10 Doctor Who Moments That Were Improvised

9. The Synchronised Turn (Pyramids Of Mars)

Doctor Who Pyramids Of Mars
BBC

Pyramids Of Mars is one of the most entertaining classic serials to rewatch. Not only does it have a fantastic villain in Sutekh The Destroyer, but the chemistry between Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen is electric, and they're a joy to watch from start to finish.

You can just tell that Baker and Sladen had a really fun time while making this one, and that might be because they were given a lot of freedom to improvise, when the moment called for it.

The best example of this is in episode four, where the Doctor and Sarah Jane emerge from their hiding spot, see a mummy, do a quick synchronised turn, and dart back into cover, hoping to remain unseen. Supposedly, Baker got the idea for the turn from a Marx brothers comedy routine, and decided to do it while filming Doctor Who.

It's a throwaway moment in the grand scheme of things, but regardless, he and Sladen managed to make it one of the most memorable, hilarious bits in the entire serial.

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Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!