List of design competitions

The Aqua Man, Hypnotron, and Steel Octopus

The following is list of competitions held for Doctor Who fans (namely children) to design a new aspect for the series.

1960s

In 1967, Blue Peter held a competition to design a monster that could defeat the Daleks. The judges were Blue Peter hosts Valerie Singleton, John Noakes, and Peter Purves as well as Patrick Troughton. The three winners were:

• The Aqua Man, created by 13-year-old Stephen Thompson.
• The Hypnotron, created by 8-year-old Paul Worrall.
• The Steel Octopus, created by 4-year-old Karen Dag.

While these monsters never appeared in the series, they were "brought to life" by the BBC Visual Effects Department. Years later, they received an in-universe acknowledgement in the 1996 novel The English Way of Death.

1970s

The winning design and the 25 runners-up. (TVA 72)

The Ugrakks were created by Ian Fairnington, the winner of a TV Action competition to design an original comic strip foe for the Doctor. The judges were Dennis Hooper, Barry Letts, Terrance Dicks, Jon Pertwee, and Roger Perry. The winner was announced in TV Action #72, along with 25 runners-up. The Ugrakks were featured in COMIC: The Ugrakks in 1972.

The BBC tv Special Effects Exhibition ran a Design a Monster competition while it was in Middlesbrough in 1973. Giles Schumm won with a monster called "the Prismus Glob", and he got to see filming of The Monster of Peladon. While the original drawing has been lost, Giles Shumm redrew it from memory for DWM 567 in 2021.

The Doctor Who Exhibition Blackpool held an annual Design a Monster competition, with winning designs displayed in a case at the end of the exhibition.

1980s

The Doctor Who Exhibition Blackpool continued to have annual monster design competitions. Paul Pickford won the 1984 competition with "Skorx the Amatrathon", resulting in him winning a box of screen-used props including a gun from Timelash ^[+]Loading...["Timelash (TV story)"], a mask from Snakedance ^[+]Loading...["Snakedance (TV story)"], and an Earthshock ^[+]Loading...["Earthshock (TV story)"] Cyberman helmet.

Scott Sauber won the Doctor Who Casting Competition with a Doctor based on Brian Blessed, a companion named Maggie based on Meryl Streep, and a Master based on John Hurt.

Wanda Sue Morain and Mike Acord jointly won the following Doctor Who Design Competition with their artwork based on Sauber's casting choices. This art was featured in the Winning Designs feature in DWM 131 in 1987.

1990s

The original artwork for the Vortexians, Zrontaks, Insoids, and Pharaohs.

The Vortexians were created by 16-year-old Paul Fisher for Doctor Who Magazine's Design a Monster competition. As the winner, the Vortexians got to be the featured villain in Land of the Blind, which featured elements from Fisher's notes on the Vortexians. (DWM 224)

There were three runners-up in the competition. All three had cameos in Land of the Blind:

• The Zrontaks, designed by 18-year-old Richard Burnell
• The Insoids, designed by 14-year-old Jason Powdrill
• The Pharaohs, designed by 18-year-old Justin Askham

2000s

The Abzorbaloff was created by nine-year-old William Grantham, an entrant to a Blue Peter competition to design a monster for Doctor Who. The on-screen Abzorbaloff remained mostly faithful to the drawing. The drawing had depicted the Abzorbaloff as about the size of a "double-decker bus", rather than the human size it was depicted as in TV: Love & Monsters. A runner-up, Sad Tony, later featured in WC: The Genuine Article.

Sao Til was the created by Tim Ingham, who won a costume contest held by Tonight's the Night in 2009. Ingham played Sao Til in a a sketch mini-episode on the program.

The console Junk TARDIS was based on a design by Susannah Leah, the winner of a 2009 Blue Peter TARDIS console design competition. It would ultimately be featured in TV: The Doctor's Wife in 2011. (CON: Bigger on the Inside)

The Doctor Who Adventures magazine held multiple design competitions:

Winning design	Creator	Story	Issue	Reveal Issue	Notes
Sea-Rah	Lewis Grainger, 13	COMIC: Sea-Rah	DWA 48	DWA 61	Design-a-Monster Competition in 2008, also included in the story was a character named Lewis.
Heather McCrimmon	Joanne Hall, 10	COMIC: The Chromosome Connection	DWA 76	DWA 96	Design-a-Companion competition in January 2009
TARDIS control room	Matthew Lee	COMIC: Terror in the TARDIS		DWA 118	Design the TARDIS competition in June 2009
Wolfgang Ryter	Hamish Gough, 12	COMIC: Flight of the Giurgea		DWA 122	Design-a-Companion competition in July 2009
Bacothormeon	Aidan Patrick Hood, 11	COMIC: The Genius Trap	DWA 110	DWA 124	Design-a-Monster Competition in 2009

2010s

The Doctor Who Adventures magazine held multiple design competitions:

Winning design	Creator	Story	Contest Issue	Reveal Issue	Notes
Haemogoth	Loukas Avlonitis-Perrin, 12	N/A	DWA 178	DWA 192	Design-a-Monster Competition in November 2010. The Haemogoths were an unseen species, referred to in the novel The Forgotten Army and the television story The Pandorica Opens, whom readers were asked to submit designs for.
Prisoner Zero T-shirt	Jay Kent, 11	N/A	DWA 174	DWA 193	Design a T-shirt competition
Mykuootni	Jack Shepherd, 11	COMIC: Power of the Mykuootni	DWA 192	DWA 207	Design-a-Monster Competition in March 2011. Also had a model displayed at the Doctor Who Experience.
The Very Cool Bow Tie	Lucy Sutton, 12	COMIC: The Very Cool Bow Tie!	DWA 185	DWA 218	Design a Bow Tie competition
The Screamer	Jessica Rickarby, 12	COMIC: Screamers!	DWA 209	DWA 224	Design-a-Monster Competition in June 2011. Also had a model displayed at the Doctor Who Experience.
Kchrusivour	Sean Worley	COMIC: The Kchrusivour Gambit	DWA 223	DWA 240	Design competition in October 2011. Also had a model displayed at the Doctor Who Experience.
Doominator	Lucy Robinson	COMIC: Doomland		DWA 265	Design-a-Monster Competition in April 2012.
Decky Flamboon	Mitchell Collett	COMIC: Meteorite Meeting	DWA 283	DWA 293	Design-a-Companion competition in November 2012.
Maritimus Carcharias	Joe Dutton	COMIC: The Shark Shocker	DWA 282	DWA 295	Design a spaceship competition in November 2012. Also had a model displayed at the Doctor Who Experience.
Homozillian eyedrop	Gregor Stanley	COMIC: Eye Spy	DWA 294	DWA 306	Design-a-Gadget competition in March 2013.
Cyber Champ	Charlie Banks	N/A	DWA 302	DWA 310	Upgrade the Cyberman competition

Blue Peter had a competition to design sonic devices for the Paternoster Gang in 2013. The three devices appeared in TV: Deep Breath:

• Madame Vastra's sonic hat-pin was designed by a 13-year-old named Connor
• Jenny Flint's sonic gauntlet was designed by a 7-year-old named Amber
• Strax's sonic lorgnette was designed by an 11-year-old named Arthur

DWM 490 announced a monster design competition related to 2015's Doctor Who Festival, with the winning monster facing the Twelfth Doctor in a Doctor Who Magazine comic. However, the results of this competition are unknown.

2020s

The Krakanord, created by Hugh Brown, was the winning entry of the Doctor Who: Lockdown! monster-designing contest in 2021. It was featured in WC: The Genuine Article, which also featured the return of the Abzorbaloff.