The Doctor’s most evil foes on location, as seen through a monster’s eye. Mickey Lewis who has portrayed Cybermen, Daleks and a dazzling array of other creatures takes us on a monster mystery tour.

Asylum of the Daleks

Rings of Akhatan

You can’t beat seeing a good monster on location. From the days of Sea Devils rising from the ocean right up to modern Cybermen smashing through a forest in Wales, filming the Doctor’s evil foes on location is an essential part of the magic of the show.

My first two episodes on Doctor Who had been spent operating a Dalek (as well as being a snow-suited Dalek puppet corpse that comes back to life) on Asylum of the Daleks, and lurching around as the Beast Man on Rings of Akhatan, but exotic as those sets were, especially the alien bazaar on the latter, those experiences were 100% studio-bound, in Upper Boat studios and Roath Lock respectively.

While I didn’t make it to the fairy tale Castle Coch location for Nightmare in Silver I did go to the fitting and movement rehearsal, receiving Cyberleader Aidan Cooke’s firm approval for my adoption of the proposed new bullettime Cyber-motion and got to try on the brand new costume barely dry from its paint job. So though I missed out on the magical location my consolation prize was promoting the new Cyberman at a photo shoot in London with Matt Smith, bringing back the sixties Cyber Chop for the cover of Entertainment Weekly.

No location filming for me on The Day of the Doctor, my next adventure. Instead I got to wear Jon Pertwee’s actual 40 year-old costume, resurrecting the Third Doctor for the 50th Anniversary Special at Roath, and also shared a stage with John Hurt along with nine other Doctors including Matt Smith and David Tennant, so that certainly made up for it!