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Doctor Who Monsters

All Acting Regiment

20:23 / 13.04.05

Who's back on TV, and in the process I've realised how much I love the creature designs from the series old and new. To me, although they obviously didnt cost much to build, they have a unique sense of menace, and I mean *real* menace.

Take for example the Sea Devils:

It's just tall enough to be taller than the protagonist. And look at the neck, look at the eyes, the stiffness of the shoulders. It's cold, cold, cold. But still not as scary as:

Which needs no introduction. One of the reasons why I think the Daleks are so hugely resonant as a monster is that they are essentially a sentient tank- the turret, the millitarised voice. Their design is a symbol of the industrialised society and the hell it wreaked upon our world in the 1st and 2nd world wars.

So, what do you think?

sleazenation

20:37 / 13.04.05

Surely the key to the sea devils as monsters is their natty string vest attire...

All Acting Regiment

07:35 / 14.04.05

Though the above comment might be intended as a joke, I think you're on to something: the fact that they're wearing clothes suggests at least a basal intelligence, and an uncomfortable link with ourselves.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

17:40 / 14.04.05

They were intended to be string-vest free, but then some genius decided that was too dirty.

I tend to think the Silurians beat the Sea Devs, as the Sea Devils have those unfortunate large non-blinking eyes.

Davros rocks.

Anyone remember Sil?

The beauty of him was that because the actor who played him was small due to some physical illness his costume doesn't have to be cut away, as it would do for a larger actor.

All Acting Regiment

19:38 / 14.04.05

Sil is an evil little fuckhead

But again, he looks cool- like every wicked gnome in every fairy tale ever, but all sci-fied up.

netbanshee

23:55 / 14.04.05

Man... all those Who creatures have always freaked me out. The whole film quality of the time and production costs on top of the fact that the creatures are just the way they are... I don't know what to say. It definitely helped warp that 7 year old boy I was.

What's the new Who's cast of characters look like?

All Acting Regiment

11:06 / 15.04.05

Well there's been a blue Sil-a-like (but a bit less horrible) called the Moxx, uh...some nasty little metal spiders, a stretched out face...and some Gelphs, which were nasty gas creatures, uh, wanted some human corpses to live in, came out with the "We're sorry we didn't understand you wouldn't be OK with it, and anyway our bodies were destroyed in the war" line, causing the doctor to allow them though a gatewayness, uh, but they were baaad...

Jack Fear

11:48 / 15.04.05

I always thoughts that Sutekh, from "The Pyramids of Mars," was not only scary as fuck but really well-designed. Well, in low light, at least.

The Sontarans, on the other hand, were pretty poorly-designed from a practical standpoint, since their armor actually left their single vulnerable spot exposed—that is, it pretty much did the opposite of what "armor" is supposed to do.

If you're not familiar with these guys, then know that each of them has on the back of his otherwise-fortified neck a slot EXACTLY THE RIGHT SIZE AND SHAPE TO STICK A KNIFE IN.

Even when I was twelve, I thought that was bullshit.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

14:17 / 15.04.05

On the other hand, I've always felt the Cybermen, especially after the 60s, looked crap, they were bricklayers and PC Stamp from The Bill (true!) lumbering about, they should have been thin and nimble.

Tryphena Absent

23:29 / 15.04.05

The daleks always resonate in my mind as truly terrifying and I think there are a few reasons for this. They have no mouths yet they talk and this makes them seem like sentient machines, yes, like aggressive, thinking tanks but they also sound like... well, Hitler. Somehow their wheels make them unstoppable, as if they can just keep moving like a car. They have all the big metal power of a vehicle. They can kind of see, they're always swivelling their heads around as if they might spot you, they have all the characteristics of a fascist human but without the infallibility. The daleks are basically the Second World War in a metal shell.

Jack Fear

15:36 / 16.04.05

The little sticky-up eyestalk/gun thing on the turret always looked like it was giving the fascist salute.

16:18 / 19.04.05

they should have been thin and nimble.

There was a kind of cyberninja in The Five Doctors. It stood looking lethal and lithe, did an 'I'm sensing the air' head movement, and winked out of existence - moving faster than the speed of light, it winked in again elsewhere. Really basic TV technology making something look sinister - the essence of Doctor Who (except where it fails).
It was a Raston warrior robot, "the most perfect killing machine ever devised. Able to move with blinding speed and fire bolts of metal at its targets, it detects its victims by motion."
(This from the Web. Of Fear.)

Here's the sleak minimalist chappie:

Regrettable Juvenilia

20:58 / 19.04.05

Didn't it move a bit too much like a mime when it wasn't blinking in and out of space-time?

sleazenation

21:40 / 19.04.05

It also had the special power to make cybermen really really stupid and slower moving than usual...

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