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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 fascinating things to find out about the making of Doctor Who.
00:06It's like Wester Drumlins or Gabriel Chase, a creaky old house full of secrets just waiting to be uncovered.
00:13So, let's uncover some.
00:14I'm Ellie for Who Culture here with 10 Doctor Who behind-the-scenes secrets you need to know.
00:19Number 10. Codenames 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 big scoop is going to be.
00:29So, certain measures are taken to keep things hush-hush, including a tactic the Doctor themselves would be proud of.
00:35Fake names.
00:36Before the 12th Doctor's new companion, Bill Potts, was officially revealed, the role was known as Mean Town behind-the-scenes.
00:43That's an anagram of 10 women, as Bill was the 10th companion of the 10th modern series.
00:48Sneaky.
00:49Jenna Coleman and Karen Gillan had to tell their family and friends they were auditioning for shows called Men on Waves and Panic Moon, respectively.
00:56Men on Waves is an anagram of Woman 7, since Coleman was auditioning for Series 7,
01:01and Panic Moon is the word companion scrambled up.
01:05Meanwhile, the codename for current Doctor Who filming is reportedly The Bridge.
01:09And if you think all of this is ridiculous, then just remember that 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 7th Doctor serial, The Happiness Patrol, the TARDIS drops in on a society where sadness is punishable by death.
01:35The Candyman adds to this subversion, as he may look sweet on the outside, but he's actually an unstoppable killing machine.
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 serial went out, the show got a letter from H.B. Stokes, chairman of confectionery company Bassett.
01:54Stokes pointed out that The Candyman bore a striking resemblance to his company's mascot, Bertie Bassett, who was also an anthropomorphised pile of sweets.
02:02Even though Doctor Who was cleared by the BBC copyright department, it was promised that The Candyman would never appear in the show again.
02:08So, for those of us who've been gunning for his return since 2005, unfortunately, we're out of luck.
02:14Genuinely, I'd love to see The Candyman return.
02:16Number 8.
02:17Not everything is an original creation.
02:20Doctor Who has utilised so many props and costume pieces over the decades.
02:24But did you know that many of them actually belonged to the actors?
02:27The third Doctor's weird hovercraft car, the Who-mobile, wasn't built by the props department.
02:31It was brought in by John Pertwee, who had personally commissioned it himself.
02:36It was also Pertwee who gave it the name Who-mobile.
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, David Tennant also brought his own possessions to the character.
02:47The 10th Doctor's iconic Converse shoes were Tennant's idea, and 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 filming, and so a special prop ring was created to cover his band while in character.
03:06Now, in-universe, the ring contains a stone of green amber from the planet Ratsacorocophallopatorius,
03:11which I know full well has been put in my script because they wanted to catch me out, so ha-ha, said it first time.
03:16And it's said to remind the Doctor of all the wars that he has won, but also all the lives that he has taken.
03:22Number 7.
03:22The TV movie's A-list aspirations.
03:25The 1996 TV movie is an odd thing.
03:27It was an American co-production, which is strange enough for Doctor Who.
03:31It went through so many iterations during development, including one where the Doctor and the Master were half-brothers,
03:36and Berusa was the Doctor's gramps.
03:38Fair enough.
03:39At points, it was also aiming to be much more of a blockbuster event than it ended up being.
03:44This is largely down to some of the insane A-list names Philip Segal and Peter Wag,
03:48the project's original spearheads had considered to star in and direct this new era of Doctor Who.
03:53Hollywood heavyweights like Ralph Fiennes, Hugh Grant, Sean Bean, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, and Piers Brosnan,
03:59yep, James Bond himself, were all thrown around as potential Doctor candidates in the early stages.
04:04Some would, of course, go on to appear in Doctor Who further down the line,
04:07like McKellen as the voice of the great intelligence opposite Matt Smith.
04:11Meanwhile, Wag shortlisted some big-name directors for the project,
04:15including Alien and Blade Runner's Ridley Scott, Gremlins' Joe Dante,
04:19and Star Trek 3 and 4 director Leonard Nimoy.
04:22So hang on, let me get this straight.
04:23This means that there's a timeline where we got a Doctor Who movie starring Picard and directed by Spock.
04:28Just imagine it.
04:29Number six, the sounds of time and space.
04:32There are just as many legendary sound effects in Doctor Who as there are heroes, villains, and planets.
04:37But how do they all get made?
04:38That beautiful weesh-woosh that has started so many great adventures over the years,
04:43also known as the sound of the TARDIS materialising,
04:45was created by scraping a key along a piano wire.
04:51This masterstroke was the idea of Brian Hodgson,
04:54who came up with many of the early sound effects for Doctor Who,
04:57including the voice of the Daleks.
04:59Hodgson had previously worked on a children's radio show
05:01where he'd voiced a robot butler using a ring modulation system.
05:05And when the time came for the Doctor's greatest enemies to speak,
05:08he reused this technique and instructed voice artist Peter Hawkins
05:11to give a monotone delivery, and thus, TV history was made.
05:15Hodgson used all sorts of unusual things to create the Doctor Who soundscape.
05:19One rumour goes that he got the roar of a yeti from a flushing toilet,
05:22which may be a myth, but it's also a really funny myth.
05:25Number five, actor reuse goes deeper than you realise.
05:28We all know that Doctor Who likes to reuse actors.
05:30Prima Adjaman in Army of Ghosts,
05:32David Bradley in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship.
05:34Hell, Fires of Pompeii has both a future Doctor and future companion in it.
05:38Big names aside, though, this happens way more than you think,
05:41and it's so sneaky that you probably didn't even realise they were doing it.
05:45Remember All Ears Allen from Fugitive of the Jadoon?
05:48The nosy barista who fancies Ruth?
05:49Well, Michael Begley, or Begley, I apologise,
05:52I don't know how to say his name.
05:53But the actor who plays him had previously portrayed the pirate Mulligan
05:57in The Curse of the Black Spot.
05:58Mark Dexter, who played Cal's dad in The Library 2 Parter,
06:02turned up 12 years later in Spyfall Part 2
06:04as Victorian inventor Charles Babbage.
06:06Both Prem from Demons of the Punjab
06:08and the PE teacher from The God Complex
06:10previously appeared in Tardiso 12.
06:12Yeah, remember those?
06:13A prelude to Army of Ghosts.
06:15And then there's the curious case of Lara Philippart.
06:17The young Lara not only played a member
06:19of the extended Connolly family
06:21in The Idiot's Lantern,
06:22but she also appeared in a main role
06:24in the Torchwood episode Small Worlds
06:26as a girl obsessed with fairies.
06:28Serious brownie points if you spotted that one.
06:30And I'm fairly certain there are plenty more,
06:32so let us know if you've spotted any more
06:33in the comments down below.
06:35Number four, fake cast members help maintain surprises.
06:38When they aren't making their actors
06:39play 17 different characters at once,
06:42the Doctor Who team are changing their names
06:44to prevent spoilers.
06:45In the days of Classic Who,
06:46publications like the Radio Times
06:48were the primary source of information
06:50about upcoming episodes.
06:51So, not wanting to reveal that Davros was back
06:54in 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks,
06:56the BBC provided a cast list for the magazine
06:59which contained Roy Tromelli,
07:01an anagram of Davros actor Terry Malloy.
07:03The character most affected by this practice
07:05is the Master, which makes sense
07:07as they've made more random appearances
07:08over the years than Stan Lee in the MCU.
07:11Fifth Doctor serial, The King's Demons,
07:13reportedly starred someone called James Stoker,
07:16an anagram of Master's Joke,
07:18a cheeky way to obscure the fact
07:19that the Master was set to appear.
07:21This also happened with Castrovalva,
07:23where the Master's disguise, Portreeve,
07:25was credited as being played by Neil Toynay,
07:28a codename for Master actor Tony Ainley.
07:31More recently, the Series 12 finale cast list
07:33contained a character called Fakout,
07:35played by Barak Stemis,
07:37which, when rearranged, spells,
07:38Master is back.
07:39That one wasn't quite as sneaky as the rest.
07:42Number three, most Weeping Angels aren't props.
07:45The Weeping Angels aren't just a genius monster design.
07:47They're also an absolute godsend
07:49for the Doctor Who casting department.
07:50Monsters that are rarely shown moving
07:52and take the form of a bunch of generic statues?
07:54Perfect!
07:55Who needs extras when you can just replace them with props?
07:57Sure, the unions might have a thing or two
07:59to say about that,
08:01but, sorry, what's that?
08:01The Angels are barely ever props?
08:03What the hell?
08:04In the commentary for his episode Blink,
08:06writer Stephen Moffat revealed
08:07that just two of the Angels seen in the episode
08:09were fake.
08:10The rest of them were played by actual actors
08:12who had to master the art of standing still
08:14and looking menacing.
08:15After this first go,
08:17it made sense for even more actors to be hired
08:19for the Angels' next appearance in Series 5,
08:21as there were more of them on screen
08:23and they actually got to move on camera this time.
08:25According to some of the extras
08:26in The Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone,
08:28the rubber Angel suits were actually quite comfortable,
08:31although they may have just been saying that
08:32so they didn't hurt anyone's feelings,
08:34let's be honest.
08:35Number two, Doctors aren't paid as much as you think.
08:38When you take on the role of Doctor Who,
08:40you don't do it for the money.
08:41You do it to be part of an institution,
08:43to etch your name into the history books
08:45and to be an inspiration to millions everywhere
08:47as a beacon of hope and morality
08:49in a cruel and depressive world,
08:51but also the money.
08:52When William Hartnell took on the role of the first Doctor,
08:54TV stars weren't the same glamorous celebrities
08:57they are today,
08:57and as a result,
08:58he was earning a salary of £315 per episode by 1966,
09:03around £7,000 today.
09:05That's barely enough to keep him in his fancy neckties.
09:07Meanwhile, many years into the future,
09:09Peter Capaldi's earnings were between £200,000
09:12and £250,000 towards the end of his run.
09:15Now that may sound like a lot,
09:17but when you consider that Danny Dyer
09:18got a similar amount for being in EastEnders,
09:21it doesn't look quite as flashy.
09:22And when Jodie Whittaker was revealed
09:23as Capaldi's replacement,
09:25it was announced that she would be earning
09:26the same amount as her predecessor.
09:28And while this was great news for gender equality,
09:31you can't help but wonder if Jodie was kicking herself
09:33for not trying her luck in Albert Square.
09:35Number one,
09:36the first regeneration was an accident.
09:38Regeneration might have looked a lot different
09:40were it not for a bit of luck
09:42in the BBC tech department.
09:44You all know the story by now,
09:45William Hartnell's health was declining,
09:47so the showrunners came up with a genius way
09:48of replacing him without killing off the main character.
09:51In a now legendary scene,
09:52Hartnell collapsed to the floor,
09:54and his face slowly faded away
09:55to be replaced by Patrick Troughton's.
09:57This effect was the result of a faulty mixing desk,
10:00which caused whichever images were passing through it
10:02to become overexposed.
10:04Vision mixer Shirley Coward thought that creating a whiteout
10:07would be a great way to hide the transition
10:09between the actors,
10:10and that's precisely what happened.
10:11Thank God she said something,
10:13because the initial plan for this scene was,
10:15well, let's be kind and just say it was not as good.
10:18Originally, Hartnell was supposed to fall down
10:20with his cloak covering his face,
10:22which would have been then the end of his doctor,
10:24and next time the cloak would be removed
10:25to reveal Troughton.
10:26I wonder how bi-generation would have looked
10:28if hoods and cloaks were the chosen transition device.
10:32Hmm, interesting.
10:33And there you have it,
10:34but if you want some more secrets,
10:35then why not check out
10:36Secrets of the Sonic Screwdriver?
10:38In the meantime,
10:39I've been Ellie for WhoCulture,
10:40and in the words of Riversong herself,
10:41goodbye, sweeties.
10:43Okay.
10:49Okay.
10:59Okay.
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