8 Doctor Who Moments The Creators Don't Like

2. Peter Davison Thinks The Plasmatons Are Rubbish

Doctor Who Time-Flight Plasmatons
BBC Studios

Doctor Who is famous for having some questionable production values, especially during the classic years.

Though this is part of the low-budget charm of the show, it's fair to say that a lot of the monsters back in those days looked pretty cheap and unconvincing, and the Fifth Doctor himself, Peter Davison, would definitely agree - at least, in regards to one specific creature.

The serial Time-Flight features entities called Plasmatons, which basically look like shapeless grey blobs of gunk. Their design is pretty uninspired and bland, and Davison thinks they look flat-out rubbish:

"They were just nothing at all, they were lumps of polystyrene... it was just one more indignity that was heaped upon the story. It was a real symbol that [the BBC had] run out of money. 'What can we do for these Plasmatons? Let's just make them lumps of polystyrene!'"

To be fair to the Doctor Who team, they didn't really have a lot of money back in those days, and their effects technology was much more limited than it is today.

That being said... we have to agree with Davison. Sorry, Plasmatons.

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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!