Doctor Who: 10 Things You Didn't Know About The Twelfth Doctor
9. Peter Capaldi's Actual Skull Was Used In Heaven Sent
One of the many striking images in the classic Twelfth Doctor episode Heaven Sent is the lake full of skulls. It's a grim image, hinting at the impossibly large number of times the Doctor has endured the confession dial loop. However, it takes on an even grimmer tone when you realise that those skulls are actually Peter Capaldi's!
Millenium FX producer Kate Walshe revealed this morbid detail after the episode went out. Having previously taken a cast of Peter Capaldi's head to create the ghost version of the Doctor in Under the Lake/Before the Flood, they were able to use that cast to create the skulls in Heaven Sent. In rather grim-sounding detail, as Walshe explained!
"We cast a version of Peter's face out in clay, and, following the contours of his distinctive bone structure, pared the form back to reveal what we imagine may be Peter's own skull."
In collaboration with director Rachel Talalay and producer Peter Bennett, Walshe and her team were keen to preserve the secrets of the confession dial by not making Capaldi's skull too obvious.
As if any of us would've immediately recognised his skull.