Doctor Who (2005) - 2010s series

An opening note: I would like to thank Gary Pollard, one of the main sculptors at Millennium FX during this era, particularly for Series 10, for being so kind to send me many images of these various suits being sculpted via email! Please give his own Facebook gallery, TheGaryPollardArchives, a look, as it's a fantastic resource of images showcasing the many films and shows he worked on across his career!

The Silurians were reimagined in 'The Hungry Earth' as more humanoid beings, realized as prosthetic facial makeup with large scaly crests on the back of the head. Different versions of the facial prosthetic were made for each performer, helping to distinguish them onscreen; Neve McIntosh's prosthetics as Restac had orange streaks, Stephen Moore's prosthetics as Eldane had a blunter nose, so on. Additionally, Millennium FX also designed a version of the prosthetic that had a 'mask', so that more complicated facial prosthetics wouldn't need to be made for the performers.

One reason for this radical redesign was, of course, budget; Gorton and company had wanted to have a design more indebted to the Classic Series' design, as these preliminary maquettes show, but this particular season's slashed budget meant that a series of animatronic masks was not really viable to realize onscreen. Apparently these were sculpted by Jordu Schell, a veteran of many Stan Winston efforts.

The Silence in 'The Impossible Astronaut' were intended to call to mind bothn Gray aliens and Edvard Munch's 'The Scream'; the preliminary design and sculpts were by Dave Bonneywell, who by his own admission loathed Grey alien designs and so tried to emphasize the influence of Munch's famous painting.

When realized on the screen, the mask was worn with a suit (a size too small, and soaked beforehand, to create a lanky frame), as well as prosthetic gloves sculpted with spindly fingers; Bonneywell did the paintwork on the Silence head and gave it a more pinkish, fleshy texture, but the washed out colours used for the actual episode made it 'look closer to these damn Grey buggers after all', in Bonneywell's words.

The Gangers in 'The Rebel Flesh' were deceptively simplistic; the facial prosthetic, designed to be a smooth parody of a human face, was of a pale colour, so it meant more work hiding the seams with the performers face.

The extra-terrestrial minotaur in 'The God Complex' was first realized as a preliminary maquette sculpted by Gary Pollard.

The final 'God Complex' minotaur suit consisted of a sculpted prosthetic torso and arms, leg prosthetics, and an animatronic head. The animatronics inside the sculpted head allowed the eyes to blink, mouth to open, and even the nostrils to flare.

The Shakri in 'The Power of Three' was realized as a prosthetic makeup applied to Steven Berkoff's face; the prosthetic was sculpted to be resemble cracked stone, with an enlarged cranium.

The alien Mummy in 'The Rings of Akhaten' was prosthetics applied to actor Aidan Cook, sculpted with a domed, mishapen head - this was apparently Neill Gorton's idea, to make it come across as an alien's corpse. The head was sculpted by Gary Pollard, who had considerable experience realizing the undead monsters in Stephen Sommers' The Mummy films.

Many background aliens were created for the intergalactic market sequences; the only one that gets a bit of real screentime is the vendor Dor'een, a feline-like alien realized as a heavy prosthetic makeup.

The various other aliens, being just background extras, were realized as static latex masks; one of the masks was a resculpt of the Hoix mask from 'Love and Monsters' a few years earlier.

The Ice Warriors returned in 'Cold War', which for most of the episode's runtime the lone Ice Warrior Skaldak is out of his shell, only his claws being glimpsed. A full-size 'nude' Skaldak puppet was constructed, with animatronics installed as well. Sadly, past the shots of the claws the puppet is never seen in the episode, and was reused as a background extra in 'Rings of Akhaten'.

Like their Classic Series counterparts, the reimagined Ice Warriors had prosthetic makeup applied to the lower half of the performer's face, additionally, the Ice Warriors now had sharp teeth like the intended 'naked' puppet had. The new Ice Warriors had much more metallic armor, the suits being sculpted by Millennium FX as well.

A prosthetic bodysuit was made for the 'Crooked Man' alien in 'Hide'; the suit was sculpted in a way so that it would never look the same in any shot, hence the misshapen and asymmetrical bodyplan. This was helped by the performance of Aiden Cooke, who was able to crawl and lope through the Welsh forests they were filming at. The suit had metal stilts built into it to allow Cooke to walk in a more inhuman gait; this resulted in Matt Smith being hurt when filming the fight scene between the Doctor and alien!

More rubber bodysuits were employed for the time zombies in 'Journey to the Center of the TARDIS' designed to look like molten lava; quick cuts and digital editing prevented the suit's creases being shown onscreen!

The Whispermen in 'The Name of the Doctor' consisted of a sculpted prosthetic facial makeup, with pronounced cheekbones and chin, worn under a white cloth mask with a hole cut for the mouth; the final look was as if the Whispermen's had skulls directly under the mask.

The Zygons in 'The Day of the Doctor' adhered closely to the original design realized by John Friedlander and James Acheson for 'Terror of the Zygons' in 1975; essentially the techniques were the same, but with more advanced materials that could allow the performers inside to emote earlier, as well as more detailing in the sculpting. David Bonneywell headed the design of the reimagined Zygons.

The final Zygon suits were given a more detailed paintjob, not just thanks to more advanced materials than in John Friedlander's day, but also making them appear more raw and fleshy.

The Teller in 'Time Heist' was envisaged as having stalk eyes; Early sculpts of the head by Pollard depicted a much more grotesque creature, with more fleshy detailing to the face and tendrils.

The final Teller was a fully sculpted suit, worn with a stalk-eyed mask with animatronics in it allowing the eyes to curl around into a halo-like shape (an idea from Gorton), as well as make the lips curl and snarl. Unfortunately, the full suit is obscured thanks to the rags its made to wear in most of its scenes, with only a very brief shot showing the 'nude' alien bodysuit at a distance.

The titular mummy of 'Mummy on the Orient Express' was realized as actor Jamie Hill wearing a dessicated facial prosthetic, with a ribcage prosthetic worn as part of the bandage costume as well. David Bonneywell headed the design process for the mummy.

Colony Sarff in 'The Magician's Apprentice' was achieved via a facial and neck prosthetic applied to Jami Reid-Quarrell's face; the lumpy texture was to imply Sarrf's face actually being comprised of several curled snakes.

The Fisher King in 'Before the Flood' was an ornately sculpted suit with a skull-like face fitted with a pulsating inner mouth and an armor-like carapace, the the 'bone' on the back looking like a stylized hood. A 'skirt' obscured the performer's legs (presumably on raised shoes, hence the height), preventing the need for leg prosthetics.

The lion-like Leandro in 'The Woman Who Lived' was achieved as actor Ariyon Bakare in facial prosthetics.

The mutant Sandmen in 'Sleep No More' were realized as full latex bodysuits, with a gaping 'mouth' where presumably the eye holes were fitted in.

The fish-like Fleming in 'The Husbands of River Song' was realized as a facial prosthetic applied to actor Rowan Polonski.

The episode also had this all too briefly glimpsed rhino-like alien, also realized as prosthetic makeup. Shame there is no behind the scenes images of this at all either.

The transformed wooden Eliza in 'Knock Knock' was realized as performer Mariah Gale in a full latex suit, with prosthetics over the face and arms that blended with the dress, to show she had entirely turned into wood. In Gary Pollard's initial maquette, Eliza had a more malformed appearance, but later sculpts refined it into a more recognizably human visage. Eliza was designed and sculpted by Gary Pollard, who mostly handled all of the practical creature effects in Series 10, which covers everything below this point.

The Monks in 'The Pyramid at the End of the World' were also designed heavily by Gary Pollard; in the original script it was intended for the Monks to be doing martial arts, so Pollar sculpted a maquette showing a more lithe design.

As the script evolved, it was decided for the Monks to be more scheming characters, with Pollard deciding to make them more frightening in appearance. Pollard designed and sculpted several Monk masks, each unique in appearance. The main Monks were prosthetic makeups, woth background performers wearing static masks.

The leader Monk in 'The Lie of the Land' had a more monstrous design with his skull to distinguish him from the underlings.

The Ice Warriors returned again in 'Empress of Mars', led by the Ice Empress Iraxxa; her design and sculpting was handled by Pollard as most of the creature effects in the tenth season; Pollard wanted to homage the original 1060s and 1970s 'Ice Lord' designs, but updated with contemporary design sensibilities. Noticeably, Pollard intended for Iraxxa's helmet eyes to have a 'Grey alien' look.

Even though this post is about the 2010s episodes of reboot Doctor Who, I opted not to include the episodes overseen by Chris Chibnall - replacing Steven Moffat, who had overseen the episodes highlighted here - in his first series aired in 2018 partly out of convenience, as most of Chibnall's episodes were made in the 2020s. However long the current iteration of the series lasts, there won't be any posts on the 2020s episodes until either the decade ends or the series does before it. Time will tell!)