Doctor Who director shares wild behind-the-scenes footage of David Tennant’s giant hands

doctor who wild blue yonder — (Image credit: BBC)

Doctor Who director Tom Kingsley shared behind-the-scenes footage from Wild Blue Yonder – and we're both horrified and intrigued.

In the second installment of the Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials, Donna Noble and the Doctor find themselves on a spaceship that's inhabited by shape-shifting aliens. In a particularly freaky scene, the aliens turn into, uh, stretchy versions of the Donna and the Doctor – with one of the aliens, while mimicking David Tennant, dragging two comically gigantic hands across the floor. Though it could've easily been CGI, Kingsley took to Twitter to reveal the prosthetic work behind the hands – and it's jaw-dropping.

In the video shared by Kingsley, which can be viewed below, a team member steps back behind the giant rubber hands (created by Millennium FX) – and the fingers eerily fold out in a way that is extremely life-like.

Here’s the first test of the Doctor’s massive hands - made by the team at @Millennium_FX and modelled by Jack, one of our runners #DoctorWho 4/18 pic.twitter.com/2Uqj6VHfkyDecember 3, 2023

Per Den of Geek, The Doctor’s giant hands are models of David Tennant’s actual arms using a 360 body capture scan that was created by 204 cameras taking a photograph at the same time. The arm section contained a trigger so Tennant could move the fingers, and a special shirt was made for Tennant to wear with the prosthetics.

Kingsley also explained via Twitter that Alien Donna's long arm was "sometimes a weird prosthetic, and sometimes the arm of a person just out of shot."

The third and final Doctor Who 60th anniversary special, The Giggle, premieres December 9 on BBC One and Player. For more, check out our list of the best new TV shows coming your way in 2024 and beyond.