History SpecialEffectFailure / DoctorWho

** The Absorbaloff looks rather stupid when finally seen. And it might not even be the fault of any of the Effects team - when one is tasked with creating a blobby humanoid creature with the partial faces of its victims merged into its body, even with a job well done it would be rather difficult ''not'' to make the end product look ridiculous in a bad way.

* The single most iconic example of this trope in Dalek history, ''Doctor Who'' history and possibly even science fiction history: The end of the moody and atmospheric episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks "The Dead Planet"]] is a {{Cliffhanger}} where Barbara senses something following her through a dead city, reaches a dead end, turns, sees the alien following her (obscured, by ShakyPOVCam, to the audience except for its right arm), and [[ScreamingWoman screams]]... at something that is obviously just an everyday sink plunger stuck on a telescopic pole. The original intention had been to give the Daleks a claw-like appendage (similar to what is seen in the non-canon ''Film/DrWhoAndTheDaleks''), but the BBC ran out of money, and so just stuck on something that looked like it could manipulate things, which they then had to design the sets around (Dalek control panels, even in the very first series, are always circular). The tie-in book ''A History of the Universe in 100 Objects'', which mostly features in-universe items, contains an entry for "Sink Plunger (c.1963)" and ends up a list of things that a Dalek may do with "cleaning toilets". Even with good budgets, this was so iconic that it was kept, and the first Dalek episode of the new series features a scene where [[DoNotTauntCthulhu a fool jokes that the Dalek might sucker him to death.]] It proceeds to do exactly that.

* The black and white era sometimes uses photographic reproductions (read: cardboard cut-outs) of background Daleks in scenes with lots of them (before the first movie was made, there were a total of four Dalek props, and after it a massive ''twenty'', one of which was accidentally rendered unusable in filming the second movie the next year). The background in the [=TARDIS=] control room in the black and white era is also a simple matte painting. (This could be gotten away with because the TV system used in the UK for black and white was also much lower resolution than any system ever used for colour. [[note]]The system in use, System A, had a total resolution of 405 lines and an even lower effective resolution, which is even lower than that of a black and white System M (NTSC) TV. In fact, it had the lowest resolution of all television systems, black and white or otherwise. This persisted until the UK switched over to the superior 625 lines resolution of System B in early 1968.[[/note]] This level of crudity was never tried for any colour episode.)

* While more visually impressive than the above attempt, the CGI used for [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie The TV Move]]'s sequence doesn't really go beyond "UsefulNotes/PlayStation FMV" quality. The tunnel in particular looking like curved image plane textures at several points.

* The First Doctor's wig can be seen peeling away at the edges or interfering with his forehead movement in a few scenes — notably, at the {{Denouement}} of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E7TheSpaceMuseum "The Space Museum"]], where the lace is visible during his ScriptWank.

The original ''Series/DoctorWho'' television series, particularly in its early years, brought home the cliché of "Incredibl(y Cheap) BBC Special Effects" to entire generations of fans. The shoestring-budget look has become one of the most warmly remembered parts of the show, and a major fear of many fans prior to the premiere of the new series is that it would look too well-done. Though Creator/ColinBaker's response to the people who "loved" the poor special effects is that you ''didn't'' love them: you ''tolerated'' them, you ''forgave'' them. Claiming otherwise is just your NostalgiaFilter operating. It really demonstrates that if the writing and acting is good (as most, but by no means all, of ''Doctor Who''[='=]s has been), the audience will forgive pretty much anything else. It was still ''generally'' good for its time (compare other sci-fi from the same time period), except for the earliest seasons and the seasons made during the UK recession of the late '70s. In addition to being lovable because of its {{Special Effect Failure}}s, there were times when the inability to properly articulate humanoid aliens or robots put them squarely in the UnintentionalUncannyValley to pants-wetting effect.

The original ''Series/DoctorWho'' television series, particularly in its early years, brought home the cliché of "Incredibl(y Cheap) BBC Special Effects" to entire generations of fans. The shoestring-budget look has become one of the most warmly remembered parts of the show, and a major fear of many fans prior to the premiere of the new series is that it would look too well-done. Though Creator/ColinBaker's response to the people who "loved" the poor special effects is that you ''didn't'' love them: you ''tolerated'' them, you ''forgave'' them. Claiming otherwise is just your NostalgiaFilter operating. It really demonstrates that if the writing and acting is good (as most, but by no means all, of ''Doctor Who''[='=]s has been), the audience will forgive pretty much anything else. It was still ''generally'' good for its time (compare other sci-fi from the same time period), except for the earliest seasons and the seasons made during the UK recession of the late '70s. In addition to being lovable because of its Special Effect Failures, there were times when the inability to properly articulate humanoid aliens or robots put them squarely in the UnintentionalUncannyValley to pants-wetting effect.

[[caption-width-right:350:The BBC, doing what it does worst.[[note]]Effects pictured are, clockwise from top-left: Chopping the frame in half to edit in the Kroll in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E5ThePowerOfKroll "The Power of Kroll"]], cardboard cutout Daleks in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E3ThePowerOfTheDaleks "The Power of the Daleks"]], a beast from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E4TheAndroidsOfTara "The Androids of Tara"]], a monster made from black packing tape in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E11FearHer "Fear Her"]], ants with shoes in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E5TheWebPlanet "The Web Planet"]], and plastic dinosaur MiniatureEffects in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E2InvasionOfTheDinosaurs "Invasion of the Dinosaurs"]].[[/note]]]]

--> -- '''Creator/PeterDavison''' on the quality of the new TARDIS set, "[[Recap/TheFiveishDoctorsReboot The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot]]"

%%The failures are arranged loosely by chronology. Dalek failures have their own section at the top, then the TARDIS, title sequences below that, and general failures go underneath that.