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Doctor Who
“Planet Of The Dead” (2009)
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Thanks to some alien anti-gravity devices stuck to its wheels, a London double decker levitates out of the sand dunes (or more accurately, human remains dunes) of “The Planet Of The Dead”. But it wasn’t Doctor Who ’s first flying bus…
“Delta And The Bannermen” (1987)
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…That honour went to the Navarino Nostalgia Tours spaceship, which was cunningly disguised as a ’50 bus. Unfortunately, it had a collision with an early Earth Satellite and became stranded in Wales. Hang on, was this episode the blueprint for the whole Russell T Davies era?
“Gridlock” (2007)
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There were thousands more flying cars in “Gridlock”, and they all looked like armoured VW camper vans. They also all looked identical which may be: a) a clever in-joke referencing Henry Ford’s gag about “ Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black”, or b) a way of making things a bit easier for the CG FX team and set dressers working on a TV budget.
“Planet Of The Spiders” (1974)
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For a proper flying car in Doctor Who , you have to go all the way back to Jon Pertwee’s final story. Oddly, whenever it took off, it developed a yellow halo. Contrary to popular belief, this was not dodgy ’70s electronic effects work, but an alien anti-gravity energy field. Honest, guv. The car was actually based on a invalid tricycle, and was specially commissioned for, and owned by, Jon Pertwee.
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