Intergalactic oldie

Buses don't always get the best deal out of appearing on the screen. Don't get me wrong: it's great to see the bus portrayed as the hero, as this weekend's special episode of Doctor Who showed – the faithful red double decker bus on route 200 making it to the other side of the galaxy and back after falling through a wormhole in space. It's just that TV production invariably falls back on inaccurate depictions.

I can understand why that is. I'm not starting a petition to the BBC for them to spend £150k of licence fees on a brand new double decker bus, only for it to have a container dropped on it whilst in transit. Goodness, no. Production companies will end up hiring a vehicle that is surplus to requirements, because it is cheaper and more easily available. They then have a difficult job with the set dressing to try and ensure it looks modern. Much the same problems can be found with trains and planes, with stock-footage of different vehicles causing continuity nightmares.

As Omnibuses blog has already pointed out, the Bristol VR would not have seen much if any service in London. This is a minor point in the scheme of things. More worrying is that double deckers in service in London today are less than 10 years old and have low-floor access for pushchairs and wheelchairs. By comparison, the very last Bristol VR was built way back in 1981, from a design originating in 1966. The interior looked very much like it did back in the 1980s, with brown and yellow moquette and curious faux-leather corners.

To the producers at the BBC: thanks for an enjoyable episode of Doctor Who. It was fun to watch, and the planet-eating, wormhole-creating flock of metal-exoskeletoned flying-stingrays was an interesting high-level sci-fi concept. To any of the audience who haven't been on a bus for a while: modern buses are a lot brighter and more modern looking than the vintage vehicles that were required for filming – so don't let it put you off sampling your local bus route!

(To any Bristol VR fans out there: didn't she look swell flying over London?)

Image credits: BBC