Doctor Puppet (also known as "The Doctor Puppet") is a series of US/UK stop-motion-animated fan films inspired by the BBC science fiction program Doctor Who. The series was first by Alisa Stern in 2012 in her New York apartment.
Basic information
Doctor Puppet consists of a Tumblr blog, The series has featured the Eleventh Doctor, the Twelfth Doctor, Clara Oswald and other characters. Productions have included eight episodes, three Christmas specials, music videos, behind the scenes documentaries and Google Hangouts with the creative team. The series is composed and narrated by the UK film score composer Scott Ampleford.
History
Following the creation of the Doctor Puppet Tumblr blog, which features pictures of the puppets around America and Europe, Alisa and her team created the first animated Christmas special for YouTube "How the Doctor Puppet Saved Christmas". This was narrated by Sean Li, before Scott Ampleford took on this role for the main series. Catching the attention of Nerdist Industries, Alisa was invited to air Doctor Puppet Episode 1 The Red X short on their YouTube channel in March 2013.
In August 2014, Doctor Puppet was invited to script and animate a 20-second scene for the BBC America documentary Doctor Who: Earth Conquest featuring the voices of original actors Peter Capaldi (the Twelfth Doctor) and Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald), playing themselves as tourists in New York. This was animated by Erin Natal and is featured alongside an interview with creator Alisa Stern on the Series 8 DVD boxset of Doctor Who. The main members of the Doctor Puppet team travelled from New York and the UK to Dragon Con in Atlanta to speak on several animation panels and preview Episode 6 to their fans.
In October 2014, Doctor Puppet raised $16,015 via their Indiegogo campaign in order to fund their 2014 Christmas special The Planet That Came For Christmas.
In 2015, Doctor Puppet, honored the remaining Indiegogo photo perks and completing the eight episode story arc featuring the Eleventh Doctor before moving onto further stories with the Twelfth Doctor and Clara.
Media attention
Online
Alisa Stern and the team regularly promote their activities and interact with their growing fanbase via their Twitter account, Facebook page and Tumblr blog. They have received very positive online media attention including featured articles on BBC America, Toybox, Kasterborous - a Doctor Who UK Webzine, Huffington Post, io9, Tor, Skwigly, The Mary Sue and SYFY WIRE.
In Print
Doctor Puppet has been featured twice in the BBC Doctor Who Magazine; in Issue 480 on page 12 in the WhoTube column promoting Episode 6 and, in December 2014, a full page feature on page 79 of the Doctor Who Magazine Special: The 2015 Yearbook.
Podcasts
Extensive Google Hangout video podcasts have been posted via Google+/YouTube - Part 1 and Part 2 in December 2013, which was the first time the creative team had "met" each other as a whole team. They also recorded A Christmas Special Hangout in January 2014 discussing behind the scenes with the new Twelfth Doctor puppet. In 2014, Alisa Stern and Erin Natal were featured guests on the Earth Station One podcasts no. 80 (reviewing the Doctor Who episode Time Heist) and no. 91 (reviewing the 2014 special Last Christmas). The two podcasts helped promote Doctor Puppet's Indiegogo campaign and then celebrate the success of The Planet That Came For Christmas giving behind the scenes information about the origins of the storyline. Host Mike Faber called the Doctor Puppet special "very entertaining" with a "very well rounded story" which "flowed really nicely". Alisa and Scott were also featured guests on Who's Talking: A Doctor Who Podcast no. 9 in October 2014, in which they promoted the Indiegogo campaign and discussed the Season 8 episode Flatline. On 12 January 2019, Alisa was interviewed about Doctor Puppet on Episode 115 of the Roundabout Creative Chaos Podcast. In 2018 she was interviewed by Galactic YoYo Podcast.