10 Doctor Who Behind The Scenes Secrets You Need To Know
Uncovering some of Doctor Who's most intriguing behind the scenes secrets.
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00:00As with any storied entertainment franchise, there are so many
00:03fascinating things to find out about the making of Doctor Who.
00:06It's like Wester Drumlins or Gabriel Chase, a creaky old house
00:10full of secrets just waiting to be uncovered.
00:13So, let's uncover some.
00:14I'm Ellie for WhoCulture here with 10 Doctor Who
00:17behind-the-scenes secrets you need to know.
00:19Number 10. Code names keep things quiet.
00:22Doctor Who is one of the most scrutinised shows in the world,
00:25and both the press and fans alike want to know what the next
00:28big scoop is going to be.
00:29So, certain measures are taken to keep things hush-hush,
00:32including a tactic the Doctor themselves would be proud of.
00:35Fake names.
00:36Before the Twelfth Doctor's new companion, Bill Potts,
00:39was officially revealed, the role was known as Mean Town
00:42behind the scenes.
00:43That's an anagram of ten women, as Bill was the tenth companion
00:46of the tenth modern series.
00:48Sneaky.
00:49Jenna Coleman and Karen Gillan had to tell their family and
00:51friends they were auditioning for shows called Men on Waves
00:54and Panic Moon, respectively.
00:56Men on Waves is an anagram of Woman 7, since Coleman was
01:00auditioning for Series 7, and Panic Moon is the word
01:03companion scrambled up.
01:04Meanwhile, the code name for current Doctor Who filming
01:07is reportedly The Bridge.
01:09And if you think all of this is ridiculous, then just remember
01:11that this is a show that made an entire spin-off based on an anagram.
01:15Number 9. The Candyman vs Bertie Bassett.
01:18The Candyman was an android made of candy.
01:20And not even the good stuff either.
01:22Licorice all sorts.
01:24They're disgusting.
01:25Can you give us a robot made of gummy bears?
01:26Now then, we'll talk.
01:28Licorice all sorts?
01:29Really?
01:29In the seventh Doctor cereal, The Happiness Patrol, the TARDIS
01:32drops in on a society where sadness is punishable by death.
01:35The Candyman adds to this subversion as he may look sweet
01:38on the outside, but he's actually an unstoppable killing
01:41machine.
01:41Well, unless you have some lemonade handy.
01:43In reality, he was defeated by a much more terrifying prospect.
01:46A lawsuit.
01:47After part two of the cereal went out, the show got a letter
01:50from H.B. Stokes, chairman of confectionery company Bassett's.
01:54Stokes pointed out that the Candyman bore a striking resemblance
01:57to his company's mascot, Bertie Bassett, who was also an
02:00anthropomorphised pile of sweets.
02:02Even though Doctor Who was cleared by the BBC copyright
02:05department, it was promised that the Candyman would never
02:07appear in the show again.
02:08So for those of us who've been gunning for his return since
02:112005, unfortunately, we're out of luck.
02:14Genuinely, I'd love to see the Candyman return.
02:16Number 8. Not everything is an original creation.
02:20Doctor Who has utilised so many props and costume pieces
02:23over the decades, but did you know that many of them actually
02:26belonged to the actors?
02:27The third Doctor's weird hovercraft car, the Whomobile, wasn't
02:30built by the props department.
02:32It was brought in by John Pertwee, who had personally commissioned
02:35it himself.
02:36It was also Pertwee who gave it the name Whomobile.
02:38Oh, we love you, John, but maybe stick to the acting, eh?
02:41Though not nearly as impressive as having an entire car built,
02:44David Tennant also brought his own possessions to the character.
02:47The 10th Doctor's iconic Converse shoes were Tennant's idea,
02:50and for the first few episodes, he wore his own pair.
02:52This is why they look so battered.
02:54He'd been using them for years already.
02:56Best of all, though, is the 12th Doctor's ring.
02:58Peter Capaldi didn't want to remove his wedding band during
03:01filming, and so a special prop ring was created to cover his
03:04band while in character.
03:06Now, in-universe, the ring contains a stone of green amber from
03:09the planet Raxacorocophallopatorius, which I know full well has
03:12been put in my script because they wanted to catch me out, so
03:15ha-ha, said it first time.
03:16And it's said to remind the Doctor of all the wars that he has
03:19won, but also all the lives that he has taken.
03:227. The TV Movie's A-List Aspirations
03:25The 1996 TV movie is an odd thing.
03:28It was an American co-production, which is strange enough for
03:30Doctor Who.
03:31It went through so many iterations during development,
03:33including one where the Doctor and the Master were half-brothers,
03:36and Barusa was the Doctor's Gramps.
03:38Fair enough.
03:39At points, it was also aiming to be much more of a blockbuster
03:42event than it ended up being.
03:44This is largely down to some of the insane A-list names
03:46Philip Segal and Peter Wagg, the project's original spearheads,
03:50had considered to star in and direct this new era of Doctor
03:53Who. Hollywood heavyweights like Ralph Fiennes, Hugh Grant,
03:56Sean Bean, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, and Pierce Brosnan,
03:59yep, James Bond himself, were all thrown around as potential
04:02Doctor candidates in the early stages.
04:04Some would, of course, go on to appear in Doctor Who further
04:07down the line, like McKellen as the voice of the Great Intelligence
04:10opposite Matt Smith.
04:11Meanwhile, Wagg shortlisted some big-name directors for the
04:14project, including Alien and Blade Runner's Ridley Scott,
04:17Gremlins' Joe Dante, and Star Trek 3 and 4 director Leonard
04:22Nimoy. So hang on, let me get this straight.
04:23This means that there's a timeline where we got a Doctor Who
04:26movie starring Picard and directed by Spock.
04:29Just imagine it!
04:29Number six, the sounds of time and space.
04:32There are just as many legendary sound effects in Doctor Who
04:35as there are heroes, villains, and planets.
04:37But how do they all get made? That beautiful weesh woosh that
04:40has started so many great adventures over the years, also
04:43known as the sound of the TARDIS materialising, was created
04:46by scraping a key along a piano wire.
04:51This master stroke was the idea of Brian Hodgson, who came
04:55up with many of the early sound effects for Doctor Who, including
04:58the voice of the Daleks. Hodgson had previously worked on a
05:00children's radio show where he'd voiced a robot butler using
05:04a ring modulation system.
05:05When the time came for the Doctor's greatest enemies to speak,
05:08he reused this technique and instructed voice artist Peter
05:11Hawkins to give a monotone delivery, and thus TV history was
05:15made. Hodgson used all sorts of unusual things to create the
05:18Doctor Who soundscape. One rumour goes that he got the roar
05:20of a Yeti from a flushing toilet, which may be a myth, but it's
05:23also a really funny myth.
05:24Number five, actor reuse goes deeper than you realise.
05:28We all know that Doctor Who likes to reuse actors.
05:30Prima Adjiman in Army of Ghosts, David Bradley in Dinosaurs
05:34on a Spaceship, hell, Fires of Pompeii has both a future
05:36Doctor and future companion in it. Big names aside though,
05:39this happens way more than you think, and it's so sneaky that
05:43you probably didn't even realise they were doing it.
05:45Remember All Ears Alan from Fugitive of the Jadoon, the nosy
05:48barista who fancies Ruth? Well, Michael Begley, I apologise,
05:52I don't know how to say his name. But the actor who plays him
05:55had previously portrayed the pirate Mulligan in The Curse of
05:58the Black Spot. Mark Dexter, who played Cal's dad in the
06:01Library 2 parter, turned up 12 years later in Spyfall Part 2
06:04as Victorian inventor Charles Babbage. Both Prem from Demons
06:07of the Punjab and the PE teacher from the God Complex previously
06:10appeared in TARDIS So 12, yeah, remember those? A prelude to
06:14Army of Ghosts, and then there's the curious case of Lara
06:17Philippard. The young Lara not only played a member of the
06:19extended Connolly family in The Idiot's Lantern, but she
06:23also appeared in a main role in the Torchwood episode
06:25Small Worlds as a girl obsessed with fairies. Serious brownie
06:29points if you spotted that one. And I'm fairly certain there
06:31are plenty more, so let us know if you spotted any more in
06:34the comments down below. Number 4. Fake cast members help
06:37maintain surprises. When they aren't making their actors
06:40play 17 different characters at once, the Doctor Who team
06:43are changing their names to prevent spoilers. In the days
06:45of Classic Who, publications like the Radio Times were the
06:48primary source of information about upcoming episodes. So
06:52not wanting to reveal that Davros was back in 1988's
06:55Remembrance of the Daleks, the BBC provided a cast list for
06:58the magazine which contained Roy Tromeli, an anagram of Davros
07:02actor Terry Molloy. The character most affected by this
07:05practice is the Master, which makes sense as they've made
07:07more random appearances over the years than Stan Lee in
07:10the MCU. Fifth Doctor serial The King's Demons reportedly
07:13starred someone called James Stoker, an anagram of Master's
07:17Joke, a cheeky way to obscure the fact that the Master was
07:20set to appear. This also happened with Castrovalva, where
07:23the Master's disguise, Portreeve, was credited as being
07:26played by Neil Toine, a codename for Master actor Tony
07:30Ainley. More recently, the Series 12 finale cast list contained
07:34a character called Fackout, played by Barak Stemmis, which
07:37when rearranged, spells Master is back. That one wasn't
07:40quite as sneaky as the rest. Number three, most Weeping
07:43Angels aren't props. The Weeping Angels aren't just a genius
07:46monster design, they're also an absolute godsend for the
07:49Doctor Who casting department. Monsters that are rarely shown
07:52moving and take the form of a bunch of generic statues?
07:54Perfect! Who needs extras when you can just replace them
07:57with props? Sure, the unions might have a thing or two to
08:00say about that, but, sorry, what's that? The Angels are
08:02barely ever props? What the hell? In a commentary for his
08:05episode Blink, writer Stephen Moffat revealed that just two
08:08of the Angels seen in the episode were fake. The rest of
08:10them were played by actual actors who had to master the
08:13art of standing still and looking menacing. After this
08:16first go, it made sense for even more actors to be hired
08:19for the Angels' next appearance in Series 5, as there were
08:22more of them on screen, and they actually got to move on
08:24camera this time. According to some of the extras in The
08:27Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone, the rubber Angel suits
08:29were actually quite comfortable, although they may have
08:32just been saying that so they didn't hurt anyone's feelings,
08:34let's be honest. Number two, doctors aren't paid as much as
08:37you think. When you take on the role of Doctor Who, you
08:40don't do it for the money. You do it to be part of an
08:42institution, to etch your name into the history books, and
08:45to be an inspiration to millions everywhere as a beacon
08:48of hope and morality in a cruel and depressive world, but
08:51also the money. When William Hartnell took on the role of
08:53the first Doctor, TV stars weren't the same glamorous
08:56celebrities they are today, and as a result, he was earning
08:59a salary of £315 per episode by 1966, around
09:04£7,000 today. That's barely enough to keep him in his
09:06fancy neckties. Meanwhile, many years into the future,
09:09Peter Capaldi's earnings were between £200,000 and
09:13£250,000 towards the end of his run. Now, that may
09:16sound like a lot, but when you consider that Danny Dyer
09:19got a similar amount for being in EastEnders, it doesn't
09:21look quite as flashy. And when Jodie Whittaker was revealed
09:24as Capaldi's replacement, it was announced that she would
09:26be earning the same amount as her predecessor. And while
09:29this was great news for gender equality, you can't help
09:32but wonder if Jodie was kicking herself for not trying
09:34her luck in Albert Square.
09:35Number 1. The first Regeneration was an accident.
09:38Regeneration might have looked a lot different, were it
09:41not for a bit of luck in the BBC tech department. You all
09:44know the story by now, William Hartnell's health was
09:46declining, so the showrunners came up with a genius way
09:48of replacing him without killing off the main character.
09:51In a now legendary scene, Hartnell collapsed to the floor,
09:54and his face slowly faded away to be replaced by Patrick
09:56Troughton's. This effect was the result of a faulty mixing
09:59desk, which caused whichever images were passing through
10:02it to become overexposed. Vision mixer Shirley Coward
10:05thought that creating a whiteout would be a great way to
10:08hide the transition between the actors, and that's precisely
10:11what happened. Thank God she said something, because the
10:13initial plan for this scene was... well, let's be kind and
10:16just say it was not as good. Originally, Hartnell was supposed
10:19to fall down with his cloak covering his face, which would
10:22have been then the end of his doctor. And next time, the
10:25cloak would be removed to reveal Troughton. I wonder how
10:27my generation would have looked if hoods and cloaks were
10:30the chosen transition device. Hmm. Interesting.
10:33And there you have it, but if you want some more secrets,
10:35then why not check out Secrets of the Sonic Screwdriver?
10:38In the meantime, I've been Ellie for WhoCulture, and in
10:40the words of River Song herself, goodbye, sweeties.