Filming Doctor Who can be more dangerous than you realise...
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00:00As much as we'd love it to be real, Doctor Who is unfortunately just a TV show.
00:05It's filmed on a set, features actors, and the monsters and villains are just people in rubber suits.
00:10Sorry to break it to you.
00:11But sometimes, what goes into making a scene in real life is far more interesting than what ends up transmitted on screen.
00:18And so, with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhoCulture, here with 10 Doctor Who Scenes Even More Impressive When You Know The Truth.
00:26Number 10. Dubai Disaster
00:28With New Who on sabbatical following its fourth series, the producers could afford to push the boat out with a handful of specials in 2009.
00:36And one such special was Planet of the Dead, broadcast over the Easter period.
00:40It involved the Doctor and a bus full of people being stranded on a desert planet.
00:44As if that wasn't bad enough, they were also stalked by a pack of flying, ravenous stingrays.
00:50Public transport. What a nightmare.
00:52To achieve a more realistic feel for the episode, it was shot in Dubai.
00:55This meant transporting a double-decker London bus all the way out to the Middle East, which went about as well as could be expected.
01:02The bus was seriously damaged in transit when a container was accidentally dropped on it.
01:07After losing their minds for a while, the crew decided to simply incorporate the damage into the story, explaining that the bus was damaged when it travelled through the portal.
01:15It would have looked weird if the bus was pristine, so this accident actually improved the episode.
01:20Number 9. Manning's Mishaps
01:22Katie Manning's original stint as companion Jo Grant stretched from 1971 to 1973,
01:28and though she undoubtedly enjoyed her time on the show, it was incredibly difficult to film at times.
01:33Not because of the long hours, the techno babble, or the endless quarries, but because she could barely see where she was going.
01:39Manning suffered from extreme short-sightedness, and since she wasn't allowed to wear the thick glasses which aided her vision, she would often lose track of her surroundings.
01:48In fact, while filming her debut story, Terror of the Autons, she ran straight into a rock and twisted her ankle.
01:54In Manning's own words, this forced John Pertwee to start,
02:02The master himself, Roger Delgado, also helped Manning in a similar way.
02:06So, next time you're watching the third Doctor pull Jo around by hand, it's likely that what you're actually seeing is Pertwee taking care of his co-star.
02:14What a gent.
02:15Number 8, First Doctor Doppelganger
02:17Doctor's past, present, and future combining forces to save Gallifrey is an all-time great Doctor Who moment,
02:24especially when you think about how tricky it must have been to pull off.
02:27Finding suitable archive clips for every single Doctor, piecing all their disparate lines together to make them fit the scene,
02:34it's enough to give you a headache just thinking about it.
02:36But, as impressive as the scene is, there's one particular element that makes it even more impressive than you realise.
02:43Though most of the dialogue was indeed plucked from prior episodes, there's one notable exception.
02:48Because Gallifrey wasn't spoken on screen until the Third Doctor's era,
02:52the First Doctor's line calling the War Council of Gallifrey,
02:55This is the Doctor, wasn't possible to create with William Hartnell's voice.
02:59And with Hartnell having passed away in the 70s, he wasn't around to record it afresh.
03:04So, the production recruited voice artist John Giler,
03:07whose First Doctor impression is so uncanny that it fits seamlessly into the scene,
03:11and you never even notice that you're actually listening to an impersonator.
03:14Another fun quirk in this sequence revolves around the Seventh Doctor.
03:17Due to his footage being pulled from both his original run and the 1996 TV movie,
03:22his age, costume, and TARDIS interior inexplicably change halfway through.
03:27Wibbly wobbly, indeed.
03:31There are countless Doctor Who props with interesting stories behind them,
03:35but arguably none more so than this.
03:37Fourth Doctor serial Revenge of the Cybermen features a secret radio transmitter
03:41used by Kelman, which is disguised as a clothes brush.
03:45It's an unassuming device and you wouldn't think there's anything special about it,
03:48but this little prop had quite the journey en route to its Doctor Who role.
03:52This exact same prop was used in the James Bond film Live and Let Die,
03:56which released two years prior, but even better,
03:59it was actually given to the BBC by Roger Moore himself.
04:04The prop master offered to pay two shillings and sixpence for the item,
04:07which is around 12p today.
04:10Still, Moore gleefully accepted, telling the Radio Times that
04:13I popped into the Beeb for a cup of tea.
04:15I didn't expect to walk out with two and six.
04:17Wherever the prop is, it will undoubtedly be worth more today,
04:21especially considering that Tom Baker actually picked it up
04:24in Revenge of the Cybermen, which no doubt increased its value.
04:30Towards the end of Jodie Whittaker's final outing,
04:32The Power of the Doctor, Yaz joins a support group of former
04:35companions who share stories of their adventures through time and space.
04:39Present at the meeting are Yaz's friends, Graham and Dan,
04:42alongside seasoned veterans like Ace, Tegan, Joe, Mel, Kate and Ian.
04:47Played by William Russell, Ian appeared in the very first episode
04:50of Doctor Who back in 1963 as one of the first humans
04:54to travel back in time in the TARDIS.
04:56He left the show in 1965, making it a whopping 57 years
05:00before he returned in The Power of the Doctor.
05:02Now, we covered that 57 year hiatus in our video
05:05about the longest gaps between Doctor Who character appearances,
05:08but one detail we didn't mention, which somehow makes the scene
05:11even more impressive, is that Russell also broke the Guinness
05:14World Record for the longest gap between TV appearances.
05:18His return was truly heartwarming, as most of the other cast
05:21members from that first episode are sadly no longer around.
05:24However, Ian's still here, alive and kicking.
05:27Are we sure he isn't a real Time Lord?
05:295. Eleven grabs a bite
05:31Whenever there's a scene in a TV show that involves
05:34inflicting pain on a character, you'd rightfully assume
05:37that the entire thing was faked.
05:38But in one particular case in Doctor Who's fifth series,
05:41you'd be wrong.
05:42Amy Pond does not have a nice day out in the time of Angels
05:45and Flesh and Stone, with the dastardly Angel Bob
05:48gleefully informing the Eleventh Doctor that there's something
05:51in her eye.
05:52That something being a weeping angel.
05:54Not great.
05:55This angel sends Amy on a massive trip, with dust pouring
05:58from her eye and an ominous countdown leading to her death.
06:01At one point, it also appears to turn her hand into stone,
06:04locking her in place.
06:06Proving that it's just a trick, though, the Doctor bites
06:08her hand, and the shock of this action allows her to move it.
06:11What you probably didn't know is that Matt Smith completely
06:14and utterly bit Karen Gillan's hand in this scene,
06:17as revealed by the actress on the episode's commentary track.
06:20Her yelp of pain was completely genuine, so perhaps Smith
06:23got a bit too method here.
06:254. Having a blast
06:28Doctor Who has been around for 60 years, but it might not
06:31have lasted past 6 years if this moment from 1969's
06:34The War Games had gone differently.
06:37During a scene which required the three leads to stand
06:39near an explosion, second Doctor Patrick Troughton
06:42was unhappy with their positioning.
06:44The fact that the explosives expert on set was missing
06:46some of his fingers certainly didn't help matters.
06:49To reassure himself, Troughton asked to see a practice run
06:52of the stunt.
06:53The crew obliged, setting off the explosion, and a huge
06:56rock landed directly at the spot where the actors
06:59were supposed to stand.
07:00If the actor hadn't raised his concerns, the second
07:03iteration of The Doctor might have been the final one.
07:06Thankfully, Troughton was confident enough to speak up,
07:09and we were saved from finding out whether the actors
07:11who play the Doctor can regenerate themselves.
07:14Spoiler, probably not.
07:163. Master of Mime
07:18Catherine Tate wasn't known as a dramatic actress before
07:21Doctor Who, which caused a good amount of scepticism
07:24when she was announced in a recurring role.
07:26She soon proved the doubters wrong, of course,
07:28with several powerful, emotionally charged moments
07:30in her second episode, The Fires of Pompeii.
07:33But what wasn't a surprise was that she absolutely
07:35nailed the comedy.
07:37Her debut episode, Partners in Crime, features her funniest
07:39Doctor Who moment, with the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble
07:42communicating via mime.
07:44It seems like the sort of thing that would be meticulously
07:46planned beforehand, but that wasn't actually the case.
07:49Tate was given very little guidance on how to perform
07:52the mime, with the script simply reading,
07:54Donna does a little mime.
07:56Naturally, she asked director James Strong if he had
07:58any thoughts on the scene.
08:00He didn't.
08:02Before turning to showrunner Russell T. Davis,
08:04who wasn't much help either, responding,
08:06See what Catherine comes up with.
08:08And so Tate invented the whole thing on the day.
08:10The scene could very easily have been awkward
08:12rather than funny, so it's a testament to her comedic
08:14abilities that it turned out so well.
08:162. Wartime Wilf
08:18One of the most impactful scenes in Doctor Who
08:20has nothing to do with aliens
08:22or explosions.
08:24It's two men having a conversation,
08:26and it's brilliant.
08:28After escaping Earth following the Master's conquest
08:30of the planet, the Doctor and Wilfred Mott sit
08:32down, watching the big blue ball spin.
08:34After a heartbreaking exchange,
08:36Wilf begs the Doctor to take his old
08:38service revolver and kill the Master with it
08:40before he gets the chance to kill him.
08:42As always, the Doctor says no to the gun.
08:44During this chat, Wilf recounts his time
08:46in the military, telling the Doctor about
08:48when he was stationed in Palestine after
08:50World War II. Bernard Cribbins'
08:52delivery of these lines sounds convincing,
08:54and that's because he was actually
08:56there serving as part of a parachute
08:58regiment. Furthermore, the blizzard of
09:00bullets Wilf describes actually happened
09:02to Cribbins, who used his time
09:04in the army to inform his performance.
09:06From soldier to singer to
09:08one of the greatest companions of
09:10all time. Just another chapter
09:12in the extraordinary life of
09:14the late, great Bernard Cribbins.
09:161. A Bizarre
09:18Interruption. Like Planet
09:20of the Dead, 1984's fifth
09:22Doctor serial, Planet of Fire,
09:24was shot in an exotic location.
09:26In this case, Lanzarote, one
09:28of the Canary Islands. With less control
09:30over this location than there would be
09:32in a studio, one particular moment was
09:34interrupted in the most bizarre of circumstances.
09:36In one scene, Perry Brown,
09:38played by Nicola Bryant,
09:40nearly drowns. Bryant must have
09:42given a stellar performance because a passerby
09:44thought she was actually in trouble
09:46and tried to save her while the scene was being
09:48filmed. The man, who just so happened
09:50to be a German nudist, was kindly told
09:52that he'd ruined the shot for a very
09:54popular BBC show. Said man
09:56then decided to get some revenge by
09:58purposefully ruining more shots,
10:00and so he ran through the back of a scene set
10:02on the beach. Watching Perry almost
10:04drown is a very different experience when
10:06you know that a man with his tackle out very
10:08nearly ruined the whole thing.
10:10And that concludes our list. If you
10:12think we missed anything, then do let us know
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10:32I've been Ellie with WhoCulture,
10:34and in the words of River Song herself,
10:36goodbye, sweeties.