Chris Achilleos

 

Growing up in the Seventies we only got to see each episode of Doctor Who once (or maybe twice if it was repeated) so the Target novelisations were our equivalent of how you can now watch any existing episode whenever you want. Crucial to those books were the covers especially the earlier ones which were the work of Chris Achilleos who sadly died this week. His artwork created a heightened, stylised version of Doctor Who with a grander and more exciting visual aesthetic than the reality of the series. Yet he was also able to home in on the elements that made each story tick. Finding a new book and a new cover was like discovering new treasure and those covers somehow became synonymous with the stories they depicted.

 

This worked especially well when they were stories I’d never seen from the Sixties. By the time the Target range started I already had two Doctor Who novels, both picked up at school jumble sales and both having been originally published in the Sixties. In 1973 they were re-released to kickstart the new Target imprint and those covers represent the stories for me. They introduced myself and thousands of other fans to Chris Achilleos’ work. To the little extra touches he’d add- a flaring star, a zigzag of static, images melting into one another and always having the Doctor’s face in black and white to stand out against the vivid colours he otherwise used. Of all the artwork I’ve seen whether on books, albums, posters or wherever these still rank for me as amongst the best. The colour choices can astonish- the pink Tardis on the cover of `The Daleks` for example, the fact that there are red fireballs on `The Crusaders` cover, the monochrome Menoptera on `The Zarbi`. Needless to say it was these covers that made me persuade my parents to buy these even though I already had two of them. I probably told them they were new books!

`The Auton Invasion` which came out early in 1974 was the first one were I had actually seen the story and yet I’d completely forgotten how rubbery the Nestene looks at the end of it so that cover drawing was how I chose to remember it! My personal favourites apart from these four include `Day of the Daleks` which is predominantly orange for no reason other than it looks perfect, `The Doomsday Weapon` with those striking crimson claws dominating the picture, `The Sea Devils` with what the artist admitted had a strong Frank Bellamy influence and `The Curse of Peladon` which stays totally true to the colour palette of the story. He used backgrounds wonderfully personified by `The Cybermen` which features a large Moon behind the Doctor and a Cyberman, a design that reminds me of those enormous circular screens latter day Pink Floyd used. Maybe Dave Gilmour read this book?!

Thanks to the fact it has KKLAK! emblazoned across it, `The Dinosaur Invasion` is especially well remembered and it does what several of his covers did and make the monster look better than it did in the show! Less remarked upon is the gorgeous sunset background which adds a different tone from the televised story set in rainy England. Achilleos could use his work to underscore pure menace as well- there is nothing on the covers that looks quite as fearsome as the Ice Warrior towering over a screaming Victoria with sizzling static dancing around his claws. It conveys the power of the monster in Doctor Who brilliantly.

Another personal favourite is `The Space War` which is not as busy as some but conveys the vastness of the story’s Space Opera intent and doesn’t include the Doctor at all.  I also love `Carnival of Monsters` cover which sits across a grey background and uses a fearsome looking interpretation of a Drashig. Achilleos rated his `Claws of Axos` cover as one of his best and you can see why. The placing of the `humanoid` Axon in front of it’s monsterish true appearance perfectly sums up the story. I’m also a big fan of his covers for both versions of the Doctor Who Monster Book on which he eschews any star fields or static to present `clean` drawings of monsters all of which are superb. And the Doctor is no longer monochrome but as colourful as his enemies.

The reason I can so easily recall these covers is partly because they made such an impression on a younger me and partly as earlier this year they were released in a superb hardback book compilation authored by Chris himself. In the book, titled `Kklak`, he comments honestly and sometimes critically about each of the covers and if you’ve not got this book and are a fan of his Doctor Who work I can  highly recommend it. It was a shock to discover that less than a year later he is gone. 

Of course his Doctor Who art was part of a much wider catalogue of work that included the series’ rival Star Trek, as well as other fantasy books and even a controversial Whitesnake album cover. His work could be provocative and some of it would probably not be seen as acceptable now. There is no doubt though that he was hugely talented and by all accounts a great person to know. He leaves behind, for Doctor Who fans, a fantastic legacy of artwork that defined the series for a generation.