It’s shots like this that really make me appreciate how creative Doctor Who is when it comes to portraying certain ‘adult’ things in childrens’ television.
Doctor Who is a show that has lots of people get killed in it, but generally there’s almost nothing in the way of blood and gore – a very notable exception to this being Heaven Sent, showing us the Doctor’s horrendously burned body after he was touched by the Veil.
At the end of The Doctor Falls, they used the red lining of his coat to subtly evoke the image of the Doctor lying in a pool of blood.
It’s not even something you necessarily notice, but it really makes a statement about how much thought Rachel Talalay puts into her directing and how loaded her imagery is. You can’t have a pool of blood on Doctor Who, but you can be creative and make it look like there might be one…
Also, note the lighting concept from under the TARDIS. It’s never been done before. The dark shadows creeping on the edge but not the part where the Doctor lay. It’s makes the TARDIS look like a mausoleum, where you enter and it’s dark all around except on the floor where the Doctor lay. It’s a very evocative shot.
Definitely thought went into the lighting of the tardis in these end scenes – starting out with grey, lit from below, shafts of upward light – so it’s great to read that someone noticed more than the feelings evoked. It was interesting to find all the problems when we turned off the lights. You might notice unmotivated bokeh’d coloured lights behind Bill sometimes.
Difficult scene in terms of emotions. The Doctor is dead, but the universe still awaits for her…With the option to go home in life or go exploring in love.
“Where there’s tears, there’s hope”.
Thank you for the beautiful work you’ve done @racheltalalay