10 Doctor Who Scenes You Didn't Know Were Unscripted

Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who was, for better or worse, full of innuendos.

There’s the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors comparing the sizes of their, ahem, sonic screwdrivers; the Master's "etheric beam locators" in The Curse of Fatal Death; and not to mention the endless browser history jokes.

So it’ll probably surprise you to learn that one of the most risqué moments in his era was in fact an ad-lib.

In Series 9 opener The Magician’s Apprentice, Missy proposes an alliance with the Daleks, who she previously worked with (as the Master) in Frontier in Space. As part of this, she urges the Daleks to not destroy the Doctor’s TARDIS, which she describes as “the dog’s unmentionables”, before tickling the bumps of a nearby Dalek.

The dialogue itself all came from Moffat, but it was Michelle Gomez’s idea to add the visual gag, as she confirmed during a live Twitter Q&A, where she described it as a "spontaneous outreach". Clearly, stroking a Dalek's balls was too good an opportunity to pass up!

This wasn't the first time Gomez had gone off-script to create a memeable moment, with her "Hey Missy you're so fine!" singalong in the Series 8 finale also being improvised.

Further proof that she was perfect casting for the role.