Ever notice how the people who start these sort of threads never come back to them once their arguments is challenged?

When RTD appeared on BBC Breakfast Tuesday morning, hs said that the final bits were completed at 11:30pm the previous evening (now, what parts of post-production that constituted he did not say).

it was a real mixed bag episode - watching in HD really showed off the desert scenes beautifully but the "london" bus looked F**K awful when it was flying - incredibly ameteurish and could probably have been done better by some 1st year school kid on an old BBC Micro!!

I don't know really - the desert scenes, in the right light, did look lovely, but there was very little going on throughout those desert sequences. I personally would have preferred a bit more cash thrown at some action or something to break up that big chunk of time rather than sitting there thinking "Oh, it's a bit boring but it looks pretty". I don't know...I'm sure they had honest enough intentions, but can't help but think they liked the idea of shooting abroad for the sake of it.

I think the New York excursion for the Dalek two parter was something that you could really point a finger at for wasting money though. Now that clearly was a piss take - filming a few little bits to throw into the episode. I don't know how many people went off for that, but I recall the Confidential episode and it seemed like there were more people about then needed (I mean to be honest - surely they could have gotten away with a producer and camera man).

I have no problem with the alien planet being filmed in Dubai. So what if if they spent licence money on it? I don't. I was impressed with the stunning scenery that looked amazing even on my non HD telly.

The bit I don't get is - why film in Dubai? Why not Tunisia, which is much nearer and most probably a lot cheaper. They would have had similar weather at that time of year.

I'm all for location shooting over CGI. but to choose Dubai seemed odd to me. It must have been hugely expensive staying locally too.

Could it be tax reasons? Jim Davidson apparently moved there for tax reasons.

Except that we don't know the answers do we - and mere conjecture will not provide the proper answers.

No idea why this thread is even still going, the question was asked and answered in the first few posts.

It was indeed shot on location, but no it was not a waste of money because it was cheaper than filming it in the UK at that time of year, and Dubia is well known for being very reasonable in terms of costs for filming.

There really is very little room for debate on this one.

Good grief. Obviously discussing these things on a forum is offensive to some fans. Let's all just accept BBC decisions and go back to our hovels.

If people want to make conjecture then so be it. It keeps DS going.

So discussions based on rumour, innuendo and unsubstantiated claims are as good as, or better (and much more productive) than those based on verifiable fact, reasonable assumptions and industry knowledge.

Well, if it works for some ........