10 Doctor Who Scenes You Didn't Realise Were Tricking You

The Power of the Doctor was full of rewarding moments for long-term fans, but it might surprise you to learn how some of them were put together.

The canny contrivance of the Doctor’s adaptive hologram allowed returning companion actors Janet Fielding and Sophie Aldred to briefly reunite with their respective Doctors, Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy.

At least, that’s how it appeared onscreen.

In reality, both scenes were shot in two halves, with neither Davison nor McCoy originally present.

“He wasn’t there that day,” Fielding told the Long Island Doctor Who convention when asked about acting alongside Davison. Similarly, Aldred confirmed to Doctor Who Magazine that “in the scene in the cave, it wasn’t Sylvester”.

While Fielding had to make do with an assistant director reading in the Doctor’s lines, Aldred was fortunate to have an old friend on set in the form of Barnaby Edwards (who was there as a Dalek operator), and was able to request that he stood in for the Seventh Doctor.

However, Fielding and Aldred were able to make up for this when the other halves of each scene were recorded, and came back to read in their lines opposite their Doctors.

“I was right there, inches away from him, with him in the old costume,” Aldred recalled. “It was lovely.”