10 Times Doctor Who Reused Footage And Hoped You Wouldn't Notice
3. The Lifted Lift
The lift shot is one of Doctor Who’s most infamous reused shots. Once you’ve seen it, you’ll never unsee it.
Appropriately enough, it all started with the first episode of the revived series. For the sequence where Rose takes that fateful trip down to Henrik's' basement, the team needed a shot of a descending lift (above). Ever resourceful, the BBC decided to shoot in one of its own buildings, with the lift in question being an actual BBC lift.
The shot was captured on 11 September 2004. At the time, nobody could have predicted how prolific it would become.
Whenever Doctor Who needed a shot of a lift in future, they simply reused the footage they'd captured for Rose – sometimes the original version, going down; sometimes reversed, going up. If a story has a lift in it, chances are this shot’s in there too.
It first reappeared a few stories later in World War Three, this time posing as a lift in Downing Street (below).
It would go on to feature in New Earth and Doomsday, and it even cropped up in Torchwood: Children of Earth, as a lift in Thames House (below).
Quite an achievement, for such an ordinary shot to be elevated to such legendary status.