Doctor Who: 13 Cool Details Steven Moffat Just Revealed About The Girl In The Fireplace

10. This Is How The Doctor Could Tell The Clockwork Droids Were Scanning Reinette's Brain

Doctor Who The Girl in the Fireplace clockwork droid
BBC/Twitter: @StevenWMoffat

Just after that shot of Paris, the Doctor has his first run-in with a clockwork droid, before discovering that the villains have been "scanning" Reinette's brain.

When you watch the episode normally, it's not really clear how the Doctor knows about the brain scanning thing - he just grabs her head, looks at her for a second, and then makes that assertion.

As Doctor Who fans, we're used to explaining unusual things by saying "well... it's because the Doctor is really clever!" but in this case, we have more of an explanation than that.

According to Moffat, the Doctor knows that Reinette's brain is being scanned because of her irises. Presumably, they look different in some way, and he's able to use this information to deduce what the droids have been doing.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.