The Doctor has many powerful abilities, but keying out green screen clearly isn't one of them.
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00:00Like most movies and TV shows, Doctor Who is no stranger to production goofs, and the
00:04last 17 years of time-travelling has been littered with them.
00:08On the plus side, though, most mistakes blend into the background when you're watching
00:12an episode normally, so unless you're some sort of advanced Cyberman who can analyse
00:16footage frame by frame in real time, there's a good chance you haven't even noticed the
00:20vast majority of them.
00:22And so, with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with WhoCulture, here with 10 Hilarious Doctor
00:26Who Mistakes You Definitely Didn't Notice.
00:2910.
00:31Big Ben's Gone Wibbly in Aliens of London
00:34In the early years of the 2005 revival, Doctor Who was knocking out 14 episodes per year,
00:40quite a feat considering how much work went into each one.
00:43With a single episode potentially taking two weeks to shoot, that's half a year of pure
00:47filming, not even factoring in the writing, special effects work, scoring and promotion.
00:52It was an absolutely hectic schedule, so it's no surprise that there were miscommunications
00:56from time to time.
00:57One such miscommunication led to this odd mistake in Series 1's Aliens of London,
01:01with a shot of Big Ben's clock face, which is then shattered by the wing of a spaceship,
01:06having been flipped so that the numbers are on the wrong side.
01:09In behind-the-scenes footage, Mike Tucker, who oversaw the model work for the episode,
01:13explains that his team was initially told that the left wing of the ship would smash
01:17through the clock, so that's how they filmed it, but during post-production, this was changed
01:21to the right wing, so the shot had to be flipped.
01:24On the plus side, this moment is so fast that it's not a blindingly obvious gaffe.
01:28Even Tucker himself admits he didn't notice it until one of his repeat viewings.
01:329.
01:33The Suspicious Truck in Human Nature
01:37One of the most famous movie mistakes of all time is the sight of a car cruising through
01:40the background in The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring, technology that obviously
01:45shouldn't exist in the comparatively primitive Middle Earth.
01:47A similar mistake occurred in Series 3 of Doctor Who, but instead of a car, it was a
01:51truck, and instead of Middle Earth, it was 1913 England.
01:55In the episode Human Nature, there's a scene where the Farringham School boys are outside
01:59at shooting practice, and Timothy Latimer is reprimanded for his half-hearted efforts.
02:04This scene opens with a shot of the boys' targets, and at the top of the frame, a suspiciously
02:08modern-looking white truck drives across the screen in the distant background, visible
02:12for a good few seconds before the shot cuts away.
02:15It's nothing that will take you out of the episode, because it's quite hard to spot
02:18on a normal viewing, but it's a clear anachronism considering that heavy vehicles wouldn't
02:23have looked anything like this a century ago.
02:268.
02:27Moffat misquotes The Doctor in Listen
02:30Modern Who is full of nods to the classic years, in no small part because all three
02:34showrunners, Russell T. Davies, Stephen Moffat, and Chris Chibnall, watched the show as kids
02:39and grew up absolutely adoring it.
02:41One of the best of these nods occurs in the Series 8 Moffat episode Listen, where Clara
02:45comfers a terrified young Doctor by telling him,
02:48"'Fear makes companions of us all'", which is a callback to a similar line uttered
02:52by the first Doctor.
02:53We say similar because Moffat actually got the line wrong, something he acknowledged
02:57himself during a 2020 watch-along of the episode, stating,
03:01"'In fact, I misquoted the line.
03:03Hartmull says, "'Of all of us,' and Jenner says, "'Of us all.'"
03:06Knew it was wrong, but couldn't let go of the way I'd misremembered it for so long.
03:10Drunk with power, I was."
03:12As Moffat states, the line is actually, "'Fear makes companions of all of us,' which the
03:16first Doctor tells companion Barbara in An Unearthly Child, the very first Doctor serial
03:21broadcast in 1963."
03:23This is such a small detail, though, and it's easy to overlook.
03:26Moffat, you're forgiven.
03:28Number 7.
03:29Semi-invisible Ood in The Waters of Mars
03:32This one is absolutely bizarre.
03:34The Waters of Mars ends with the Tenth Doctor saving the doomed crew members of Bowie Base
03:38One, taking time into his own hands.
03:41Coming to Earth and realizing he's gone too far, the Doctor has a bit of a meltdown, which
03:45is accompanied by a vision of his old pal, Ood Sigma.
03:48Sigma soon fades away, and the Doctor leaves, heading towards his date with the Four Knocks.
03:53The mistake can be seen when Sigma disappears.
03:55Obviously, in real life, he didn't actually fade away like a ghost.
03:58The actor simply exited stage right, and the camera carried on taping.
04:02And how do we know this?
04:03Because for a few brief frames, you can actually see the actor walking out of the shot.
04:07Keep your eyes on the left-hand side of the screen when Sigma disappears.
04:11The snow makes it difficult to spot, but he's definitely there, and it's pretty damn funny
04:15when you do manage to notice him.
04:17Number 6.
04:18Wrong TARDIS in The Time of Angels
04:21The reveal of the Eleventh Doctor's new TARDIS exterior was a big moment in The Eleventh
04:25Hour, so it was hugely surprising when, just a few episodes later, that exterior had reverted
04:31back to its previous look.
04:32Early on in The Time of Angels, Eleven and Amy race to rescue River Song, who's got
04:36herself in a spot of trouble.
04:38Remember being River, she's jumped out of a spaceship, hoping the Doctor will catch
04:42her before she floats off into the void of space.
04:44Her faith is rewarded, of course, but hang on, what's up with the TARDIS?
04:48Why does it look different?
04:49Well, because it's the wrong one.
04:51A special effects screw-up resulted in the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS materialising in space
04:55here instead of the Eleventh Doctor's.
04:57Whoops.
04:58Then, showrunner Moffat actually mentions this on the episode's commentary track, which
05:02also features Karen Gillan, where he claims that he doesn't know whose fault the mistake
05:06was.
05:07So, 10 did not want to go.
05:09Number 5, Boomtown in A Christmas Carol
05:13Is it even a proper mistakes list without a crew member caught in the shot entry?
05:18Continuing with Series 5, because no matter how much the BBC's Blu-ray releases get it
05:22wrong, Christmas specials are part of the series they come after, A Christmas Carol
05:26is our unfortunate victim here.
05:28During the scene set in 1952 California, young Kaz Ran and Abigail have a ridiculously long
05:33snogging session while the Eleventh Doctor wanders off to get married to Marilyn Monroe.
05:38As you do.
05:39The Doctor enters the scene by clambering over a small wall, and right as he hoists
05:42himself up, you can make out the end of a boom mic accidentally slipping into frame
05:47above Matt Smith's head.
05:48You can almost see the boom and camera guys hurriedly try to match Smith's speedy movements,
05:52and though the camera guy gets away with it, the boom guy evidently wasn't so lucky.
05:57Number 4, Crazy Credits in Legend of the Sea Devils
06:01Legend of the Sea Devils was a disappointing episode overall.
06:05The most exciting thing about it was that Next Time trailer, but considering the mediocre
06:09standards set by Chris Chibnall's first two specials of the year, there's a strong
06:12chance that the Centenary special will also be a crushing disappointment.
06:16Hell, even Legend of the Sea Devils' credits weren't up to snuff, as noticed by eagle-eyed
06:20fans who spotted that Malcolm Hulk, the man who created the Sea Devils back in the 1970s,
06:25had his name misspelled.
06:26Now, to be fair, there are so many names to type out here, so mistakes like this can happen.
06:31It's actually surprising they don't happen more often, but at the same time, it's not
06:35a good look considering Hulk is such a vital part of Hulk history, having created the Silurians
06:40and the Time Lords as well as the Sea Devils.
06:42A similar case of weird credits can be found in Series 6's A Good Man Goes to War, where
06:47Russell T Davies is listed as the creator of the Ood, and oh look, Malcolm Hulk is spelled
06:52correctly here.
06:53The weird thing about this is that the episode doesn't actually contain any Ood.
06:56After shuffling out of shot in the waters of Mars, Ood Sigma was meant to feature in
07:00this episode, but his scene was cut from the final edit.
07:043.
07:05Green Screen Gaff in Midnight
07:08One of the great things about Doctor Who is that it doesn't over-rely on CGI.
07:12Many of the show's monsters and environments are digital, sure, but many more of them are
07:16done practically, and it's tough to beat the immersion of a convincingly done alien
07:20mask or a scene that's clearly shot on location, usually in a quarry.
07:24At the same time, though, a lot of the show's CGI is also very well done, especially in
07:29recent years.
07:30Even some older stuff, like those stunning shots of the sun in Series 3's 42, still
07:35holds up today.
07:36However, in Series 4's Midnight, the CGI couldn't even be bothered showing up, let
07:40alone presenting itself in a suitable manner.
07:42Right before the title sequence kicks in, the Tenth Doctor tries and fails to convince
07:46Donna to join him on his tour of the titular planet.
07:49As he hangs up the phone, the camera pushes in, and behind him, a huge chunk of green
07:53screen is visible for a good couple of seconds.
07:56Clearly someone forgot to key it out.
07:57It's one of those how-did-I-miss-that mistakes you'll never be able to unsee.
08:01In fact, admittedly, even we only spotted it during a 2020 rewatch, but it adds a funny
08:06distraction to what was supposed to be an ominous end to this cold open.
08:112.
08:12Cable Chaos in Partners in Crime
08:15Partners in Crime is such a wonderful feel-good episode that its flaws are easy to overlook,
08:19although this one's quite a biggie, so it may bug you on rewatches.
08:22Poor Donna Noble is thrown in at the deep end from the second she tracks down the Tenth
08:27Doctor, with Miss Foster and her gun-toting goons chasing the pair onto the roof of a
08:31building, forcing them to escape in a window-cleaning cradle.
08:34This plan goes well at first, until Miss Foster uses her sonic device to destroy one of the
08:38cradle's cables.
08:39Now, this is the left cable when looking at the building, or the right cable from Miss
08:43Foster's perspective.
08:44However, that's not the cable she cuts, as can be seen a few seconds earlier when
08:49she aims her sonic at the opposite side of the cradle.
08:52This is one of the biggest continuity errors in modern Who, and you have to wonder if it
08:55could have been avoided by flipping certain shots, as was the case with Big Ben.
09:00Hilariously, writer and then showrunner Russell T Davies points this mistake out on the episode's
09:04commentary track, resulting in director James Strong feeling rather embarrassed.
09:091.
09:10Pointless Sacrifice in The Almost People
09:13The entire purpose of Series 6's The Rebel Flesh and The Almost People was for the Eleventh
09:18Doctor to prove that flesh avatars weren't all that dissimilar to real people.
09:22He successfully accomplishes this task, and in the end, even Amy Pond can't tell the
09:26difference between the two versions of the Doctor she's been working with throughout
09:29the story.
09:30This culminates in the Flesh Doctor sacrificing himself so the others can escape, while the
09:34real Doctor uses the information he's gathered to begin his rescue of the recently kidnapped
09:39Amy.
09:40As it turns out, though, the Flesh Doctor needn't have sacrificed himself at all,
09:43because a baffling mistake left him with an easy escape route.
09:46In the bowels of the monastery, the real Doctor flies off in the TARDIS, leaving the Flesh
09:51Doctor to die while taking down the monstrous Jennifer.
09:54But hang on a second.
09:55When Fleshy Doc opens the door to meet his fate, we can clearly see that the TARDIS is
09:59still there behind him, even though we saw it dematerialise around 15 seconds before.
10:05And that concludes our list.
10:06If you can think of any that we missed, then do let us know in the comments below.
10:09And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
10:13Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, at WhoCulture, and I can be found across various
10:17social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
10:19I've been Ellie with WhoCulture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye, sweeties.