The Doctor Who Cyberman horror story, “The Haunting of Villa Diodati," has received a professional grade fan poster in the style of Italian horror films. Doctor Who has built up an impressive gallery of monsters and villains over its nearly 60-year history, such as the Daleks and Weeping Angels. Many of these bizarre creatures have terrified the sci-fi series' younger target audience. One of the most enduring and chilling Doctor Who enemies are the Cybermen, humans who have replaced their flesh with synthetic parts, becoming cyborgs hell bent on making all life like them.
One of the most recent stories to feature the metal Doctor Who monsters, “The Haunting of Villa Diodati,” provided a unique twist, featuring a sole, patchwork Cyberman stalking the main cast through a 19th century villa. The Lone Cyberman gate crashed the party at which Mary Shelley would create Frankenstein, often argued to be the first true science fiction novel, with the parallels between the creature from the novel and the Doctor Who villain being very stark. The episode was well received by fans, with many regarding it as a return to form, invoking the fundamental terror of the Cybermen that had been somewhat lost in previous appearances.
Now, artist Oliver Arkinstall-Jones has crafted a beautiful movie poster that reframes the Doctor Who story through the lens of a classic Italian horror picture. The poster features the central cast of Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor, her companions, and Mary Shelley as they are loomed over by the garish Lone Cyberman outside the Villa Diodati. The title of the episode is written in a huge dramatic font, as per most films in the Giallo sub-genre, with the title itself translated into Italian as "Il Fantasma Di Villa Diodati." Check out the full poster below:
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The poster, while visually stunning, also captures the aesthetic of classic horror movie posters such as the original Frankenstein perfectly. The aesthetics of the Doctor Who Cybermen episode appear to be a natural fit for this crossover. This may indeed be indicative to the secret of Doctor Who's longevity as a whole, as the nature of travelling through time and space can allow the genre of the show to switch from episode to episode. This can be particularly useful in the case of Doctor Who's historical episodes, allowing for specific events or figures to be catered to stylistically for full dramatic effect. This was most certainly the case for "Haunting of Villa Diodati," as a horror atmosphere was wholly appropriate when dealing with Mary Shelley and the creation of Frankenstein.
The decision to implement the Cybermen into the creation of the Frankenstein story certainly fits well. The major horror element of Frankenstein is also the reason for its continued pop culture endurance; that of man trying to play God. This element was also transferred to the Cybermen, with their origin involving desperate humans replacing their organic body parts with prosthetic ones for survival, which illustrates a clear inspiration from Shelley's novel. This Doctor Who art brilliantly sums all of this up into a unique and creative poster that any fan would love to have in their collection.
Source: Oliver Arkinstall-Jones
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