10 Greatest CGI Moments In Doctor Who History

The Thirteenth Doctor’s regeneration is, by far, the most visually stunning regeneration sequence in the history of Doctor Who. The setting, the colours, the music. No notes. Beautiful.

What's most impressive about the scene is that it was achieved almost entirely through CGI. Aside from the TARDIS and Jodie Whittaker herself, everything we see is not really there. For obvious health and safety reasons, filming on the very edge of Durdle Door was not an option but you would be forgiven for assuming that the sequence was shot on a similar clifftop location to double as the Jurassic coast landmark.

This wasn’t the case, however. All of Jodie Whittaker’s performing was filmed in a green screen studio in Cardiff, while the Doctor Who team were given permission to capture the aerial shots of Durdle Door to be added later in post production.

So realistic was the CGI, in fact, that the Lulworth Estate (private owners of Durdle Door) feared the scene would encourage fans to endanger themselves by attempting to reach the location, and they accused the BBC of dishonesty for not revealing the nature of the scene when requesting to film the drone shots. Not so great for the BBC but one heck of a complement to the VFX team!

Health and safety issues aside, the final scene is a sight to behold. The fiery regeneration energy blends into the sunset over the ocean beautifully and really was the perfect send-off for the bubbly, always-optimistic Thirteenth Doctor.