10 Terrible CGI Moments In Modern Doctor Who

9. The Cybermat (Closing Time)

Doctor Who The Cybermat Closing Time
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 over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!