Principal photography Principal photography is that phase of producing an episode of " Doctor Who " in which the majority of the episode is filmed . It is the part of producing an episode in which actors are most heavily involved . It generally does not include any special effects , but usually does include practical effect s . It also does not include things like pick - up s or re - shoots of completed scenes , both of which are ordered by the production team after principal photography has already " wrapped " . The amount of time taken to complete principal photography on an episode of " Doctor Who " has varied greatly over time , but the length of time required to complete each story has grown over the years . " Doctor Who " . 1963 - 1989 . In the Verity Lambert era , most episodes were completely taped in a few hours , largely because they were photographed sequentially as theatrical plays with minimal editing . As the editing of videotape became more affordable , " Doctor Who " was filmed out of sequence , and thus more time could be spent filming each scene . Location filming also became increasingly common . From the advent of significant location filming in the waning half of William Hartnell ' s involvement with the program , principal photography was split between " studio days ' and " location days " . The total time needed to complete most episodes naturally increased for that reason alone . There were three major patterns in the program ' s studio recording schedule . From " An Unearthly Child " to " Spearhead from Space " , the studio recording for stories would generally happen once a week . Material for only one episode would be completed during each day ' s recording . Until " The Tenth Planet " , this day was invariably Friday . From William Hartnell ' s last story until Jon Pertwee ' s first , studio recording was done each Thursday . Barry Letts introduced a new principal photography schedule with " Doctor Who and the Silurians " . He decreed that the studio work for two episodes be completed on consecutive days each week . Thus , instead of it taking a month to complete the studio work for an entire four - part episode of " Doctor Who " , it would now only take two weeks . The innovation was born of necessity . The outside contractor Barry Newbery had used to build the cave sets for " Silurians " had delivered flimsy sets . Because they would be damaged by striking them each week , Letts came up with the solution of recording two studio days back - to - back , greatly reducing the number of times the sets would have to be taken down and put back up . The plan kept the cave sets from disintegrating . The patten of once - a - week studio filming never returned to " Doctor Who " . " The Masque of Mandragora " — or , to put it another way , Season 15 — brought with it a significant , lasting change to the progress of principal photography . The idea of " always " recording on Fridays and Saturdays was abandoned in favour of a sliding schedule of two studio days one week being followed by three the next . This not only added a fifth day of studio recording , but also allowed for a whole month to be used . A fifth day of studio recording was added to the production schedule . Thus , many stories would have a two - day week of studio recording followed by a three - day week . Location filming would usually be done for three days some time prior to the studio recording . In the case of " Mandragora " , this location filming occurred two weeks before the start of studio recording , which meant that the total time elapsed for principal photography was five weeks . This schedule was retained for the rest of the original series , although stories with fewer episodes , such as " Survival " , were completed in less time . 1996 . The TV movie starring Paul McGann was the first " modern " production of " Doctor Who " . Filmed as a movie , it had a long and complicated shoot which lasted nine weeks . As a one - off production , it did not establish any particular patterns or continue any legacies from the past . It undoubtedly established the record , however , for the longest principal photography of any single " Doctor Who " story . However , depending on one ' s views of what constitutes a " story " , it would be bested by later , multi - episode arcs of the next incarnation of the program . 2005 - present . An episode of " Doctor Who " during the Russell T Davies era of the program typically had a long principal photography schedule with greater commonality to the TV movie than the original series . However , it is difficult for those not on the production to speak intelligently about what the actual schedule was , since individual episodes were almost invariably described to the press as " behind schedule " . Nevertheless , " Rose " was likely fairly close to meeting its schedule ; it took about two months of almost around - the - clock principal photography . Principal phtography was achieved in the RTD era through the use of recording blocks , typically comprised of three to four episodes , with photography from one episode sometimes overlapping with that of another . In the case of the Cyberman arc from Season 2 , for instance , action from all four episodes was filmed jointly over the course of about three months , although material from " Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel " generally took up the first six weeks , while " Army of Ghosts / Doomsday " was mostly recorded in the latter six weeks . At the other end of the scale , an episode like " Fear Her " , with limited sets and location work , had only about three weeks of principal photography . Despite the general inability of non - crew members to ascertain the exact nature of the principal photography schedule on the 2005 series of " Doctor Who " , a key difference between the original series and the modern one is obvious . Whereas " classic " " Doctor Who " was filmed at a leisurely , weekly pace , the Russell T Davies era was characterised by long , gruelling production blocks in which work was completed every day for weeks on end .