"There's nobody in the universe can do what we're doing"

I was scrolling through my Facebook feed yesterday, when I noticed a post from the Official Doctor Who page. It was for a competition devised by the Penguin publishing house, to produce a piece of artwork illustrating one of 100 selected Doctor Who stories from its 53 year history. Doctor Who has always been one of my favourite... things. I grew up watching the Omnibuses (basically the full serialised story in one two hour+ format) on UKTV Gold. The Doctors I grew up with were the third and fourth portrayed respectively by Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. I was never crazy on the post Peter Davison era, the show went through problems you would not wish on anyone. There has never been a bad actor to play The Doctor, the trouble usually lies behind-the-scenes.

After all these years though, my favourite Doctor is the Second, as played by Patrick Troughton, one of the greatest character actors of all time. The Second Doctor seems to be the default Doctor, the one that future actors have sighted as inspiration. There's a wonderful playfulness with his Doctor, such a drastic change from William Hartnell's crotchety grandfather figure, and that change is precisely what has led to the longevity of the show. If Troughton had failed, so would the programme. 

For my submission, I was able to illustrate my favourite story (well, between this and The Daemons with the Third Doctor), The Tomb of the Cyberman. Arctic horror, space archaeologists, classic Cyberman, the introduction of the Cybermats and crypts that should not be opened. 

My piece focuses on the tomb, with emerging Cyberman, the Cyber-Controller, complete with electrical strands and the emotional scene between The Doctor and the new TARDIS recruit, Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling), where he explains to her that their lives travelling in Time and Space is a special thing to treasure. It really is a beautiful scene and anyone who looks at Doctor Who and thinks of low budget crappy effects, really needs to look again.

Anyway here is the creative process for my poster, from nailing the look of Patrick Troughton, to the final thing:

Alan Bennett's 'A Game of Thrones'

I have no idea what made me think of an Alan Bennett/A Game of Thrones parody, but as soon as the thought popped into my head, I had to get it down.

P.S. I know that there is no character called 'Telios Greyback', it just sounded like the kind of character you'll see in Westeros.

“It's stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.”

Although only appearing in one story, Moriarty has become synonymous with the great detective. I put this down to a) appearing in the story where Holmes was supposedly killed off, and b) (and for me the real clincher), because Sherlock Holmes actually fears Moriarty, despite the Professor having not murdered anyone himself, though organising it. There are these moments in the Holmes canon where Sherlock is deeply passionate about a certain criminal and it grabs your attention when he uses words like 'evil' or 'disgusting'.

My Moriarty owes far more to the Rathbone/Bruce series. I decided to make him younger than the Sidney Paget illustrations, since it would seem like Holmes threw an elderly man of a Swiss waterfall. Not very heroic. 


"He sits motionless, like a spider in the center of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them. He does little himself. He only plans.”

"Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring.”

I associate the King of the Vampires with the World's greatest Detective. Much like Holmes, Dracula denies the eternal sleep. It makes sense that the two are the most portrayed characters in film and television. It's hard to believe that there was a time when no-one had any knowledge of them- how on earth did they cope. 

What I love about Dracula is that immediate presence. It can be the lowest grade, under-budget film, if there's a character who utters the phrase "I am... Dracula", I'm instantly hooked. That quote conjures up such expectation, it is hard to refuse. There have been many great portrayals of the Count, but my absolute favourite is Sir Christopher Lee. His Dracula is unashamedly evil, he ceases showing any humanity, instead bursting into the room like a demon, the embodiment of Stoker's quote 'lapped in a storm of fury'. 

If Dracula were to be remade, I would love to see Peter Capaldi in the role. He has the height, the presence and that wonderful dusty voice. 

My version of Dracula stems from those early chapters, since the beginning is the best part of the novel. It takes some liberties, like being dressed in a purple robe (a medieval symbol of wealth), as opposed from donning all-black cloth. I prefer the Count as an old man, because it's scarier. You do not expect the feeble old man to hold such power. But, like all great horror, the most horrifying things are the unexpected terrors.

Because I do love the character so much, I do have sympathy for him. I don't need the overplayed past love-interest that so many adaptations jam down our throats. I prefer this one monologue he has in castle. This displays his isolation perfectly:

'"These friends" - and he laid his hand on some of the books - "have been good friends to me, and for some years past, ever since I had the idea of going to London, have given me many, many hours of pleasure. Through them I have come to know your great England; and to know her is to love her. I long to go through the crowded streets of your mighty London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what it is.”'

‘I am the last and highest court of appeal in detection.’

I, much like everyone else, have grown up with character of Sherlock Holmes. I doubt I could add much to many essays that have already been written about Conan-Doyle's most famous creation. The fact that the character was demanded to be brought back to life says all about the longevity of the character.

I cannot be sure what was my first introduction to the character. I used to watch the Granada series, with Jeremy Brett and David Burke/Edward Hardwicke, The Basil Rathbone/ Nigel Bruce series of the 1940s and, of course Walt Disney's Basil, The Great Mouse Detective. The series is just fun. I think we all appreciate the expert character, the person who enters the scene and knows immediately what they are doing. 

I think my interpretation is of the man in the earlier stories. In A Study in Scarlet, Holmes is in his early 30s. He is a mixture of Rathbone and Cushing, at least I think so... sometimes you cannot rely on even your own mind.

And now my favourite quote from the stories, as featured in Silver Blaze:

    "Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
     "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
     "The dog did nothing in the night-time."
     "That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.

This always gives me goose-bumps. 

CHAPTER ONE: In which Oliver introduces his new blog, and gets a surprising visitor.

Welcome one, welcome all.

Congratulations on discovering my new blog. I'm sure you lost many good fellow explorers searching for it, and for that I am sorry. But, you survived and shall be rewarded for it. No, not money, but the gift of following my blog... don't look at me like that!

Oh, look, it's my old friend: Bold Question Font!

HELLO.

Hello, there, old friend. Did you have some questions for me?
 
AS A MATTER OF FACT, I DID.

Well, then, fire away.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT TO FIND ON YOUR BLOG?

Well, it will be very much in vein as my previous blog, only with better artwork, wittier ramblings and more explicit centre-folds of yours truly.


OOH...

Oh, well... I guess I could ditch the centre-folds idea.


I WOULD.

Right. You see, they were rather costly to produce, not to mention the amount of International laws broken in their production, but fine!

 Well, I hope that this has been a decent enough introduction into what you can expect around. It's called The World of Oliver Brooks for a reason, you could not mistake it for anyone's but my own. I'm sure I could come up with some deeply philosophical speech about only being your true self in an online presence, but it's getting late, and I don't want to.

Good-bye one, good-bye all!