As Jodie Whittaker signs off from her tenure as the 13th Doctor this weekend, Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall has revealed The Power of the Doctor has the most visual effects ever used in an episode of the show.
He describes every scene in the special episode as “massive”, adding “even the pre-credits – which is the longest pre-credits we’ve ever done – is like a mini movie in itself”.
“This episode has more visual effects shots than any episode in Doctor Who history. It was a huge demand on the visual effects team,” said Chibnall.
“There is a lot of action, there are a lot of locations, there are a lot of monsters, there’s a lot of things exploding! Really from the get-go it had to feel constantly on the move, constantly exciting and I think it does.”
Chibnall added that Whittaker’s final scenes as the Doctor were left to the end of the shoot. “The production team had done a great job in scheduling the final scenes of that Doctor as the final scenes we were going to film which isn’t always the case and it felt very appropriate, very right, very lovely,” he explained. “It didn’t feel like a sad day, it felt like a very happy day, a sense of job well done and there was so much love for Jodie and Mandip [Gill].”
