Mike Tucker (special effects artist)

1. Overview

Mike Tucker is a Welsh special effects expert and author. He spent many years at the BBC Television Visual Effects Department and now serves as an Effects Supervisor for his own company, The Model Unit. Tucker is also a prolific author, known for various spin-off works related to the television series Doctor Who, including novels and audio plays. He has also written novelizations based on episodes of Merlin and co-authored non-fiction books, often collaborating with Robert Perry. His career has been recognized with multiple awards and nominations for his contributions to special effects.

2. Early Life and Background

Mike Tucker was born in South Wales. His initial involvement in the special effects industry began as a holiday relief assistant on the 1982 history series Timewatch. This early role provided his first entry point into the demanding field of television production and special effects.

3. Special Effects Career

Mike Tucker's special effects career spans decades, beginning with his extensive work at the BBC Television Visual Effects Department, leading to the establishment of his own successful company, The Model Unit, and contributing to numerous high-profile television and film productions. His work has covered a wide range of practical effects, models, and miniature sequences.

3.1. Early Work at BBC

Following his initial role as a holiday relief assistant, Mike Tucker transitioned into a full-time position within the BBC Visual Effects Department. In this capacity, he contributed to the practical effects and models for a diverse array of BBC programs. These included long-running series such as Casualty, Top of the Pops, and EastEnders, as well as acclaimed productions like The Singing Detective, Proust, and Tomorrow's World. He was a key member of the principal effects crew for Red Dwarf series 1 through 7. Tucker also served as an effects assistant for the final four series of the original Doctor Who. His deep association with Doctor Who continued even after the series entered its hiatus, as he contributed to the Children in Need special Dimensions in Time.

By the early 1990s, Tucker had advanced to become a fully qualified effects supervisor, overseeing effects for shows such as I Was a Rat, 999 International, Raging Planet, and Twister Week. He began to specialize in miniature effects, subsequently managing model sequences for productions including Egypt's Golden Empire, Disasters at Sea, Nelson's Island, Billy and the Fighter Boys, Hiroshima, and The Brighton Bomb.

3.2. Founding The Model Unit

In 2004, following the closure of the BBC Television Visual Effects Department, Mike Tucker established his own special effects company, The Model Unit. The company initially operated from Ealing Studios. In 2012, The Model Unit relocated to Wimbledon Studios. However, due to the closure of Wimbledon Studios in 2014, the company returned to Ealing Studios, where it continues its operations. Notably, in 2005, Tucker became the first individual who had worked on the original series of Doctor Who to also contribute to its revived version, starring Christopher Eccleston. He served as the model work supervisor for the revived series, a role he continues to hold, linking his extensive experience across different eras of the iconic show.

3.3. Notable Projects and Contributions

The Model Unit, under Mike Tucker's supervision, has provided miniature effects sequences for a wide variety of television and film projects. These contributions include the segment depicting the Munich air disaster for the BBC's Surviving Disaster series, Krakatoa - The Last Days also for the BBC, Moonshot and Primeval for ITV. The company also worked on Discovery Channel productions such as Human Body - Pushing the Limits, Clash of the Dinosaurs, and Last Day of the Dinosaurs. In feature films, The Model Unit provided effects for Atonement for Working Title Films. A significant highlight of their work is the 50th Anniversary episode of Doctor Who, titled "The Day of the Doctor", which was broadcast by the BBC on November 23, 2013. The Model Unit was responsible for the miniature effects featured in this feature-length special. The episode was simulcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom and in many countries worldwide, additionally screened in up to 1500 cinemas across the UK.

4. Writing Career

Parallel to his extensive career in special effects, Mike Tucker has also established himself as a prolific author, contributing to both non-fiction and fiction, with a significant focus on the Doctor Who universe.

4.1. Early Works and Collaborations

Mike Tucker's foray into writing began with the non-fiction book Ace!, co-authored with Sophie Aldred. This book focused on the final seasons of the original Doctor Who series. Soon after, he contributed the short story "Question Mark Pyjamas" to the second volume of the Virgin Decalog anthology series. This marked his first collaboration with Robert Perry, who would become his long-time writing partner. Their collaborative efforts continued with several stories for the BBC Short Trips anthology.

4.2. Doctor Who-related Fiction

Tucker and Robert Perry launched their "Season 27" series of novels in October 1997, published as part of BBC Books' Past Doctor Adventures series. The inaugural book, Illegal Alien, was initially conceived as a script that was considered for production had a twenty-seventh season of Doctor Who gone ahead. The duo continued their "Season 27" narrative with subsequent novels including Matrix (1998), Storm Harvest (1999), Prime Time (2000), and Loving the Alien (2003). Notably, Prime Time was Tucker's first solo novel, written without Perry, and initiated a story arc that was further developed in Dale Smith's Heritage before concluding with Loving the Alien, where Perry rejoined as co-author. Prime Time generated some minor controversy among Doctor Who fans for stating that the companion Ace's surname was "Gale". Her surname was never explicitly established on screen, though her creator Ian Briggs had suggested "Gale" as a parallel to Dorothy Gale from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. However, the Virgin New Adventures series, published after the original television run, had previously established Ace's surname as "McShane". Tucker later clarified that his use of "Gale" was due to his unawareness of the "McShane" surname, and subsequent books attempted to reconcile this by establishing Ace's full name as Dorothy Gale McShane.

In addition to his novels, Mike Tucker contributed to Big Finish Productions' range of audio adventures. He wrote the audio plays The Genocide Machine (1999) and Dust Breeding (2001). Dust Breeding notably featured the return of the Krill, an alien race originally introduced in his novel Storm Harvest, as well as the character Bev Tarrent from his earlier audio work. Tucker has also written for Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield and The Tomorrow People audio ranges. In 2003, Tucker and Perry co-authored the novella Companion Piece for Telos Publishing Ltd.. This book, part of Telos's Doctor Who range, again featured the Seventh Doctor and introduced a new companion, Catherine Broome. His BBC Books novel The Crawling Terror is significant as one of the first books to feature Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor. Prior to this, he wrote the Tenth Doctor novels The Nightmare of Black Island (his first Doctor Who book not featuring the Seventh Doctor) and Snowglobe 7. His subsequent novel featuring the Twelfth Doctor was Diamond Dogs. Tucker has also written comic strips for Doctor Who - Battles in Time and Doctor Who Adventures magazines.

4.3. Other Literary Works and Academic Activities

Beyond the Doctor Who franchise, Mike Tucker has diversified his writing portfolio. He novelized several episodes of the television series Merlin for Random House, including "Valiant", "The Labyrinth of Gedref", and "The Traitor Within". He co-authored the non-fiction book History of the BBC Visual Effects Department with Mat Irvine for Aurum Press, and collaborated with Stephen Nicholas on 'Impossible Worlds', a guide to Doctor Who concept art. During this period, Tucker also had a brief tenure as a university academic, delivering multiple lectures on science fiction and other subjects. In a return to audio dramas outside Doctor Who, Big Finish Productions released the audiobook Star Cops: The Stuff of Life in December 2019. Written by Tucker, this audio drama is based on the 1980s television series Star Cops and bridges the narrative gap between its first two series of audio dramas. A second audiobook in the series, Star Cops: Sins of the Father, was published in December 2021.

5. Awards and Nominations

Mike Tucker has received significant recognition for his contributions to special effects. In May 2006, he was awarded a BAFTA Craft Award for his outstanding special effects work on the drama-documentary Hiroshima. In July 2008, Tucker was part of the team nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Television Series for their work on the "Strength" episode of Discovery Channel's Human Body - Pushing the Limits. In April 2014, The Model Unit, led by Mike Tucker, won another BAFTA Craft Award for their work on Doctor Who: "The Day of the Doctor", sharing the honor with Milk VFX and Real SFX. He has also been nominated five times for an RTS Craft Award for his work on diverse projects including 999 International - Missing in Action, The Brighton Bomb, Horizon - Last Flight of Columbia, Human Body - Pushing the Limits, and Doctor Who - "The Day of the Doctor".