Doctor Puppet (also known as The Doctor Puppet) is a US/UK stop-motion science fiction animation fan series that celebrates the top selling BBC TV series, Doctor Who and its rich history through hand-crafted puppets and original stories. Created by Alisa Stern in 2012 in her New York apartment, Doctor Puppet consists of a Tumblr blog, an eight episode series of short films featuring the likenesses of the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) and other Doctors and characters from the BBC TV series, other short films with the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman), three Christmas specials, music videos, behind the scenes documentaries and Google Hangouts with the creative team. The series is composed and narrated by UK film score composer Scott Ampleford.
Contents
History
Following the creation of the Doctor Puppet Tumblr blog, which features pictures of the puppets around America and Europe, Alisa and her team created the first animated Christmas special for YouTube How the Doctor Puppet Saved Christmas. This was narrated by Sean Li, before Scott Ampleford took on this role for the main series. Catching the attention of Nerdist Industries, Alisa was invited to air Doctor Puppet Episode 1 The Red X short on their YouTube channel in March 2013.
In August 2014, Doctor Puppet was invited to script and animate a 20-second scene for the BBC America documentary Doctor Who: Earth Conquest featuring the actual voices of Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman playing themselves as tourists in New York. This was animated by Erin Natal and is featured alongside an interview with creator Alisa Stern on the Series 8 DVD boxset of Doctor Who. The main members of the Doctor Puppet team travelled from New York and the UK to Dragon Con in Atlanta to speak on several animation panels and preview Episode 6 to their fans.
In October 2014, Doctor Puppet raised $16,015 via their Indiegogo campaign in order to fund their 2014 Christmas special The Planet That Came For Christmas.
In 2015, Doctor Puppet will be honouring the remaining Indiegogo photo perks and completing the eight episode story arc featuring the Eleventh Doctor before moving onto further stories with the Twelfth Doctor and Clara.
Media Attention
Online
Alisa Stern and the team regularly promote their activities and interact with their growing fanbase via their Twitter account, Facebook page and Tumblr blog. They have received very positive online media attention including featured articles on BBC America, Toybox, Kasterborous - a Doctor Who UK Webzine, Huffington Post, io9, Tor, Skwigly and The Mary Sue.
In Print
Doctor Puppet has been featured twice in the BBC Doctor Who Magazine; in Issue 480 on page 12 in the WhoTube column promoting Episode 6 and, in December 2014, a full page feature on page 79 of the Doctor Who Magazine Special: The 2015 Yearbook.
Podcasts
Extensive Google Hangout video podcasts have been posted via Google+/YouTube - Part 1 and Part 2 in December 2013, which was the first time the creative team had "met" each other as a whole team. They also recorded A Christmas Special Hangout in January 2014 discussing behind the scenes with the new Twelfth Doctor puppet.
In 2014, Alisa Stern and Erin Natal were featured guests on the Earth Station One podcasts no. 80 (reviewing the Doctor Who episode Time Heist) and no. 91 (reviewing the 2014 special Last Christmas). The two podcasts helped promote Doctor Puppet's Indiegogo campaign and then celebrate the success of The Planet That Came For Christmas giving behind the scenes information about the origins of the storyline. Host Mike Faber called the Doctor Puppet special "very entertaining" with a "very well rounded story" which "flowed really nicely". Alisa and Scott were also featured guests on Who's Talking: A Doctor Who Podcast no. 9 in October 2014, in which they promoted the Indiegogo campaign and discussed the Season 8 episode Flatline.
Music
Scott Ampleford's original music reflects the music found in the different eras of Doctor Who including classic electronics in the style of BBC Radiophonic Workshop, 1980s FM and modular synthesizers, and more modern orchestral music in the style of Murray Gold. Initially, the music was composed using sample libraries but since Episode 3 The Doctor in the Garden the soundtracks have included an increasing number of live instruments performed by Scott Ampleford, Phil Toms, student musicians from Colchester Institute and professional musicians such as violinist Steve Bingham. Orchestrator Phil Toms works with Scott on the music to adapt and prepare printed parts for the live musicians, who are often multi-tracked to give the impression of a larger orchestra and choir. Music documentaries on the Doctor Puppet YouTube channel include The Making of the Doctor Puppet Part 3 - Settling the Score and Part 5 - Settling the Score of A Timelord Christmas which give an insight into the creative process for Scott and his team.
Lyrics for A Timelord Christmas by Scott Ampleford
It's a Timelord Christmas
Let the Universe rejoice
It's a Timelord Christmas
For all the girls and boys
We've filled our hearts with warmth and joy
We've built up all year long
When it comes to loving fellow man
Two hearts are better than one
Forwards
We are looking forwards
And we are looking backwards
Reflecting
Merry Christmas one and all!
Radio Castellan EP
For Episode 5 Baker's Eleven, Scott wrote and performed three original tracks which were briefly featured in the soundtrack. Each song features numerous Doctor Who references and are performed by fictitious 1980s bands paying homage to new wave music and specifically Huey Lewis and the News. These were produced by Doug Cairns and featured some of the musicians who play on the main soundtracks, notably Oliver Pashby-Taylor on trumpet and Tom Presland on electric guitar. This EP is available on Scott's Bandcamp site.
Track listing:
1. Theta-Sigma "Zero Room"
2. Delta & The Bannermen "The Happiness Patrol"
3. The Pharos Project "Shada"
The Planet That Came For Christmas
During the score-writing process in December 2014, Scott recorded 40 vocal parts himself as The All Scott Ampleford Male Voice Choir before adding a female choir to the soundtrack. Live woodwind and brass parts were recorded to replace the sampled demo tracks. Scott conducted the Bingham String Quartet with Phil Toms on double bass in an old church near Cambridge, UK. They were recorded five times to simulate a 25 piece string section. Music producer Doug Cairns was brought in to edit, mix and master the final recordings due to the time pressures of composing, arranging and recording the score whilst the finishing touches were being crafted on the animation and VFX. The German lyrics for this Christmas special were taken from a traditional carol Leise rieselt der Schnee with pronunciation guidance from Mike Richter although the lyrics were re-ordered to fit the storyline. The use of these lyrics enhanced the homage to German Expressionism (including jagged set design, camera shots and animated puppet movements) based on films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922). This is reflected in the animated films of Tim Burton and so Scott's music pays homage to the soundtracks of Danny Elfman who regularly works with Burton.