It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if that image was inspired by prog rock album covers. But the influence that I see most strongly in the appearance of Gallifrey and its glass bubble city is 1970s and 1980s sci-fi book covers, and particularly the work of British illustrator Chris Foss. His style was all about huge impersonal structures and often used a similar red-orange-yellow pallette. It looks like Peter Capaldi photoshopped onto a Chris Foss illustration for an Isaac Asimov novel.
Should I know who this is?
Yes.
Was the question just a perhaps too subtle joke?
I thought it might be; hence my answer was designed to be appropriate either way (“yes, you should know” or “yes, he is”).
It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if that image was inspired by prog rock album covers. But the influence that I see most strongly in the appearance of Gallifrey and its glass bubble city is 1970s and 1980s sci-fi book covers, and particularly the work of British illustrator Chris Foss. His style was all about huge impersonal structures and often used a similar red-orange-yellow pallette. It looks like Peter Capaldi photoshopped onto a Chris Foss illustration for an Isaac Asimov novel.
Here’s the relevant sort of album cover (from a band that seems obsessed with James Blish’s Cities in Flight).