10 Times Doctor Who Trolled You (And You Fell For It)

10. Pretending Fourteen’s Regeneration Would Be Normal

In a sense, the Fourteenth Doctor’s tenure was one great big prank.

To begin with the BBC tried to pull the wool over our eyes and hide the fact that he’d be played by David Tennant, by leading us to believe that Jodie Whittaker would regenerate into Ncuti Gatwa.

But fans saw through this cunning ruse when it was pointed out that Gatwa had never actually been referred to as the Fourteenth Doctor... and then Tennant was spotted on set alongside Whittaker’s TARDIS. But nice try.

When it later came to Fourteen’s own regeneration in The Giggle, the show tried to troll us again by making it seem like it would just be a standard transition from one Doctor to the next. Trailers were edited with different backgrounds, and Tennant and Gatwa were shown separately in all promo material, hiding the fact that they’d be appearing together.

Then there was the moment itself – the way the camera dramatically pushes towards Tennant as if he’s about to morph into Gatwa, and the appropriateness of his “final” line, “Allons-y!”, making it seem like it will be business as usual.

Unless you were one of those people who believed the Reddit leaks then there was no reason to suspect that anything unusual would occur, and the show's playful misdirection did a really great job of keeping you guessing right up until the very last second.