Doctor Who Does Ghostwatch

• 24th March 2011 • Blog Post by Seb Patrick •

Okay, I’m officially pooing myself, now.

So, as I’m sure you’re aware, last night a brief teaser trailer for The Impossible Astronaut aired across the various BBC channels at 9pm. If you haven’t already seen it, head on over to the main site now. Not much to see, right?

Well, er, wrong. Because there were actually two different versions. And depending on what channel you were watching – and even, it seems, what region you were in – you may have seen one or the other.

Here’s a screencap, courtesy of “victor_02” on Gallifrey Base, from the “main” version, the one that’s since been put online:

And here’s a version that many people report seeing – oddly, on different channels, apparently depending on what area of the country they were in:

AAAAAAAGHWHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING BEHIND HIM?

Scared yet? I bloody am.

Seb Patrick once met Paul McGann, who immediately pretended to be Mark McGann. He writes for Den of Geek, BBC America, Film4 and the official Red Dwarf website, among others. He owns over thirty toy Daleks and wishes the Dapol factory tour was still open.

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10 Responses

  1. A BBC trailer, in two different versions, one of which contains a terrifying alien face? Hmm, it all seems worryingly reminiscent of that evil, evil “Which is worse…?” trailer for Radio 4’s sci-fi season from a couple of years ago. An advert which SCARRED ME FOR LIFE.

    The other, less terrifying, thing the teaser reminds me of is this.

  4. The other, less terrifying, thing the teaser reminds me of is this.

    Aren’t they all deliberate evocations of real, iconic astronaut helmet reflection shots like this: http://arthur337.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/144685main_aldrin_moon.jpg?w=335&h=389 ? People use the reflections in images like this to find all manner of evidence for conspiracy theories, so this might be Moffat’s way of commenting on the way fans of Who like to scrutinise every frame for clues.

  5. That creepy face in the second picture are called the Silence and they are going to be very important in this series. I think they come from another universe.

  6. I recorded the second one after an Armstrong and Miller compilation last weekend. Then I recorded the first one when it was shown in the original advertised timeslot for the full trailer last tuesday night. Without thinking, I deleted Armstrong and Miller before realising the two were different. Idiot.

  7. I *hate* how BBC uses different versions of things for the UK and US. I couldn’t watch the ‘prequel’ thingy on their website because I live outside the UK. That counts as discrimination in my book! Who fans should all get to see this stuff, not just the Brits. *rants, raves, and sulks*

  9. It’s to do with the BBC license, surely? There are countless US websites where access to view media content is limited to subscribers and/or specific regions. Plus Region 1 discs of American shows/films are normally far more generous than Region 2 ones. In the end all the Doctor Who clips can be found on youtube fairly easily. I’m also unaware of any American who bothered paying to play the Adventure Games! Therefore, I hope the moral of the series 6 opener is that all Americans are rubbish! And fat!!

    Not really. Just getting impatient for the new series to hurry up and start.

  10. Right okay. Here’s a thing.

    I have this childhood memory of something similar. I’m guessing I was of school ill, being bored out of my mind watching This Morning when they did their occasional Occult/Paranormal phone-in bit. In the pre-amble they referred to this picture someone had taken of their kid in a park, or a quarry or something.

    Anyhow what was strange about the picture was that behind the child clearly stood a man in a space suit. The utterly bizarre bit being that the figure clearly wasn’t there when the photograph was taken.

    Nowadays this of course would be a 20 second paste job in photoshop, but back then it was bigger news.

    Or at least I thought it was, I’ve tried searching the internet for a reminder of the details and never turned anything up.

    Anyhow this just looks like the reverse of that.

    Clever trick though.