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Doctor Who – Forgotten Lives charity project from Obverse Books in aid of Alzheimer’s Research UK teased

By John Freeman on October 15, 2020

Ace artist Paul Hanley has been teasing some of the incredible artwork he’s been working on for Obverse Books upcoming Doctor Who-inspired short story anthology Forgotten Lives, in aid of Alzheimer’s Research UK.

They say a person is the sum of their memories — a Time Lord even more so. But some people live so long that there is no longer room for all the memories; they find themselves diminished, whittled away piece by piece…

For many years, Doctor Who has implied that William Hartnell played the Doctor’s first incarnation — but there has always been room for doubt. In the 1976 story, The Brain of Morbius, we were given glimpses of eight stern-faced men in assorted historical costumes — Doctors before the one we know as the first.

What were they like, these forgotten Doctors? What worlds did they visit, and what adventures did they have there? Who were their companions, and who were their enemies?

And perhaps just as interesting — what sort of stories would this forgotten prehistory of Doctor Who have told?

The “Douglas Camfield” Past Doctor
The “George Gallaccio” Past Doctor
The “Philip Hinchcliffe” Past Doctor
The “Robert Holmes” Past Doctor
The “Barry Letts” Past Doctor

Forgotten Lives seeks to answer those questions, while raising money to benefit research into preventing and curing the loss of memory and identity that human longevity brings.

Paul Hanley has very much run with developing the fleeting images of past Doctors scene during the mind battle in The Brain of Morbius between the Fourth Doctor (as originally screened!) and Morbius.

Not only has he worked incredibly hard to develop full costumes – he’s also designed their own unique TARDIS control rooms, too, work he initially discusses on his Patreon page, and he’s also posted an album of the Doctorson his Facebook page.

The past Doctors who featured in the story were of course in actuality members of the Doctor Who production team, including producers Barry Letts and Philip Hinchcliffe, writer and script editor Robert Holmes, and others.

Featuring stories from Aditya Bidikar, Simon Bucher-Jones, Kara Dennison, Paul Driscoll, Andrew Hickey, Philip Purser-Hallard, and others yet to be revealed, Forgotten Lives will be published in late 2020.

A stop-motion movie-maker, commercial artist, and “sort-of-pro” comic artist as he has described himself, Paul Hanley has done official work for Godzilla and Judge Dredd (for IDW Comics), Firefly (Toy Vault Inc.) and Doctor Who (Titan Comics and the game Doctor Who Legacy from Tiny Rebel Games). He’s also created cover art for some Paul Magrs‘ Iris Wildthyme books.

• Support Paul Hanley on Patreon | Facebook Morbius Album | DeviantArt | Twitter | Tumblr

• More about Obverse Books at obversebooks.co.uk

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.