10 Terrible CGI Moments In Modern Doctor Who

9. The Cybermat (Closing Time)

Doctor Who The Lazarus Experiment
BBC Studios

The Series 6 episode Closing Time marked the return of the Cybermats, small robotic creatures that, due to their size, are much sneakier than their Cybermen creators. This makes them great for infiltration purposes, and that's exactly what they're up to in this story, being used by the Cybermen to harvest power from electrical sources.

The episode brings the Cybermat to life with a mix of digital and practical effects, and while the practical ones are strong, the CGI looks absolutely terrible.

There's a scene where the Cybermat attacks the Doctor and his friend, Craig, with one or two shots featuring the digital Cybermat. The way it lunges at the two men looks fake as balls, and you can tell that the actors were struggling to react to something that wasn't actually there.

Plus, the shot that occurs right after the Doctor whacks the Cybermat with a pan is entirely unconvincing, with the look and movements of the computer-generated creature meshing terribly with its real-world surroundings.

Since it's only a couple of shots, this is one of the more tolerable instances of bad Doctor Who CGI, but it's still really bad, and it definitely earns its spot on this list.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.