Revisit rare Radio Times illustrations from Doctor Who's 20th anniversary

One of the highlights special was "a chilling, new, illustrated adventure", a short story written by Doctor Who’s then script editor Eric Saward.

Called "Birth of a Renegade", it pitted Peter Davison’s Doctor and his companions Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Turlough (Mark Strickson) against the Master (Anthony Ainley) and the Cybermen.

Saward also attempted to shed some light on the origins of the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan (Carole Ann Ford).

The tale was beautifully illustrated by artist Mark Thomas, whose pictures were reproducing now. And 40 years later, Mark speaks to RadioTimes.com about his memories of the assignment.

"I’d been doing regular work for Radio Times since 1976, after leaving art school, and had already done a cover. Then, in 1983, I got a call from Brian Thomas (no relation or nepotism, I’ll have you know!) to go up to RT headquarters in Marylebone High Street, for a meeting about a very special Doctor Who job.

"I was of the generation that was brought up on it, from the first disquieting episode, so was very keen.

"Initially, Brian was thinking that I might illustrate it like a comic book, i.e. panels and speech bubbles etc. At that point, I’m not sure if Eric Saward’s story had been fully realised.

"After discussing the pros and cons over the next few days, I persuaded Brian to opt for three full-page and two half-page drawings, as I think we’d have filled the whole issue trying to do justice to all the text. And I remember it was a tight deadline.

"My big influence on the make-up and look of the illustrations was one of my illustrator heroes, Frank Bellamy. He’d already done quite a few Who illustrations for Radio Times, including a wonderful Dalek cover [Day of the Daleks, 1972]. I’m pretty sure he would’ve been asked to work on this but he’d sadly died at his drawing board in 1976.

"Anyway, they were fun to do and I think they went down well and maybe people appreciated my nod to Bellamy’s genius. I’ve been asked for the availability of the originals over the years and I do know Paul Smith, a former RT art director and Who fan, has a few."

Over the coming decades, Mark Thomas has continued to contribute to Radio Times, with further Doctor Who-related commissions. For BBC2’s Doctor Who Night in November 1999, he painted a collection of the Time Lord’s greatest enemies.

In 2003, he supplied the cover for the Radio Times Doctor Who 40th Anniversary Special supplement.

In 2005, at the height of Doctor Who’s resurgent popularity, RT commissioned him to paint the cover for the Christmas double issue.

And in 2006, we asked Mark to illustrate a radio drama, Blood of the Daleks, featuring Paul McGann as the Doctor.

Our thanks to Mark Thomas for his help with this article. More of his work can be enjoyed on markthomasillustration.co.uk

Read more:

• Doctor Who's 10th anniversary photoshoots – classic companions look back
• The 1970s Doctor Who companions pictured in their own homes
• Doctor Who's Jon Pertwee in a long-lost photoshoot from 1970
• The secrets of 1970s Doctor Who revealed in newly discovered photos
• The stars of Patrick Troughton's Doctor Who – just before they joined the show
• See the earliest surviving Doctor Who photographs

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