"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: