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From unexpected regenerations to clever marketing tricks, Doctor Who has a long and celebrated history of pulling the wool over its audience's eyes. This video explores ten of the most memorable moments the show intentionally misled viewers.
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00:00Doctor Who and playfully misleading its audience.
00:03Name a more iconic duo.
00:05The show was conceived in an age long before internet trolling was a thing,
00:09but intentionally tricking viewers has since become an inevitable and consistent part of the show.
00:14Whether it's a moment in an episode designed to pull the wool over our eyes,
00:18or a marketing gimmick with the sole purpose of fooling us,
00:21Doctor Who loves nothing more than plonking itself down in a nice comfy armchair,
00:26pointing and laughing right in our faces.
00:28I'm Ellie for Who Culture here with 10 times Doctor Who trolled us, and we fell for it.
00:34Number 10.
00:35Pretending 14's regeneration would be normal.
00:38In a sense, the 14th Doctor's tenure was one great big prank.
00:43To begin with, the BBC tried to pull the wool over our eyes and hide the fact that he'd be
00:47played by David Tennant
00:48by leading us to believe that Jodie Whittaker would regenerate into Shooty Gatwa.
00:52But fans saw through this cunning ruse when it was pointed out that Gatwa had never actually been referred to
00:57as the 14th Doctor.
00:59And then Tennant was spotted on set alongside Whittaker's TARDIS.
01:02But nice try!
01:03When it later came to 14's own regeneration in The Giggle,
01:07the show tried to troll us again by making it seem like it would just be a standard transition from
01:12one Doctor to the next.
01:14Trailers were edited with different backgrounds,
01:16and Tennant and Gatwa were shown separately in all promo material,
01:20hiding the fact that they'd be appearing together.
01:22Then there was the moment itself.
01:24The way the camera dramatically pushes towards Tennant as if he's about to morph into Gatwa,
01:29and the appropriateness of his final line,
01:32Allons-y,
01:33making it seem like it will be business as usual.
01:35Unless you were one of those people who believed the Reddit leaks,
01:38then there was no reason to suspect that anything unusual would occur.
01:42And the show's playful misdirection did a really great job of keeping you guessing
01:46right up until the very last second.
01:49Number 9. Disguising Grace's Death
01:52When the cast for Series 11 was announced,
01:55Sharon D. Clarke was said to be featuring in a recurring role,
01:59alongside full-time companions Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill, and Tosin Cole.
02:03Technically speaking, that was true.
02:05Following her debut in The Woman Who Fell to Earth,
02:07she does crop up again in Arachnids in the UK,
02:10and it takes you away,
02:11with further appearances in Series 12 to come.
02:14However, what the press release failed to mention,
02:16for obvious reasons, is that Grace tragically dies at the end of her first story,
02:21with Clarke merely playing visions in subsequent stories.
02:24To put viewers well and truly off the scent,
02:26the show went a step further,
02:28releasing a promo pic of Grace alongside the fam in their costumes from the final scene,
02:34a scene Grace doesn't actually appear in.
02:36Ooh, those sneaky little marketers!
02:39A similar stunt was pulled back in 2007,
02:41when Susie Costello was incorporated into posters for the first season of Torchwood,
02:46to preserve the surprise of her death at the end of the first episode.
02:50Ooh, uh, spoilers for Torchwood, I guess.
02:52Both examples demonstrate serious commitment to the bit.
02:56It's the kind of trolling I think we can all appreciate.
02:59Number 8.
03:00David Morrissey is the next Doctor
03:02One of the things the original Christmas specials did so well
03:06was provide a strong hook to lure viewers in.
03:092007's winning formula of Kylie Minogue and the Titanic in space
03:13attracted an audience of just under 14 million,
03:16the biggest in all of New Who.
03:18In 2008, the show took a slightly different,
03:20but equally audacious, approach.
03:23With David Tennant having announced his departure in October,
03:26and Matt Smith's casting not yet announced,
03:28there was a perfect opportunity to pass off a fake 11th Doctor
03:33as the real deal and get away with it.
03:35And Russell T. Davis gladly took that opportunity.
03:38Anything for a bit of content, eh, Russ?
03:40As such, the 2008 Christmas special was built around the premise
03:44of the 10th Doctor coming screwdriver to screwdriver
03:47with his apparent successor.
03:49The actor chosen for this elaborate ruse was David Morrissey,
03:52someone who could conceivably have followed on from David Tennant
03:56and would also make an excellent Doctor.
03:57Though there were doubts about Morrissey's character from the start,
04:01with eagle-eyed fans noticing that his sonic screwdriver
04:04glimpsed in an early preview clip
04:06was nothing more than an actual screwdriver,
04:08no one could categorically say he wasn't the Doctor until broadcast.
04:13It was undeniably one of the most effective publicity stunts
04:16in the show's history,
04:17managing to score New Who's second largest audience,
04:2113 million viewers,
04:23which makes it the widest-reaching Doctor Who troll ever.
04:27Number seven, Joe Martin is the master?
04:32Fugitive of the Jadoon is a masterclass in Misdirection,
04:35a Russian doll of reveals where the introduction of the Fugitive Doctor
04:39is hidden behind the return of the Jadoon and Captain Jack Harkness.
04:43Given how many times Joe Martin has since reappeared,
04:46it's easy to forget that prior to the reveal,
04:49most people had no idea she was the Doctor.
04:52And why would we?
04:53Though it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly that she's a Time Lord,
04:56there are plenty of hints that she's one of the evil variety,
04:59from her fight with the Jadoon to her hidden blaster
05:01to the TARDIS buried under a gravestone,
05:04which at face value suggests Ruth has actually killed the Doctor.
05:08That would have been a brilliant twist, just saying.
05:10And it turns out that this idea wasn't entirely unfounded.
05:13As he has since revealed on Twitter,
05:1513th Doctor era composer Sagan Akinola deliberately tried to wrong-foot viewers
05:20by incorporating the baseline of his master theme into the reveal scene score,
05:25and thus suggests that Joe Martin is another incarnation of the Doctor's bestest enemy.
05:30To appreciate this Easter egg,
05:32fans should listen carefully in the moment that Ruth breaks the glass,
05:35where the motif is played twice,
05:37first by itself,
05:39then with the Fugitive Doctor's theme over the top.
05:41It's an incredibly subtle touch,
05:43but one that even on a subconscious level plays havoc with our expectations.
05:47It just goes to show even the show's soundtrack isn't immune to playing tricks.
05:536. Call the Doctor
05:55The Stolen Earth is remembered for tricking viewers into thinking
05:59that David Tennant was going to be leaving the show unannounced following that cliffhanger.
06:04But there's also a massive troll much earlier in the episode,
06:07when the Doctor's companions are trying to track him down via the subwave network.
06:12Their solution involves using the combined efforts of Torchwood and Mr. Smith
06:16to make every phone in the world call the Doctor,
06:19or more specifically, the mobile that Martha gave him when she left the TARDIS.
06:23As part of this sequence, the Doctor's number is shown on screen for all to see.
06:28Of course, the number chosen wasn't a real number,
06:30but one of many reserved by Ofcom to use in TV dramas.
06:34That didn't stop fans from calling it anyway, though,
06:37and venting their disappointment online at being unable to get through to the TARDIS.
06:41What a bummer.
06:42Many years later, there was a way to phone the Doctor for real
06:45as part of the marketing campaign for Flux,
06:48unlocking a voicemail recorded by Jodie Whittaker.
06:51On this occasion, the Doctor's number was 0800 678 3110.
06:55And to save any further trolling,
06:57we can confirm that this one no longer works either.
07:00So, sorry about that.
07:02Number 5. Who's Melody's father?
07:05From the moment Amy was introduced,
07:07there were hints that she wasn't fully devoted to her fiancé Rory,
07:11and instead fancied the Doctor.
07:13Well, we say hints,
07:14but her full-on snogging him was probably a bit more than a hint, wasn't it?
07:17This love triangle was explored to varying degrees of success in Series 5,
07:22and became even more complicated in Series 6,
07:25with the reveal of Amy's pregnancy raising the question,
07:28who's the father?
07:29It all sounds quite ludicrous now,
07:31but at the time, it was something the show fully played into.
07:34Initially, in Day of the Moon,
07:36when Amy confesses her love to the man who dropped out of the sky.
07:40Terrible wording there, Amy, by the way.
07:42It all came to a head in the opening scene of A Good Man Goes to War,
07:46which sees Amy tell Melody about her father,
07:49a sonic screwdriver-wielding man who has a name other than the one on his birth certificate,
07:53and despite his young appearance, has lived for hundreds and hundreds of years.
07:57Of course, this man ends up being Rory,
07:59but the bit goes on for so long that you do begin to wonder
08:02whether the show's about to pull a soap-style twist
08:05where the Doctor fathers a child with his companion.
08:08And when the penny drops,
08:09you can almost picture Steven Moffat cackling away at his keyboard.
08:12Complicated familial relations between Doctor and Companion
08:15isn't actually a million miles away from where we leave things at the end of Series 6,
08:19with the Doctor revealed to be Amy and Rory's son-in-law.
08:21Cue EastEnders theme.
08:24Number 4. Clara Who?
08:26Moffat two-parters are notorious for giving us an almighty cliffhanger at the end of Part 1,
08:32then throwing in a completely separate curveball at the start of Part 2.
08:36One of the most audacious examples is the Series 8 finale,
08:39which, directly after revealing that Missy is the Master,
08:42sees Clara try to convince us and a bunch of Cybermen that she's the Doctor.
08:47Fans first went into a frenzy following the trailer for Dark Water and Death in Heaven,
08:51with the line Clara Oswald has never existed,
08:54suggesting that there was a lot more to discover about the Impossible Girl.
08:58And in context, the moment where she actually claims that she's the Doctor
09:01isn't actually as ridiculous as it sounds.
09:03After all, Clara had already played at being the Doctor earlier in the series in Flatline.
09:08Sure, it doesn't make an ounce of sense when you stop and think about it.
09:11I mean, why would the Doctor have split herself across her own time stream?
09:14And on Rewatch, the gag becomes annoyingly obvious,
09:17but it's a surprisingly elaborate one too.
09:20They even continue it into the title sequence,
09:22with Jenna Coleman's eyes appearing in place of Peter Capaldi's
09:25and their names given in the opposite order.
09:28They were really determined to try and fool us, weren't they?
09:32Number 3.
09:33Wild Blue Yonder's Redacted Cast
09:35With so much known in advance about the first and third 60th anniversary specials,
09:41the decision was taken to shroud middle instalment Wild Blue Yonder in complete mystery.
09:46Fans first clocked this when the trailer revealing the specials' titles was released.
09:50The Wild Blue Yonder section was obscured by glitches and redacted text,
09:54and it wasn't just a dodgy video file.
09:56Following this, speculation began to mount about the episode's guest cast,
10:01with many theorising that major actors were being held back until December,
10:05possibly returning doctors or companions.
10:07Closer to broadcast, the Doctor Who magazine episode preview added fuel to the fire
10:12by simply listing three redacted cast members alongside David Tennant and Catherine Tate.
10:18In the end, it was all a massive anti-climax,
10:21with the identities of the actors Nathaniel Curtis playing Isaac Newton,
10:25Susan Twist, Mrs. Meridue, and Bernard Cribbins' Wilfred Mott all pretty unremarkable.
10:30Cribbins' return was significant for sure, but we already knew about it from filming.
10:34Likewise, Twist's debut is important in hindsight, but at the time, it meant absolutely nothing.
10:39It's fair to say there was an element of fans getting carried away with themselves here,
10:44and this is an example of the show's playfulness warping expectations and actually damaging the episode.
10:49But ultimately, this was an anniversary special,
10:52and the show's marketing team knew exactly what they were doing.
10:55Teasing us with the prospect of a Smith or Capaldi return like that?
10:58Absolutely criminal.
11:00Number 2. Amy and Rory surviving the Weeping Angels
11:04Karen Gillan and Arthur Darville's Doctor Who departure was well-publicised prior to the broadcast of The Angels Take Manhattan,
11:11but in true Moffat style, the episode kept us guessing about their fate right up until the final scene.
11:17At first, it looks like Rory is going to remain imprisoned in the Weeping Angels' Winter Key Battery Farm forever,
11:22after watching his older self die there.
11:25But then he decides to take his death into his own hands,
11:28and together with Amy, jump off the roof of the building,
11:31thereby creating a paradox and thwarting the Angels for good.
11:34And then, the pair wake up, back in the present, seemingly unharmed,
11:38suggesting they'll escape unscathed after all.
11:40Yay! They survived!
11:42A happy ending for the Ponds.
11:44Oh, wait a minute, what does that gravestone say?
11:46The great big bluff is soon revealed,
11:49with Rory ultimately sent back in time by another Weeping Angel,
11:53and Amy offering herself up to the same Angel in a bid to find him.
11:57Plenty of other companion exits have been misleading.
11:59I mean, just look at Rose's death in Doomsday, or Clara's in Face the Raven.
12:03But none have been quite as twisty-turny as this.
12:07One minute the Ponds are gone, then they're back with us, then they're gone again.
12:10Again, no doubt Moffat was hooting away at his keyboard while typing this one.
12:14Do you enjoy our pain, Stephen?
12:16Tell me, do you?
12:17Of course, the ultimate irony is that they do end up surviving the Angels,
12:21in a manner of speaking, living long and happy lives in the 20th century.
12:25So, whichever way you look at it, they got you.
12:28And number one, the name of the Doctor.
12:31Doctor Who's title is a question.
12:33A question that was first asked in the show's first story,
12:36and has been uttered countless times since.
12:39The answer, the Doctor's true name, was never that big a deal in the classic series,
12:43but took on a whole new significance in the run-up to the 50th anniversary.
12:48Having trolled fans in Forest of the Dead by showing River Song, the best character,
12:53whisper the Doctor's name to him,
12:55Moffat made it a plot point in the 11th Doctor's era,
12:58with Doctor Who retroactively becoming the universe's oldest question,
13:03and the answer becoming a secret that must never be spoken.
13:06It reached a point where it looked like the Doctor's name was finally going to be revealed,
13:11in the outrageously titled Series 7 finale, The Name of the Doctor.
13:15But ultimately, as with so much of Moffat's work,
13:18it ended up being something much more abstract,
13:20and a bait and switch to introduce the War Doctor.
13:23The name of the Doctor referring, in this case,
13:25to the Doctor's chosen name, and what it represents.
13:29Never being cruel and cowardly, yada yada yada.
13:32If the Doctor's name ever was revealed, it would almost definitely be an anti-climax.
13:36So it's probably for the best that this never came to anything.
13:39What would it even be?
13:40Keith? Malcolm? Fabio?
13:42A string of random letters?
13:44Honestly, who knows?
13:45It's a classic example of the show stringing fans along,
13:48and delivering something completely different to what was promised.
13:51But in a fun way.
13:52Long may the name of the Doctor remain a complete and total mystery.
13:58And that concludes our list.
14:00Thank you so much for supporting this channel over 2025.
14:04I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas,
14:07and a Happy New Year.
14:08And if you haven't been keeping up with all the War Between the Land and the Sea content,
14:12then make sure that you do check that out as well.
14:14In the meantime, I've been Ellie for WhoCulture,
14:16and in the words of Riversong herself,
14:19goodbye, sweeties.
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