10 Doctor Who Secrets That Were Hiding In Plain Sight
Don't blink! Blink and you'll miss these cool Doctor Who details hidden right before your eyes.
The Doctor rarely takes a moment to pause for breath, instead lurching from crisis to crisis and never looking back. This is reflected in the pace of modern Doctor Who, which can often reach breakneck speeds. It's therefore easy to miss things when you first sit down to watch an episode.
Every episode of Doctor Who is an ensemble effort, bringing together writers, directors, actors, art directors, costume designers, VFX artists, composers, and many more to realise the weird and wonderful worlds that the TARDIS takes us to. This collaborative effort means that these other departments are working to emphasise the themes addressed in the writer's script.
Whether it's a costume choice that exemplifies a character trait, or a piece of set dressing that hints at what's really going on elsewhere in the Doctor Who universe, we've travelled back through Doctor Who's timestream to identify some of the hidden design flourishes that add more depth to this wonderful show!
So don't blink – these secrets may be right in plain sight, but they're still very easy to miss.
10. There's A Hidden Dalek Language (Rose)
Just as Rose Tyler scattered the words BAD and WOLF across time and space at the end of Series 1, so too did the Daleks send their own message, using their own language.
This was an in-joke by production designer Edward Thomas and his team, who seeded this "graffiti" into various sets and props in non-Dalek episodes. It can first be seen to the right of some mannequins in a store window in the opening moments of Rose, but strangest of all is that it can also be seen in World War Three, when Jackie Tyler seeks refuge in Mickey's flat.
In the bottom corner are two large red wooden objects that look like bits of a coffee table or an elaborate magazine rack. But actually, they're designed to mimic the same Dalek graffiti glimpsed elsewhere in the series!
This graffiti made one of its last appearances in a Radio Times photoshoot to promote Series 2 in 2006, a subtle nod to the fact that the Daleks would make a surprise return in the finale.
Thomas has also claimed it can be found in most episodes of Series 1 – so keep those eyes peeled.