Crafty Tuesday: Doctor Who, Puppets, and Me

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the airing of the first episode of Doctor Who, I thought I would talk about Doctor Who and puppetry.

Back on May 14th 1996 I was with the members of the Terminus TARDIS watching the TV movie at a sports bar in Atlanta. We were enjoying catching up with each other and watching the movie. It was nice because I hadn’t seen a number of these folks in a while since I had gone up to Yale for graduate school for many. I can’t remember who challenged me to make a complete set of Doctor Who puppets for Dragon Con which was a little over a month away at that point. I think it might have been my friend Stephanie who knew my passion for puppets and encouraged me to build them. By this point I was pretty well known in Atlanta for my Star Trek puppets but I hadn’t built a Doctor much less 8 of them.

So I took the challenge and I made 8 puppets in my spare time while I stage managed one show and worked at the comic book shop. I had to learn to knit. I had to figure out what I could do to make each one look like the Doctor it was suppose to be. Fortunately each Doctor did have a distinctive look. Some were easier to recreate than others. I had a heck of a time patterning the 6th Doctor’s coat. I learned a lot about patterning clothes for puppets, different ways to do hair, and a number of other skills that I use to this day.

I presented them at Dragon Con and got a lot of good feedback. I was quite pleased with them. The first puppet to go to his Doctor was 5 to Davison which was delivered to him by Stephanie. She explained that the maker of the puppet was in the middle of a show and couldn’t get away. Since then I have given puppets to McCoy, McGann, and Pertwee (not in that order). Other actors who have played the Doctor know of the puppets existence.

I didn’t do any companions until after I did the second set of Doctor puppets in 2006 which included 9 and 10. In 10 years I had learned a lot about puppet building and this set was a little easier to create. Then I started adding companions to the mix. Sarah Jane being the first.

In 2012 as part of the puppet slam for Dragon Con, I pulled out all 11 puppets and with the help of some friends, we did “For a Lord of Time” to much acclaim. We had done the sketch a couple of times. I had to quickly rebuild a couple of Doctors that were no longer in the collection. That was also the year that I gave John Barrowman his Captain Jack puppet.

Now we are at the 50th anniversary. In the DragonCon art show the year I created “not the Doctor” being the John Hurt version, which I did off of a couple of photos that were leaked on the Internet. He turned out pretty well all things considered.

I have ideas for a few more companions I might make from classic Who. I might also do a Clara from the current show. I owe two actors their puppets.

I have made a lot of friends from these puppets. These puppets have opened doors for me and given me other work. They are very special to me.

Doctor Who and puppetry are intertwined for me at this point in my life and I am grateful for that fact.

Behind the cut I am posting photos of Doctors and Companions I have made over the years.

( It_is_bigger_on_the_inside )