<P> 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 . The production team then struggled to complete three days of filming in two days; the last day was compared to "filming Lawrence of Arabia". 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 . 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 . </P> <P> "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". 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 . Gareth Roberts inserted a reference to the landmark--specifically, the bus number is 200--and Davies emailed the show's publicity team to advertise the special as such . Doctor Who Magazine's editor Tom Spilsbury acknowledged the controversy in the magazine's 407th issue, which ran a reader survey of all 200 stories . </P> <P> 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 at that time . The initial showing had an Appreciation Index of 88: considered excellent . A BBC One repeat, two days later, gained an overnight figure of 1.8 million viewers . The special was therefore the second most watched programme of the day, beaten only by the premiere of the new series of Britain's Got Talent . 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 aired on BBC HD at that time . Including repeats in the following week and viewings on the BBC iPlayer, 13.89 million viewers watched the episode in total . </P> <P> 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 . </P>

Dr who planet of the dead full episode