Doctor Who
Press pack - phase two
Miniature effects
Mike Tucker - 91Èȱ¬ Miniature Effects Unit
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Mike Tucker is in prime position to compare the new Doctor Who with the old, having worked on the later TV runs featuring Colin Baker and then Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor.
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"Russell T Davies said very early on that there's very little point in bringing the show back if we're going to change it beyond all recognition," says Mike, who heads the 91Èȱ¬'s Miniature Effects Unit.
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"What he's brought back is Doctor Who, but Doctor Who re-invented for the mindset and viewing tastes of the 21st century viewing public."
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Mike and his team, together with Oscar-winning effects
house The Mill, have helped bring the series bang up to date, using
the very latest technology to give its visual effects a sophisticated,
cutting edge look and feel.
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"The kind of things we're doing now couldn't have been done 15 years ago when the show was last on. Computer technology in visual effects was in its infancy," he says.
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"During the last couple of Sylvester McCoy stories, what was then the 91Èȱ¬ Video Effects Department was doing some groundbreaking stuff, but it was only after the show came off air that the real digital revolution came along.
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"The gulf between what we can do now and did then is enormous. Effects we could never have achieved are now possible - that's the biggest change.
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"Russell is well aware of that, so the scripts for
the new series have pushed the show's level of ambition higher than
ever, and what we've been asked to do is as challenging in its way as
it was 15 years ago."
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Mike delights in keeping viewers guessing about how the effects in the new Doctor Who were achieved.
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"You have to constantly find ways of fooling the next generation of audience, to stay one step ahead so you can say, you might think you know how that was done but actually we threw this or that into the mix to trick you," he says.
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In the world of miniature effects, the most visually-arresting scenes are, of course, often achieved by blowing things up.
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"You do spend a lot of time making models and setting them up only to destroy them in a matter of seconds, but it's part of the job," Mike says.
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"The most important thing is that it looks good on screen."
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Besides, what does reducing weeks' worth of work to debris matter when you get to work on the new Dalek?
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Mike confirms: "The only overlap between our work and the full-sized world is we got to build the Dalek - what a bonus!"
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