10 Doctor Who Fans Who Made A Lasting Impact On The Show
9. William Grantham
The build-up to David Tennant's first series as the Doctor was huge. There was a range of action figures released to coincide with the opening episode, and the children's magazine programme Blue Peter held a life-changing competition for young fans. They had the chance to design a new monster that would face off against the Doctor in an upcoming episode.
Judged by a panel including Russell T Davies, the winning design, the Abzorbaloff, was announced by David Tennant in August 2005. The winning designer, William Grantham, aged 9, envisioned a creature who absorbs the bodies of his victims and is the height of a double-decker bus. So imagine his disappointment when it was portrayed by 5ft 8 comedian Peter Kay!
Whatever you think of the divisive Love and Monsters, the Abzorbaloff is a unique creation that lingers long in the memory. Grantham has regularly talked about his design on Doctor Who podcasts and DVD extras over the years. The series attempted to repeat the feat with a "Design a TARDIS Console" competition, but it failed to recapture the previous competition's mad charm of turning the keys of the show over to a child's imagination.