Doctor Who Festival: Session 1 - Monsters

Sunday 15 November 2015

I'm back from the Doctor Who Festival, which was extremely well-run and enjoyable.  This is the third of the official BBC events I have been to since the series returned (the others being the convention at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff and the Fiftieth Anniversary Convention) and they definitely have a format that works. 

I am somewhat disappointed that I was a Cyberman rather than a Dalek, but you can't have everything.  We got through registration and into the main theatre remarkably quickly.  Our first theatre session was the Millennium FX show with special guest Mark Gatiss.  I'm not sure really why he was included in a show about prosthetic monsters (OK he has played one, in Professor Lazarus, and written for several more, including last night's Sandmen), but it still seemed a bit odd. 

During this talk, a couple of the designers were given the task of coming up with a visual concept for a new monster. The idea, borrowed from a taxi driver, was an alien race who work on a very different timescale, and who are slowly cooking the earth, which we experience as global warming.  At the end we were asked to call out names.  I suggested 'Fryons', but it wasn't picked up by the roving mike.

There was a discussion of the creation of the costume for the Mire, which was modelled on stage. I think this costume looks great.  Although it appears to be corroded metal, it is actually made of foam.

A young member of the audience had the opportunity to go on stage and try out a monster mask.  The little boy who was chosen had been on stage at a previous event and seemed a bit blasé about it. There was no shortage of hands going up so it's a pity the opportunity didn't go to someone who hadn't had a chance before, but the team had no way of knowing.  He didn't want to wear the mask of The Foretold, so he tried an Ice Warrior instead, even though I'm not sure he remembered who they were. Rather him than me, anyway.  I tried on a Cyberman mask many years ago.  It was not pleasant in there.

My favourite part of the session was seeing Mark interact with Mr Sweet, the prehistoric leech which sat on Diana Rigg's shoulder in The Crimson Horror.

Mark and one of Millennium FX's creations. Isn't he Sweet?

To be continued....