Adventures in Time and Space TARDIS set

[Pindar]

Emh wrote:

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All but one of those links don't work anymore.

I didn't get to see those but I am guessing these are the same pics here.

http://blogtorwho.blogspot.co.uk/201...time-pics.html

[Emh]

Pindar wrote:

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I didn't get to see those but I am guessing these are the same pics here.

http://blogtorwho.blogspot.co.uk/201...time-pics.html

Nice!

Who knew 50 years ago that someday the BBC would make a telemovie about what they were doing back then? I love it.

[Timofnine]

Great that they can re use the sets for the anniversary episodes of the actual series

[Christopher]

Timofnine wrote:

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Great that they can re use the sets for the anniversary episodes of the actual series

I doubt that. Presumably these are sets designed to look like low-budget sets constructed in the 1960s, and wouldn't have the level of detail necessary to be convincing as "real" TARDIS interiors or locations in a modern Doctor Who production.

[diankra]

Pity that none of those pics gives us a view of the time rotor: from talking to fan replica builders, that's the really tricky bit of the original console to get right!

[Candlelight]

diankra wrote:

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Pity that none of those pics gives us a view of the time rotor: from talking to fan replica builders, that's the really tricky bit of the original console to get right!

Does the original console set still exist?

[diankra]

Almost certainly not. The walls are certainly long gone; as for the console, no-one's quite sure whether the 'new' console introduced in Claws of Axos/season 8 was a new build that reused some dials and levers from the original (as some are clearly still there, like the two round sets of lights highlighted in The Chase and Frontier in Space) or just an extensive rebuild of the existing console (I'd go for the latter, as the plinth seems to be the same).
Either way, anything that wasn't carried over, like the rotor, probably got binned in late 1970.
I believe that the 1970s console was given to the DWAS when it was retired in 1983 (and borrowed off them for The Two Doctors)*, but where it is now is a good question: if the DWAS still has it, I'd have expected it to have turned up in the Doctor Who experience along with the 1980s one, so as it didn't...


*2nd thoughts: I think the DWAS thought they were getting it, but it went off to the Blackpool exhibition instead, to their annoyance.

[Kelso]

Christopher wrote:

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I doubt that. Presumably these are sets designed to look like low-budget sets constructed in the 1960s, and wouldn't have the level of detail necessary to be convincing as "real" TARDIS interiors or locations in a modern Doctor Who production.

Judging by the pics, that doesn't appear to be the case. It looks like they have at least updated the walls of the console room.

[Christopher]

^I didn't say they were made to be exact replicas. I said that, given the purpose they were built for, they would presumably have been made to look like low-budget '60s TV sets -- i.e. to give that impression to the audience watching An Adventure in Space and Time, regardless of their fidelity to the actual items. Set design is about creating an impression for the audience. These sets are designed to convince the audience that they were built in 1963 for a low-budget TV production shot in a tiny, antiquated studio. So the design requirements are distinctly different from those for sets designed to convince the audience watching a modern, high-definition production that they're real futuristic or alien locations. Thus, I don't find it credible that they would use the same sets for two such incompatible purposes.

[Kelso]

Christopher wrote:

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^I didn't say they were made to be exact replicas. I said that, given the purpose they were built for, they would presumably have been made to look like low-budget '60s TV sets -- i.e. to give that impression to the audience watching An Adventure in Space and Time, regardless of their fidelity to the actual items.

I didn't make any comment on the accuracy of the sets. And without having seen any high-res images, I'm inclined to agree with your presumptions. But based on these few low-res images, the walls of the console room appear to be of higher quality than the originals, at least to my eye. Whether the set has been constructed in such a way that it could convincingly make a nostalgia appearance in the anniversary special is unknown... but there isn't anything in these pics to indicate that it couldn't.

[Mr Awe]

Christopher wrote:

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Thus, I don't find it credible that they would use the same sets for two such incompatible purposes.

I find it completely credible that they could use the same set for that purpose. The new set is designed to look very similar to the original set. It should look similar in either production, which serves the purpose of both productions.

If they are to show the original console room in Doctor Who proper, it'll look lower tech and less glitzy than what we've got now because that's how it actually looked onscreen in early Doctor Who.

The two goals are entirely compatible because they both require sets that look like the original console room.

Mr Awe

[Sindatur]

Mr Awe wrote:

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I find it completely credible that they could use the same set for that purpose. The new set is designed to look very similar to the original set. It should look similar in either production, which serves the purpose of both productions.

If they are to show the original console room in Doctor Who proper, it'll look lower tech and less glitzy than what we've got now because that's how it actually looked onscreen in early Doctor Who.

The two goals are entirely compatible because they both require sets that look like the original console room.

Mr Awe

And, there's one particular episode in Series 7b that could be a perfect opportunity to use it in

Journey to The Center of the TARDIS

[Christopher]

Mr Awe wrote:

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I find it completely credible that they could use the same set for that purpose. The new set is designed to look very similar to the original set. It should look similar in either production, which serves the purpose of both productions.

But the problem is that you're thinking only of design and not execution or context. They didn't have high-definition cameras or big-screen TVs 50 years ago, and they were working with a far, far tinier budget in an antiquated studio. The level of detail with which the sets were constructed at the time would look totally crappy by the standards of modern Doctor Who productions. If they built the sets to be convincing as 1963 TV sets, they'd look awful if passed off as the real TARDIS interior. And if they built the sets to be convincing as the real thing in HD, then they'd look incongruously sophisticated as the sets used by a low-budget 1960s series.

Rebuilding the console room set to work in the anniversary episode would entail replicating or approximating the original design, yes, but in execution, in materials and details, it would have to be improved on so that it would be convincing by modern standards. In the same way that, say, "In a Mirror, Darkly" on Star Trek: Enterprise rebuilt a TOS-style bridge and interior sets but put actual video monitors in the overhead screens rather than wrinkled astronomical paintings, and made the desk monitors smaller as well so they didn't look as old-fashioned. It had to look retro in design, yes, but still modern enough in detail to be believable in a present-day production.

[Mr Awe]

^^ Please don't tell me what I'm thinking or not thinking. I'm actually considering it from all of those angles. Sure, to film it in HD, they may have to change the construction. Big deal. As long as it is very similar to the original, with more detail showing, I don't see the problem. Or, maybe there's an in story reason for it looking low budget. After all, the TARDIS scrounges for its parts, apparently. So, who knows where it got the parts for the original console room?

Although, I would guess that if it were used in Doctor Who, they might replace the photo blowup wall with a real wall. Or, did they do that even for the documentary, can't remember if we can tell from the photos or not.

Mr Awe

[Christopher]

It's all just empty speculation. The only reason anyone's talking about the idea of it being used in the anniversary is because they saw photos of it being used in the docudrama and thought "Gee, I wonder if...". There's no real reason to think there's any prospect of it happening at all. People are just desperately looking for something to fill the void of information about the anniversary episode. I'm just saying that it would be deeply unwise to take such wild conjectures at all seriously.