Once upon a time, DVD covers in the UK really sucked. I mean who can forget the stunning image of, er, a Dalek on Remembrance of the Daleks or, um, a blindfolded Doctor on The Caves of Androzani. Back in those halcyon days, it was okay that the North American DVDs sucked because they actually sucked less than the UK DVD covers.

But the times have changed. The BBC hired Clayton Hickman to do the cover artwork because he apparently owns his own licensed version of photoshop and does design work for everyone else. And lo and behold, the covers to their DVD range went from suckage to awesome. Hickman’s covers have a gorgeous use of colour and, although photoshop composites, evoke the best of the Target Novel covers.

All of a sudden, it’s the North American DVD covers that blow.

Case in point is The Leisure Hive. On the left hand side of the image you can see the UK cover, which has gone to the trouble of sourcing an image of Tom Baker not unlike the one used in the era-redefining title sequence,  even using lens flares like the one in the opening titles for good measure. The foamasi and the hive itself are well balanced in the composition. There’s a good use of colour.

The North American version, on the right hand side….yech. The composition is stacked higher and higher such that the foamasi looks ridiculous, rather than menacing, behind the logo. Pangol and two Argolins with their backs to the viewer is an idiotic image to use. And there’s a waxy yellow sheen to the colour that makes me think the designer was using a filter called “nicotine”. It gets points for using Lalla Ward on the cover, but that’s about it.

I know that the UK covers use only half of the space, but really, couldn’t we start using Clayton Hickman’s images on the North American releases instead of these ugly…things. Please? I’d rather suffer the hideous TARDIS wall backdrop than another of these graphical frankensteins.