#john friedlander

The various masks sculpted by John Friedlander, resident sculptor for the BBC Visual Effects Department before going freelance.

Both as a BBC employee and freelancer, Friedlander contributed several prosthetic masks for the original run of Doctor Who, inspiring later British prosthetic makeup artists such as Neill Gorton of Millennium FX who would recreate many of Friedlander's designs with modern prosthetic makeup techniques on the 2005 rebooted series.

Many monsters in the original Doctor Who series were the result of collaboration between the BBC's costume, makeup and visual effects departments, or with freelance firms.

A perfect example would be the namesake aliens of 'Terror of the Zygons'; the initial design was sketched by the serial's assigned costume designer James Acheson (future Oscar-winning costume designer of Time Bandits, Brazil, Dangerous Liaisons and The Last Emperor). Acheson looked at half-formed embyros in amniotic sacs for inspiration!