10 Doctor Who Moments That Were Improvised

10. Amy's Letter (The Angels Take Manhattan)

This bit of improvisation doesn't physically appear onscreen, but it's such a great story that it's definitely worth talking about.

After Amy and Rory are zapped back in time at the end of The Angels Take Manhattan, the Doctor reads a letter that Amy has written for him. Here, we get an intimate close-up shot of the Doctor's face as he soaks in her final words, with Amy's narration of the letter allowing the audience to hear those words along with him.

While the Doctor is alone in this scene, Matt Smith wasn't alone while shooting it. In fact, Karen Gillan was sat right next to him (just out of frame), reading the letter aloud so that Smith could hear the words in Amy's voice, allowing him to deliver a stronger performance - and this is where the improvisation comes in.

While Gillan was reading the letter, she realised that she didn't have the entire thing with her - she only had the first two pages. As a result, she had to improvise the final chunk, in order to help Smith keep his concentration and finish the scene. This means that Smith's performance is a direct result of Gillan's improvisation. Good job Pond.