Doctor Who - Season Fourteen on Target

Now this for me is the apex of classic Doctor Who quality. The series' budget was certainly never spent better on a season where - in their own ways - each story is a classic. 

From the glorious rich renaissance atmosphere of 'The Masque of Mandragora' to the seedy grim London of 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang', the series never really hit the consistent quality that it had here - before or after. 

And the ratings reflected this with the series hardly out of the weekly top twenty. 

I could go on forever acknowledging the genuine scariness of 'The Robots of Death' and the shocking revelatory thrills of 'The Deadly Assassin' (especially THAT episode set in the matrix!!) But this is a blog that shows of my measly art. 

So here are six retro Target interpretations of the greatest season of 20th century Doctor Who!

Most of these designs are available printed on stuff like T shirts, clocks and shower curtains from RedBubble. The link is here>>>

Doctor Who Season Thirteen on Target

Continuing with the retro Target books, here's season 13. 

It was during this season that I queued up outside Preedy's newsagents in Derby's Eagle Centre in order to have a fully costumed Tom Baker sign my copy of 'Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion' - an odd choice since it was a Jon Pertwee adventure but it was at the time, the only Target book I didn't own.

 From that day until today, I had a complete set of first edition Target books (except for 'The Two Doctors' which is a "Second Edition" due to a f*** up at W H Allen.)

These covers are available as design on RedBubble. 

Check them out via this link.

Doctor Who - Season Twelve on Target

I've done some more retro Target book covers. Actually, I've done quite a lot more retro Target book covers. 

As you can see from my earlier ones for Flux, I'm quite taken with the second redesign that debuted with Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons. It features a cutdown version of the then series logo and a (usually) white border that the artwork occasionally bled out of - building on the pop art/Frank Bellamy style of the previous ones.

I did the 80s stories first but in the interests of some semblance of continuity, I'll begin with Tom Baker's first season which I only completed a month or so ago.

If you've enjoyed these, you can find them available on RedBubble on a selection of products including T shirts, mugs and more. Follow this link.

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.

As always, if you enjoy my stuff and want to show your appreciation, drop me a coffee via my Ko-fi page here.

Doctor Who - Series ten on Target

I have to say that series ten is one of my favourite series of Nu-Who. In fact, it's a close second only to series four. 

The first episode takes the show back to square one again - something a series that has run as long as Doctor Who has to do occasionally. I love this aspect and the wittily titled The Pilot is a strong opener for Peter Capaldi's final series. In some respects, this freshness offsets the build up to his departure with Pearl Mackie's Bill offering new takes on old companion tropes through the entire run. 

Favourite episodes are many but I would pick out the aforementioned The Pilot, together with The Eaters of Light (A straightforward self-contained historical mystery with some great character moments) and World Enough and Time (a story that mixes humour and tragedy in exactly the same way that the adventures in series eight didn't.) 

My primary issue with the series though comes with the trilogy of episodes concerning the Monks. It starts off with the imaginative Extremis and promptly goes hill as the Monks' plot is revealed and implemented. The first two stories come across as dual scene-setting prologues setting the scene for a bigger adventure. But this final part deals with the crisis too quickly and desperately needed a second episode to flesh out life under the Monks' control before resolving the situation.

On a personal note, I had a heart attack on the Saturday that Oxygen was broadcast. Ironic that - being stuck in casualty on real oxygen whilst the episode went out. 

Ho hum. Life is a beautiful irony. 

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Doctor Who - Series nine on Target

I have serious issues with series eight. There were some bold ideas, yes. Two-part stories, plenty of Daleks, top drawer guest actors... But as a whole, it felt too dark - particularly for a Saturday night. The storylines were grim and were of the kind that no doubt alienated the popular audience - particularly since it was screened at irregular later times with episodes occasionally ending after the watershed. It was also at this point 

I also felt there were issues with Clara's character. She's saved all of the Doctor's incarnations for his anniversary and loved and lost her man so her story had virtually been told by the time we saw her "die" in Last Christmas. But since that was a dream, we ended up with her for another year when it would've done the series a world of good by starting off with a new companion for series eight. 

Her eventual death, resurrection and departure was protracted and maudlin doing neither the actress or the audience any favours. One minute she died, the next she's back. And then she's dead again. And she's back... but the Doctor doesn't know that. Good job too as he'd be bloody livid at what it could potentially do to the fabric of time!

Favourites in this series is Heaven Sent - a tour-de-force from both Peter Capaldi (in a solo performance) and Steven Moffat (for a tale of self-discovery and revelation worthy of 'The Twilight Zone'). Such a pity it was connected to the convoluted mess that was Hell Bent. 

Ah, well. We're back to square one for the next series...

If you've enjoyed viewing this page of artistic delight, then you can show your learned appreciation by purchasing for me of a coffee via my Ko-fi account here. Thanking you.