Planet of the Dead (TV story): Difference between revisions

The police are still after Christina, since they know she has stolen the Cup of Athelstan, but whilst chasing the bus through a tunnel, the police witness it disappear in front of their eyes; startled, they set a perimeter around the area. Meanwhile, the bus passes through a warp into a world covered in desert: planet San Helios, apparently completely deserted. The bus is wrecked in the process. By the time it arrives at the planet the driver proclaims it unmovable. The Doctor tells the passengers that the bus has passed through a wormhole into a different world, proving this to them by throwing a handful of sand into the space behind the bus. The sand causes a rippling effect in the air. The Doctor says that the other end of the wormhole was in the tunnel on Earth. Among the passengers is Carmen, who has been hearing mysterious voices since Christina got on. The bus driver announces his desire to return to Earth, and promptly run through the wormhole accompanied by The Doctor's "No, wait!". The other passengers of the bus witness the driver's skin and tissues melting, before he disappears into the wormhole with the same rippling effect as the sand.  

Meanwhile, The Doctor explains to the passengers of the bus that the metal of the bus had protected them from the same fate as the driver (like a [[wikipedia:Faraday cage|Faraday cage]], as Christina states). The Doctor then attempts to call someone on Earth and gets in touch with UNIT at the tunnel. Speaking to Captain Magambo, the Doctor informs her of the crisis and speaks to UNIT's scientific advisor, Malcolm Taylor. They all set to digging the bus wheels out from the sand to try and enable them to move it back into the wormhole. The Doctor and Christina set off to explore the area, and find that there is what looks like a massive sandstorm sweeping across the planet. They are then found and captured by a fly-like alien (later known to be a Tritovore). The Doctor and Cristina are escorted to the Tritovore's crashed ship, where the Tritovore blame the Doctor for their crashed ship. The Doctor soon explains to the two Tritovores that they mean them no harm, and are trapped on the planet just as they are. The Tritovores in turn tell them their ship has crashed on the surface of the planet where they wanted to trade with the people of the world. The Doctor, though, claims that the entire planet became a desert last year, with all 100 billion inhabitants. The Doctor then asks them to send a probe out to invesigate a 'storm' (later revealed to be a swarm of what UNIT calls alien stingrays). It send back results, showing that the storm is a swarm of billions of carnivorous stingray-like aliens, before the transmission is cut off by the probe being eaten by one of the alien stingrays. The Doctor then analyzes the alien physique by the data they get and theorizes that they must be creating the wormhole effect, by their velocity and physiology buildup, and are immune to the effects of the Wormhole because their exoskeletons are metal. The Tritovores and the Doctor plan to get away from the planet before the swarm hits their general area, and need to get the crystal power source that makes the Tritovorian ship fly. The Doctor and the two aliens try to bring up the source manually, but the entire system is nonresponsive, lacking power. Christina, in the meantime, prepares her cat burgling equipment, and lines down the shaft. The Doctor stops her just in time before she gets diced in a security grid. After disabling it, she makes her way slowly down the shaft. The doctor tells her about himself, and some of the places he's been, including the Court of Athelstan, but he didn't remember her being there, pulling the Cup of Athelstan out of her bag. He realises that she's a thief, and she says she prefers to say she liberates things. While getting the crystal and the brackets she sees a stingray waking behind some metal poles, and the Doctor tells her that her body heat is defrosting it, and allowing it to wake. He brings her back up. She replies she has that effect on men. Many had flown into the ship's mainframe, and that is what crashed it, he says, like birds into a jet engine. The alien stingray which was down in the shaft next to Christina gives chase, getting fried in the security grid as she turns it back on on the way up. As they run away with the Tritovores out of the ship another stingray jumps down from above and grabs one of the Tritovores, the other, in rage, prepares to fire its weapon at the Stingray but it fails, and dies as well. The Doctor and Christina run to the bus, and after throwing away the crystal, the Doctor attaches 4 Tritovorian gravity grips onto the wheels, and uses the 5th to interface the bus steering wheel with the Tritovorian technology. However, it doesn't work. He needs something soft and malleable, suggesting gold. Christina says "I hate you", and "be careful with it". After she hands him the Cup of Athelstan, she gives him a hammer upon request, and he smashes it to bits so it fits between the bus wheel and the anti-gravity clamp controller. The bus then lifts out of the sand and into the air, flying back through the wormhole to Earth. Christina then passionately kisses the Doctor.