10 Reasons Doctor Who Is Better When You're An Adult
7. Visual Effects - Praising The Practical And Cringing At The CGI
The season one two-parter Aliens of London and World War Three demonstrated the best and worst Doctor Who gave us in terms of special effects.
The Slitheen family disguise themselves by wearing the skins of government members, plotting to use their new identities to turn Earth into a scrapyard. When at risk of being exposed, the Slitheen begin to hunt down the Doctor and companions, resulting in some of the worst CGI the show has to offer.
When searching, the Slitheen are portrayed by actors in skilfully made costumes, making them genuinely creepy. With washed-out green, wrinkled skin, black, bulbous eyes and giant, claw-like hands splayed, they look unquestionably alien. Yet the second they begin to chase their victims all sense of realism is lost. They look clumsy, untextured, and more computer-generated than other-worldly.
While we may have been equally amazed by both types of effect as children, as an adult we can identify the skill behind the Slitheen’s costume design when comparing it to their abysmal CGI appearance. Yet, as an adult, we can also appreciate that a lack of budget combined with a relatively new medium could have left the computer-generated effects from the first season looking less plausible than its later seasons.