9 years after it aired, followers uncover a Dr Who episode completely copy-pasted a Skyrim dragon PNG from a wiki for some background VFX
Human beings are unbelievable at recognising patterns—which is an evolutionary reflex. See, we’re hunter-gatherers, so having the ability to recognise the sample of an edible plant in opposition to the sample of an inedible one may imply the distinction between life and dying. Nicely, no less than, it used to. Now we sit round and play videogames.
However these instincts are nonetheless kicking up there in our noggins, as confirmed by consumer guiltyassassin56 on the r/Skyrim subreddit who, virtually a decade after it was launched, matched a random background prop in a brief scene of a Dr Who episode—season 10, episode 1 to be particular—to a random JPEG of a Skyrim skeleton.
Skyrim Dragon Skeleton in Physician Who S10 Ep1 ‘The Pilot’ from r/skyrim
Nicely, I say “random”, it is truly the picture for the Skeletal Dragon on the Elder Scrolls Fandom wiki and, coincidentally, the primary picture end result I bought when looking out “skeletal dragon” on Google. Whether or not that was true 9 years in the past is anyone’s guess, for the reason that episode was launched in 2017. Simply to make sure it was from right here, I double-checked and the dates do, no less than, line up: The web page was made method again in 2011.
Now, you is likely to be a skeptic. You would possibly say “Harvey, they give the impression of being related, however the place’s the proof they’re actually the identical?” Nicely, this is an overlay from consumer Lee993 of the tail that is fairly compelling:
However as a journalist, it is my job to be super-duper sure. So I went forward, rolled my sleeves up, opened Clip Studio Paint, and bought to reworking, producing this .gif. Once I posted it to our work Slack as additional proof, my colleague Joshua Wolens said: “a deep a part of me wants the X-Recordsdata theme to play over this”.
I did not get as good of a line-up as Lee993, however the precise positioning of the top, ribs, blown-out chest cavity and wing just about cinches it.
This is not tremendous unusual for VFX artists in TV sequence—it isn’t even unusual for videogames. Again in 2024, Battle Thunder by chance launched official artwork with the particles of the Area Shuttle Challenger Catastrophe copy-pasted within the background. Which is somewhat worse than a beleaguered VFX artist on their nth cup of espresso looking for a monster skeleton for a background shot.
Nonetheless, it is a good reminder that we have been the apex predators of the animal kingdom, capable of see patterns anyplace—it is simply, y’know. Now we use it for nerd trivia as a substitute of life-or-death herb choice. How far we have come.