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Doctor Who almost did what to Amy Pond?!
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00:00Whovians are among the most knowledgeable and passionate fans in the world, but there are some surprises that even they might be shocked by.
00:08The world of Doctor Who is far broader than what you see on TV.
00:11Like any drama, some of the juiciest stuff takes place behind the cameras, and it's those secrets that will make you view the show in a very different light.
00:19So, with that in mind, I'm Ellie with Who Culture, here with 10 Doctor Who Secrets Everyone Knows But You.
00:26Number 10. The Twin Pilots
00:28Doctor Who kicked off on the 23rd of November, 1963, with the show's first episode, An Unearthly Child.
00:35In this adventure, we meet the Doctor, played by William Hartnell, for the first time.
00:39He's part of the TARDIS in a scrapyard in England, kept company by his granddaughter, Susan.
00:44Don't ask why the Doctor has a grandchild, it's far too complex to get into that right now, alright?
00:48As pilot episodes go, An Unearthly Child did the job just fine.
00:51It introduced the characters, the premise, and the rules of the universe perfectly well.
00:55The first version, of An Unearthly Child, was deemed not good enough by the show's creator, Sidney Newman.
01:01He didn't like the way the Doctor was dressed, or how mean he was to his granddaughter,
01:04and as a result, huge chunks of it were re-filmed, and a second version was put together,
01:10with the first version not being publicly released until 1991.
01:13It does feel rather fitting, though, that a show all about regeneration actually went through a few different incarnations itself before broadcast.
01:22Number 9. The Plot Whisperer
01:24The Series 3 finale, Last of the Time Lords, features a bunch of flashback shots,
01:29which take us back to the closing moment of the previous episode, The Sound of Drums.
01:33In these shots, we see the Doctor whisper something in Martha's ear, but we don't actually hear it for ourselves.
01:38In the end, we learn that he says, use the countdown, an instruction for Martha to turn the Master's own plan against him.
01:44In reality, though, David Tennant didn't say that at all.
01:47What he actually did was whisper the entire plot of Last of the Time Lords into Frima Adjimin's ear,
01:53so that the director, who left the camera running while Tennant spoke, had a lot of footage in the can,
01:58allowing him to pick and choose which shots he wanted for the flashbacks.
02:02You'd imagine that a cheeky chappy like Tennant would whisper something mischievous into his co-star's ear,
02:06which is exactly what Alex Kingston did to him while shooting the library two-parter in Series 4,
02:12where she whispered Shaniqua into his ear.
02:15But now you know that he actually played it dead straight.
02:18Number 8. Battling the Budget
02:20Now, it's no secret that Doctor Who's budgets haven't always been on par with its sci-fi peers,
02:26but you might be surprised to learn just how little money the show had in those early days.
02:31Various sources placed the budget for its first season at around £2,000 an episode.
02:36An Unearthly Child, the show's debut serial, had four episodes,
02:40so that's less than £10,000 for the entire story.
02:43Now, according to the Bank of England's inflation calculator,
02:46that £2,000 is only worth £32,000 today.
02:50For comparison, 1966's Star Trek The Original Series reportedly commanded a budget closer to $190,000 per episode,
02:59or $1.7 million today.
03:01With so few resources at its disposal, it's actually amazing that Doctor Who became as successful as it did.
03:07Thankfully, with reports that the upcoming Series 14 could reach a budget of £10 million per episode,
03:13which is on par with Game of Thrones,
03:15Doctor Who's financial woes are firmly a thing of the past.
03:18Number 7. Origins of the TARDIS
03:21The Doctor's trusty time machine, and occasional wife,
03:24is a big blue box that is, altogether now, bigger on the inside.
03:28It's been there since the very start of the show,
03:30and its exterior appearance hasn't changed all that much over the years.
03:34On the inside, though, it's been completely redecorated about a dozen times by now.
03:38But what are the round things?
03:41No idea.
03:41The story goes that the TARDIS was designed to look like a British phone box
03:45for that most reliable of reasons, budget constraints.
03:48While some sources claim that the TARDIS was created specifically for Doctor Who,
03:53conflicting reports indicate that it was actually nicked from another BBC show.
03:57Zed Cars and Dixon of Doc Green are the prime suspects,
04:00with the latter even being cited by Stephen Moffat.
04:03The original TARDIS prop remained in use for 13 years,
04:06until it was literally falling apart.
04:08According to Elizabeth Sladen herself, it once collapsed right on top of her.
04:12And speaking of that wonderful lady...
04:15Number 6. The Original Sarah Jane Smith
04:17Now, this particular story is one that hardcore Whovians will definitely be familiar with,
04:23but more casual fans might not know that we came startlingly close
04:27to never having Elizabeth Sladen as legendary companion Sarah Jane Smith.
04:32Sladen debuted in the role in 1973,
04:35but Sarah Jane almost looked very different to how we know her today.
04:39The part was originally given to actress April Walker,
04:42best known for her appearances in classic British comedies such as The Two Ronnies and Fawlty Towers.
04:47The producers of Doctor Who thought that third Doctor John Pertwee wouldn't mind Walker's casting,
04:52as the two had previously worked together.
04:54How wrong they were.
04:56During rehearsals, it became clear that the chemistry just wasn't there,
05:00with Pertwee reportedly complaining about Walker being taller than he was.
05:04I mean, insecure much?
05:06And so, that was the end of that, and Sladen was brought in as Walker's replacement.
05:10It is hard to imagine anyone else playing the role of Sarah Jane,
05:14but one has to feel sorry for Walker, who just missed out on the role of a lifetime.
05:19Number 5. Dr. Jackson
05:21Now, speculation always runs wild whenever it's announced that a new actor will be playing the Doctor.
05:27But has anyone ever had the King of Pop on their Doctor Who wishlist?
05:30Well, that nearly happened, with Paramount Pictures very keen on having Michael Jackson
05:35play the main role in a big-screen adaptation of Doctor Who in the late 1980s.
05:40They were apparently impressed with the success of his film Moonwalker,
05:43and wanted to take the title to its literal extreme.
05:46Jackson's casting would have been monumental in numerous ways.
05:50He would have been the first non-white and non-British person to portray the character.
05:54He also would have created the weirdest version of the Doctor ever, because, well, he's Michael freaking Jackson!
06:00While this casting, nor the movie itself, never happened,
06:04it's incredible to think what might have been had Paramount been insane enough to go through with it.
06:09What's that? They had a second choice actor if Jackson said no?
06:12Who was it? Bill Cosby? Oh boy.
06:15Number 4. An English Pond
06:17Amy Pond's Scottishness is one of the most integral parts of her character.
06:21It's not just impossible to imagine her without it, but the show even makes a point of calling her
06:26the Scottish girl in the English village, pointing out that she's something of an outsider, just like the Doctor.
06:32So it might surprise you to learn that not only was the English in Stephen Moffat's original plan for Series 5,
06:37but her accent wasn't even decided until after Karen Gillan was cast.
06:42In an interview in 2010, Karen Gillan said,
06:45I auditioned using an English accent and my own. When I was recalled, I did my own accent,
06:50and we were still in talks about the accent when I got the role. I'm really happy it worked out that way.
06:55So are we, Karen. So are we.
06:57During the 11th Hour's commentary track, it's mentioned that the creatives went back and forth
07:01before ultimately deciding to make her Scottish.
07:04Looking back, it seems like the most obvious decision in the world,
07:07so it's insane to think that we almost ended up with a much different version of the character.
07:11Number 3. Hans Zimmer in Distress
07:14When Doctor Who was facing cancellation in the mid-1980s,
07:17some of its staff members decided that the only way to save it was to record and release a charity single.
07:22Sure, that makes sense.
07:24Doctor in Distress was unleashed into the world in 1985.
07:28It featured vocals from various actors from the show, including Colin Baker,
07:32as well as members of bands such as the Moody Blues and Ultravox.
07:35Now, most fans will know about the song by now,
07:38but did you know that Hans Zimmer, yes, THE Hans Zimmer,
07:41the Oscar-winning composer of The Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean, Inception, and The Dark Knight,
07:46played the music for the track?
07:48Though hardly his finest work, the fact that Hans bloody Zimmer was involved in the song
07:53makes it ten times more noteworthy than it has any right to be.
07:56Doctor Who has so many before-they-were-famous actor appearances,
07:59but this cameo from one of the greatest composers in film history is right at the top of the pile.
08:05Number 2. Patrick Troughton Death Rumours
08:08Patrick Troughton was given the unenviable task of replacing William Hartnell in 1966.
08:14Thanks to his success, Doctor Who has survived for decades through its ability to change its lead actor.
08:20But that's enough praising the man.
08:22Let's talk about some dodgy rumours surrounding his death.
08:25Troughton passed away on the 28th of March 1987 while attending a convention in the United States.
08:30He'd been warned by his doctors, the medical kind, not the time travel kind,
08:34not to leave the UK because of his weak heart.
08:36But he ignored this advice.
08:38Shortly after ordering breakfast at his hotel,
08:40Troughton suffered a heart attack and died at the far too young age of 67.
08:45While his death was a tragic loss,
08:47that hasn't stopped the Who community from speculating on the real cause of his passing.
08:52Now, a rumour has done the rounds that Troughton's fatal cardiac arrest
08:56was caused by him having slept with a fan at the convention.
09:00Now, despite it never having been proven,
09:02this theory has persisted for many years and will probably persist for many more.
09:07But remember, this is pure conjecture.
09:09We really don't want to get sued.
09:10And also, it's not kind to speak ill of the dead.
09:13Number one, the Weeping Angels are real.
09:16Of all the monsters not to be pursued by in real life,
09:19the Weeping Angels probably rank close to the top.
09:22Daleks, easy, just walk around the back of them and hide from their plunger.
09:26But those evil statues aren't just creepy.
09:28They're also relentless, meaning that you'd never get a moment's peace.
09:32They also send you back in time rather than killing you outright,
09:35making your death a slow and lonely one.
09:37Thank goodness that they're fictional then, right?
09:40Right?
09:41Well, maybe not.
09:42According to the Angels creator, Stephen Moffat,
09:45the idea of these creatures came from a real-life experience
09:48that he had while walking past a graveyard.
09:51He spotted a statue inside the cemetery,
09:53an angel with its hands over its eyes.
09:55Years later, he returned to the graveyard to find that everything was as he left it,
10:00except the angel was gone.
10:02Oh dear.
10:03So this story really speaks more to the creativity of Moffat than anything else.
10:07To get from here to one of the most iconic villains in Doctor Who
10:10is nothing short of genius.
10:12And that concludes our list.
10:14If you think we missed something, then do let us know in the comments below.
10:17And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe,
10:19and tap that notification bell so you never miss a Who Culture video again.
10:22Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and Instagram as well.
10:26And I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild,
10:29search for Sean Ferrick as well, and Dan The Meigs too.
10:33I've been Ellie with Who Culture,
10:34and in the words of Riversong herself,
10:36goodbye, sweeties.
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