10 Doctor Who Moments IMPOSSIBLE To Watch The Same After This
7. Catherine Tate Didn’t Know The Sontarans Were Actors
Onscreen Donna was somewhat perplexed by the Sontarans, pronouncing ‘Sontaran’ as ‘Sonterrun’. And behind-the-scenes, things weren’t much different.
As Catherine Tate revealed in a 2008 interview with Jonathan Ross, she didn’t initially realise that the potato-headed aliens were played by actors.
“Two weeks in [to filming] I realised there’s someone in it!” she recalled. “And then they take their helmet off, and Bob pops out. I nearly died!”
Prior to this, Tate was under the impression that the Sontarans were props that “ran on electricity”.
This might seem a little far-fetched at first, but when you consider that Donna never encountered a Sontaran with its helmet off, it’s not too hard to see how she might've reached that conclusion.
In any case, it certainly makes you see Donna’s Sontaran scenes in a different light – particularly the moment in The Poison Sky where she hits one in the back of the neck!
And who knows, maybe Tate had a similar experience filming with Beep the Meep in the 60th anniversary specials. Was that shot in the latest trailer her genuine reaction to meeting the prop? Time will tell!