Dunraven Bay - Doctor Who

SCREENSHOT from "Doomsday" - The Doctor and Rose at "Bad Wolf Bay."

In this episode of Doctor Who called “Doomsday” - the season two finale - The Doctor says goodbye to Rose on a beach called “Bad Wolf Bay.” It’s a heartbreaking scene, as all goodbyes are. The location shows up again as “Bad Wolf Bay” in “Journey’s End” for another ending goodbye scene that is a little more hopeful, with a dash of tears.

For this particular scene, Rose and her family travel to Bad Wolf Bay in Norway, to find The Doctor whose voice she had heard in a dream. In a voice-over Rose says that they travel across the ocean and hundreds and hundreds of miles, following the voice, and it’s a lot like her time with The Doctor. She followed him, followed his voice when he told her to run, when he told her about the new worlds they were experiencing together. Hundreds and hundreds of moments she had with him, and hundreds and hundreds of miles she travelled to see him again.

When she and her family reach the beach it’s windy, cold and is the kind of desolate beauty that makes the viewer understand right away that this is not going to be a happy ending.

PHOTO from Visit the Vale website of Dunraven Bay.

Quick history lesson

“Bad Wolf Bay” is actually Dunraven Bay in Wales, also called Southerndown beach as part of the village of Southerndown. The cliffs and outcropping of rocks behind The Doctor is called Witches Point. The area has been occupied since the Iron Age and the beach is known as a good place to spot fossils. The tide changes the landscape pretty drastically, according to many pictures I’ve seen. When the tide is in the sandy beach seems to completely disappear.

Since 1972 the area has been a part of the Heritage Coast off the Atlantic, and the winds make for good waves that attract surfers. The sedimentary rock formations, products of earthquakes and erosion, create an interesting ground cover that Doctor Who filmmakers have used as otherworldly landscapes (“Time of the Angels”, “Flesh and Stone”).

SCREENSHOT from "Doomsday" - Rose alone after The Doctor disappears.

What it means to me

When I was a kid Doctor Who would play on the local PBS station and I absolutely fell in love with the show. Tom Baker played the Fourth Doctor and the opening sequence scared me for some reason, and inexplicably still makes me uncomfortable to watch as an adult, but the following episodes always made it worth it. In 2005 Doctor Who returned to televisions around the world with Christopher Eccleston playing the Ninth Doctor and Billie Piper as his companion Rose Tyler. The end of that season saw Eccleston replaced with David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and his travels with Rose became more intense as their friendship deepened until their journey came to an end in the episode “Doomsday.”

I think the reason this scene in “Doomsday” is important to me is that the viewer is supposed to empathize with The Doctor’s companions and it was time for Rose to move on to have a different adventure on her own. It certainly didn’t mean an end to the show, which is still running with the incredible Jodi Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, but of a friendship, a relationship fans had watched grow over two seasons that had been torn apart on a deserted beach beside a turbulent ocean. Many of us cried an ocean along with Rose.

The decision-makers behind using Dunraven Bay as “Bad Wolf Bay” should still be patting themselves on the back 14 years later.

SCREENSHOT of a view of Dunraven Bay using Google Earth.

Best way to virtually visit

Since there isn’t a ready-made virtual tour to use, I first tried Google Maps with little luck on getting down to the beach where I wanted to be, and moved on to use Google Earth. I like using Google Earth on my tablet more than the PC, but both work the same way.

1. Open the Google Earth app or go to https://www.google.com/earth/ (Click "Launch Earth)

2. Click the magnifying glass icon to search and enter “Dunraven Bay”

3. Use the + (plus) icon to zoom in

The 3D option will help get a better feel for the cliffs and will pan around to get a 360 degree view of the area. You can go back to the 2D view anytime.

SCREENSHOT of Google Earth after clicking on the icon for Street View.

Moving in too close means losing picture resolution, but by clicking on the little figure icon, you go into "Street View" and blue lines and dots show up indicating a closer view. Since the Google camera didn’t go down to the beach, you are now relying on pictures taken by previous visitors within the "Photo Sphere," and that’s not a bad thing. The little blue dots indicate a picture which will often give you a 360 degree view that is fabulous. The Photo Sphere contribution from user Jan Vebr is the closest to where it seems The Doctor and Rose were standing.

SCREENSHOT of Dunraven Bay from Google Earth. Photo by user Jan Vebr.

Is it the same as walking the beach yourself? No, of course not, but it’s still very cool and if I ever get the chance to visit, I will definitely be trying my best to take pictures to contribute and add to the experience for other fans and virtual visitors.

If you plan to physically visit, check out the Visit the Vale website for more info about Dunraven Bay.