Doctor Who: 12 Cool Details Russell T Davies Just Revealed About New Earth & Gridlock
2. The Face Of Boe Prop Used In Gridlock Was A Completely New Build
The Face of Boe's death scene required the character to do a lot of talking, as well as a lot of emoting - certainly much more than in his previous appearances.
However - according to Davies - the Face of Boe prop that the Doctor Who team had worked with previously was just "a sheet of rubber", which would've been impossible to work with in Gridlock, because Boe needed to be out of his glass casing.
And so, this version of Boe was a brand-new build, constructed in such a way that the production team was able to give the character an emotional send-off.