Doctor Who (1963) - 1970s seasons

The titular reptilian humanoids of 'The Silurians' were a collaboration between costume designer Christine Rawlins and visual effects designer Gerry Abouaf, who sculpted the masks. Abouaf designed the masks with a 'third eye' mounted at the top of the head; the eye had a light bulb inside that could light up to show the Silurian using its psychic powers.

The rest of the body was a zip-up bodysuit realized by Rawlins and the costume department, with a 'frill' added to it in order to conceal the zipper and seams.

The Silurians have a 'pet' dinosaur guarding their lair, intended as a fictionalized depiction of actual dinosaur species, with the sculpted head having frills on the top.

The dragon apparition in 'The Mind of Evil' was realized by the costume department rather than visual effects; the production team were so embarrassed by the final suit that it was nicknamed 'Puff the Magic Dragon' during filming.

Due to its poor quality, the dragon suit only appeared very briefly in the final episode. The dragon suit had the dubious honour of being producer Barry Lett's most hated monster during his tenure on the show.

The Axons in 'The Claws of Axos' were realized under the supervision of costume designer Barbara Lane, these were some of the most expensive aspects of the serial's production, as the suits were made out of chamois leather instead of latex. The reason for this was the pyrotechnics involved in the production, something that couldn't be done near latex as it was a potential fire hazard. Some of the Axon suits were reused a few lears later for 'The Seeds of Doom', painted green to represent the plant-based Krynoids.

The natives of Uxarieus in 'Colony in Space' were another collaboraton between the costume department (headed in this serial by costume designer Michael Burdle) and the visual effects department headed by Bernard Wilkie, a veteran of BBC productions whose most famous contribution had been the Martians in the original Quatermass and the Pit series. The Uxarieus warriors were extras wearing lumpy green masks with small eye sockets and exposed brains; the rest of the body was just a painted bodysuit.

The Uxarieus elders had similar masks, but much more wizened with larger brains with the rest of the body obscured by the robe barring some silver-painted arms; a 'Guardian' was also constructed by the visual effects department, but was the same mask over a puppet body.

The Ogrons in 'Day of the Daleks' were some of the first contributions to Doctor Who by sculptor John Friedlander, who would go on to realize some of the series' most iconic aliens in this decade; the Ogron mask prosthetics however were actually not made for the serial originally! Friedlander had already made six half-masks as part of a team exercise Friedlander had supervised when teaching a team of make-up assistants. Friedlander handed the masks to the serial's assigned makeup artist Heather Stewart, who have them new paintjobs and hair; the masks did not fit most of the Ogron extras, hence why they usually are seen at a distance.

'The Curse of Peladon' had several aliens realized by the costume department overseen by Barbara Lane. The reapparance of the Ice Warriors meant that the costumes realized by Martin Baugh and Bobi Bartlett in previous seasons could be reused, but the alien delegate Alpha Centauri was an entirely new creation; the costume's 'head' was worn on the performer like a hat, and they could insert their hand into any of the six limbs attached to the costume. The production team were apprehensive about the design mostly because, to quote script editor Terrance Dicks, the costume 'looks like a giant dick'. The Arcturus delegate was mostly the work of the visual effects department, being a sculpted puppet head operated by a performer inside the life support system prop.

The mythical Peladon beast Aggedor was also a creation of the costume department, basically being a man in a furred bodysuit with a warthog-like mask worn over the performer's head; note that the behind the scenes photos show the mask having eyes, something not present when on-screen, presumably as it made it look too friendly.

The titular reptiles of 'The Sea Devils' were a collaboration between the costume department (headed in this serial by Maggie Fletcher) and visual effects designer Peter Day, with John Friedlander sculpting the masks which were based on sea turtles. Amusingly, the reason why the Sea Devils wear these fishnet smocks is because the director objected to the idea that the Sea Devils were 'naked' on-screen, thus they needed to be covered up!

'The Mutants' was one of the first costume design duties of designer James Acheson who would go on to be an Academy Award winner on films such as Dangerous Liasons and The Last Emperor. Acheson designed the mutant 'Mutts' as somewhere between an insect and a reptile, with vestiges of the human face remaining.

The fabrication of the Mutt costumes fell freelance sculptor and prop builder Alastair Bowtell. The costumes had wire-frames with a metal ring worn around the waist to support the weight of the hook-on abdomen section, giving the final design an insectoid appearance. The mask had a rubber mouthpiece attached to the actor's own cheeks with clothes pegs, meaning the mandibles would twitch when the performer moved their jaw.

The Gel Guards in 'The Three Doctors' were again conceptualized by costume designer James Acheson. The Gel Guards were basically large vinyl skirts that the actors wore over themselves akin to a barrel with shoulder straps, with a headpiece to complete it, all coated in latex that had been sculpted to have a bumpy, bubble-like texture.

The performer would operate the single arm with one hand, whilst using their other to use the eyeball mechanism to make it move. According to Acheson, the crew felt nothing but derision for the creatures, bursting in laughter when first seeing them.

A brief sequence involves Jon Pertwee having a psychic battle with Omega's dark side of the mind, personified as a demonic being; the costume itself was no doubt the work of the costume department, but clearly the face mask was one of the VFX department's handiwork - was it John Friedlander by any chance?

The Drashigs in 'Carnival of Monsters' were so named by the serial's scriptwriter as an anagram of 'dishrags' as he unkindly assumed that would be what the creatures would be realized with. Instead, visual effects designer John Horton created three puppets with only one of them being a fully-articulated rod puppet, the other two being fairly static models used for group shots. The principal Drashig puppet was a wire frame with rods and pistons underneath it; the puppeteer would make the rods contract in order to make the puppet bend, suggesting movement akin to a caterpillar. The puppets were coated in layers of foam rubber, with the skulls being actual fox terrier skulls!

Behind the scenes still of the Drashig puppet being operated.

Also briefly seen are the 'functionaries' of Inter Minor, who are extras wearing static latex masks; however I am rather charmed by the design, so I'm including them. I assume these were also John Friedlander's work, but I could be wrong.

The Draconians in 'Frontier in Space' were again a collboration between John Friedlander and the costume department; while costumee designer Barbara Kidd was responsible for the costumes and general look of the Draconians it fell to Friedlander to actually sculpt their masks and arm prosthetics.

The Sontaran Linx in 'The Time Warrior' was another creation of John Friedlander, working along costume designer James Acheson's sketch; Linx was designed to be toad-like, with a domed squat head and wide mouth. The mask was made of heavy latex and stuck with spirit gum to a thinner rubber appliance on Lindsay's face.

This was actually dangerous for Kevin Lindsay to wear due to having a heart condition, meaning the weight of the mask and heat of the studio lights him to have regular attacks of breathlessness, resulting in delays to the filming.

When Kevin Lindsay returned to play another Sontaran in the following season's 'The Sontaran Experiment', Friedlander sculpted a lighter version of the mask to help make it a more bearable experience.

The Exxilon aliens in 'Death to the Daleks' were yet another example of John Friedlander collaborating with the BBC costume department; in this case costume designer L. Rowland-Warne, who wanted the creatures to appear as if they were made of rock. This look was achieved via the bodysuits being constructed from cheese-cloth and coated in latex, which was then painted and textured to look like stone. Rowland-Warne also coated some of the suits in streaks of fluorescent paint, making them shine in more darkly lit sequences; the intention was to make them appear as if they had absorbed the radiation of their surroundings.

The Exxilon 'antibodies' were also realized as rubber masks, designed to resemble mummified corpses.

John Friedlander also realized the insectoid Wirrn aliens of 'The Ark in Space'. Friedlander took inspiration from parasitoid wasps for the Wirrn body design, thanks to their parasitism in the script, and the final 'adult' Wirrn costumes were bamboo frames with moulded latex abdomens and fibreglass heads. A third 'dead' Wirrn prop was made, showing the pincer-claw 'feet' at the end of abdomen; for the 'live' Wirrn though, they never were seen in full-body shots to avoid the actors feet being seen.

Friedlander also sculpted the mask for Davros in 'Genesis of the Daleks', who would became one of the series' most iconic villains; the mask was sculpted to have a sallow, corpse-like appearance, with an electronic eye fitted that could light up. The mask would be reused again in 'Destiny of the Daleks' a few years later, worn by David Gooderson.

Friedlander also sculpted the Vogan masks for 'Revenge of the Cybermen', realized as half-masks in a similar manner to the Ogrons and Draconians in 'Day of the Daleks' and 'Frontier in Space'.

The titular aliens of 'Terror of the Zygons' were yet another James Acheson design, with his general inspiration coming from embryos, thanks to lines in the script that they had to live off their pet monster's lactic fluids. As such, his finalized design was basically a foetus-like humanoid covered in suckers to help with the underwater theme.

When it came to actually realizing the Zygons, Acheson worked closely with sculptor John Friedlander of the visual effects department; Friedlander sculpted the ribcage, head and face in particular, giving it a less human look than in Acheson's initial sketch.

The Zygons pet, the plesiosaur-like Skarasen, was achieved with the use of two puppets. The first and more complex puppet was made by a freelance company, and was three feet long, to be used for stopmotion animation sequences.

The second puppet was just a claw and head used as basically a glove puppet, for close-up attack sequences; this was the aspect of the production that director Douglas Camfield and producer Philip Hinchcliffe were least impressed with, with most of the stopmotion footage not being used in the final serial, hence the lack of good body shots.

Behind the scenes shot of the Skarasen glove puppet.

The stopmotion Skarasen puppet in the episode.

Behind the scenes shot of the stopmotion Skarasen puppet.

The unmasked Sutekh in 'Pyramids of Mars' was a mannequin fitted into the character's costumes, with a sculpted head fitted on the top. The head, which was fitted with electronics for its eyes to glow, was designed by visual effects head Ian Scoones and sculpted by John Friedlander, despite him not being officially credited on the serial.

The rhino=like Kraal in 'The Android Invasion' were once again the work of sculptor John Friedlander, using his skills in having made the heavy rubber Sontaran masks in earlier seasons to use here; the original script dictated the Kraals to be insectoid, but Friedlander opted to make them inspired by tusked mammals instead.

The titular monster of 'The Brain of Morbius' was, like many monsters of Doctor Who's Classic Series, the work of a costume designer, in this case the talented and underrated L. Rowland Warne. Warne designed two costumes to be constructed, one without a head and one with; a sketch for the headless version is shown below. Warne's intention was to make the creature look like a mash of different parts of alien creatures stitched together, with a large claw to make it obviously alien.

When it came to realizing the costumes, they were heavy latex and foam rubber latered over a cotton jumpsuit, and Warne mixed coffee beans into the latex in order to give the 'skin' a weird texture. For the headless costume, the neck stump had tubes fitted in it in order to allow the actor inside the breathe, whilst the 'helmeted' braincase version had its brain-case constructed by the visual effects department - the stalks were a later choice, in order to not make the case look like it was just a spacesuit helmet. The suit still exists today, and is regularly taken to exhibitions.

For most of 'The Hand of Fear', the rock-based alien Eldrad was played by Judith Paris in a rock-adorned bodysuit designed by costume designer Barbara Lane with only some help from the makeup department; however, for the 'true form' Eldrad adopts, where they are now played by Stephen Thorne, Lane had to utilize the help of the visual effects department when constructing the rock-like appliances fitted around on the costume.

The undead Master in 'The Deadly Assassin' was another collaboration between costume designer James Acheson and sculptor Alister Bowtell. Bowtell fabricated the mask and gloves; the mask was originally intended to have coloured fluid running through tubes inside the mask's face, implying the Master's blood vessels were still working. However, this was abandoned as the fluid would not show under the studio lighting.

Actor Peter Pratt, who wore the mask, did not enjoy wearing it, describing it as 'a rather over-cooked set of fried eggs. It was all very uncomfortable. . . I was using a radio mike and all the heavy trappings sometimes forgot during camera rehearsal that I could be heard (...) letting off steam about how hot and uncomfortable I was'.

The unmasked Magnus Greel in 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang' was the work of makeup designer Heather Stewart. According to producer Philip Hinchcliffe, 'I was very concerned about (Greel's makeup), because obviously for it to have an impact it had to be quite gruesome. On the other hand, we can't leave it on the screen for very long — so it is just a flash on the screen. But of course, Heather (Stewart) has spent days and weeks planning this one effect, for what is on the screen for one second.'

(A VERY grainy photograph scan from issue #68 of In-Vision)

The 'Nucleus of the Swarm' in 'The Invisible Enemy' was designed by visual effects designer Tony Harding according to the script describing the alien as a 'vile, blood-red prawn'; the actual prop constructed from a metal and bamboo frame, coated in fibreglass and latex, but it couldn't move at all; the performer John Scott Martin had to balance on his backside and use his legs and arms both to operate the limbs of the prop.

The leech-like 'Fendahleen' creatures of 'Image of the Fendahl' were the most intensive work for the serial's visual effects designer Colin Mapson, who constructed a full-sized prop that could fit an operator inside it to give movement. However, movement was limited thanks to a tube fitted to an oxygen cylinder that would let the Fendahleen's 'tendrils' quiver around as if it was tasting the air. Two smaller puppet versions were constructed with the same basic mechanisms, but far smaller.

The Sontaran Stor in 'The Invasion of Time' was made from a new casting of actor Derek Deadman's face; the mask was made from a lightweight brand of latex rubber, making it easier for Deadman to say his lines and proving less uncomfortable than the masks Friedlander had sculpted for 'The Time Warrior' or 'The Sontaran Experiment'.

The Shrivenzale in 'The Ribos Operation' was realized as a collaboration between the costume and visual effects departments; two stuntmen had to perform inside the suit, one in the front and one in the back. The trouble was that the stuntman in the back of the suit had to pull back the levers that opened the mouth and eyes of the prop, but it could only open if the head was tilted back; the bigger problem was that air could only enter the suit from the mouth, meaning the back stuntman was at risk of suffocation if the mouth wasn't opened.

The titular giant squid of 'The Power of Kroll' was realized by the serial's visual effects designer Tony Harding as a puppet for use in miniature model effects sequences; the puppet was wire-framed and coated in fiberglass and latex, with rods and cables inside. There were air tubes that allowed the Kroll puppet's 'mouth' to move, with the tentacles supported via puppeteer wires.

Unfortunately, this impressive puppet was scuppered in the final cut thanks to some horrendous split-screen camera editing and the miniature refinery it attacks being shot at the wrong angle, to Harding's dismay. The puppet itself was auctioned from Bonhams around 2010.

The Kroll puppet on auction.

Behind the scenes shot of the Kroll puppet during filming.

'City of Death' marked sculptor John Friedlander's last contribution to Doctor Who, as he was hired at the behest of the make-up designer who had no experience in doing fantastical make-up designs; Friedlander's assignment was to realize the true form of the alien Scaroth, who had remained disguised as Julian Glover, and so realized his true form as being a wormy-textured cyclopean being. Friedlander originally wanted to have an air bladder effect to show Scaroth's real face 'inflating' (implying it was compressed under the latex mask) but this was beyond the BBC's budget and dropped.

The 'Mandrel' aliens in 'Nightmare of Eden' of costume designer Rupert Jarvis, who took cues from the script to make the creatures inspired by mushrooms in their design, especially the face; this was one of the more infamous monsters of the era, as newspapers joked that it looked like something from the Muppet Show.

'Shada' was never actually completed with its filming thanks to strike action, but not before the rock-based 'Kraarg' aliens had been realized and their scenes filmed, with the costumes having a long life in the convention circuit decades after. The Kraarg costumes were the design of by costume department head Rupert Jarvis, who envisaged them as being more or less shards of rock on legs. The final costumes were made up of slats of PVC sewn onto fabric of the same colour, with a headpiece of similar construction to the rest of the costume, though the head was of a slightly lighter colour in order for the video effects team to overlay a digital effect over it. Judging by this exhibition photo, it seems there was a 'leader' variant of a different colour that was never put in front of the camera's before the serial was canned.

Costume designer June Hudson was assigned to design the Foamasi in 'The Leisure Hive', with assistance from freelancer Roger Oldhamstead. Hudson chose a green, iridescent material she claimed to have found in Germany that would be able to catch light well, but this effect was never achived in the serial thanks to the harsh studio lighting.

The Foamasi heads were constructed by Oldhamstead and were attached to the costume's collar, rather than worn over the actor's head. Inside the mask was a band attached to the performer's own head, attached to the Foamasi mask's eye mechanisms; if the performer moved their head, the eyes would twitch up or down.

(Note: Hudson had previously supplied the Nimon monster costumes for 'The Horns of Nimon' in the previous season, but these were firmly 'costumes', consisting of static (and rather unconvincing) masks worn over spandex bodysuits. A deeply talented costume designer, but Hudson's Nimon suits remain that serial's most reviled aspect, similar to the monster in 'The Androids of Tara').

The Marshmen in 'Full Circle' were designed by costume designer Amy Roberts after one sketch, and realized by the costume department with the heads having moulded fibreglass underskulls fitted with chin straps to stop the heads coming off as the actors were under the water in the lake scenes. The filming in the water also meant that under the sculpted latex was a wetsuit, so the performer could handle being submerged underwater.

The Great Vampire briefly seen in 'State of Decay' was a mechanical rod puppet operated by the serial's visual effects designer Tony Harding; the sequence Harding shot was intended to show the Great Vampire's death throes, but director Peter Moffatt opted to not show the vampire's death scene, instead using the shot - heavily distored with computer effects - to show the vampire asleep, creating a continuity discrepancy. Tragically, there seems to be no behind the scenes images of puppet as far as I know.

The ghostly Watcher in 'Logopolis' was realized as actor Adrian Gibbs wearing a two-piece latex prosthetic made by makeup artist Dorka Nieradzik; one piece was worn over his scalp and upper face, with the second over his chin and mouth. The intention was to make the Watcher look like a giant fetus, without having formed any features.

(It should be worth noting that I used various issues of the Doctor Who fanzine 'In-Vision' as a source for the information here. Scans of the zine can be found on the Internet Archive).