Hardback from BBC Books, £35
For the first time ever, the Art Department of hit BBC TV series ‘Doctor Who’ has opened its’ doors to allow us a unique look behind the scenes into the creative world of this iconic TV show.
Our guides are Stephen Nicholas, who is the longest serving member of the Art Department, and as supervising Art Director for the show, helped oversee it’s relaunch ten years ago; and Mike Tucker, who along with writing Doctor Who novels, was a member of the BBC Visual Effects Department and now runs The Model Unit, which won a BAFTA Award for their work on the 50th anniversary episode ‘The Day of the Doctor’.
There are specialised chapters on weaponry, Robots and of course Daleks, as well as looks at the redesigning of the TARDIS.
An important part of the designers’ work is how they work with the other facets of the show such as make-up and costume and the authors take us through the processes involved.
It’s mainly a visual book with hundreds of never-before-seen photos, sketches and concepts – some of which never made it to the show.
As a special ‘extra’, the inside back cover has an envelope containing 15 art cards with designs for The Doctor’s Fob-Watch, Bracewell’s Ironsides, the paining of ‘The Fall of Arcadia’ and the Time Lords War Room to name but four.
There is only one real downside of this book, and that it mainly deals with the ‘new’ version of the show.
Although there are some designs from before the 2005 relaunch, about 90 per cent deals with the years since, and if the book is supposed to be an overview of the 50 years of creativity from the Art Department, I would have expected quite a bit more vintage images.
Apart from that though, this is an excellent insight into the workings of a department we seldom get to hear about.
