TIMELASH: Confessions of a Visual Effects Assistant
This latest entry in my short series looking at the design and effects work on Timelash turns the spotlight on one of the story’s most ambitious creatures, the Morlox.
To explore the creation of the Morlox, I spoke with visual effects assistant Paul Mann, who worked on various Doctor Who serials, including Timelash, during his time in the BBC Visual Effects Department.
Paul never planned on a career in visual effects. A trained silversmith with no background in the field, he stumbled into the BBC’s legendary Visual Effects Department in the 1980s and stayed for nearly a decade.
“I did not even know there was such a thing as the BBC Visual Effects Department until about a week before I walked in with my portfolio,” Paul recalls. “I had just quit my job as a silversmith and met up with an old friend, Dave Becker, who was working in visual effects at the BBC. He told me it was like being back at polytechnic, doing whatever the hell you wanted, making stuff, and getting paid for it. That was enough to convince me.”
Scrambling together a portfolio overnight, Paul included silversmithing projects and motorcycle builds, nothing remotely related to effects or science-fiction. It did not matter.
“Michaeljohn Harris, the head of the department, took one look and said, ‘Start on Monday.’ That was it, first it was for three months, then another three, and then a full-time job. I stayed for almost a decade.”
On 31 May 1984, Paul found himself on location for Attack of the Cybermen, just weeks into the job.
“That was just a few weeks into my time at the BBC,” he says. “Chris Lawson asked me to build a false arm for one of the Cybermen which was blown off. This was the first time I had ever pushed a pyro button. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I am just a few weeks in, and I am already blowing arms off Cybermen!’”
He quickly learned that precision mattered as much as spectacle.
“The timing had to be perfect. The charges were set to go off exactly when the actor hit his mark. If we were even a split second off, the whole shot would have been ruined.”
Location work often came with its own culture.
“A lot of the people in the department spent half their lives pissed,” Paul laughs. “You would have a few pints at lunch, sleep through the afternoon, then head back to the bar.”
Even training reflected the same chaotic energy.
“During a pyrotechnics course, the instructor, Michaeljohn Harris, had three or four pints at lunch. I remember him setting off a charge too close to his face. He ended up looking like a cartoon character who had just held a stick of dynamite when it went off.”
By the mid-1980s, Doctor Who itself had developed a reputation within the department.
“If you were a naughty boy you used to get punished by being put on Doctor Who,” Paul explains. “If you were put on Doctor Who then you knew you had done something wrong. I was quite a naughty boy, so I did a lot of episodes. The Paul Daniels Magic Show was the other punishment show. Those were the two shows which had no prestige whatsoever at the BBC. That did not apply to Mike Tucker and some of the other younger guys who came in later because they absolutely loved being on Doctor Who.”
It wasn’t long before Paul found himself back on Doctor Who.
“The next one I worked on was Timelash,” Paul continues. “Kevin Molloy was the visual effects designer, and I was his assistant. We always got on well, but we were constantly getting into trouble for giggling. Neither of us were fans of Doctor Who, and we both saw it as a bit of a punishment.”
Despite that, the lack of resources encouraged invention.
“There was no budget for materials, but we had a recycling store full of leftover props from other productions, random junk like coffee pot lids and old hair dryers. I remember once using Polo mints for portholes on a spaceship. You just had to make sure the writing was on the inside!”
“For Timelash, we had to create a robotic prosthetic for Denis Carey. We built it from scrap in the recycling store, and it turned out quite well.”
The Morlox was Paul’s main responsibility on the production.
“Kevin asked me to design it, so I did a quick sketch of how I would build it. Back then, designs were done on the back of a fag packet, and you just got on with it. I was being punished again, so I thought, “I will teach you!” I basically built an 18-foot-long dick with a massive bellend for a head. But I loved animatronics and engineering. One minute you would be doing pyrotechnics, and the next you would be sculpting.”
“I remember Kevin Molloy looking absolutely aghast at this huge thing stretching across the workshop. He thought I had lost the plot.”
Sculptor Stan Mitchell played a key role in refining the design.
“Stan helped me a lot when it came to sculpting the Morlox’s head,” Paul says. “He took one look at it and said it looked far too much like a massive penis. So, he stepped in and sculpted it properly with a mouth and eyes.”
“Stan taught me loads. He had been a sculptor at Madame Tussauds, where he was used to having weeks to work on something. In our department, we had hours, not weeks.”
Paul’s next Doctor Who assignment was Terror of the Vervoids.
“The Vervoids were a collaborative effort,” he adds, “with Kevin and Andrew Rose. Kevin deliberately designed them to look like giant vaginas. He was pissed off about being stuck on Doctor Who again, so he made sure they looked like that, hoping he would never be asked back.”
Kevin Molloy got his wish and never worked on Doctor Who again, but Paul returned several times during the Sylvester McCoy era. But that’s another story…
THE MORLOX BUILD
The Morlox creature from Timelash was designed by Paul Mann and built using a combination of practical effects techniques to create a menacing yet manoeuvrable monster.
The process began with Paul constructing a sturdy wire armature, which formed the basic frame of the creature. This was then padded with foam to bulk out its body and give it a more organic shape while keeping it lightweight for ease of movement.
The creature’s head was sculpted separately in clay by Stan Mitchell, allowing the effects team to refine its details before taking a rubber mould from the finished sculpture. This mould was then used to produce the final rubber headpiece which was bolted on to the body.
A hollow latex rubber sleeve was created to encase the body. This outer layer was carefully textured to give the Morlox its distinctive reptilian appearance before being painted with multiple layers to enhance its realism and on-screen presence.
To give the Morlox limited movement, two wires were attached to a rack and pinion pivot inside the head, running back to Paul Mann and Kevin Molloy, who were hidden off set. By pulling either wire, they could make the head turn left or right, adding a sense of life to the creature.
To support the head and help control its movements, a harness was fitted around the neck and attached to a ceiling mounted wire. This rigging provided stability and allowed the Morlox to appear as though it was rearing up and lunging, making it an effective and imposing presence in the story.
I would like to express huge gratitude to Paul Mann for his help with this article. More from Paul soon!
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Wonderful article and great pics. The pics showing the whole armature look like they could have been taken in Stan Winston’s workshop!
Fantastic stuff! Still bracing to hear people talk so honestly!