10 Doctor Who Scenes You Didn't Realise Were Tricking You
2. The Hidden Car (The Talons Of Weng-Chiang)
Doctor Who historicals have to perform literal time travel, using the resources of the present to recreate the past. And in one story, the design department had to go the extra mile to not spoil the illusion.
Tasked with recreating Victorian London in The Talons of Weng-Chiang, the production team opted to film some scenes on location, selecting streets that had changed very little in the intervening years.
Unfortunately, one of the streets’ residents failed to cooperate, as director David Maloney recounted:
“We had posted letters to all the owners of the houses, asking them all if they’d please remove their motor cars because we wanted to bring a carriage through the square. When we got there, there was a Porsche still parked in full view and it was really going to ruin everything we wanted to do.”
The car’s owner was nowhere to be seen, so the crew had only one option: to make it part of the set dressing. And so, the car ended up appearing in the finished production – albeit covered with a tarpaulin and a great big pile of straw.
It's impossible to miss too, and it's rather funny to know what's actually hidden in this shot.