The thick of It and a few more.

Politics never had it so good.

The first Flashing Blade Podcast featuring Tony Gallichan and his plucky girl assistant, Jo!

This time around we look at the recent Radiophonic Workshop concert, Ashes to Ashes and Doctor Who - The Five Doctors (look, it gets it out of the way early on...lol)

all feedback, including mp3's to

show@flashingblade.org.uk

Im heutigen Podcast gibt es etwas zu gewinnen! Mit freundlicher Unterstutzung von KSM verlosen wir ein Exemplar der randvollen Season 2 Box von Doctor Who! Des weiteren nehmen wir das gute Stuck fur Euch naturlich genau unter die Augen. Lohnt sich der Kauf? Ausserdem gibt es News und Post. UND wir werfen einen kurzen Blick auf den Tod von David Carradine. ---------------- Wie schon, dass es heute jemandem aufgefallen ist (weder mir noch Harald war das gewahr). Bei der Frage 5 des Quizes habe ich mich versprochen. Es muss naturlich Pro7 nicht BBC heissen. Somit entfallt die Frage naturlich - jeder der sie trotzdem beantwortet (also die richtige) erhalt eine kleine Aufmerksamkeit ;) Soooooooory,

Im heutigen Podcast gibt es etwas zu gewinnen! Mit freundlicher Unterstutzung von KSM verlosen wir ein Exemplar der randvollen Season 2 Box von Doctor Who! Des weiteren nehmen wir das gute Stuck fur Euch naturlich genau unter die Augen. Lohnt sich der Kauf? Ausserdem gibt es News und Post. UND wir werfen einen kurzen Blick auf den Tod von David Carradine. ---------------- Wie schon, dass es heute jemandem aufgefallen ist (weder mir noch Harald war das gewahr). Bei der Frage 5 des Quizes habe ich mich versprochen. Es muss naturlich Pro7 nicht BBC heissen. Somit entfallt die Frage naturlich - jeder der sie trotzdem beantwortet (also die richtige) erhalt eine kleine Aufmerksamkeit ;) Soooooooory,

Katrina was back in the fold again this week (replacing Warren, who's busy blogging in Banff this week), with the main focus of the Three Who Rule being to provide comments on Series 1 episode The Long Game. The trio never once went more than ten minutes without discussing the episode at hand - a new record? Along the way, various bits of news were covered, including the explosion of fandom (aka the closing of Doctor Who Forum at Outpost Gallifrey), the shrapnel of which, it was determined, landed well short of affecting your intrepid hosts.

Check out the show notes at www.radiofreeskaro.com

Katrina was back in the fold again this week (replacing Warren, who’s busy blogging in Banff this week), with the main focus of the Three Who Rule being to provide comments on Series 1 episode The Long Game. The trio never once went more than ten minutes without discussing the episode at hand – a new record? Along the way, various bits of news were covered, including the explosion of fandom (aka the closing of Doctor Who Forum at Outpost Gallifrey), the shrapnel of which, it was determined, landed well short of affecting your intrepid hosts. Check out the show notes at www.radiofreeskaro.com

Katrina was back in the fold again this week (replacing Warren, who’s busy blogging in Banff this week), with the main focus of the Three Who Rule being to provide comments on Series 1 episode The Long Game. The trio never once went more than ten minutes without discussing the episode at hand – a new record? Along the way, various bits of news were covered, including the explosion of fandom (aka the closing of Doctor Who Forum at Outpost Gallifrey), the shrapnel of which, it was determined, landed well short of affecting your intrepid hosts.

Check out the show notes at www.radiofreeskaro.com

Show summary: Andy Simpkins, Adam J Purcell, Fake Keith, Jean Riddler and the ‘Real’ Keith Dunn talk about the Doctor Who: The Deadly Assassin, Ashes to Ashes, find Doctor Who in Unusual Places, Choose their own Staggering Story, find lots of general news, and a variety of other stuff, specifically:

• 00:00 – Intro and theme tune.
• 00:42 — Welcome!
• 01:15 – News:
• 01:33 — Doctor Who: New companion announced – Karen Gillan (with character name speculation!)
• 06:10 — The Sarah Jane Adventures: David Tennant to appear as the 10th Doctor.
• 07:20 — Doctor Who: New big screen film talk.
• 08:22 — Doctor Who: BBC America to screen the 2009 Specials.
• 09:05 — Dollhouse: Summer Glau to move into the house?
• 10:05 — Alien: prequel/reboot in the works.
• 11:36 — Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New film is planned, Whedon not involved.
• 13:18 — Flight of the Navigator: another one for the remake bandwagon.
• 13:59 — UFO: 1970s British TV series destined for a film version.
• 15:05 — Hasslefree Miniatures: releasing metal miniatures ‘not’ based on Doctor Who and Firefly.
• 16:36 — Telltale Games wants to licence Doctor Who for a computer game?
• 17:34 — Toby Hadoke on tour with his Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf.
• 19:03 – Doctor Who: The Deadly Assassin.
• 37:13 – An epic new Film Trailer!
• 37:59 – Doctor Who in Unusual Places: A Madness of Angels.
• 39:50 – Choose Your Own Staggering Story!
• 42:38 – Ashes to Ashes.
• 52:15 – Emails and listener feedback.* Hit us yourself at show@StaggeringStories.net
• 66:54 – Shameless Plug: Tim’s Take On Podcast
• 67:33 – Farewell for this podcast!
• 67:52 — End theme, disclaimer, copyright, etc.

Vital Links:

• Staggering Stories.
• BBC: Doctor Who.
• Karen Gillan.
• Wikipedia: Karen Gillan.
• BBC: The Sarah Jane Adventures.
• David Tennant.
• BBC America.
• Fox: Dollhouse.
• Wikipedia: Alien (film).
• Wikipedia: Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
• Wikipedia: Flight of the Navigator.
• Wikipedia: UFO (TV Series).
• Hasslefree Miniatures.
• Teltale Games.
• Toby Hadoke: Moths ate my Doctor Who Scarf.
• Facebook: Whooverville.
• Whooverville.
• BBC: Doctor Who: The Deadly Assassin.
• Kate Griffin: A Madness of Angels.
• BBC: Ashes to Ashes.
• Tim’s Take On… Podcast.

Welcome to another hour of geek entertainment.

In this week's episode Dave vacates his host chair to head out on a secret mission against the Villainous EPOCH. Amacehi, the Non Geek, steps into the fray to take over co-hosting duties for this episode.

News: A first look at Clash of the Titans and The Kung Fu legend is no more.

Week that was: Lie to me, Legend of the Seeker and the upcoming V remake

Main feature: The boys take a look at the gaming event of the year, E3. They chat over some of the big announcements that have come of the show. They also look at some of the games that they'll be picking up as soon as they hit the streets.

Apologies for the lateness of the episode and some of the audio quality.

Enjoy!!!

Welcome to another hour of geek entertainment.

In this week's episode Dave vacates his host chair to head out on a secret mission against the Villainous EPOCH. Amacehi, the Non Geek, steps into the fray to take over co-hosting duties for this episode.

News: A first look at Clash of the Titans and The Kung Fu legend is no more.

Week that was: Lie to me, Legend of the Seeker and the upcoming V remake

Main feature: The boys take a look at the gaming event of the year, E3. They chat over some of the big announcements that have come of the show. They also look at some of the games that they'll be picking up as soon as they hit the streets.

Apologies for the lateness of the episode and some of the audio quality.

Enjoy!!!

Doctor Who: Podshock - Episode 152
Running Time: 1:04:08

All news edition: Karen Gillan Recap, Outpost Gallifrey Closing, Gallifreyan Embassy New Website, Who Party 14 Toronto, Doctor Who/Torchwood Comes to Space in Canada, BBC America Launches HD, Planet of the Dead and Torchwood Children of Earth come to DVD/Blu-ray, 24th Anniversary Celebration, and more.

Hosted by Ken Deep and Louis Trapani, with Mike Doran.

Brought to you by the Gallifreyan Embassy and presented by Outpost Gallifrey.

Do you want the Enhanced Podcast AAC file format? Get our Enhanced Podcast version of this episode using our feed at http://www.gallifreyanembassy.org/podshock/podshock.xml.

In which I take a look at the last Pertwee story. And no, it's not Planet of the Spiders.

Part 1 of 2 with guest darth skeptical and emily from ohio

Rich and Steve briefly discuss The Judge Child Quest before delving into
the memory banks for a look back at prog 4 and then fast forwarding to progs
1634 and 1635 where lots of manlove is shown towards Al Ewing

Rich and Steve briefly discuss The Judge Child Quest before delving into
the memory banks for a look back at prog 4 and then fast forwarding to progs
1634 and 1635 where lots of manlove is shown towards Al Ewing

Unrehearsed, unprofessional and probably unwanted, Science Friction returns to your audiovibratory physiomolecular podcast playing devicelment type thingie! In this episode a new co-host is introduced and we take a look at some of the science behind the "Firefly" universe.

How feasible is moving to another solar system? How do you terraform a planet? and why is Karl obsessed with invoking feline wrath? These are just some of the questions asked (and some even answered!) in the exciting new instalment! If you have any comments or suggestions, you can contact us at sciencefriction@ymail.com

Unrehearsed, unprofessional and probably unwanted, Science Friction returns to your audiovibratory physiomolecular podcast playing devicelment type thingie! In this episode a new co-host is introduced and we take a look at some of the science behind the "Firefly" universe.

How feasible is moving to another solar system? How do you terraform a planet? and why is Karl obsessed with invoking feline wrath? These are just some of the questions asked (and some even answered!) in the exciting new instalment! If you have any comments or suggestions, you can contact us at sciencefriction@ymail.com

Part two also sci-fi review of brimstone

More news than you can shake a stick at and a highlight of the Eccleston era (Rob Shearman's "Dalek") being commented upon, the Three Who Rule blather on for an hour and a half about the happenings in the Who world for the past week (including a discussion on new companion Karen Gillan), and touch on the introduction of a Classic Series icon to NuWho. All this and the latest on Ian Levine and Lizo Mzimba at your fingertips on Radio Free Skaro!Check out the show notes on www.radiofreeskaro.com.

More news than you can shake a stick at and a highlight of the Eccleston era (Rob Shearman's "Dalek") being commented upon, the Three Who Rule blather on for an hour and a half about the happenings in the Who world for the past week (including a discussion on new companion Karen Gillan), and touch on the introduction of a Classic Series icon to NuWho. All this and the latest on Ian Levine and Lizo Mzimba at your fingertips on Radio Free Skaro!

Check out the show notes on www.radiofreeskaro.com.

More news than you can shake a stick at and a highlight of the Eccleston era (Rob Shearman's "Dalek") being commented upon, the Three Who Rule blather on for an hour and a half about the happenings in the Who world for the past week (including a discussion on new companion Karen Gillan), and touch on the introduction of a Classic Series icon to NuWho. All this and the latest on Ian Levine and Lizo Mzimba at your fingertips on Radio Free Skaro!

Check out the show notes on www.radiofreeskaro.com.

The Doctor and Steven find themselves in the middle of a religious purging, one they cannot stop no matter how much they long to ("The Massacre"). And after picking up a new companion named Dodo, the trio lands on a spaceship containing the last survivors of the human race ("The Ark").

Welcome to Mini Waffle Episode 3. As you know we like to throw these in between the big waffles. Just a little show to let you good listeners know whats coming up next and its going to be about political satire. With British politics awash with naughty money expenses we thought we’d jump on the topical bandwagon and do a podcast dedicated to anything to do with politics that is broadcast on TV. We;ll be talking about comedy satire, politic broadcasts, spin, news and political quiz shows. Comments wether via email or mps are always welcome and please send them to waffleonpodcast@googlemail.com.

An amusing addition to Doctor Who mythology courtesy of David Whitaker's novelisation of The Crusade.

"Planet of the Dead" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was simultaneously broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 11 April 2009. It is the first of four special episodes to be broadcast throughout 2009 and early 2010, which serve as lead actor David Tennant's denouement as the Tenth Doctor. He is joined in the episode by actress Michelle Ryan, who plays one-off companion to the Doctor Lady Christina de Souza. The episode was co-written by Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts: the first writing partnership since the show's revival in 2005. 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 a damaged bus. After the bus driver dies trying to return to Earth, the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, headed by Captain Erisa Magambo (Noma Dumezweni) and scientific advisor Malcolm Taylor (Lee Evans), attempt to return the bus to Earth while preventing a race of metallic stingray aliens from posing a threat to Earth. At the end of the episode, one of the passengers delivers a warning to the Doctor which foreshadows the remaining three specials. "Planet of the Dead" is 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--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, Davies rewrote the script to explain the damage in the narrative. Reaction to the episode was mixed: the audience gave the episode an Appreciation Index of 88[3]--considered excellent--but critics gave average reviews to the episode. The consensus among critics was that it was enjoyable as a whole but that it was only an average script. The main point of praise was Evans' performance alongside Dumezweni in scenes set on Earth, which countered their criticism of the events on San Helios as being relatively boring. //<![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } //]]> Plot The episode begins with a young thrill-seeking burglar, Lady Christina de Souza (Ryan), stealing a gold chalice once belonging to King Athelstan from a museum. She then narrowly evades the police by riding on a London bus on which the Doctor (Tennant) is also travelling, shortly before the bus suddenly passes through a wormhole and arrives on the desert planet of San Helios. The Doctor and the other passengers find that the wormhole is still present, but deduce that the bus had protected them like a Faraday cage after the bus driver is killed trying to cross back on foot, evaporating to a skeleton instantly. Seeing the driver's skeleton coming out on the other side of the portal, the police call in UNIT, commanded by Captain Erisa Magambo (Dumezweni) and aided by scientific advisor Malcolm Taylor (Evans), to close the wormhole. Trapped on a heavily damaged bus, the other passengers introduce themselves: Angela (Victoria Alcock) is a middle-aged mother travelling home to her family; Lou (Reginald Tsiboe) and Carmen (Ellen Thomas) are an elderly couple who win PS10 each time they play the National Lottery due to Carmen's low-level psychic abilities; Barclay (Daniel Kaluuya) was travelling to a friend's house to ask her on a date; and Nathan (David Ames) was travelling home to watch television. The Doctor and Christina decide to scout the planet, spotting an approaching storm, while Nathan and Barclay try to fix the bus. As they travel, the Doctor learns of Christina's troubled history, and appreciates her callousness and aptitude to the alien situation. The Doctor and Christina encounter the Tritovore, an anthropomorphic fly species, who take them to their wrecked spaceship. The Tritovore explain that they were making a routine goods collection from the planet but crashed in an unfamiliar environment; a year previously, the planet housed a hundred billion inhabitants and a thriving ecosystem. The Tritovore send out a probe to investigate the cause, and discover a large swarm of metallic stingray-like aliens who routinely create wormholes and destroy ecospheres as their biological imperatives. To rescue the Tritovore and the bus passengers, Christina uses her burglary skills to retrieve a crystal which powers the spaceship (together with the pedestal it is located on), unintentionally awakening a stingray that kills the two Tritovore. The Doctor attaches parts of the pedestal to the bus and uses the chalice of Athelstan as an interface to the technology. This allows the bus to fly through the wormhole, with the stingrays in hot pursuit. Taylor quickly closes the wormhole but not before three of the stingrays pass through it. After UNIT has shot down the stingrays and the passengers have been debriefed, Christina asks the Doctor to let her travel with him; he rejects her because he does not want to lose another companion. The characters part ways. The Doctor recommends that UNIT hire Barclay and Nathan, Christina is arrested by the police for the theft and Carmen has a premonition that visibly unnerves the Doctor: You be careful, because your song is ending, sir. It is returning, it is returning through the dark. And then Doctor... oh, but then... he will knock four times. --Carmen, "Planet of the Dead"[4] As a final act of kindness, the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to release Christina from her handcuffs. The pair part on good terms as she flies away in the bus as the Doctor enters his TARDIS and dematerialises. Production Writing and casting Ryan and Tennant reviewing the script before filming in Butetown on 28 January 2009. Russell T Davies co-wrote the episode with Gareth Roberts, the first writing partnership for the show since its 2005 revival.[5] "Planet of the Dead" was a departure from Roberts' usual stories--Roberts had previously only written pseudo-historical stories--and instead consisted of "wild" science fiction elements from his literary career and teenage imagination. The episode had no clear concept--such as Shakespeare and witches in "The Shakespeare Code" or Agatha Christie and a murder mystery in "The Unicorn and the Wasp"--and instead was a deliberate "clash [of concepts] with many disparate elements". Roberts explained he was cautious to ensure that each element had to "feel precise and defined ... like we meant that", citing the serial Arc of Infinity as an example where such control was not enforced.[6] The episode includes a common feature of Davies' writing in that there is no clear antagonist: the Tritovore are eventually sympathetic to the protagonists and the stingrays are only following their biological imperative.[7][8] 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 subsequent desire to avoid the recurring theme.[5] The starting point for the story was Roberts' first novel The Highest Science. Davies liked the image of a London Underground train on a desert planet and rewrote it to contain a bus. Davies nevertheless emphasised it was not an "adaptation as such" because tangential elements were constantly being conceived and added.[5] Michelle Ryan portrays Lady Christina de Souza, the daughter of a recently impoverished aristocrat and adrenaline junkie. Christina is a "typical" Doctor Who companion, Davies electing to draw parallels from the Time Lady Romana rather than new series companion Rose Tyler. Roberts described her as an "adventuress" who is "upper class and glam, suited and booted, and extremely intelligent" which the Doctor could relate to because they both rejected their heritages. The episode's director James Strong described the character as reverting to a traditional romantic-based companionship--rather than the platonic companionship of Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) in the fourth series--while still being a unique companion:[9] 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. --James Strong, Digital Spy interview.[9] Comedian Lee Evans plays Professor Malcolm Taylor, a UNIT scientist devoted to his predecessor, the Doctor. Davies created Evans' character to serve as a foil for Noma Dumezweni's pragmatic character Captain Erisa Magambo, who previously appeared in the episode "Turn Left".[5] Roberts noted after writing the episode that Evans' character had unintentionally become a "loving" caricature of Doctor Who fandom.[6][10] The episode was influenced by several works: Davies 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.";[11] the relationship between the Doctor and Christina was influenced by 1960s films such as Charade and Topkapi, which included Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn "being witty and sophisticated together, and then running for their lives";[5] and the Tritovore were influenced by 1950s and 1970s science fiction B-movies such as The Fly and Davies' habit of including aliens that were recognisable to the audience as animals from Earth, such as the Judoon.[7] Carmen's warning evoked memories of the Ood's warning to the Doctor and Donna in the fourth series episode "Planet of the Ood".[7] Tennant explained the prophecy meant that the Doctor's "card [had become] marked" and the three specials would thus be darker--characterising "Planet of the Dead" as the "last time the Doctor gets to have any fun"--and that the subject of the prophecy was not the obvious answer: David TennantReally, 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 GardnerAnd as we know, David, he really does knock four times.TennantYeah, absolutely, and if you think you've figured out what that means, you're wrong!GardnerBut when you do figure it out, it's a sad day. --David Tennant and Julie Gardner, Doctor Who: The Commentaries, "Planet of the Dead"[8] Filming 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 Butetown, Cardiff was used for the majority of Earth-bound scenes. 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.[12] Two weeks later, the production team was on a recce for the special and the final draft of the script was completed.[13] The production team examined overseas locations to film the episode because they wanted the scenery to feel "real" and thought that they would be unable to film on a Welsh beach in winter. 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.[14] Production began on 19 January in Wales.[2][10] The special was the first Doctor Who episode to be filmed in high-definition television resolution.[15] The move to HD had previously been resisted for two major reasons: when the show was revived in 2005, high-definition television was not adopted by an adequate portion of the audience to be financially viable; and special effects were considerably more expensive to create in high-definition than in standard-definition. "Planet of the Dead" was used to switch to HD because of the show's reduced schedule in 2009 and because the filming crew had become experienced with the equipment while they were filming Torchwood.[8] Filming began at the National Museum Cardiff,[location 1] which doubled for the history museum depicted in the episode's first scene. To portray the tunnel the bus travelled into, the Queen's Gate Tunnel of the A4232 road in Butetown[location 2] was closed for four nights to accommodate filming. The last major piece of filming in Wales took place in the closed Mir (formerly Alphasteel) steelworks in Newport,[location 3] which doubled almost unaltered for the Tritovore spaceship. Filming took place at the peak of the February 2009 Great Britain snowfall, where the sub-zero temperatures slowed filming and had a visible effect on the cast. To accommodate for the adverse conditions, Davies included a line in the script that specified that the Tritovore spaceship cooled as external temperatures increase.[8] The 200 bus--so named after the episode's landmark--in dock at Dubai City Port, after a container was accidentally dropped on it. 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.[7][16]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;[7] 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.[7][8][17][18] 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.[14] A notable use of lens flares being used in the episode for artistic effect. Strong sought to maximise--rather than minimise--effects such as these because it disguised the fact it was filmed in a studio and allowed the viewer to suspend their disbelief more easily; this specific shot was highlighted by Strong and Tennant as an example of how it was correctly utilised.[8] 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.[14] The production team then struggled to complete three days of filming in two days; the last day was compared to "filming Lawrence of Arabia".[7] To complete the episode's filming, interior scenes in the bus were filmed in a studio in Wales. To disguise the fact they were using a translite--a 360-degree background image--, Strong utilised often-avoided techniques such as muddied windows and lens flares; the latter also served to create a warmer environment for the viewer.[8] After filming ended, editing and post-processing took place until two days before transmission, leaving the BBC to resort to using an unfinished copy to market the episode.[7][8] 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 Shada, the season-long fourteen-part serial The Trial of a Time Lord, and the third series finale consisting of "Utopia", "The Sound of Drums" and "Last of the Time Lords".[19] Davies personally disagreed about counting The Trial of a Time Lord as one serial--arguing that it "felt like four stories" to him--and grouping "Utopia" with its following episodes, but agreed that it was only an opinion which did not override any others.[19] Gareth Roberts inserted a reference to the landmark--specifically, the bus number is 200[20]--and Davies emailed the show's publicity team to advertise the special as such.[19] Doctor Who Magazine's editor Tom Spilsbury aknowledged the controversy in the magazine's 407th issue, which ran a reader survey of all 200 stories.[21] EUBroadcast 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 so far. The initial showing had an Appreciation Index of 88: considered excellent.[22][23] A BBC One repeat, two days later, gained an overnight figure of 1.8 million viewers.[22] The special was therefore the second most watched programme of the day, being beaten by the premiere of the new series of Britain's Got Talent.[23] 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 ever aired on BBC HD.[24] Including repeats in the following week and viewings on the BBC iPlayer, 13.89 million viewers watched the episode in total.[25] 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--comparing her performance to be on par to her role in Bionic Woman rather than 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.[26] Charlie Jane Anders of io9 "mostly loved "Planet Of The Dead"", commenting that it was a standard Russell T Davies script that had the "elements of a cracking good story": 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. --Charlie Jane Anders, io9[27] 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 RTD 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".[27] 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".[28] 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 in between", 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".[29] DVD and Blu-Ray release "Planet of the Dead" will be released on DVD on 15 June 2009,[30] and on Blu-Ray on 29 June 2009.[31]

Doctor Who: Podshock - Episode 151
Running Time: 1:37:24

News, rumours, announcements, and feedback from: Jose, Rev. Craig Beeman, Amy Krell, Elizabeth Jackman, Benjamin Elliott, Shawn, Jill, ?, Fox Cutter (x2), Dan, Steve Small, Brian, and Chris.

Hosted by Louis Trapani, Ken Deep, and James Naughton.

Brought to you by the Gallifreyan Embassy and presented by Outpost Gallifrey.

Do you want the Enhanced Podcast AAC file format? Get our Enhanced Podcast version of this episode using our feed at http://www.gallifreyanembassy.org/podshock/podshock.xml.

Nachdem es mit dem Kochcast und den viele Gastcastern in den letzten Wochen etwas ungewohnlicher zuging, gibt es diesmal gewohntere Kost. Harald und Raphael graben sich durch den Berg an News, der sich in den letzten Wochen angesammelt hat und kommen auch nicht umher, die eine oder anderen zu kommentieren. Ausserdem gibt es viel Post von fleissigen Horern.

Nachdem es mit dem Kochcast und den viele Gastcastern in den letzten Wochen etwas ungewohnlicher zuging, gibt es diesmal gewohntere Kost. Harald und Raphael graben sich durch den Berg an News, der sich in den letzten Wochen angesammelt hat und kommen auch nicht umher, die eine oder anderen zu kommentieren. Ausserdem gibt es viel Post von fleissigen Horern.

Welcome to another Fifty Five minutes of geek action!

In our shout out section we''re joined briefly by a special guest. Barry tries his hand at Opera singing and Dave's does possibly the worst impression you've ever heard.

News: Buffy the movie with no weedon or Gellar. The end of Lying in the Gutters and the Doctor Who movie script news.

Week that was: Matrox, Channel Evil, Green Latern fan trailer, Dexter's Half Dozen, 24 Season finale, Legend of the Seeker and a non spoiler review of Terminator Salvation.

Main: We report back from the MCM London Expo.

Enjoy!

Welcome to another Fifty Five minutes of geek action!

In our shout out section we''re joined briefly by a special guest. Barry tries his hand at Opera singing and Dave's does possibly the worst impression you've ever heard.

News: Buffy the movie with no weedon or Gellar. The end of Lying in the Gutters and the Doctor Who movie script news.

Week that was: Matrox, Channel Evil, Green Latern fan trailer, Dexter's Half Dozen, 24 Season finale, Legend of the Seeker and a non spoiler review of Terminator Salvation.

Main: We report back from the MCM London Expo.

Enjoy!

Join Rula as she makes an extra special appeal on behalf of UNICEF and Neil Perryman's Kilimanjaro Climb.

In the third of these infequent specials Barry and Heath take a look at the Blu Ray version of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

There's discussion over the upcoming video game and it;s lack of appearance on the 360 and the PS3. They also ponder over the failure of the Indy merchandise from the fourth film and the future of the franchise.

In the last section the lads open up the mailbag and tackle some questions sent in by listeners.

Enjoy