Satellite 5

Satellite 5 (also known as Gamestation) is a major location in the 2005 series of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. In the series, it is first seen in the year 200,000 and is the main setting for the episode "The Long Game". It reappears six episodes later in the two-part series finale consisting of the episodes "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways". These episodes are set 100 years later.[1] Satellite 5 is a long orbiting space station which appears to have artificial gravity generated through centripetal force and inertia by rings rotating around it.

Satellite 5 and its reporters

The news station Satellite 5 is part of the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire, and has five-hundred floors, along with floor 0.[2] Some of the upper floors are entirely abandoned due to the Editor keeping the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe hidden. The people who work on Satellite 5 are marooned there forever, never allowed to leave. To work for Satellite 5, the people must have a computer chip inserted into their head so they can interact with the computers of the system. The reporters who travel around for Satellite 5 have all of the information partly stored in their heads until it is time to process.

To process information on Satellite 5, all the reporters place their hands onto a computer. Whilst one main reporter, whose head is opened up by a special chip, sits in the center, all the information is drained from the reporters into the head of the main reporter and processed into one central information storage unit. The reporters forget everything, since the data is not copied, but moved from their minds.

Appearances

"The Long Game"

In "The Long Game" the Ninth Doctor, Rose and Adam arrive on Satellite 5 finding it as the largest human news station, with a complete archive of all available knowledge in history and mankind. However, secretly Satellite 5 is home to a creature called the Jagrafess, which is manipulating the empire.[3]

"Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways"

In "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways" the Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack arrive on Satellite 5 to find it has been transformed into a TV games station run by the mysterious Bad Wolf Corporation, in which the losers of each game appear to be vaporised.[1]

However, it is revealed the station is really only being used to provide a signal beam to hide a Dalek fleet and that the contestants are actually sent by transmat to the Dalek ships, where they can be transformed into Daleks. After the Doctor reveals the Daleks' presence, they invade the station and the planet below, massacring everyone who has not been evacuated. The final confrontation, where Rose destroys the Dalek fleet using the energy from the heart of the TARDIS, takes place there as well. The Doctor draws out the power to save her, but regenerates due to this.[2]

It is later referred to in Utopia, when Jack confronts the Tenth Doctor about leaving him behind on Satellite 5, having travelled back in time using his Vortex Manipulator.

Geography

The Game Station is situated above the planet Earth in 200,100. At this point in time, Earth had five moons, was covered in mega-cities, and was the centre-point of the "Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire", spanning a million planets and a million species.

Usages

The Game Station (formerly Satellite 5) was used for broadcasting reality television for the entertainment of the people of Earth in the year 200,100. Some of the shows that were broadcast were The Weakest Link, What Not to Wear and Big Brother. However, if a contestant lost or was evicted, the contestant would be immediately executed. It was later revealed that the disintegrator beams used to kill the eliminated contestants were actually secondary teleportation beams, used to transport the human stock over to the Dalek Fleet that was hiding at the edge of the Solar System, so they could become part of the growing Dalek army.

References

  1. 1 2 "Bad Wolf". Doctor Who. Season 1. Episode 12. June 11, 2005.
  2. 1 2 "The Parting of the Ways". Doctor Who. Season 1. Episode 13. June 18, 2005.
  3. ↑ "The Long Game". Doctor Who. Season 1. Episode 7. May 7, 2005.

Bibliography

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