(With thanks to Frank Garcia, via Topless Robot and Japanator): Expect this stunning piece of work to go hugely viral — and if BBC Worldwide don’t pick up the phone to Sheffield-based artist and animator Paul “Otaking” Johnson and offer him a job, they’re mad.
Paul is in the process of writing a Doctor Who-inspired anime short – “It’s taking me b***** ages,” he says – and has posted some progress footage from it on YouTube, including the penciling and inking process. The sequences so far feature the Third Doctor roughing up some would-be muggers with a bit of Venusian karate, meeting scantily-clad anime girls, and getting caught in a battle between Daleks and Cybermen.
Anime site Japanator notes Paul tried to create a stir a while back about fansubs — the practice of creating a fan-produced translated, subtitled version of an anime program, which began back in the 1980s — with his own brand of animation, and this taster, which also features The Master looks great to us, especially the climactic fight between the Doctor and the Master atop the Tokyo Tower.
• Paul’s “Mightyotaking” Deviantart page
UPDATE, Tuesday 4th November 2025: Paul’s 12-and-a-half minute “trailer” featured the Third Doctor, and the final film was released in June 2011 after four years in development. Paul then took it down shortly afterwards, explaining that as he was hired by the BBC to help restore lost episodes, he removed his Doctor Who work out of professional obligation.
However, the trailer has since been reposted by others…
Head downthetubes for…
• Fandom: Doctor Who – Expanded Universe: Jikuu Bouken Doctor Who
• IMDB: Doctor Who – The Anime
• Japanator: If Doctor Who were to be an anime
• Topless Robot: Doctor Who: The Anime
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
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: Animation, Doctor Who, Television
Animated Doctor Who That Never Was: The 2013 Project 
Doctor Who heading to CBeebies? Here’s a competition! 
Lux Doctor Who Magazine Entertain You… (you know you Rylan want it too) 
Doctor Who: Phantoms of the Deep gets animated