As exclusively revealed in this month’s Doctor Who Magazine, Big Finish are doing something a little different with the Doctors oldest foe in the upcoming Doctor Who: Order of the Daleks.
Call it the (higher) power of the Daleks as the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) and Mrs Clarke (Miranda Raison) find that his greatest enemy are not quite themselves.
I think you’ll agree, the cover, created by Simon Holub with CGI artwork by Chris Thompson, is certainly eye-catching. Revealing the secrets behind the Daleks monastic redesign, or Dalek Stainly as he’s known, Thomas took inspiration from other cultures distinctive styles and the gothic trappings of churches.
He said:
“I went around local churches for reference and looked at things such as iron gates, stained glass windows and cloisters for the shapes, my first designs somewhat deviated from the classic silhouette with added details such as crowns, a dome that came down like a samurai helmet, large ball rollers on the base etc.
“Eventually we reigned it in to something more classic in style with a few gothic elements such as the neck piece and the claw holding the glass eye. No sink plungers on this planet so the arm became a claw and the weapon became a retractable spear.
“We decided to lose the hemispheres on the skirt in favour of a stain glass design, in my head it depicts the various moons over the planet set against the seasons. There is also a second eye between the arms representing the mutant inside. There had to be a certain glass to iron ratio to make it look like it could support its own weight.
“All in all I am very pleased how the design turned out and honoured to have featured on Simon Holub’s wonderful cover.”
The full synopsis for Order of the Daleks reads:
“In the Galactic Census, idyllic Strellin is recorded as a Grade Three planet – its inhabitants possessing neither advanced technology, nor knowledge of other worlds. Accordingly, Strellin is protected: landings by off-worlders are strictly prohibited. Unless, of course, those off-worlders are officials of the Galactic Census itself, come to investigate the origin of a mysterious sub-space signal – a signal no native of Strellin should be able to send…
Breaking all local by-laws, the time-travelling Doctor and his companion L/Wren Mrs Constance Clarke (AWOL) have only just landed on Strellin, too. But they and the Census officials aren’t the only off-worlders to have come here. Inside a nearby monastery, the monks of the reclusive Brotherhood of the Black Petal are guarding a strange and terrible secret. Something might bring disaster not just to Strellin, but to every civilised world in the galaxy!”
Written by Mike Tucker and directed by Jamie Anderson – with Nicholas Briggs once again as the Daleks – Doctor Who: Order of the Daleks will be released on CD for £14.99 and Download for £12.99 in November exclusively from Big Finish.
