Who's Online

Former 'Dwarf effects dude Mike Tucker heads back to the TARDIS for the BBC's new online experiment.

23 November, 2001

As anyone who's anyone knows, Mike Tucker has a long and often very messy history with Red Dwarf. If there was gunge to be thrown, blobs to be worn or Bugs to be crashed, he'd be there - throwing, wearing and/or crashing them.

Mike has now hooked up with the BBC's Cult website to provide effects for TARDIS Cam, a brand new online venture for Dr Who. As you may recall, Mike worked on many previous Who shows, as well as writing or co-writing Who books. So does this project follow in the wake of the massive online ratings success of the audio Who pilot?

"Oh yes," James Goss, producer of the BBC's Cult website told reddwarf.co.uk. "We thought it would be nice to set up a web cam showing what the TARDIS is up to nowadays. The initial idea was to have a real web cam showing the prop in the BBC stores, but we soon moved on from that to something a bit more ambitious. The idea is that TARDIS cam allows you to follow the TARDIS through time and space. It's a regularly updated window showing you pictures of the TARDIS on various planets across the universe. Some of these link through to video clips. There's a mix of old footage and Mike's new stuff, along with some very nice CGI."

"Bizarrely I never got the opportunity to do this sort of miniature work during my tenure on 'Who," Mike explains, discussing the chosen style which allows the model shot alone to set the mood. "It's something that I had much more opportunity to experiment with on Red Dwarf, and I used a lot of the tricks that I learned there."

"One of the problems with Dr Who is that there hasn't been any new visual material produced since the TV movie, so this gave the opportunity for the Cult site to get something unique... I was very keen for us to do complete environments, my feeling was that if we were going to do this we should do it properly - as if it was a sequence for the programme - rather than opting for a quick and easy solution that I felt would look cheap."

Bringing Dr Who all the way into a new era of effects production, and working closely with Mike is Nick Clark, CGI modeller and animator. Nick explains that "the most beguiling thing about CGI is its ability to be very flexible and offer a scope that a miniature or live action set up can't always supply. When we were discussing the TARDIS Cam project we realised that a good miniature landscape is going to look far more realistic than a CG one, and be much easier to create. However, having the TARDIS hurtling through explosions in space and then bouncing around inside a time vortex has CG written all over it."

The last word goes to James Goss - how does he see the future of Dr Who? "In online terms, very healthy. Alongside TARDIS Cam, we've commissioned more episodes of Dr Who online. So, while Dr Who may not be on TV, there is at least a little bit of the BBC where he's loved and valued."

Mike Tucker will be talking to Mr Flibble in a few weeks time. TARDIS Cam will be available online from November 23rd at www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho - a link is available in the Links section.