Thanks to visual effects designer Mike Tucker, we’ve got a small taster of Things to Come featuring in Beyond the Stars: A Propmaker’s Guide to the Galaxy, opening soon at Discover Bucks Museum, in Aylesbury.
The exhibition, which opens on Saturday 24th May and runs until 5th October 2025, will be another fantastic opportunity to discover the art and science behind film and television special effects. It will feature original models and props used in the making of some the most iconic science fiction shows to appear on British TV, including Doctor Who, Red Dwarf and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
There are also plans in the works for author and effects designer Mike Tucker to give talks at the Museum during the exhibition’s run; but no dates have been announced just yet.
The exhibition at Discover Bucks Museum is a revised and expanded version of “Set to Stun, which ran at Gunnersbury Museum last year. That exhibition was brought to life thanks to a successful Art Fund crowdfunding campaign that raised over £16,000 to mount it, with help from designers such as Jeremy Bear and Mike Tucker.
Offering an engaging and interactive showcase of the sets, costumes, prosthetics, props, and artistic visualisations, highlights of the exhibition include Imperial and Supreme Daleks from Doctor Who; Marvin the Paranoid Android from the original 1981 BBC production of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; and the Starbug model spacecraft used in series three of the cult classic, Red Dwarf.
Also featured are designs and behind-the-scenes materials that give an insight into the craftsmanship and imagination of the special effects artists who transport us to these alien worlds.
“Science fiction programmes have captivated children on TV screens across the country for generations,” say the Museum. “Featuring spaceships, aliens, robots and all manner of intergalactic creatures, they have fed their imaginations and transported them to distant worlds.
“Visitors to Beyond the Stars can journey through the realms of time and space and get up-close to the props and models that helped bring these beloved series to life. All the exhibits on display are screen-used and some have never been on public display before.”
With captivating exhibits and fun activities, there’s something for everyone to enjoy from families to long-time fans of the shows.
Mike Tucker is a BAFTA winning Visual Effects Designer who ran his own company, The Model Unit for 17 years until it closed following the pandemic. His many credits include miniature effects sequences for programmes such as Doctor Who, Red Dwarf and Good Omens.
Regular downthetubes readers will also know him as an author who has written several original Doctor Who novels, including Illegal Alien (with Robert Perry) and The Crawling Terror, a number of Merlin novelisations, and original fiction for other shared universes.
He has also co-written numerous factual books relating to film and television, including a history of the BBC’s Visual Effects Department, Impossible Worlds (a look at the concept art of Doctor Who), written with Stephen Nicholas, published by BBC Books, the Doctor Who: TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual with Richard Atkinson and Gavin Rymill, and, with Steve Cole, Doctor Who: The Gold Archive: Invasions of Earth: A Secret History.
• Beyond the Stars: A Propmaker’s Guide to the Galaxy opens 24th May 2025 and runs until 5th October 2025 at Discover Bucks Museum, Church Street, Aylesbury HP20 2QP | Further information and tickets
Book links above are AmazonUK Affiliates
Web Links
• Follow Mike Tucker on Facebook
• Who Corner 2023 Podcast Interview with Mike Tucker
Other Treats at Discover Bucks Museum
While you’re at the Museum, you might also want to check out The Roald Dahl Children’s Gallery, a permanent exhibition housed in a charming old coach house, is a short walk across the courtyard from the main museum building. Open Weekends and Bucks school holidays, it offers hands-on discovery and amazing science inspired by Roald Dahl’s stories. Find out more about that here.
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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.
Categories: Doctor Who, downthetubes News, Other Worlds, Science Fiction, Television
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