Beyond Vision Dalek Serials

Way back in the 'Before Times', there was a VHS label called 'Beyond Vision'. It was actually an encompassing brand name for Warner Home Video's Sci-fi titles. There was a trailer on each video extolling the virtues of the line. Titles included 'Blade Runner', 'Highlander', some of the Doug Mclure fantasy films of the 70s and a rather nice widescreen transfer of 'Forbidden Planet' with a stereo soundtrack. They also lumped in their episodic releases of 'Babylon 5' which actually ran longer that the label itself. 

In amongst these titles were the two Aaru 'Doctor Who' movies from the 60s. Both were nicely remastered in widescreen - unlike the previous VHS releases. 

I was quite taken at the time with the design of the artwork - grey metallic background, formal lettering and a typically 90s sci-fi logo of a glowy bald guy staring at a framework globe. It had a formal look but seemed to suggest it was taking the product range seriously for a change. 

I've recreated that branding for two new video covers that juxtapose the original movie design with ones for the original TV episodes. There's a few gags in there but I'm quite pleased with the authenticity of the designs. I even made an authentic 'Dalek Invasion of Earth' saucer in Photoshop. 

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Chumbleymania Forever!!!

I did some Chumbley merchandise a few years ago and I regularly return to them as the subject of alternate merchandise. There were part of a regular troop of alien robots that were seen as attempts to duplicate the success of the Daleks during the early years of the series. Needless to say, like the Mechons, the War Machines and the Quarks, they failed to make much of an impact. They haven't been awarded the honour of a figurine by the Doctor Who Figurine Collection. Shame! 

Here's a few more items from an alternate universe where the Daleks were overtaken by the success of the cute little robots from Rilla. 

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Not Star Trek Annuals.

I recently acquired the first Star Trek annual. £2 from a charity shop since you ask.

 It's the typical lazy World Distributors fare - a couple of Gold Key reprints padded out to the 64 page limit with a handful of pages featuring 'space facts'. 

It reminded me again that I don't do much, if any, Star Trek stuff on here. Looking at the cover of that annual gave me the idea of doing some more spin-off Doctor Who annuals using the covers of these icons of the 70s as inspiration. 

That first one fitted Frontier in Space quite well. In fact, it's my favourite. (You will note that the futuristic city behind Jo Grant and her two Ogron chums is the Brazilian National Congress building in Brasilia - a photo of which portrayed the Earth President's residence in said episodes. Quite a clever inclusion that though I say so myself!) 

The others are a mixed bag. I've included the original annuals at the foot of this post as the Doctor Who fans who follow me might not be familiar with Star Trek. It was a US TV show in the 60s that ran for only three seasons and was a staple schedule filler for the BBC during most of the 70s. They tried remaking it a few times over the years with varying degrees of success. The latest versions can only be viewed if you pay extra.

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New Annuals for 2021

As has been custom for the past few years, I've done some annuals for the forthcoming festive season. Having in the past based several on old Doctor Who annuals, this year I've opted to use more recent ones as the inspiration. Most of these are either ones for Peter Capaldi or Jodie Whittaker. 

The choice of subjects has been a little more difficult than usual given the dearth of new content from the main TV channels. As such, there's a little bit of repetition in this year's subject matter - with a gentle nod to the current national situation. 

I hope you like them. You don't have to work out which annuals are from which year... 

If you've enjoyed this post and appreciate the incredible effort put into these sad little bits of tat, then you might like to consider buying the artist a coffee. You can do this by following this link to his Ko-fi page. 

Jackie!

 How come there are so many Jackies in the world of Doctor Who? How come they've never been cover stars of the popular junior magazine for girls of the same name? Probably because it's no longer published and I'm not the editor... but that's not the point.

I did one for Jackie Lane way back when I started producing this tat. I had a look at it before I started these. A bit crude and to be honest, not that authentic looking.

Anyhow, here's a selection of Jackies - all of them icons of coolness! 

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More Monster Annuals

Yes, I might be a little late with the updates but I'm still knocking out the annuals. The next few blog additions will be mostly those. 

This is a selection of annuals based around Doctor Who monsters. I'd already done a Mandrel annual and have made it available via my RedBubble shop as a journal/notebook (see pic). That one and two of these newer ones are based on World Distributors' 70s Dalek annuals. The Cheetah people one has its roots in a 'Land of the Giants' annual. Not the one that briefly appears in the first episode of 'Survival' (next to a Gary Glitter annual on a table outside a junk shop!). 

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Classic Doctor Who Film Posters

Here's a final selection of Doctor Who cinema posters created during lockdown. No logic to the choice of titles. I just had an idea and went with it. 

Particularly pleased with the one for The Daleks - so pleased I used Japanese text on it. The upper line is the title of the series - taken from the official logo - whilst the lower line is the title taken from the Japanese printing of the novelisation which is loosely translated as "Space-Time great Blood War" or something like that.

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