In 2008, whilst still at the height of his popularity as the Doctor, David Tennant announced that he was leaving the programme. He chose the evening of an awards ceremony, and was filmed whilst at Stratford-Upon-Avon, during an interval in the RSC production of Hamlet in which he had taken the leading role.
It had earlier been decided that 2009 was to be a "gap year" for Doctor Who, to allow Tennant to join the RSC. Instead of a full series, fans would be offered a limited number of one-off Specials through the year. These would now culminate in Tennant's swan-song. Not only was he leaving, Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner had also decided to move on. Producer Phil Collinson had already departed for Coronation Street.
RTD opted to co-write the Specials to help reduce his workload (Torchwood: Children of Earth having just been commissioned) and one of the writers chosen to help out was Gareth Roberts. He was one of the Virgin New Adventure authors, and for the second series in 2006 had been responsible for the on-line / mobile phone "Minisodes" which preceded each instalment.
These were discontinued when it was found that everyone was accessing them through their computer rather than on their mobiles, as had originally been intended.
For Series 3, Roberts was invited to contribute the celebrity historical The Shakespeare Code. The writer had studied and written seriously about Elizabethan literature. He had contributed a DWM Ninth Doctor comic strip based on the era, featuring the Bard's rival Robert Greene.
For Series 4 he was given another celebrity historical concerning another writer whom he admired - Agatha Christie. Roberts had also been a key contributor to The Sarah Jane Adventures - having created the Trickster and Graske characters.
Tennant's availability caused some problems with the Specials. At first there was only to be The Next Doctor, then a second Special at the end of 2009, with a third falling at Easter 2010 which would have been the regeneration story, leading directly into Steven Moffat's first series. It was thought that there would be no time for a fourth Special. Were one to be made, it was considered briefly to film it in two sections, 8 months apart. RTD was opposed to this as he worried about continuity over such a lengthy gap.
He then thought about moving the second Special forward to Hallowe'en 2009, with the third now landing at Christmas.
Once a fourth Special had finally been confirmed, it would have to be written and recorded quite quickly, in order that it could be broadcast over the Easter weekend of 2009.
Davies originally envisioned a space opera, with the TARDIS materialising in space in the the middle of a battle. This was mainly so that the Mill could get on with making CGI segments before the story had actually been finalised, to save time.
Initial discussions with RTD were leading to the use of Roberts' NA creations called the Chelonians. They had first featured in The Highest Science, and returned in Zamper and The Well-Mannered War. Chelonians were turtle-like bipeds who revelled in warfare. However, they were honour-bound not to attack anyone unprovoked. They therefore went round trying to encourage peaceable races into buying weapons, to give them an excuse for waging war against them. Though ruthless warmongers, there was a comedic element to them.
RTD liked aliens which were based on an Earth animal / human form, so Turtle People would have appealed. The series had previously featured Rhino People, Cat People and Pig People.
In the end the story featured the Tritovores, which are fly-headed beings.
Their look was inspired by The Fly - the 1958 sci-fi film, which had been remade in 1986.
Another early idea had been for a Star Trek crossover. This would have involved the most recent spin-off - ST:Enterprise - but that series was cancelled after only four years (ST:TNG, ST:DS9 and ST:Voyager had all run to seven seasons).
Thoughts then went to a Star Trek spoof, with the TARDIS materialising aboard a Starship called Endeavour.
The editor of DWM pointed out that this Special would be the 200th Doctor Who story, so the London bus which eventually featured became the No.200 service. Had they gone down the Star Trek spoof route, the ship would have been the Endeavour 200.
Once a desert setting had been agreed upon, RTD thought that it would be a great landscape against which to have a confrontation between the Doctor and the Master, who it was planned would return for the Tenth Doctor's departure.
Roberts had included the image of a London tube train in a desert in his first Chelonian novel. This inspired the inclusion of another iconic mode of London transport - the red double-decker bus.
Unfortunately Roberts went off and wrote a script which diverged wildly from the original space opera idea. The Doctor and his temporary companion - a space pilot - quickly went off to a luxury hotel, in which guests were being abducted and implanted with alien eggs (to tie in with the Easter theme).
RTD did not like this new direction and so brought forward some ideas from a story he was developing with Phil Ford, another SJA contributor.
With the temporary companion no longer going to be a space pilot, another person was needed. This turned out to be a thief named Hermione. Roberts had been developing another person called Rebecca, who was a tour guide on an open-top London bus.
Hermione eventually became the aristocratic Lady Christina. She was partly based on DC's Black Canary, as well as being inspired by the stylish heist movies Topkapi (1964) and Charade (1963).
RTD blew hot and cold on this character, at one point preferring an ordinary housewife named Eileen who was on the bus. This would later become Angela.
Someone at BBC Wales did their sums and worked out that filming in North Africa or the Middle East was feasible. The alternative would have been to fake it in a sandpit or on a number of beaches in Wales or South West England, where the weather would have posed problems. As it was, the production was seriously affected by weather in Dubai, when it was hit by a day long sandstorm.
(The image of the Swarm approaching on the horizon had been inspired by a sandstorm sequence in the 1999 adventure movie The Mummy).
Two buses were bought - one for studio at home and one to be shipped to Dubai. This famously got smashed up at the docks, so RTD had to write in extra dialogue to cover this damage, and the surviving bus had to be adapted and used more.
The foreign location was controversial, due to the Arab state's human rights record - especially its stance on homosexuality.
Back in London, Roberts had included UNIT, including the character of Captain Magambo whom he had liked in Turn Left.
This also allowed for the creation of a new Scientific Adviser - a role that might attract a decent guest star. It also allowed for various fan-pleasing references to some of the Doctor's adventures from the classic era of the show. The Captain's straight-forwardness would contrast nicely with Malcolm's comic eccentricity.
The final elements added to the story were the ones relating to the overall story arc of the Tenth Doctor's demise. The character of Carmen was given some mild paranormal abilities, allowing her to foresee his imminent fate - mentioning that his song would soon be ending (as the Ood had previously claimed) and the cryptic message "He will knock four times...".
The Easter broadcast was acknowledged only briefly by having the Doctor sitting on the bus eating a chocolate Easter egg, a piece of which he offers to Lady Christina. He also mentions having been in Judea at the time of the Biblical events.
Next time: Water, water, everywhere...
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