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After twenty minutes of walking, it was beginning to occur to Donna that this was not, in fact, a beach.
She finally stopped in the hot sand, her wide purple sun hat bouncing. “Alright, you twiggy ponce, we’ve been walking ages and I’m not seeing any water.”
“Oh?” the Doctor tugged on his ear nervously. “Wellll, technically we’ve not been walking ages, Donna, take it from someone who literally has lived through the Dark age, the Age of Rome, the Age of Carnivorous Dish Towels-”
“The wha’?!” Donna squawked.
“Ooh, right, earth hasn’t gotten to that bit-”
“DOCTOR, you promised me a blooming beach and so far I’ve not even seen the picking droppings of a seagull!”
“Beach? Did I say beach?” he coughed.
“Noooo, that’s why I’m wearing my swim gear and brought my towel, cos I thought we were going to the opera!”
The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh, come on, Donna. You said yourself you weren’t going to get very wet. There’s not that much difference between a beach and a desert, well, besides the ocean.”
“Desert? You knew we were in a DESERT and you didn’t say anything!”
“Know?! No, no, not at all!” He cleared his throat. “…Not right away, anyway. It used to be a beach, until recently, I think. I did MEAN to take you to a beach.”
“Right. You didn’t take me to this godforsaken planet to poke your nose around and figure out why all the water disappeared, then?”
“No… Well, yes… But only after I realized the beach was gone-!”
“Shut up, Spaceman,” Donna said, shoving one of her bags into his arms. “You got us stuck here, you can at least carry this til we find someplace to put it.” She threw him a small smile. “You’d better take me to a real beach after we sort all this disappearing ocean business out.”
His daft freckly face lit up and he flashed her a white grin. “Trust me, Donna, once we finish up here, you can stay at a beach for as long as you want! You’ll get to see so much beachie-ness you’ll get sick of it and never want to set eyes on a beach again!”
“That’s comforting,” Donna snorted, before looping her arm through the Doctor’s and walking down the dusty path.