20 things we learnt from the Series 5 DVD box-set extras
The DVD box set will be released on 8 November, and here are some intriguing titbits to be learnt from the extras…
1. There will be a speech in the Christmas special about the Doctor not having a hat.
2. Matt Smith calls Karen Gillen “Plumpy sparrow” because she likes to eat but doesn’t put on weight.
3. The “Jeff co-ordinates the experts via his laptop” scene in “The Eleventh Hour” was originally going to take place in a classroom full of kids (without the porn references)...
4. Also in “The Eleventh Hour”, during the video conference, the guy above Patrick Moore is the director’s brother.
5. The cave corridors in the Silurian two-parter were redressed corridors from the Byzantium in the Weeping Angels two-parter (that’s why they’re both circular).
6. Karen calls her chin her “plural” because she thinks she has a double chin.
7. The Tennant-era TARDIS makes an unscheduled cameo appearance in “The Time Of Angels” – they used the wrong CGI version in the scene where River flies through space.
8. Matt Smith eats egg and cress sandwiches on set nearly every day.
9. In “The Time Of Angels” Matt Smith really did bite Karen’s hand. Her scream was for real.
10. The gondolas in “The Vampires Of Venice” were filmed in Caerphilly Castle moat and CGIed in later.
11. The Pandorica Chamber was the biggest set ever built for Doctor Who to date.
12. Matt bought a copy of football mag Match as a Secret Santa present.
13. Karen bought Matt a Katherine Jenkins calendar.
14. The line about the “final resting place of the Headless Monks” in “The Time Of Angels” was texted by Moffat to the crew when producer Piers Wenger felt that the ecclesiastical location needed some explanation.
15. Amy learnt about all the Doctor’s previous companions in-between “Flesh And Stone” and “The Vampires Of Venice”.
16. Mark Gatiss’s favourite colour is orange.
17. The Silurian voiceover during “Cold Blood” was a post-filming addition, scripted by Steven Moffat.
18. Mark Gatiss has been trying to sneak the phrase “arrows of the half-light” into a script for years (he failed again with “Victory Of The Daleks” – it was cut).
19. Alex Kingston was worried she would look like mutton dressed as lamb as Cleoptra.
20. Originally the book the Doctor finds in “The Time Of Angels” was going to have been written by one of the warrior clerics whom the Angels had sent back in time.
