The Doctor Who Christmas Special 2021

As you well know, each year since Doctor Who lost the Christmas Day slot, I've had a go at creating my own Christmas-themed episode. I've done three so far and the running gag sadly shows no sign of flagging.

2021 posed a little bit of a problem as it was post-Flux and would've been one of the final episodes for Jodie Whittaker. In the end, I put something to together that featured the thirteen Doctor teaming up with the fugitive Doctor for a 'What If?' style tale. 

'Whatever Became of Christmas?' sees the Doctor returning to Earth to celebrate the festive season with her friends. However, when she exits the TARDIS she discovers that despite it being Saturday 25 December 2021, the shops are open, there's no decorations up and nobody has heard of Christmas. As stumbles around Sheffield, her actions are being watched... But by who? 

Here's a Radio Times cover previewing the episode. The series also used to have an RT cover in the run-up to the double issue and heralded their preview of the rest of the festive telly delights and Mrs Brown's Boys. Folks seem to have been fascinated by my choice of colour for Jodie's T-shirt. I put her in a green one for the second special simply to differentiate her from earlier choices and it seems to have stuck for the following specials. This time I've paired it with a deep red coat to contrast with it. This allowed the Doctor to have a Christmassy colour scheme to her look (red and green) to contrast against the lack of colour in the Xmas-less Sheffield. 

Here's the RT billing for Christmas Day. Again the running gag of the special preceding Call the Midwife is played out again. This time it's a football version of the popular family drama. The synopsis is a bit long-winded for the Radio Times but it gets across the plot. 

And finally the Blu ray cover which for some reason I always seem to complete first.

As a bonus, I've also done textless versions of both pieces of art. 

Heaven only knows what I'm to do for the 2022 Christmas special. It will be post-regeneration and chances are the Doctor will still be faceless before their debut in 2023... Ho, hum! It keeps you on your toes does Doctor Who!

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* I say "images" as my writing seems to be long-winded and rambling again. And it trickles off towards the end. Buy a coffee for the pretty pictures but not the writing bit. Hate writing... and it shows.

The 2020 Doctor Who Christmas Special That Wasn't... Again!

There haven't been proper Christmas specials for Doctor Who since 'Twice upon a Time' in 2017. 

Since then, I've taken it upon myself to fill in the gap with my own takes on these festive sci-fi treats. Just a blu-ray cover or two together with a Radio Times cover to whet the appetite. 

Before you ask... Yes, I do have plots for these adventures in mind. 

If any Doctor Who showrunner has run out of Christmassy ideas for future specials, then they should contact me via the Twitter. 

My DMs are usually open. 

Here are the original two specials that I did for 2018 and 2019 - 'Hark the Weeping Angels Sing' (in which the WA's invade Earth using Christmas cards) and 'Daleks of Christmas Past' (in which the Daleks infiltrate a US town in the 1950s and plan to turn the inhabitants into drones under the cover of a mysterious and magical circus that's a bit like the one in 'The Seven Faces of Dr Lao' - Davros might even have been the eponymous Dr. Lao... I hadn't got there far in my head. Bit obvious though. Maybe make the Master the Ring MASTER instead now that we have him back on the show.)

Anyhow, this year's was tweeted out on Christmas Eve as part of a Christmas TV Specials of Old advent calendar. Here are the finished articles in full. You might even be able to read the text on these images...

Links to the previous ones:

The 2018 Christmas Special that wasn't.

The 2019 Christmas Special that wasn't.

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A Very Dalek Christmas...

Last year (or rather Christmas 2018), there wasn't a Doctor Who Christmas special. It actually went out on New Year's Day. It didn't feel right. Over a decade of Christmas teatime specials and suddenly it was gone. 

Well, you know my attitude. If you want something that you can't get then make it yourself... and sod 'em. 

Which is what I did - producing the Radio Times cover and Blu-ray packaging for my own made-up Doctor Who Christmas Special 2018 in which the thirteenth Doctor and her fam battle the Weeping Angels who are using their images on Christmas cards to bring terror to the festive period. "The image of a Weeping Angel IS a Weeping Angel!"

Fast forward to Christmas 2019 and we don't even have a New Year's Day special. Actually, it's just the first episode of the new series - special but not special in a SPECIAL way. 

So i did another one. This time featuring the Daleks who are using the front of a travelling festive holiday fair to infiltrate the US defence system during Christmas 1962. (And the DW producers say they've ran out of Christmas ideas for the specials...)

Here is the visual result in the form of the Radio Times and the official Blu-ray release. 

Happy Easter folks. x

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The Thirteenth Doctor on Classic Radio Times Covers

I'd already done a few of those Jodie Whittaker vintage Radio Times covers by the time the twelfth series had started in January 2020. Indeed, I'd even made up postcards for two of them. I did a few more and before the series ended, I'd done a full run of them. 

Some work, some don't. 

But at least it's a complete set...

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Doctor Who Christmas Special in the NEW Radio Times!

Yes, I've finally had my delivery on the new Radio Times from that strange unltra-universe where my tat actually exists. The portal might cause scorch marks on my lounge carpet but it's worth it. 

Here's the relevant Doctor Who stuffs.


The original post about this totally made up and fake Christmas Special is available by following this link.














If you liked this post (or indeed, any of the 400 odd others I've done over the years), why not buy me a coffee at my Ko-fi profile. The link is here.

Four Doctor Whos... One Radio Times Cover!

Here's the first four Doctor Whos on the cover of the current Whittaker-flavoured Radio Times. 

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The New (Old) Radio Times...

The new Radio Times is out with Jodie Whittaker adorning the cover. Kudos to their designer for not cluttering it with any headlines, straplines and other lettering things - other than the masthead, date and the bar code. Very striking.

Anyhow, I put the cover through a time distortion field and came up with this little effort...

If you liked this post (or indeed, any of the 400 odd others I've done over the years), why not buy me a coffee at my Ko-fi profile. The link is here.

That Doctor Who Calendar 2019...

There's some images going round at the moment apparently taken from the officially licenced Doctor Who calendar. 

One shows a cover featuring the last four Doctors - Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi - but no Jodie Whittaker (despite her debuting last Christmas and being the incumbent Doctor for the duration of the said calendar's use). 

The other shows an image for January (possibly from a different calendar featuring ALL of the Doctors) showing an odd image of the first Doctor together with that peculiar hybrid Cyberman from a 1970 photoshoot for the Radio Times. 

I'm normally not a person to go off on one... but... 

...they are pretty shit. 

The Jodie Whittaker omission feels like a Justice League product that doesn't mention Wonder Woman. Whilst the inclusion of THAT Cyberman as part of a first Doctor design is just plain shoddy. 

I've done my best. I've knocked these up pretty quick with some available cut-outs I already had on the mac and using similar design elements as the actual calendars. They didn't take me too long and I've kept them simple. 

But, though I say so myself, they are 100% more in keeping with the series and the efforts to create a quality product that Doctor Who fans will want to buy as opposed to 'will' buy just to keep the collection complete.  

06.07.2018 - Added some later Doctor designs. 
 

Six Gerry Anderson Shows Finally Get Their TVTimes Covers!

I've been doing a bit of design prep for SHADOcon - a convention dedicated to Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's UFO During the process of putting together stuff for the day, it occurred to me that none of their series actually made the cover of the TVTimes. A shocking omission by anyone's standards. 

It was left to their eternal rvival the Radio Times to give Thunderbirds cover status in the 90s during one of the BBC's re-runs of the show. 

Never mind, I said. Let's put things right with the aid of Photoshop...

A Selection of Classic Christmas Radio and TVTimes!

It's nearly that time of the year when newsagents and corner shops have to clear out that spare room and make space under the stairs to store their vast deliveries of festive TV guides. 

Mammoth double issues with mammoth double prices will soon be weighing down the dump bins just inside the doors of local supermarkets. Some of the dumpbins may also be still standing by the end of their first day on the job.

So to celebrate and in anticipation of the mad rush to see what five year old movie we'll be sleeping through on Christmas Day, here's a stocking full of seasonal Radio and TVTimes for your amusing...