Planet of the Dead is the second of five special episodes of the
British science fiction television series Doctor Who broadcast between
Christmas 2008 and New Years Day 2010. It was simultaneously broadcast
on BBC One and BBC HD on 11 April 2009. The specials served as lead
actor David Tennant's denouement as the Tenth Doctor. He is joined in
the episode by actress Michelle Ryan, who plays Lady Christina de
Souza, a one-off companion to the Doctor. The episode was co-written
by Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts, the first writing partnership
since the show's revival in 2005. "Planet of the Dead" serves as the
200th story of Doctor Who.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 Unified
Intelligence Taskforce, headed by Captain Erisa Magambo (Noma
Dumezweni) and scientific advisor Malcolm Taylor (Lee Evans), attempt
to return the bus 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 that "he will knock four
times", foreshadowing the remaining three specials."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 the bus was unintentionally damaged in Dubai by a
shipping container, Davies rewrote the script to explain the damage in
the narrative.The audience gave the episode an Appreciation Index of
88â€"considered excellent. Planet of the Dead Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter