The Doctor will see you now (The Telegraph)
- Publication: The Daily Telegraph
- Date: 1994-10-08
- Author: Dominic Murphy
- Page:
- Language: English
Derek Handley has a Dalek in his attic and a Cyberman in his spare room. Dominic Murphy meets the ultimate Time Lord fanatic
An appointment with Doctor Who: Derek Handley poses in his home-made Cyberman suit with his Dalek
EVEN BY the zealous standards of fellow Doctor Who buffs, Derek Handley is an exceptional case. Like thousands of others, the onset of adolescence and the demise of the TV series did nothing to dim his enthusiasm. Like them, he is a walking encyclopaedia on the subject.
But while most content themselves with watching videos and absorbing all they can about the creatures in the series, Derek goes one step further. Not only does he know all about the Mogarans, Sea Devils and assorted cyber folk; he restores and builds them as well.
Now 27, he says he is a fan of all science fiction. But the Time Lord's adventures in the Tardis always come first. "There's so much imagination in it. You can have a man that can change his appearance, so you have no problem when the actor who's playing the Doctor wants to leave the series. You can go anywhere you want to in time and in space. I love the way it's so limitless.
Derek's east London flat is a cluttered testament to this passion. Inside is a mass of Doctor Who ephemera that he has picked up at auctions, not to mention the creatures he has built.
His fantasy opus includes scale models. like an 8in version of the reptile-like Salurian. There are full-size replicas, and there are costumes and masks that can be worn by actors.
He works mainly with latex, glass-fibre resin, board and plaster — although he often improvises. "I did a degree in materials science, so it helps to know what's the best thing to use."
Some of his collection is kept in a jumbled spare room. On one shelf there is a row of masks of the evil Cybermen, all with slightly different designs, depending on their age. "The baddies have the most interesting costumes," he says, "that's why I always end up building them."
One of the Cybermen costumes hangs on the back of the door — a limpid and slightly comic sight when Derek explains it is a boiler suit sprayed silver, with bits of rubber pipe and a string vest stuck to it.
Such invention, he insists, is in keeping with the spirit of the programme. "Doctor Who was done on a shoestring budget — this not only appeals to me but it's easier to copy a costume than if someone's spent £10,000 on it. Also, in other programmes like Star Trek there are lots of great characters but they tend to be ordinary people in costumes or the aliens just have a bit of latex stuck on their ears."
On another shelf sit the masks of the Robots of Death. Next to their chilling metallic grimaces is the goggled and bandaged face of an Ice Warrior, and beside this a splendid likeness of the terrible Sutekh.
"Sutekh was an Egyptian god that was exiled and trapped in a pyramid," says Derek with characteristic scholarship. "It's from 1975 when Tom Baker was the Doctor and is probably my favourite story because it scared the life out of me."
As well as this room, there is a converted attic devoted to Doctor Who. This acts as more storage space and also as Derek's studio. Dotted around are mannequins clothed in Derek's handiwork. And in one corner sits that alien which all sell-respecting aficionados should own — a Dalek.
Originals of these killer pepper-pots fetch thousands of pounds at auctions. Derek built this one and waxes mechanical about their endearing Heath Robinson-style technology.
"Usually they would have three castors, a hole in the base and a bench in the middle where you sat and pedalled it along," he says. "They tried a tricycle device in one episode, but as they were going along the Dalek would wobble from side to side."
Against another wall is K9, the Doctor's robot dog. Derek is particularly fond of this because it was the first thing he built — winning him first prize in a model-making competition at school. "The original one was made out of thick card and I put electronics in it to make the eyes flash. But with the weight of them and the battery, it began to sag. so this is a rebuild of that."
His Models and costumes ate often used in fetes, gatherings of Doctor Who enthusiasts (known as Panopticons after the meeting place of the Time Lords) and films. Friends and colleagues at Ford, where he works as a component engineer, are quietly impressed with all this effort. "They only think I'm a bit mad for spending the amount of time I do on it. But I do get a few strange looks from the neighbours when I take things out to the car."
A high point was last year when Derek appeared in one of his Ogron costumes for a documentary on Doctor Who's 30th birthday. This year, however, marks another, grim anniversary: it is five years since the series was axed.
Still, fans like Derek will always keep a candle burning in the hope that, one day, the Time Lord might return to TV. "I don't think I'll ever grow out of it," he says confidently. "But I think I'll go on to bigger things — other science-fiction series perhaps, designing my own stuff and not just copying others."
Spelling correction: Silurian
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- APA 6th ed.: Murphy, Dominic (1994-10-08). The Doctor will see you now (The Telegraph). The Daily Telegraph .
- MLA 7th ed.: Murphy, Dominic. "The Doctor will see you now (The Telegraph)." The Daily Telegraph [add city] 1994-10-08. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Murphy, Dominic. "The Doctor will see you now (The Telegraph)." The Daily Telegraph, edition, sec., 1994-10-08
- Turabian: Murphy, Dominic. "The Doctor will see you now (The Telegraph)." The Daily Telegraph, 1994-10-08, section, edition.
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