Doctor Who is known for it's incredible creature designs even comparing it to the inventive low-budget effects of the 60s and 70s. Last season of Doctor Who continued the tradition with terrifying creatures like the Teller and the redesigned Cybermen. Recently, Radio Times shared some concept art and talked with Millennium FX which helped design the special effects and creatures. The also shared some mind-blowing artwork by several of the talented concept artists.
Neill Gorton, Chris Goodman, Dave Bonneywell, Brian Coldrick, Gary Pollard, Calum5 and Kevin Walker are professional concept artists who've worked on Hollywood films like Children of Men (2006), Clash of the Titans (2010) and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001).
Click on the images to enlarge.
Deep Breath - Half-Face Man
Robot of Sherwood
The Hunter
"Mark Gatiss is really good so we often get his scripts really early on, months and months in advance. When a script first comes through it has all these amazing ideas and concepts and locations in it, but the reality of what we can shoot within a TV schedule is really tight. By the time we got to prep, the script and structure had changed. The Hunter was a character who never made it into the episode, but I can’t reveal what he did." - Kate Walshe, one of the SFX Producers at Millennium FX
Time Heist
Teller
"With the Teller, the script described it as insectoid, massive, hulking, all these adjectives, but it didn’t really give us very much detail. It was when we were in a meeting going through the script, talking about what to shoot and where, that we came up with the idea of the two tentacles coming together to produce the beam." - Kate Walshe
"The bulk of the design work for The Teller was done by Neill Gorton, Dave Bonneywell and Gary Pollard. I threw in a few early designs but the majority of my contribution was on The Teller’s straight jacket-like costume." - Chris Goodman
Bank Guards
Psi
"We tried to think about who the character was – he’s obviously interested in looking cool, but technology is important for him – so we tried to imagine future technologies but also future trends in wearable technology. Steven was really insistent about getting a certain look. We kept producing stuff and not getting it quite right for him. Normally we do something, then one or two variations, and then we’ll nail it. But with Psi we did 20 or so variations." - Kate Walshe
"I did several variations for the make-up design of the Doctor Who character Psi, some of which can be seen in this gallery. In the episode 'Time Heist', Psi is a cybernetically enhanced ‘gamer’ who aides the Doctor in a bank heist. Make-up by Dave Bonneywell and model build by Nico Zarcone." - Chris Goodman
Bank of Karabraxos Guards
"One of the first designs that I have ever had made was for the Doctor Who episode Time Heist. I did a few sketches that became the helmets for the Guards of the bank of Karabraxos. Brilliantly realised by model maker Pete Fielding." - Chris Goodman
The Caretaker - Skovox Blitzer
“It’s like most design processes, you need to start quite loose. Especially because of the tight turnaround with our builds, you can’t spend too long on one design in the hope they will like it,” Rob Mayor explains. “Unless it’s something very specific in the script, you basically cast a wide net then gradually you see what appeals to people and what strikes a chord. Then we start to hone down and refine the design from there. There’s no point in doing a selection of sketches that are kind of the same.” - Kate Walshe
"Skovox Blitzer marks the first time a design of mine has been realised as a complete character." - Chris Goodman
Kill the Moon - Moon Spiders
"Originally, they wanted incredibly spindly legs, kind of like spider crabs. To build something that could actually function on set would have been so problematic for us, so we tried to push them in a way that was possible for us, with slightly chunkier legs." - Kate Walshe
Dark Water/Death in Heaven
Danny Cyberman
“It was a really tricky one to nail: getting across the horror of what Danny’s going through while keeping it sympathetic. A big part of that was actually Samuel’s performance. We can add all of this body horror, but he has such kind eyes that we had a lot to work with.” - Kate Walshe
Mausoleum Skeleton
"It was a really tricky concept, because obviously they’re people’s relatives, but really for the skeletons to operate the Cyber-costumes they should have had some muscle structure. But Rachel Talalay [the episode’s director] was quite clear what she wanted and we were able to scale back from that to really cool, interesting skeletons." - Kate Walshe
See more of they're awesome portfolio at their sites:
- Neill Gorton http://neillgorton.com
- Chris Goodman http://christophergoodman.com
- Dave Bonneywell http://www.davebonneywell.com
- Brian Coldrick http://www.briancoldrick.com
- Calum5 http://www.calum5.com/
Via Radio Times via io9
What do you think ofthe concept art? If you've seen Doctor Who what do you think of the creatures on season 8?
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Nice! I liked the spiders on the moon, but felt they were under used in the end.
ReplyDeleteLooking at these pictures, it's sort of remarkable that these creatures didn't strike me as scarier during the episodes themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe moon spiders and Danny Cyberman are the creepiest - but I had hoped that spiders would be totally absent on the moon.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, as ever, Maurice!