The Problems with the Easter Doctor Who Special.

Published on 12 April 2009 in , , , , , , , , , ,

Yes there are some.

Doctor Who Easter special, and a dodgy 200 bus.

The 200 does not go anywhere near Victoria or Brixton. In fact it goes from Raynes Park to Mitcham, via Wimbledon and Colliers Wood.

The bus was a Bristol VR. As any researcher worth their salt knows, London Buses would never stoop to running a bus last manufactured in 1981. In fact most London Buses have an average age of around 6 years old! And back in the 1980s, London Buses would never have run a Bristol. No way.

And the VR is not even accessible! Every London bus is accessible. TfL mandate it.

Oh and the 200 does not go near a tunnel, yet alone through one.

Even if it was going to Victoria, not Mitcham. Cos the Blackwall Tunnel is nowhere near the route between Brixton and Victoria. And nor is the Strand Underpass. And I mock the person who’d decide to take a double decker bus into the Strand Underpass! They’d soon have no roof!

And that reminds me. The 200 is a single decker bus. Well except when London General (or “Go-ahead London London General” as their new logo suggests we call them) run out of them and bung on a double decker instead. An accessible one of course. Cos Go-ahead London London General would never put an inaccessible bus on the road. Oh no.

Oh yeah, and London bus number indicators – the thing on the front – are NEVER three different blinds used to make up a three digit number. They’re only ever a single blind with the three digit number crammed on.

And Oyster Card ticket machines just don’t look like that. Nor is the bus driver ever friendly. And where’s his safety screen? Can’t have a London bus driver going around without fifteen tonnes of plastic safely cutting him off from the public!

And just who on earth are City Roam anyway? I mean. C’mon. This is London for goodness sake. Who ever heard of a small scale, independent bus operator in a major city? I mean. It’s Thatcher’s biggest legacy, surely? The disbandment of several large scale bus operators owned by the public, so that they could be replaced by several years later by several large scale bus operators owned by shareholders.

I mean, it’s just a complete outrage.

More than that. It’s a scandal.

Do these people not do research? Is this really the state modern television is in? Where basic facts aren’t even bothered with?

It’s fakery! It’s fakery beyond belief!

I demand that the whole episode is remade! Instead of the Doctor’s rickety double decker going missing in a tunnel, he can go missing in a modern, sleek single decker, somewhere near the Tesco Metro at South Wimbledon. And UNIT can assemble near the Colliers Wood Tower. It could do with the bullets and bombs.

And if I don’t get it… Well I have no choice, other than to call for… nay, DEMAND, a complete boycott of the licence fee.

BBC fakery must die. It’s time to clean up television. This outrage cannot be allowed to continue. Have no fear. I’m not going to let this rest. I’m going straight to Number 10 on this one!

10 Comments

  • Karl says:

    Why are you taking this so seriously? Doctor Who is make-believe, so why are you taking this all so seriously? I personally didn’t think any of these things were bad. I thought Planet of the Dead was very good, so why is everyone complaining!

  • Andrew Bowden says:

    It’s serious because it’s important! We the public should not be lied to!

  • rog says:

    … and you haven’t even mentioned the registration number change halfway through

  • Andrew Bowden says:

    Now that’s conclusive proof of slipping standards!

  • Lee McKeith says:

    I think you should get out more mate, your facination with buses is teetering on the wierd. I enjoyed it, I’m not from London so everything you’ve said doesn’t mean anything to me and millions of others who don’t live in London. I thought the episode was great Easter family entertainment, remember, it is aimed at children in the main!!!

  • Required: one bus we can beat up with hammers.
    Cost of actual London bus like the ones in service: £300,000
    Cost of crappy 70s rail replacement job from the Valleys: £4,000
    Job done. “Bottle show” with a cheap prop: bodes well for scale of final eps 🙂

  • I think he might be being a LITTLE bit sarky on this. Every programme has these little slip ups. it’s fun to find them.

  • Tim says:

    I can out-anorak anyone!
    Back in the 1980s, LT did run Bristols – 112 single decker Bristol LHs (LT classes BL and BS), including on routes 201 and 202, but not the 200 because that was a double deck route back then (DMS class) .
    Surely the roof damage we saw to the VR was entirely what you would expect if it went through the Blackwall Tunnel?

  • Andrew Bowden says:

    Are you trying to say that the bus never actually went to an alien planet, but it was just some sand dumped in a tunnel under the Thames?!

  • Nik says:

    God, you are soooo sad, for noticing such small things like that!