10 Simple Doctor Who Scenes That Were A NIGHTMARE To Film

The Ninth Doctor and Rose’s arrival in Victorian Cardiff in The Unquiet Dead is, on the surface, nothing too complicated – it’s basically two characters walking down a street.

However, the amount of work that went into creating this street, and bringing it to life, was immense. In fact, it was the biggest shoot that the BBC Wales team had attempted up to this point.

“It’s an enormous thing to coordinate,” producer Phil Collinson told Doctor Who Confidential. And with eight horse-drawn carriages, seventy-odd extras in period dress, and heaps of fake snow – not to mention the fact that it was a night shoot – you can certainly see where he was coming from!

The ‘snow’, in particular, was something of a logistical nightmare. It took much longer to put down than planned, and coupled with the wind, caused great distress to the horses.

“It was a very difficult environment to work in,” recalled director Euros Lyn. “And I was panicking that I didn’t have the performances that I wanted from these artists.”

In the end, he needn’t have worried. The scene came together perfectly in the edit, resulting in one of Series 1’s most memorable, evocative settings.