The Doctor has many powerful abilities, but keying out green screen clearly isn't one of them.
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00:00 Like most movies and TV shows, Doctor Who is no stranger to production goofs, and the
00:04 last 17 years of time travelling has been littered with them.
00:08 On the plus side, though, most mistakes blend into the background when you're watching
00:12 an episode normally, so unless you're some sort of advanced Cyberman who can analyse
00:16 footage frame by frame in real time, there's a good chance you haven't even noticed the
00:20 vast majority of them.
00:22 And so, with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with WhoCulture, here with 10 hilarious Doctor
00:26 Who mistakes you definitely didn't notice.
00:28 10.
00:31 Big Ben's gone wibbly in Aliens of London
00:34 In the early years of the 2005 revival, Doctor Who was knocking out 14 episodes per year,
00:40 quite a feat considering how much work went into each one.
00:43 With a single episode potentially taking two weeks to shoot, that's half a year of pure
00:47 filming - not even factoring in the writing, special effects work, scoring and promotion.
00:51 It was an absolutely hectic schedule, so it's no surprise that there were miscommunications
00:56 from time to time.
00:57 One such miscommunication led to this odd mistake in Series 1's Aliens of London,
01:01 with a shot of Big Ben's clock face, which is then shattered by the wing of a spaceship,
01:06 having been flipped so that the numbers are on the wrong side.
01:09 In behind the scenes footage, Mike Tucker, who oversaw the model work for the episode,
01:13 explains that his team was initially told that the left wing of the ship would smash
01:17 through the clock, so that's how they filmed it, but during post-production, this was changed
01:21 to the right wing, so the shot had to be flipped.
01:24 On the plus side, this moment is so fast that it's not a blindingly obvious gaffe.
01:28 Even Tucker himself admits he didn't notice it until one of his repeat viewings.
01:32 9.
01:33 The Suspicious Truck in Human Nature
01:36 One of the most famous movie mistakes of all time is the sight of a car cruising through
01:40 the background in The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring, technology that obviously
01:45 shouldn't exist in the comparatively primitive Middle Earth.
01:47 A similar mistake occurred in Series 3 of Doctor Who, but instead of a car, it was a
01:51 truck, and instead of Middle Earth, it was 1913 England.
01:55 In the episode "Human Nature", there's a scene where the Farringham School boys are
01:59 outside at shooting practice, and Timothy Latimer is reprimanded for his half-hearted
02:03 efforts.
02:04 This scene opens with a shot of the boys' targets, and at the top of the frame, a suspiciously
02:08 modern-looking white truck drives across the screen in the distant background, visible
02:12 for a good few seconds before the shot cuts away.
02:15 It's nothing that will take you out of the episode, because it's quite hard to spot
02:18 on a normal viewing, but it's a clear anachronism considering that heavy vehicles wouldn't
02:23 have looked anything like this a century ago.
02:26 8.
02:27 Moffat misquotes The Doctor in Listen
02:30 Modern Who is full of nods to the classic years, in no small part because all three
02:34 showrunners - Russell T. Davies, Stephen Moffat, and Chris Chibnall - watched the show as kids
02:38 and grew up absolutely adoring it.
02:41 One of the best of these nods occurs in the Series 8 Moffat episode "Listen", where
02:45 Clara comfors a terrified young Doctor by telling him "Fear makes companions of us
02:49 all", which is a callback to a similar line uttered by the first Doctor.
02:53 We say "similar" because Moffat actually got the line wrong, something he acknowledged
02:57 himself during a 2020 watch-along of the episode, stating, "In fact, I misquoted the line.
03:03 Hartmull says 'of all of us' and Jenner says 'of us all'.
03:06 Knew it was wrong but couldn't let go of the way I'd misremembered it for so long.
03:10 Drunk with power, I was."
03:12 As Moffat states, the line is actually "Fear makes companions of all of us", which the
03:16 first Doctor tells companion Barbara in "An Unearthly Child", the very first Doctor serial
03:21 broadcast in 1963.
03:23 This is such a small detail, though, and it's easy to overlook.
03:26 Moffat, you're forgiven.
03:28 Number 7 - Semi-invisible Ood in "The Waters of Mars"
03:32 This one is absolutely bizarre.
03:34 The Waters of Mars ends with the Tenth Doctor saving the doomed crew members of Bowie Base
03:38 One, taking time into his own hands.
03:41 Coming to Earth and realising he's gone too far, the Doctor has a bit of a meltdown, which
03:45 is accompanied by a vision of his old pal, Ood Sigma.
03:48 Sigma soon fades away, and the Doctor leaves, heading towards his date with the Four Knocks.
03:53 The mistake can be seen when Sigma disappears.
03:55 Obviously, in real life, he didn't actually fade away like a ghost - the actor simply
03:59 exited stage right, and the camera carried on taping.
04:01 And how do we know this?
04:03 Because for a few brief frames, you can actually see the actor walking out of the shot.
04:07 Keep your eyes on the left-hand side of the screen when Sigma disappears.
04:11 The snow makes it difficult to spot, but he's definitely there, and it's pretty damn funny
04:15 when you do manage to notice him.
04:17 Number 6 - Wrong TARDIS in "The Time of Angels"
04:21 The reveal of the Eleventh Doctor's new TARDIS exterior was a big moment in the eleventh
04:25 hour, so it was hugely surprising when, just a few episodes later, that exterior had reverted
04:31 back to its previous look.
04:32 Early on in "The Time of Angels", Eleven and Amy race to rescue River Song, who's
04:36 got herself in a spot of trouble.
04:38 River being River, she's jumped out of a spaceship, hoping the Doctor will catch her
04:42 before she floats off into the void of space.
04:44 Her faith is rewarded, of course, but hang on, what's up with the TARDIS?
04:48 Why does it look different?
04:49 Well, because it's the wrong one.
04:51 A special effects screw-up resulted in the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS materialising in space
04:55 here instead of the Eleventh Doctor's.
04:57 Whoops.
04:58 Then, showrunner Moffat actually mentions this on the episode's commentary track, which
05:02 also features Karen Gillan, where he claims that he doesn't know whose fault the mistake
05:06 was.
05:07 And that Ten did not want to go.
05:09 Number 5 - Boomtown in "A Christmas Carol"
05:13 Is it even a proper mistakes list without a crew member caught in the shot entry?
05:17 Continuing with series 5, because no matter how much the BBC's Blu-ray releases get
05:22 it wrong, Christmas specials are part of the series they come after, "A Christmas Carol"
05:26 is our unfortunate victim here.
05:28 During the scene set in 1952 California, young Kazran and Abigail have a ridiculously long
05:33 snogging session while the Eleventh Doctor wanders off to get married to Marilyn Monroe.
05:38 As you do.
05:39 The Doctor enters the scene by clambering over a small wall, and right as he hoists
05:42 himself up, you can make out the end of a boom mic accidentally slipping into frame
05:47 above Matt Smith's head.
05:48 You can almost see the boom and camera guys hurriedly try to match Smith's speedy movements,
05:52 and though the camera guy gets away with it, the boom guy evidently wasn't so lucky.
05:57 Number 4 - Crazy credits in "Legend of the Sea Devils"
06:01 Legend of the Sea Devils was a disappointing episode overall.
06:05 The most exciting thing about it was that "Next Time" trailer, but considering the
06:08 mediocre standards set by Chris Chibnall's first two specials of the year, there's a
06:12 strong chance that the centenary special will also be a crushing disappointment.
06:16 Hell even Legend of the Sea Devils' credits weren't up to snuff, as noticed by eagle-eyed
06:20 fans who spotted that Malcolm Hulk, the man who created the Sea Devils back in the 1970s,
06:25 had his name misspelt.
06:27 Now to be fair, there are so many names to type out here, so mistakes like this can happen.
06:31 It's actually surprising they don't happen more often.
06:33 But at the same time, it's not a good look considering Hulk is such a vital part of Hulk's
06:38 history, having created the Cylurians and the Time Lords as well as the Sea Devils.
06:42 A similar case of weird credits can be found in series 6's "A Good Man Goes to War",
06:47 where Russell T Davies is listed as the creator of the Ood, and oh look, Malcolm Hulk is spelled
06:51 correctly here.
06:52 The weird thing about this is that the episode doesn't actually contain any Ood.
06:56 After shuffling out of shot in the waters of Mars, Ood Sigma was meant to feature in
07:00 this episode, but his scene was cut from the final edit.
07:04 3.
07:05 Green Screen Gaff in Midnight
07:08 One of the great things about Doctor Who is that it doesn't over-rely on CGI.
07:12 Many of the show's monsters and environments are digital, sure, but many more of them are
07:16 done practically, and it's tough to beat the immersion of a convincingly done alien
07:20 mask or a scene that's clearly shot on location, usually in a quarry.
07:24 At the same time, though, a lot of the show's CGI is also very well done, especially in
07:29 recent years.
07:30 Even some older stuff, like those stunning shots of the sun in series 3's "42",
07:34 still holds up today.
07:36 However, in series 4's "Midnight", the CGI couldn't even be bothered showing up,
07:40 let alone presenting itself in a suitable manner.
07:42 Right before the title sequence kicks in, the Tenth Doctor tries and fails to convince
07:46 Donna to join him on his tour of the titular planet.
07:49 As he hangs up the phone, the camera pushes in, and behind him, a huge chunk of green
07:53 screen is visible for a good couple of seconds.
07:56 Clearly someone forgot to key it out.
07:57 It's one of those "how did I miss that" mistakes you'll never be able to unsee.
08:01 In fact, admittedly, even we only spotted it during a 2020 rewatch.
08:05 But it adds a funny distraction to what was supposed to be an ominous end to this cold
08:10 open.
08:11 2.
08:12 Cable Chaos in Partners in Crime
08:15 Partners in Crime is such a wonderful feel-good episode that its flaws are easy to overlook.
08:19 Although this one's quite a biggie, so it may bug you on rewatches.
08:22 Poor Donna Noble is thrown in at the deep end from the second she tracks down the Tenth
08:26 Doctor, with Miss Foster and her gun-toting goons chasing the pair onto the roof of a
08:31 building, forcing them to escape in a window-cleaning cradle.
08:34 This plan goes well at first, until Miss Foster uses her sonic device to destroy one of the
08:38 cradle's cables.
08:39 Now, this is the left cable when looking at the building, or the right cable from Miss
08:43 Foster's perspective.
08:44 However, that's not the cable she cuts, as can be seen a few seconds earlier when she
08:49 aims her sonic at the opposite side of the cradle.
08:52 This is one of the biggest continuity errors in modern Who, and you have to wonder if it
08:55 could have been avoided by flipping certain shots, as was the case with Big Ben.
09:00 Hilariously, writer and then showrunner Russell T Davies points this mistake out on the episode's
09:04 commentary track, resulting in director James Strong feeling rather embarrassed.
09:09 1.
09:10 Pointless Sacrifice in The Almost People
09:13 The entire purpose of Series 6's The Rebel Flesh and The Almost People was for the Eleventh
09:18 Doctor to prove that flesh avatars weren't all that dissimilar to real people.
09:22 He successfully accomplishes this task, and in the end, even Amy Pond can't tell the
09:26 difference between the two versions of the Doctor she's been working with throughout
09:29 the story.
09:30 This culminates in the flesh Doctor sacrificing himself so the others can escape, while the
09:34 real Doctor uses the information he's gathered to begin his rescue of the recently kidnapped
09:39 Amy.
09:40 As it turns out, though, the flesh Doctor needn't have sacrificed himself at all,
09:43 because a baffling mistake left him with an easy escape route.
09:46 In the bowels of the monastery, the real Doctor flies off in the TARDIS, leaving the flesh
09:51 Doctor to die while taking down the monstrous Jennifer.
09:54 But hang on a second.
09:55 When Fleshy Doc opens the door to meet his fate, we can clearly see that the TARDIS is
09:59 still there behind him, even though we saw it dematerialise around 15 seconds before.
10:05 And that concludes our list.
10:06 If you can think of any that we missed, then do let us know in the comments below.
10:09 And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification
10:12 bell.
10:13 Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there @whoculture, and I can be found across various
10:17 social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
10:19 I've been Ellie with Who Culture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye,
10:23 sweeties.
10:24 [MUSIC PLAYING]