The Story of the Doctor Who Tapestry (Part Three)

I often get asked the same questions regarding the tapestry: When did you start it? How long have you been doing it? It’s not actually that easy to answer because it has not been a continuous activity. But let me wind the clock back and try to provide some answers. (Parts One & Two here)

I Thought it was about time I continued the story, so where was I? 

Oh yes, seven Doctors and the idea to join them.  Joining them together wouldn’t be that easy, they certainly did not merge well. Plus, there were seven, not an easy number to arrange. At this point Paul McGann had not been announced, we were in those wilderness years when nothing was happening with the programme.

The only way I was going to be able to join them was to put something between them, but what? 

The obvious choice were the Daleks and the Cybermen.  So the first join, linking the 4th Doctor to the 5th Doctor with a montage of Daleks and Cybermen history. The Emperor from Evil of the Daleks, Davros and various Dalek forces. Various Cybermen, the cyber-motif from Tomb of the Cybermen and Cybermats. 

The old Doctor Who Technical Manual was the main source of design for the Cybermen and the three pieces of aida were initially joined by extending the Doctor’s backgrounds across onto them. The problem was the lack of colour references available back then.

This seemed to work, although I never did quite finish the details on this panel, must finish these off.

This extended the width of the tapestry and defined the initial size that it was going to be. 

Doctors 1 to 3 were going to form a strip along the top, joined by smaller inserts and 6 & 7 would go below, joined by a piece the same size as the Daleks and Cybermen section. 

This would give me three strips of the design, but how would they join together, there would have to be additional inserts to join the three lengths together. I think this was the first point where I began to wonder what I was really creating. With all this extra space to fill what was I going to fill it with?

Part Four