For about a year, I’ve been learning how to do basic animation via Adobe Animate with character models and backgrounds I created in PhotoShop, testing each bit I learn by making a short animation for the Doctor Who Literature Podcast, based on a song parody or comedy sketch that I’ve written. I took things up a level with an animated adaptation of a scene from The Web of Fear novelisation that didn’t appear in the TV episode, and in early 2026, I began work on a dream project – creating the first chapter (essentially a prologue) from The Day of the Daleks.

There was a slight problem – almost all of the cast from the TV show are dead and, try as I might, I didn’t feel confident in doing a successful impression of Anna Barry.

I’m not exactly an advocate for AI, but I’ve seen some interesting uses of it for properly creative, “non-slop” pieces. There’s a tool that can be used to create a decent voice clone; I’d already used it for my Web of Fear animation to some success. To create the voices, I recorded myself acting out the parts, trying as much as possible to capture the rhythm and cadence of each character. I compiled a sample of about a minute or so of each of the actors from the original show and used the AI to apply their voice to my performance. The exception is the Dalek at the end, which is a good old-fashioned plug-in distorting my voice.

I tried to make the music similar to the era, with sound effects mainly sourced from the story itself.

Day of the Daleks has always been one of my very favourite Target novels, so I really enjoyed finding ways to create the “missing” chapter as faithfully as possible, including making sure that the Dalek is a black Supreme, as described in the original chapter.