Doctor Who: 10 Behind The Scenes Bust-Ups BBC Doesn't Want You To Know

4. Steven Berkoff Vs. Douglas Mackinnon

Doctor Who The Power Of Three Steven Berkoff Shakri
BBC Studios

The Eleventh Doctor story The Power Of Three is one of the better scripts written by current showrunner Chris Chibnall, but the episode isn't perfect, because it completely falls flat in its final stretch.

A promising build-up involving an invasion of black cubes leads to an abrupt conclusion in which the mastermind behind said invasion - the Shakri - just vanishes, leaving the Doctor to fix everything with a few waves of his sonic screwdriver.

It's one of those cases where you can almost see the behind-the-scenes trouble bleeding through to the screen (there are a few close-up shots of Matt Smith that feel like hasty reshoots against a green screen), and reportedly, this rushed finale is a result of Shakri actor Steven Berkoff being an absolute nightmare to work with.

Apparently, Berkoff just would not act, meaning that there simply wasn't enough usable footage of him to assemble a proper finale. This explains why Berkoff only appears in really quick shots, why he pretty much just stands still the entire time, and why the same few camera angles are used over and over.

While this bust-up is largely rumour-based, one need only look at the episode itself, Berkoff's disinterest towards Doctor Who, and this interview with The Power Of Three director Douglas Mackinnon - in which he states that Berkoff's work was "something that'll never be repeated" - for some quote-unquote "proof" of Berkoff's bad behaviour.

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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!