SPOILERS: New TARDIS interior leaks!

[Qonundrum]

The Doctor is changing the desktop setting. There, in-universe explanation which has precedent within the show.

Oh, please, all the console room changes have been "just because."

They didn't even need to use such a pedestrian phrase, "desktop theme", as it doesn't describe the function very well either - the only thing approaching a "desktop" is one of the console panels. Not everything including the whole of the interior. Considering how modern Who has come up with genuinely brilliant coined terms like "fixed point in time" and "time can be rewritten", fluff like "muh desktop theme" is incredibly underwhelming.

The set changed over the years because various wall or prop parts got damaged in storage. Between 1963 and 1989, the only original set piece left were the inner doors; even the frame holding the doors in was replaced...

That one is a completely different design, whereas the Master's was a darkened version of the Doctor's console room.
View attachment 31755

They took off the roundel discs and set moldings, spray painted them black, put them back on, filmed, then went back to repaint them all white again. Looks rather better in some ways, even if it's corny 1950 Westerns-inspired "black is for the bad guy, white for good guy, gray for the amoral one that we can't use because someone else holds the rights. Unless you're Kerr Avon, of course."

What the hell's wrong with using Ruth's TARDIS interior?! It was fantastic!

It's not "BIG AND EPIC ENOUGH" for modern audiences. Like Queen Xanxia trying to become immortal and not quite getting there, the same can be sets for the modern show if all they have to run on is how sexy the sets look.

Wow. I haven't been there since around 2006-7 when they stopped people posting even clearly marked Spoilers but looks like they're still the same idiots. Posting the video or photos will in no way cause anything to be shut down. If it did Twitter would have died long ago.

They've been increasingly inconsistent regarding their rule on youtube videos clips and the number of people breaking it in recent years. I wouldn't call them "idiots", but the moderators and others there all volunteer and for all the things they have to deal with, it's definitely not as much a priority compared to other things anymore.

 

[Christopher]

They didn't even need to use such a pedestrian phrase, "desktop theme", as it doesn't describe the function very well either - the only thing approaching a "desktop" is one of the console panels.

I don't believe the use of that phrase was ever meant to be more than a throwaway joke, an amusing analogy with something familiar. Seeing people in this thread talk about it like it's the formal technical term surprised me, since that seems to be taking a gag line way too seriously.

Not everything including the whole of the interior.

But that's the point of the metaphor/analogy -- that the TARDIS is so advanced that everything about its appearance can be reprogrammed as easily as a computer's desktop theme.

even if it's corny 1950 Westerns-inspired "black is for the bad guy, white for good guy

Much earlier than that. The first use of the convention in a Western was in 1903. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_white_hat_symbolism_in_film

 

[Jedman67]

I'm not in love with this concept, but I'm withholding judgement until i see it on screen.
I liked all the NuWho consoles, although the Smith II/Capaldi was prob my favorite.

Jodies was too big and vast for me.

 

[matthunter]

Jodies was too big and vast for me.

Really? If anything, having those crystal armatures so close to the console made it seemed constrained.

Smith's BronzePunk one seemed the most vast to me. Not least due to the under-console set.

 

[Qonundrum]

I don't believe the use of that phrase was ever meant to be more than a throwaway joke, an amusing analogy with something familiar. Seeing people in this thread talk about it like it's the formal technical term surprised me, since that seems to be taking a gag line way too seriously.

Hopefully. Among other things, the show didn't treat itself that way in the past.

But that's the point of the metaphor/analogy -- that the TARDIS is so advanced that everything about its appearance can be reprogrammed as easily as a computer's desktop theme.

I suppose. I'm recalling some of Hartnell's technobabble, and it feels underwhelming at times either. Then comes "chameleon circuit", noting I'm trying not to mention the gobbledygook seasons 15-17 spewed out on a regular basis and critics of the time seemed to say a bunch of things about the show as well... (Can 100% of the audiences really be appeased? One audience is always the shoulder for another to stand on...) I believe the UK slang phrase is "taking the piss" out of it. Would be more fun to improve on technobabble than to make it even dumber., but there's always multiple perspectives. After all, after listening to Romana in "The Pirate Planet" discuss materialization, then fast forward to when River Song babbles on about "hitting the brakes", it's sad when the older material did the same thing better. Ranks up there when the newer incarnation drools out "What's a round thing?" "I dunno" yet previous incarnations would be quick to answer. Maybe the writers behind those scripts are mocking the whole franchise, is that it? It's more unsettling if the modern show's popularity is based solely on taking the piss out of the old one?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taking_the_piss
Ostensibly, the idea is to joke at a concept without intentionally offending. Like self-effacing and self-deprecating humor. Few people managed to really do wonders with it, like Robert Holmes...

Much earlier than that. The first use of the convention in a Western was in 1903. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_white_hat_symbolism_in_film

Nice, thanks for the link!

 

[Jedman67]

Really? If anything, having those crystal armatures so close to the console made it seemed constrained.

Smith's BronzePunk one seemed the most vast to me. Not least due to the under-console set.

I never really dug those crystal thingies. I enjoyed the Smith steampunk console much better. It was bigger, but it wasn't unconstrained.

 

[DirectorSloan]

I’m glad to see that it seems the specials will have a new console room. I wondered if they’d just stick with the crystal console for budget purposes. Guess they’re willing to give RTD whatever he wants to revitalize the franchise. Yay!!! I agree with a previous poster, the console used in Matt Smith’s final season and by Peter Capaldi was my favorite. I didn’t really care for the coral, steampunk, or crystal consoles. I grew up with classic Who so I’ve been longing for something closer to the OG console room. Looks like it may be happening.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I’m glad to see that it seems the specials will have a new console room. I wondered if they’d just stick with the crystal console for budget purposes. Guess they’re willing to give RTD whatever he wants to revitalize the franchise. Yay!!! I agree with a previous poster, the console used in Matt Smith’s final season and by Peter Capaldi was my favorite. I didn’t really care for the coral, steampunk, or crystal consoles. I grew up with classic Who so I’ve been longing for something closer to the OG console room. Looks like it may be happening.

The Smith/Capaldi console room is my favorite as well. Moreso the way it was lit and the upper level extras Capaldi had.

 

[Christopher]

The Smith/Capaldi console room is my favorite as well. Moreso the way it was lit and the upper level extras Capaldi had.

Me too. Fantastic, gorgeous set. It was a perfect merger of the "high-tech sci-fi spaceship control center" vibe of the original-series console rooms and the "cozy Victorian study/library" vibe of the TV movie console room, with a bit of the "hey, you can see the police box door from the inside" aspect of the Cushing console room and the spaciousness and central raised platform of most of the modern console rooms. It had the best balance of all the elements. I wasn't as fond of the more organic-looking RTD-era and Whittaker console rooms, or the first Smith console room that looked like something out of Dr. Seuss.

 

[Redfern]

A CG artist named Harry Amat on Twitter studied the leaked photos and has modeled the assets and created the following renders...based upon what we presently know.

https://twitter.com/harryamatt/status/1603474150282170378?cxt=HHwWlMC44c_P18AsAAAA

 

[The Wormhole]

I wondered if they’d just stick with the crystal console for budget purposes. Guess they’re willing to give RTD whatever he wants to revitalize the franchise.

They didn't have a choice in the matter. The crystal console room was torn down immediately after production on Power of the Doctor was complete.

 

[Mr Awe]

The Smith/Capaldi console room is my favorite as well. Moreso the way it was lit and the upper level extras Capaldi had.

Me too. Fantastic, gorgeous set. It was a perfect merger of the "high-tech sci-fi spaceship control center" vibe of the original-series console rooms and the "cozy Victorian study/library" vibe of the TV movie console room, with a bit of the "hey, you can see the police box door from the inside" aspect of the Cushing console room and the spaciousness and central raised platform of most of the modern console rooms. It had the best balance of all the elements. I wasn't as fond of the more organic-looking RTD-era and Whittaker console rooms, or the first Smith console room that looked like something out of Dr. Seuss.

It's my favorite as well. I'm a bit biased because I got tour that set while in Cardiff back in 2013. Although, I think it would've been my favorite anyway. I toured it right around the 50th anniversary when it was known that Smith was leaving and he had filmed Time of the Doctor, but his regeneration hadn't been televised yet.

Interestingly, while touring the set, the BBC people said they couldn't reveal anything about what was coming next (i.e., the Capaldi season). No surprise.

However, they did say that the fact that the set was still standing meant that it was going to be Capaldi's TARDIS set. And it was. Of course, it had the nice additions, which weren't present when we toured it. So, a nice little spoiler there at the time.

Being in the TARDIS was very cool. Truly a 360 set with no hint of the outside world. We also got to go to the lower level.

 

[Christopher]

A CG artist named Harry Amat on Twitter studied the leaked photos and has modeled the assets and created the following renders...based upon what we presently know.

https://twitter.com/harryamatt/status/1603474150282170378?cxt=HHwWlMC44c_P18AsAAAA

Hmm... if this is more or less accurate, I don't like it as much as I thought at first glance. It's a bit sterile and overly bright (though that could just be the CG render), and the twisty ramps going off to hobbit-hole doors in the walls feel too much like the first Smith console room. Also, the roundels in the floor below the platform don't make much sense, because it means that space can't be used as a lower level where people can walk around, get under the console to do repairs, have private conversations, etc. It seems there's just a narrow corridor around the edge of the lower level, which seems pointless.

The triple oval monitors on the wall are a nice touch, though. As for the console, it's not quite as silly and junk-based as the RTD-era and early Smith consoles, but not as slick and high-tech as the Smith/Capaldi console; it kind of splits the difference.

What I'd really love to see for a change is for the TARDIS interior set to be more than just the console room. I'd like it to be a suite of multiple rooms, like in the original Hartnell TARDIS, where you had the console room, the food machine area, and the bedrooms, with the fault locator chamber off to the side. I don't recall if we've ever seen anyone's quarters in the modern series, and only a handful of episodes in 17 years have actually gone deeper into the TARDIS than the console room. I'd like to see it turned into a believable living space, with, oh, say the console room, an adjoining study or sitting room, maybe a dining nook, sleeping quarters, and a wardrobe/storage area.

 

[Mr Awe]

What I'd really love to see for a change is for the TARDIS interior set to be more than just the console room.

Yes, THIS! I always enjoyed those scenes in other parts of the TARDIS. The Hartnell years had them but also in the 80s. And who can forget The Invasion of Time. It's been a frustration that essentially virtually all TARDIS scenes in the modern show are in the control. Yes, I know, there are a few exceptions and even an entire episode.

Other rooms would make the TARDIS feel like the Doctor's home, which it really is. It also offers some visual variety when filming TARDIS scenes.

I guess the other side of the coin is that they might not want to spend too much time in the TARDIS and get on with the adventure. Particularly now that most stories are only ~45 minutes long.

I like the artist's interpretation of the leaked photos. If it looks like that onscreen, I'll be happy. You might think of it as being sterile, but I also loved the 80s versions!

 

[The Wormhole]

IIRC, it's mostly because cost. Supposedly, the console room in RTD's first era cost a lot of money to build. So much, that RTD forbid anything else of the TARDIS's interior be shown. And indeed, the only exception during that time was the wardrobe seen in The Christmas Invasion, and even that was just a redress of the console room.

Even Moffat was impacted by the high cost of the RTD console room, which is why Matt Smith's first console room was a redress of the Torchwood Hub set. The first time we see another interior of the TARDIS during the Moffat era was in The Doctor's Wife, and that was just a corridor which was reused frequently during the Moffat era as a corridor of the week. While many of the interiors we see in Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS were actually location shoots. Smith's second/Capaldi's console room mainly happened due to the increase in funds the show got for the fiftieth anniversary, though I'm sure the constant complaints about how Smith's first console room was difficult to film on also played a factor.

 

[David cgc]

IIRC, it's mostly because cost. Supposedly, the console room in RTD's first era cost a lot of money to build. So much, that RTD forbid anything else of the TARDIS's interior be shown. And indeed, the only exception during that time was the wardrobe seen in The Christmas Invasion, and even that was just a redress of the console room.

I remember there was something... an interview, DVD commentary, I can't remember, where Moffat and/or RTD were talking about the end of "The Girl in the Fireplace" and mentioned how when Rose and Mickey left the Doctor alone in the console room while she showed him around the rest of the ship, they just walked out of frame because there wasn't actually an interior door in the set, and they mentioned there was a hope to add another exit to the set for the third season, which didn't end up happening.

It's also been pointed out to me that, with the VFX shot of the Titanic crashing into the TARDIS in "Last of the Time Lords"/"Voyage of the Damned" had it come in through the missing fourth wall (fourth quarter?) of the set, we've actually seen that there isn't anywhere an interior door could go. Whoops!

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

This one from Twitter does it a little less bright
https://twitter.com/Dalliias/status/1604272969345368064/photo/1

 

[Jedman67]

Even Moffat was impacted by the high cost of the RTD console room, which is why Matt Smith's first console room was a redress of the Torchwood Hub set.

It was an entirely new set built in the same spot. Maybe they kept the old floors but I'd hardly call that a redress.

 

[matthunter]

This one from Twitter does it a little less bright
https://twitter.com/Dalliias/status/1604272969345368064/photo/1

Anyone else think the bit in the Time Rotor looks like the prop in the first few seconds here?

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

That prop got reused in a load of classic American SF so I wouldn't be surprised if this is a homage.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

It looks like the 1990s design from the DWM NA based comics. I think it looks great. A shade of the 1983 onwards 'Five Doctors' console as well.