Brewing Across Time and Space: The Time Lord Coffee Mug Collection
When the intergalactic coffee chain Starlords approached us about creating a Doctor Who-inspired mug collection, we instantly knew two things: 1) This was going to be brilliant, and 2) Karl was absolutely not allowed near the prototype storage room this time.
Our design team assembled in what we affectionately call "The Console Room" (it's actually just our break room with a hexagonal table and some blinking Christmas lights Karl refused to take down). Glug arrived with fourteen different shades of green paint and a mysterious caffeine-based life-form she claimed was "for research purposes only."
The Doctor Collection: Many Faces, One Mug (Well, Sixteen Mugs)
The brief was simple – re-imagine the iconic green space mermaid logo for each incarnation of the Doctor. Simple? Ha! Try telling that to fourteen Time Lords with distinct fashion senses and personality quirks.
The First Doctor mug went swimmingly easily and features the legend wearing a monocle and looking thoroughly disapproving of your beverage choice. Our test group reported feeling simultaneously judged and encouraged to "drink up, my dear boy, drink up!"
So we decided to mix it up a little, give it a shake. WCGW!
For the Fourth Doctor variant, Glug insisted on a scarf so long it wraps around the mug twice. We had to recall the first batch after the trial team reported their scarves were actually growing longer with each dishwasher cycle. So ended up as fuel for the black hole central heating system.
The War Doctor mug came with a warning label: "No more... refills without paying." Sales had been surprisingly strong despite (or perhaps because of) the mug's tendency to growl when filled with anything other than black coffee and throw itself on the floor. Again heating fodder.
The Thirteenth Doctor design featured a logo with earrings and a rainbow streak. Karl somehow programmed it to occasionally whisper "Brilliant!" when filled with hot liquid. We're still not entirely sure how he did this, as the mugs don't contain any electronic components. Janet our Weevil suggests "residual artron energy," but she also thinks staplers are baby Cybermen, so… Due to the unknown nature of the heat activated voice mechanism that one is only available on Skaro.
At this point it was decided to replicate the tried and tested 1st Doctor version as we were one man down as Karl appeared to have completely vanished.
And yes, we included Janet’s the Fugitive Doctor – her mug looks suspiciously normal until you drink from it, at which point hidden designs reveal themselves. Several nearby reported suddenly remembering adventures they never had. We call this a "feature." NB This feature will only function on Weevils. We sell to Weevils, they drink coffee too.
The Movie Doctor mug comes with a special warning: "Contents may be hotter on the inside." Several Ex-pat customers have reported that it somehow manages to make American coffee taste British. We have been unable to replicate the condition in laboratory tests so, you pays the money…
At this point we called it a day and released the prototypes to Starlords and held our breath.
They responded pretty rapidly with, “And The Masters?”
Coming soon: Behind The Scenes - The Masters update to “The Time Lord Coffee Mug Collection”
Production Oddities
Unlike our previous collections, we experienced surprisingly few temporal incidents during production. We only lost Karl the once – apparently he accidentally activated the "Time Beetle" prototype whilst cleaning it’s enclosure. (he reappeared three days later wearing Victorian clothing and muttering about fixed points and the weather in Cardiff being miserable for the time of year.)