Men behind the monsters...

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Publication: News Letter
Date: 1975-11-29
Author: Al Flett
Page: 4
Language: English

For 13 years a massive television audience has watched, fascinated, while the four personalities of "Dr. Who" have joined battle with creatures that clanked and clattered, crawled and crept, flown and fulminated, oozed and squelched.

During 84 series totalling well in excess of 400 episodes a whole clutch of writers have been employed by the BBC to churn out these remarkable adventures which now attract probably more adult viewers than the children for which they were originally intended.

The Impact of what started as a modest four-part scifi series written by Anthony Coburn in 1963 with nary a mention of a Dalek has blossomed into almost an industry.

What really got it off the ground was an invitation to script writer Terry Nation to provide a second series - and he came up with "The Dead Planet."

And the Daleks...

Today, shops do a brisk trade in no less than 15 Dalek products. And the miracle is that because Mr. Nation saw his series as a one-off writing assignment he actually exterminated (a true Dalek word, that) his metal monsters in the last of the seven episodes of "The Dead Planet" 12 years ago!

Indeed, Terry Nation recalls, "I was close to turning down the offer to contribute to Dr. Who." He just couldn't see the vogue lasting.

"Kids love to be frightened," says an emphatic Mr. Nation. So the Daleks clicked. Which posed the problem: how to resurrect them once they'd been annihilated?

The trusty police box Tardis (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space) provided the answer. "I was able to bring the Daleks back in a time era before the date they were exterminated."

"Dr. Who" was not really on its way. The major issue now was to create imaginary creatures suitable for keeping the exciting fun alive. So scenic design, visual effects, makeup and wardrobe pooled their considerable talents and went to work.

Since when delighted audiences have shivered at the Voords, the Sensorites, the Didonians, the Mechonids and a host of other creepy-crawlles have deluged the BBC-1 network, plus a variety of ancient Romans, Mexicans, Anglo-Saxons and the like to update the history books.

Effects

Bernard Wilkie, head of visual effects at the BBC Television Centre, admits the provision of weirdies to studio production deadlines "isn't always easy."

"You see, we have to be ready when the sound stages are available. This can and does create some harsh pressures."

John Friedlander trained as a sculptor. So, though his official title is "effects designer," he tends to concentrate on the sculptural side of the activity: He has worked on "Dr. Who" from the early days, mostly making the hideous masks which are always confronting the Doctor's usually beleagured partym.

"The close-fitting mask as opposed to the monster head that just slips on to the actor's shoulders is nearly always modelled to the face of the actor who's going to wear it. That way, you get a perfect fit, and it allows you to keep some of the actor's basic features and get a more 'believable' look."

But making plaster moulds from plaster bandages takes about four days: "We can't face-fit every ac tor. So we try to get actors of similar build and 'patch' those masks which don't fit skin tight."

To walk through the design, effects and wardrobe areas makes one wonder how "Dr. Who" ever reaches the screen. Bags of modelling clay, polystyrene. potter's plaster, hessian scrim, shellac, wax polish, glass matt, resin, fibreglass, acetone, aluminium, plastic tubing, steel rods, rubber foam, perspex, brass, enamel paint, light bulbs are on shelves, benches, the floor in what seems to be total confusion.

The Daleks today are built by BBC technicians. much more sophisticated machines than those early £15-a-time proto-types. Actors never mind playing Daleks. The "pepper-pots" are equipped with seats and the castors are propelled easily and comfortably by the actor's feel.

Because "Dr. Who" is now almost a way of life in Britain it is likely the series will continue for just as long as "kids love to be frightened" and their older relatives like being kids again.

And for as long as those brilliant people in the various creative departments of the BBC are able to come up with imaginative versions of the creatures thought up by the team of writers for way-out situations that have little relationship to our life here on earth. But which, perhaps, exist elsewhere.

Caption: Another monster takes shape as John Friedlander, right, and visual effects assistant Steve Bowman go to work at the BBC.

Spelling correction: Mechanoids

Men behind the monsters...

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