10 Doctor Who Moments That Were Improvised

8. The Disinfection Process (New Earth)

Doctor Who New Earth Billie Piper Rose Tyler
BBC

New Earth is another fun story to rewatch, mainly because of the over-the-top comedy performances from David Tennant and Billie Piper. Like Baker and Sladen in Pyramids Of Mars, Tennant and Piper are having an absolute blast here, with the episode's body-swapping shenanigans allowing the two leads to ham things up to the max.

But before the body-swapping starts, there's a scene where the Doctor and Rose are disinfected by one of the lifts inside the New New York hospital, which basically involves them being doused in water, and then blow-dried.

The Doctor - who clearly knows what's about to happen - seems to rather enjoy it when the water hits him, grinning from ear-to-ear and ruffling his hair like he's having a nice hot shower. Rose, on the other hand, yelps with shock once the disinfection process begins; being a time-travelling newbie and all, she doesn't really know about the safety protocols in this far-future location, despite the Doctor's attempts to warn her.

And as it turns out, Rose wasn't the only one who was in the dark about the lift's watery surprise - Piper herself was too. Apparently, the actress had no idea that she was going to be splashed with bucketloads of water (notice how shocked she is in the episode), meaning that this moment could be considered somewhat improvised.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.