It’s nothing new under the sun that “Doctor Who” likes to experiment with some darker themes across its seasons, but it seems that the producers of the show were planning to try out something even more extravagant for the current eight season, according to a recently released set of concept images. The pictures focus on one specific episode – “Time Heist”, and more particularly on one of the characters in it, the Teller. Viewers familiar with the show may find it interesting to see the different stages through which its concept artists take certain characters.
The pictures seem to be genuine, coming straight from Millennium FX, associated with the production of the show. They’ve been posted on the Internet publicly, so fans can freely share them with their friends who also follow the show, and discuss the disturbing sights among themselves. And from what can be seen in those concepts, the show really was going to look different in this episode.
The concept images show multiple different revisions for the character, including one with an advanced mechanical device instead of an arm, and one with a more tubular design. Detachable arms and other similar concepts can be seen as well – and looking at the character’s head shots is even more interesting. One of the variants shows him in close resemblance to Iron Man, while another has the Teller with a circular opening on his mouth, resembling a filter or perhaps a speaker.
Even more extravagant pictures show a skull with musculature inside a knight helm, with different variants experimenting with different configurations for the helm itself. Other pictures show the Caretaker, another character from the show, in the multiple variations that the artists have taken him through, including one that somewhat resembles E.T. from the famous movie.
Fans who’ve never explored concept art for a show before might find this a bit strange, but it’s actually completely ordinary – before a concrete design is reached for a character like that, concept artists usually have to go through multiple revisions, experimenting with different features until they get a configuration that they like. And it’s been known for a while that the artists working on “Doctor Who” are quite good at what they do, and put a lot of hard work into the production.
It would be interesting to see more similar materials released at some point, especially for more major characters in the show, although the producers of “Doctor Who” are known for being somewhat secretive in some regards of their work. There have been rumors that more similar releases are on the way though, so fans should keep an eye out.