Doctor Who - Series thirteen on Target

This is late! 

I should've posted this last year in the week following the final episode of the series. These are the six covers I produced for series 13. It would be interesting to see how Target would've handled this back in the day - six short novelisations (more profitable) or a single big one (probably more logical for a six part story).

As for the episodes, I really enjoyed this series. Some great visuals, a far ranging story packed with colourful characters and some great twists along the way. It certainly corrects the issues I have with the last two series.

The negatives are fiddly nerd things. Not enough Kate Stewart (in fact, why the heck was she even there?). The timeless child storyline had no real pay off as the Doctor is still running from her past rather than facing up to it. Chris Chibnall seems to have a real issue with the Doctor he created. By all means, make her more fallible but don't make her a failure - especially on a personal level. Hopefully, this will be addressed in her final two episodes... but I've an awful feeling the regeneration will hinge on the unrequited love between her and Yaz rather than tackling her dodgy past with Division.

As for the covers, I adopted the mid 70s style for them. I'm a great fan of these comic strip/pop art pieces. Ones like Peter Brookes' 'The Green Death' et al with a smattering of Kirby, Bellamy and Achilleos. 

Again, the lack of dynamic photographic source material hampered the compositions - especially for the first one. Some of these were done after the episode aired which I don't like doing. The spontaneity of using just the visuals from photos to create the design rather than picking out characters and incidents from the stories is something I prefer... and was no doubt a factor in the original Target artists' creations back in the day. 

I hope you like them.

Just to catch up, here's my covers for the following two specials 'Eve of the Daleks' and 'Legend of the Sea Devils'. I'll probably return to the Sea Devils story once the show airs later this year.

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Doctor Who - Series Six on Target

Let's face it. Series six of 'Doctor Who' was a bit of a mess wasn't it. All that stuff with Amy's baby, her kidnapping, her rescue, her baby's kidnapping, her quick recovery over her baby's kidnapping... etc... 

Series six certainly had an ill-thought out story arc. Too much mystery early on with sudden walloping chunks of new information later on. All this with a liberal dose of temporal paradoxes made the whole arc both anticlimactic and uninvolving. I would love to be able to explain the series six story arc but I haven't the energy nor the space to go through in the amount of detail that would be needed to make it intelligible.

Having said that, several of the standalone stories - especially in the second half of the series - were excellent. I loved 'The Girl Who Waited', 'The God Complex' and 'Closing Time'. I hope that shows with these covers although my favourite amongst these is the appallingly titled 'Let's Kill Hitler'. My least favourite Matt Smith episode. I think you can guess why... 

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A Selection from the Supermarkets...

In these times of social distancing and limited supplies in supermarkets, we have to be a little more choosy in the groceries we purchase on that rare occasion we venture into the outer world. 

My rule of life is:

 "If you can't have what you want, then make your own!"

And that is what I have done... 

I find these two books excellent guides for these interesting times. Mrs Farrel's recipe for Ogron Brain chutney is a must at this time of year. 

You can help me towards my goal of a full shopping basket of things by purchasing me a coffee via my Ko-fi account. Pop over there and have a look at the gallery as well. It's free. 

Target: Whittaker (update)

This is a bit of housekeeping really. I did a handful of mid-70s Target book cover for Doctor Who series 11 early last year. I was so pleased with them, I turned them into a set of mugs available from the RedBubble shop. 

Just before Christmas, I returned back to the idea and did the rest of the episodes - another five or six, I think. The series is now complete and here they all are. Some of these have been posted before but here they are all in one place. 

If you like these a lot, then consider buying me a coffee via my Ko-fi account to show your appreciation. If you liked them a bit, then fair enough. I'll make my own coffee, Thanks. 

The Years and Years Annual 2020 and a couple of pages too!

It'll soon be that time of year when the 2020 annuals start to trickle into WHSmith to gather dust until the January sales. 

And it'll also soon be time for me to present my own selection of annuals that aren't available through the normal channels.

In the mean time, I've done one already and, as an added bonus, provided you with two pages that will no doubt provide minutes and minutes of fun for all the family provided you can find some counters and the spare dice you last saw at the back of that kitchen drawer a few months ago. 




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Just Some Timeslip Merchandise...

Despite my love of the early 70s sci-fi serial Timeslip, I've done very few designs based on the show... 'til now. 

This is a selection of stuff I did over a week when I needed a distraction from reality.

 

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