Another hit from Doctor Who
Dramatic moments in Doctor Who were traditionally accompanied by wobbling scenery and cut-price props.
But when viewers tune in to the latest incarnation of the BBC1 series this Saturday they will see special effects convincing enough to send adults as well as children scurrying behind the sofa.
The episode sees an alien spacecraft crash-landing in the Thames, taking a chunk out of Big Ben as it does so.
The scene where the wing of the spaceship strikes the 318ft-tall St Stephen's Tower was created not by computer, but by hand.
Model-makers used a 1/ 14thscale silicone model of the clock tower to create plaster castings, then filled them with bells and rubble to make the impact look
real. These days every other Hollywood blockbuster features sophisticated computer-generated imagery, but Mike Tucker, an expert in models and miniatures, believes some effects should be kept real.
"It was actually easier for me to swing a model of a spaceship wing into a breakable Big Ben and put it all on camera," he said.
Doctor Who is on BBC1 at 7pm this Saturday.
