- 8 hours ago
An apparent leak from the Doctor Who set has sent the fandom into a frenzy. But hold your horses. It's BLATANTLY not what it seems. Here's Ellie with the latest!
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00:00Hello everybody, Ellie here for WhoCulture and welcome to another week which means another
00:04weekly roundup little tidbits in the world of Doctor Who. As usual, there will be timestamps
00:10in this video so you can jump about to the relevant things that you're interested in
00:13hearing about. So let's begin. Of course, it's another week which means it's another
00:18Strictly Watch, Strictly Watch, Strictly Watch.
00:25As you all know by now, it was week nine of Strictly Come Dancing where Alex Kingston,
00:31aka Riversong, the best character, is a contestant. This week was Blackpool week where they go
00:36to the famous dance hall in Blackpool under the Blackpool Tower and that's where they
00:42were competing this week. Luckily, well I say luckily, not lucky for the contestant who had
00:47to withdraw, but one of the contestants had to withdraw from the competition at the last
00:50minute due to an injury, which meant nobody was eliminated this week. Everybody was safe
00:55from elimination. I'm kind of grateful for this only because we're now getting to a point
01:00where everyone is dancing so well that despite the fact that Alex Kingston got 35 points out
01:06of 40, which is a very, very good score, she actually came second to last on the leaderboard
01:11because other people got even higher scores. Everyone was just doing so well. They did their
01:16couple's choice this week. The opening VT was very emotional. She spoke about her journey
01:22with cancer last year and how doing Strictly and part of this dance was about embracing
01:27life and just going for it. The dance itself was very glitz and glamour, very Alex Kingston,
01:33very, very good. I did feel that there was maybe like a lack of energy just a little bit
01:37and then it was revealed on Instagram by her daughter after the dance that she was actually
01:41dancing with a dislocated rib. Knowing that, she should have got top marks because let me tell
01:48you, if I'd stubbed my toe, I wouldn't have been dancing, let alone with a dislocated rib.
01:52Are you kidding me? Anyway, as I say, everyone was safe from elimination this week, so we're going
01:57into next week. She's dancing the cha-cha next week, so that will be very exciting and I just hope
02:02she makes it to the final. She really, really deserves it. So of course, yesterday, the 23rd of
02:07November was Doctor Who Day. Happy Doctor Who Day for yesterday, everybody. Woohoo! So we were kind
02:13of waiting around all day for bits of news to drop, relevant things to happen. If I'm being honest,
02:19not as much happened as I thought was going to. Was kind of a bit disappointed, was waiting for some
02:24big maybe trailer for the war between the land and the sea to drop. There was a clip released,
02:30but it was a clip that we'd already seen, so I don't really know why it then got posted like,
02:36woohoo, look, trailer, because I'd already seen that clip and I don't think it was leaked,
02:39so I'm not quite sure what was going on there. But in general, there wasn't much going on, but
02:44by far the best thing that did get announced yesterday, something that I personally so excited
02:50about, was we now have a release date for the series 10 soundtrack. Hallelujah! I honestly,
03:00ah! Okay, so it will be released on the 12th of December. You get it? It's for the 12th Doctor's
03:05final series and it's being released on the 12th of the 12th. Very clever. Well done. I appreciate
03:10it. Doesn't mean we've got to wait another two, three weeks till we have it. Yes. Does that make
03:15me sad? Yes. Was I hoping it would be released on the 23rd of November? Yes. But I appreciate what
03:19you've done there, so I'll let it slide. Not only did they announce that this was going to be the
03:23date it would release, they also released one track from the upcoming soundtrack on YouTube,
03:29and it was called Glimpse of Freedom. I did blind react to it, you can find that over on my
03:34social
03:34media on Instagram. Spoiler alert, I cried. Murray Gold's music, as you well know, just does something
03:42to me. I struggle to put it into words, but it just makes me feel so many things. It's actually
03:48just,
03:48it's beautiful. It really, really is. And listening to that one track just has got me so excited for
03:54the rest of the album to release because there was some truly beautiful music in series 10. And
04:02when I was writing the ranking for all of Stephen Moffat's episodes, I actually had to go back and
04:08re-watch quite a few episodes from series 10 because that's a series that's a little bit more fuzzy in
04:12my memory. And I really enjoyed re-watching those episodes and listening to that music and then getting
04:17quite disappointed and feeling quite sad because that music wasn't available. And now it's coming,
04:22I cannot wait. 12th of the 12th, you best believe, I will be playing it non-stop, probably from then
04:27until the new year, on repeat. And what I will do is once I've listened to all of the tracks,
04:33I'll make a list of maybe my top 10 tracks on the album. And there's a lot of tracks on
04:38the album,
04:38so that's going to be quite difficult. But I will make a list of my top 10 tracks for you
04:42all
04:42once the album has been released. How does that sound?
04:45The other thing that was released yesterday on Doctor Who Day was a video of deleted scenes,
04:51the season 2 full deleted scenes. First of all, if, like me, you rushed to watch that video because
04:58you all wanted to see the deleted cut scene from the end of the reality war, the ending we never
05:03got
05:04to see, I assume you were all as disappointed as I was when it wasn't included in that video. So
05:10actually it wasn't all the deleted scenes, it wasn't the full deleted scenes from season 2,
05:15was it? Because we know that scene exists, the actors themselves have spoken about this scene
05:20that was filmed, this fight, this ending that was supposed to be there. So yeah, a little bit
05:25disappointing that that wasn't included. If they don't release that at some point, what are they
05:29doing? And yesterday would have been a really good day to have done that, maybe you could have
05:33redeemed yourself slightly. So that was slightly disappointing, but there were some other deleted
05:38scenes included. Two of them we have already spoken about, they were already released a couple of
05:43weeks ago. Then we have a few others included in this video, I'm not going to talk about all of
05:48them,
05:48some of them are literally not worth talking about. There was literally one clip that was just Belinda
05:52walking out of the hospital and then it just, the camera panned up to the exterior of the hospital.
05:56I don't really know why that was included in this video, I see why that was cut from the episode,
06:02but it wasn't really necessary in this deleted scenes video, like nothing of note happened at all.
06:07I would say of the ones that were included in the video, the ones that stood out to me the
06:11most
06:11were the one, the scene from the story and the engine. I liked that we had a scene that showed
06:17a
06:17story being told that wasn't accepted, because that's something that we didn't really see in the
06:22episode. We saw the stories being demanded, but we actually didn't see an instance where the story
06:27was told and that wasn't acceptable. So I actually really enjoyed that scene, that was quite good,
06:32and that would have added maybe a little bit more to the episode. You can see why it was cut,
06:37just for timing and things, it wasn't necessarily so relevant. We did get another glimpse of that
06:41really good window that had the cartoons, is cartoons the right word? Animations, the drawing,
06:47you get what I'm saying of the stories as they were being told. So we did get another glimpse of
06:52that, which was very good. So I enjoyed that scene. The other scene that sticks in my mind
06:57was from Wishworld, and again it was another scene that it was just a more still moment between the
07:04Doctor and Belinda, where the Doctor seems very kind of deflated and talking about life being very
07:10difficult, telling Belinda that he'd had a lot of doubts that day, and obviously we know in the
07:15Wishworld doubts were a bad thing, and Belinda trying to convince him that he's absolutely fine,
07:20and almost trying to convince herself that there's nothing wrong either. And I thought that was a
07:23nice touching moment between them two. Again, another moment that I feel like would have benefited
07:28these episodes more if they had been left in, to just have some quieter moments in amongst all of
07:33the action. So of all the scenes that were included in those deleted scenes, they are the two that stick
07:37in my mind. But yes, if you haven't watched it, go check out that video, it's on the official Doctor
07:41Who
07:41YouTube channel. But the thing I think you're all here to hear about is something that I cannot tell
07:47you how many DMs I have received about in the last couple of days. But I just want to clear
07:53this up
07:54right here, right now. Now, you know, there is a tiny, tiny, tiny chance that I'm wrong, but I'm pretty
07:59sure I'm not. That leaked image of Billy Piper and Paul McGann on the set of the Christmas special
08:06is absolutely not real. Obviously, I'm sure lots of you have seen it. It does look to the naked eye
08:12very realistic compared to other images we've seen. And I can see why you would look at that and go,
08:18oh, that's just an image of the two on set, and they're clearly in the special. And do you know
08:23what?
08:23Originally, we weren't going to even talk about it because, you know, I don't want to talk about AI,
08:27the whole notion of AI replacing art, blah, blah, blah. That's a discussion for another day.
08:33I didn't want to talk about the fact that AI has managed to fool so many people. But as I
08:38say,
08:39we have received so many messages about it, so many people have been asking us about it,
08:43that I did actually feel like maybe it would be a good thing to maybe debunk it and maybe warn
08:48people
08:49about it as well. So let's have a look at reasons why it's not real. First and foremost,
08:54they haven't actually started filming the 2026 Christmas special yet. I'm not even entirely sure
08:58that they've finished writing it yet at this point. So that's one point to consider. Why would there
09:04be leaked images of them on set when it's not actually filming yet? That's one thing. Also,
09:10if what I've heard through the grapevine is true, as we've already spoken about,
09:17Paul McGann isn't in the Christmas special. I know we heard all those things and it's maybe,
09:21there's a slight possibility, but we don't know that Paul McGann is in it. And if he was in it,
09:26do you think they would be as careless as to let someone take that obvious a photo of the two
09:31of
09:31the main characters on set and then let them post it? I just, things aren't adding up here.
09:39It's a very obvious photo as well. It's not like someone's hiding behind something like it's very
09:43clearly someone's taking a picture right there. Also, there are multiple angles of this image
09:48released as if someone is actually laying on the floor taking photos. It's very, very rare that you get
09:54a leaked photo. And then you get another three photos of that same photo from a different angle,
09:59like, but then there are a few telltale signs in the image itself as well. So let's have a look
10:04at
10:04those. First of all, the outfit that Billy Piper is wearing is not accurate to the outfit that
10:09Shooty Gatwell was wearing when he regenerated. Granted, yes, a costume change might have taken place,
10:15but if that were the case, surely the costume change would be a significant change rather than
10:20a very slight variation that's obvious enough to not be the exact outfit, but not a big enough
10:27change to go, this is Billy Piper's doctor's outfit. It's just, it's a version of what Shooty Gatwell was
10:34wearing, but not the same. So that makes no sense. If you're going to be wearing the same outfit,
10:41it would be the same outfit. It would maybe not fit quite right. The skirt part was much longer on
10:46Shooty Gatwell. It's just, it's like it's been designed to look all fitting and on Billy Piper
10:52when that wouldn't be the case. Then there's Paul McGann's face. It just looks a bit off and if you
10:57zoom in and look at it really closely, I mean, his nose isn't quite right. It just, it actually
11:02doesn't look like him when you look at it closely. And also, sorry, Paul McGann, but he actually looks
11:08a bit too young in this image. Then there's the man that's behind Billy Piper who's wearing a face mask.
11:14If you look closely, the string from that mask goes through his ear. Now we all had to wear masks
11:22for
11:22quite some time, but I don't remember them ever going through my ear. Also masks in 2025, like I know
11:28people are still wearing masks in certain environments and certain situations, but for the most part an
11:32entire production wearing masks like it's mandatory, I doubt it very much. Again, it's tiny, tiny,
11:40tiny possibility, but it also, I literally noted this weekend to my mum, we went shopping,
11:47doing Christmas shopping, that I feel like we're now at the point this year in particular where it
11:51really feels like all of the COVID, all of the kind of measures that were put in place for COVID
11:56have finally disappeared. You know, the last Perspex plastic screens that were in front of tills are
12:03all gone. Town was actually busy for a change, everyone was out. All those things that got put
12:10in place very quickly and then took a while to disappear, they seem to all kind of have vanished
12:15at this point. So I just highly doubt that everyone would be wearing masks now on set. Maybe the odd
12:21few,
12:22but everyone in this image is wearing a mask except for the two actors. Now let's take a look at
12:27Billy
12:27Piper's hands, especially her right hand. Doesn't look right. It does not look right. She actually
12:33looks like one of the nothings, like my arms are too long. It just, it's not quite, quite right. Again,
12:39far away, zoomed out, you probably wouldn't notice. If you look at it closely, what's going on with her
12:44hands? I'll tell you what, they're not real. This, this doesn't look like what a leaked set photo looks
12:50like. No one's hiding behind anything, it doesn't look any, like, blurred because someone's rushed to take it.
12:55The only blur we've got is where it's not accurate. This looks like more like an image you'd see on
13:00a
13:00magazine spread to promote the filming of the Christmas special. This isn't a leaked photo,
13:06it doesn't look like any other leaked photo I would have seen. Also, if it's on the TARDIS set,
13:10that's a closed set. It's not like they're out in public. If they were filming out in public
13:14and a leaked photo had happened, that makes more sense. But if it's on the TARDIS set,
13:20it's very, very, very unlikely someone's managed to get in there and get a, get a photo.
13:25Like, they're on this. They, they try their best to keep things as secretive as possible.
13:30This is too much of an obvious blunder for it to be real. It's not real. So just please be
13:36careful
13:36out there on the internet. Don't just believe everything you see because it is a scary world
13:40out there that someone can create an image this realistic looking at face value and people will
13:45believe it because of course, look at it. Why would you not believe it if you weren't looking to debunk
13:50it?
13:51It is a scary world out there. And who knows what other images could be generated? You know,
13:55this is maybe harmless. It's just about a television program, but that's not always the case. Images
14:01can be created of all sorts of things. So stay safe out there on the internet, kids. You may have
14:06seen some other leaked images doing the rounds lately, such as this one from the boys. And you've
14:12also got these ones from Avengers Doomsday doing the rounds as well. So the reason behind this actually
14:17is because Google recently launched its new Nano Banana Pro AI Image Generator. It's free for
14:24everyone to use. So of course, everyone's gone, woohoo, let's go use that. And it allows you to
14:28create any and all images using text prompts. We are now at a point where you can pretty much
14:33mock up anything that you want to. And a leaked set image is an easy thing for this AI generator
14:40to
14:40create. And just in case you don't believe us, just to illustrate how easy and scary this actually
14:45is. Here is an image right here of David Tennant and Peter Capaldi standing on the TARDIS set.
14:51This image was generated by Danny, our channel manager, in literally one minute flat by giving
14:57a prompt to this Google AI generator. Look how realistic these faces are. I'm sure if we zoomed
15:04in, we'd start to be able to pick out a few of those discrepancies like we did with the leaked
15:09set
15:10image. But at face value, you have no reason to doubt that this isn't real, right? So if we can
15:16create these images in just a minute or so, with a couple of prompts, maybe three at best, just think
15:23what someone could mock up with a little bit more patience, a little bit more time, and perhaps a bit
15:29of Photoshop on the side as well. Et voila, this is the result. A leaked set image. So I am
15:35sorry to
15:36those who did believe that it was real. I would love to believe that Paul McGann is coming back.
15:40It would be really, really fun. At this point in time, I don't think it's true, and I don't think
15:44you should rely on this image to confirm this theory. As I say, it's a scary world out there with
15:50the AI being what it is. In some regards, AI can be a really, really useful tool. It can also
15:56be very
15:57dangerous. As I say, this is just a television program. It's harmless in the grand scheme of things.
16:02But that's not to say that it couldn't have been more harmful depending on what the context was
16:06and the content was. So I'm not trying to scare you. Let's end on a positive note. The positive
16:11note is 12th of December, Series 10 soundtrack. Who else is excited? I am. I cannot wait. In the
16:19meantime, I've been Ellie for Who Culture and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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