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From devilish encounters to on-set curses, let's investigate some of the darkest Doctor Who mysteries that remain unsolved.
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00:00Mystery is at the heart of Doctor Who. From the very beginning, the character of the Doctor was intended to
00:05have an air of intrigue,
00:07and the many mysteries of the Doctor have provided so much storytelling fuel over the decades.
00:11The show itself is also full of secrets. Whether it's a real-life mystery or one within the world of
00:16the show,
00:17there are several dark corners of the Who-niverse that have yet to be fully explained.
00:22I'm Ellie for Who Culture here with 10 chilling Doctor Who unsolved mysteries.
00:2610. The Nature of the Beast Up until recently, Doctor Who would offer sci-fi
00:32explanations for things like ghosts and vampires, which is what makes the mystery of the Beast so
00:37fascinating. The impossible planet and the Satan Pit found the 10th Doctor and Rose stranded on a
00:43strange planet orbiting a black hole. Unbeknownst to them, the planet is actually a prison for the
00:48Beast, an enormous and ancient creature trapped beneath the surface. The design of the Beast is
00:54intentionally similar to the traditional depiction of Satan. Red skin, horned head,
00:59generally unpleasant attitude. However, as the Doctor explains, most religions he knows of feature
01:05something that looks like this, implying that the Beast has served as the blueprint for the
01:10embodiment of evil across the universe. But what exactly is the Beast itself? Is it the actual literal
01:16devil or the oldest fraud in the universe? And would a singular devil imply the existence of a
01:21singular god? Well, even the Doctor himself is unsure, dismissing the Beast's claims that it
01:26existed before the universe was created. The episode is intentionally ambiguous, which only makes the
01:31creature more unsettling. All that's certain is that the Doctor encountered an immense power in the
01:36depths of Croptor.
01:389. The Wookiee Hole Curse
01:40Across the last six decades, Doctor Who has been filmed in countless different locations across the UK,
01:47quite often in and around a quarry or a steel mill. It stands to reason, then, that the show has
01:52visited
01:52some peculiar places over the years, including the supposedly cursed Wookiee Hole Caves. This area in
01:59the English county of Somerset is most famous for their caves, which are a major tourist attraction and
02:05a site of special scientific interest. They're also said to be home to a witch, which might sound like
02:11superstitious hokum, but when the Fourth Doctor serial Revenge of the Cybermen was being filmed
02:16there, it felt very, very real indeed. A number of strange things occurred during the shooting of
02:22this serial. Director Michael E. Bryant claims he saw a ghostly apparition late one night, believed to
02:27be a diver who had died in the caves four months prior. A crew member became very unwell while another
02:33suffered a panic attack. An entire scene went missing in the script, and Elizabeth Sladen was almost
02:38killed when a small motorboat she was driving malfunctioned and smashed into a cavern wall.
02:43Was the curse real, or was it just a string of bad luck? The insane amount of stories from the
02:47set
02:47would seem to indicate that something must have been plaguing the production.
02:52Number 8. The Fate of Madam Kavarian
02:55Doctor Who meddles with alternate timelines so much that it's no wonder these lead to unsolved
03:00mysteries from time to time. The assassin training, baby kidnapping, Madam Kavarian may have been killed in
03:06the series 6 finale, The Wedding of River Song, but what you might not have realised is that due to
03:11this timeline being aborted by the end of the episode, Kavarian actually doesn't die at all.
03:16Steven Moffat himself has said that she's still alive in the main timeline, which begs the question,
03:21where is she? And what kind of horrific scheme might she be plotting? It's been over a decade since
03:26the character last appeared, but with Moffat now back in the Doctor Who fray, it's not inconceivable
03:31that we may revisit the Kavarian or Church of the Silence plotlines in the near future.
03:36After all, Season 1's boom brought back the Anglican marines who worked for Kavarian in Series 6.
03:42There's something unnerving about knowing that the person who went so far as to kidnap a baby
03:46is still lurking out there. Let's just hope the Doctor keeps on his toes.
03:50Number 7. Rogue Spooky Set
03:52Half a century after the Wookiee Hole incident, another Doctor Who episode also suffered some creepy
03:58goings-on. Season 1's Rogue is set in Regency-era England and was filmed at a number of grand
04:04locations. According to Millie Gibson, everyone had a run-in with something otherworldly during
04:09the shoot, and there were reports of doors opening on their own. While nobody nearly died this time
04:14round, that's hardly what you want when you turn up for work. What Gibson might not have been aware
04:18of is that one of the main locations used for Rogue, Margham Country Park in Wales, is said to be
04:23haunted. The ghost of a murdered gamekeeper wanders the grounds, while staff who work there
04:28have heard running footsteps and giggling children late at night when nobody else is around. Many of
04:34these happenings remain unexplained to this day. Fittingly, this location was also used for the
04:3911th Doctor episode Hide, which is itself a ghost story. And the show will no doubt visit there again
04:45in the future, so there might be more paranormal experiences to come.
04:496. The Midnight Entity
04:51In a universe filled with aliens, monsters, robots, and gods, Midnight proved that the
04:57most frightening force of them all is ordinary people. After the 10th Doctor boards a bus on
05:02the titular planet, he and the other passengers become the playthings of an unknown entity.
05:07It rips the front of the vehicle off, killing the driver and the mechanic, then stalks the others
05:12by banging on the walls. It eventually finds its way inside by possessing one of the tourists,
05:17Sky Silvestri, before freaking everybody to high heaven by repeating everything they say.
05:22Midnight is a masterpiece of suspense, terror, and self-examination. And it's made even better
05:27by the fact that nobody knows what the creature at the heart of it is. It's never seen, never heard,
05:32and never explained. Even the Doctor is baffled by how it can exist on such a hostile world full
05:37of deadly radiation. Now some fans believe the entity can be glimpsed ever so briefly as the shield on
05:44the windscreen goes down. But whether or not the production team did leave us something to find,
05:48the reality is that the truth about the entity will never be revealed. And nor should it. Its power
05:53lies in its mystery.
05:56Number 5. The Curse of Chameleon
05:591983 serial The King's Demons is best known for introducing Chameleon, a shapeshifting robot who,
06:05after being rescued from the clutches of the Master, joins the Fifth Doctor as a new companion.
06:10Chameleon was a nightmare to work with behind the scenes, and would constantly break down,
06:16resulting in the character being dropped from the show after just two stories. Over the years,
06:20fans have jokingly suggested that the prop might have been cursed. But when you look at the sheer
06:24number of unfortunate incidents surrounding it, it actually might not be a joke at all. Pretty
06:29much everyone involved with the creation of Chameleon died within 10 years of his introduction.
06:34The King's Demons writer Terence Dudley passed away in 1988, five years after it aired. Peter
06:41Grimwade, the writer of Chameleon's second and final story, Planet of Fire, died in 1990,
06:47while Chameleon actors Gerald Flood and Dallas Adams died in 1989 and 1991, respectively.
06:54Even creepier is the fact that Chameleon's software designer, Mike Power, died in a boating
06:59accident shortly after the prop was signed for the show. Bizarrely, he was the only person who knew
07:04how to operate Chameleon, which is why it was such a problem for the production. Some accounts claim
07:09that the prop was found in an old warehouse or junkyard, which is exactly the type of place you'd
07:15expect to find a cursed item. Even if that's not true, though, something was clearly wrong with
07:20Chameleon from the off.
07:22Number 4. The Watcher
07:23Tom Baker's fourth Doctor was on a great run of form in the 1970s and early 80s, but then he
07:29had
07:29to go and ruin it by falling off a big telescope. What a silly billy. The 1981 serial Logopolis
07:35famously marked the end of the long, popular tenure of Baker. I had also saw the one and only
07:41appearance of The Watcher. An unsettling figure cloaked entirely in white, The Watcher appears to
07:46various characters throughout Logopolis and seems to know a lot more than it's letting on. This strange
07:52being then reappears at the moment of the Doctor's death, merging with him to aid his transition into
07:58his next life. It's widely believed that The Watcher is an incarnation of the Doctor, perhaps
08:03one who appears to them when they need help regenerating. But that doesn't explain his
08:07absence at other regenerations, like when Twelve flat out refused to change. So what was it about
08:13the fourth Doctor that required the presence of this spectral force? Like the Midnight Entity and
08:18the Beast, it's the lack of answers that actually makes The Watcher such a chilling mystery.
08:23Number 3. The Murder of Peter Arne. The fifth Doctor serial Frontios features a character called
08:29Range, the chief scientist of a remote human colony. The role was played by William Lucas,
08:34but it was originally earmarked for British character actor Peter Arne, perhaps best known
08:39for his appearances in the Pink Panther films and the Avengers TV series. Arne attended a costume
08:44fitting for the role on the 1st of August 1983, before returning to his home in London. Soon after,
08:51neighbours reported hearing a loud argument in his flat. When his home was searched,
08:55Arne was found dead, having been bludgeoned by a stool and a log of wood from his fireplace.
09:00A police investigation concluded that the perpetrator was Giuseppe Peruzzi,
09:05an Italian schoolteacher. However, they had no idea why he'd done it. Peruzzi and Arne did know each
09:11other, but nobody knew why they were arguing or what drove Peruzzi to commit murder. This aspect
09:16of the case remains unsolved to this day. Number 2. The Woman's Words. The mark of a good scary story
09:24is when it makes something seemingly mundane feel absolutely terrifying. 73 Yards did this by
09:30transforming an old woman into one of the most feared creatures in the world. There are several
09:35chilling things about this woman, chief among them being the fact that she can send people running
09:39scared with a few simple words. But what could those words possibly be? The incredible power
09:45that must be needed to get Ruby's own mother to abandon her is crazy to think about. There's
09:49clearly some magic or other higher force involved, but it's also likely that the words themselves are
09:55just as grave and terrible. Perhaps the woman speaks some deep dark secret that should never
09:59be uttered. Perhaps there's something unnatural about Ruby that's yet to be revealed and the woman
10:04exposes this. Or perhaps the woman embodies fear itself and can speak to the things that scare
10:08people the most. Russell T. Davis has remained tight-lipped on this aspect of 73 Yards, and he
10:14will no doubt continue to do so. It's unlikely the real answer would be as unsettling as whatever
10:19your imagination can conjure up. Number 1. The Max Headroom Incident.
10:24On the 22nd of November 1987, Chicago-based TV station WTTW was airing a rerun of the fourth
10:32Doctor serial Horror of Fang Rock. And while the fourth Doctor was dealing with the usual monstrous
10:37goings-on off the south coast of England, a real-life interloper was about to make themselves
10:42known. The broadcast was hijacked by a person wearing a mask of the TV character Max Headroom,
10:48a computer-generated TV host. Nobody was on duty at the station at the time, so this wannabe pirate
10:53had a decent chunk of time to warble on about New Coke, a local sportscaster, and a pair of dirty
10:59gloves.
11:00He was then spanked on the bottom by a woman holding a flyswatter before the regularly scheduled
11:04Doctor Who episode started back up again. This is one of the weirdest and most disturbing things
11:08you will ever see. And the worst part is, the perpetrators were never caught. To this day,
11:13nobody knows who was under the mask or why they did what they did. It's one of the strangest moments
11:19in TV history, and a pretty freaky unsolved mystery to boot.
11:23Well, there are some of the unsolved mysteries, but some of them have been answered, so why not check out
11:2810 Doctor Who mysteries you didn't know were answered. In the meantime, I've been Ellie for
11:33Who Culture, and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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