News A Chibnall Insider: A 'new look Police Box' for Thirteen? (!)

A 'new look Police Box'? I am not sure how I feel about that. A new Console Room I did expect. Don't tell me Idris and the Thirteenth Doctor decide to fix the chameleon circuit? Does the Mirror have any good reputation for quoting reliable sources? http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/changes-new-dr-who-series-11309547

 

The TARDIS exterior has regenerated nearly as often as the Doctor has. Still a blue police box, but varying heights, shades of blue, different fonts, different roof lamps, disappearing-reappearing St. John ambulance badge, instruction panel going from white to black to blue (and back). So I wouldn't read too much into that - it'll still recognizably be the TARDIS. (Though tbh, I think the Smith/Capaldi prop was the best one.)

 

Yes, that is true. But I believe that most of the 'minor' changes to the Tardis exterior over time were either due to real world reasons such as somewhat 'unloving' repairs to wear & tear on the original prop, or constructing a new slightly-different prop without much attention to the specs of the previous prop. And the changes were introduced with no fanfare, EXCEPT for the reveal of the shiny new exterior after the Tardis repaired herself following the Doctor's explosive regeneration into Eleven.

I have learned from my fellow BBSers to be suspicious about some of these statements from unidentified sources. So I don't think we'll get a Happiness Patrol pink Tardis. But actually announcing a 'new look' is curious. For me, this is similar to the concept of a 'new look' 1927 Ford Model T or a 'new look' 1940 Spitfire fighter(?).

Maybe she'll transmogrify into a concrete version, not wooden, as a proper Police Box should be!

 

I agree. And the current console room is my favorite -- I'll hate to lose it.

I think it just reflects the changing culture and the way the Internet has brought more attention to the details of the creative process. Every little thing about a show is news now, because the media-news websites need new articles every day, and because fans are going to discuss and debate every little thing anyway and the media and the producers have become more responsive to that reality. As you say, the redesign when Moffat took over had fanfare attached, and now this one does too. In this day and age, something like that can't go unheralded anymore.

As for the chameleon circuit, it's worth pointing out that the Doctor did repair it in "Attack of the Cybermen." It reverted to a police box at the end, and everyone's assumed the CC just broke down again, but they never actually said so. (There was a deleted scene in the next serial where the Doctor said he'd stabilized the CC so it wouldn't pick shapes erratically anymore, but deleted scenes don't count.) So maybe the circuit actually does work, but the TARDIS and the Doctor are just too attached to the police box form to want it to change, aside from occasionally playing around with the features or proportions. And the Doctor, when asked, just says "It broke in 1963 London" because it's simpler than explaining the rest.

 

Not really. It's click-bait, mostly. "New look for the TARDIS? WTF? Butt-hurt, fan-rage, Chibnall hate." "Oh, they just mean getting rid of the St John's Ambulance logo and new windows. Well, that was a misleading title."

Actually, I got to say, I'm not all that ecstatic to hear about all these changes. While I don't deny Chibnall has the right to change whatever he wants now that he's in charge of the show, I should think he'd have learned the lessons of Moffat wasting time and money reinventing the show's wheel when he took over. That's time and money that could be better spent elsewhere. Besides, a new sonic screwdriver already? We've only seen the current one for one season.

 

I suspect you are correct! And I fell for it! Perhaps the Doctor finally (and simply) will need to change the Tardis' bulb, a bulb that an initially disoriented Amy was once curious about early on.

I agree with you on that idea. I can not remember the episode, but I could swear I recall some dialog where the Doctor explains/implies that he & the Tardis have indeed grown attached to the Police Box outer shell and prefer it (whether it is due to a continuing malfunction or simply a very serious preference!).

 

Change just for the sake of it isn't great, but let's be honest if you were the new showrunner wouldn't you be tempted to redesign the console room at least? Changing the exterior seems a trifle pointless unless you're building something easier to transport/shoot or the current models are wearing a little thin.

Don't mind a new sonic (and there is a merchandising angle at work here) just as long as they don't give Jodie a sonic lipstick!

 

I won't mind a new console room. My favourite modern look was the glass one Matt Smith had.

 

That's why I tend to think that the chameleon circuit does work, just not very well--it changes into different blue police boxes periodically.

 

The Amy/Rory era console room? I loved that one for how different it was. But it was also impractical to film in because of all the reflective surfaces, and they had to scrap it when they moved studios.

 

Yes that one. I can imagine it was a nightmare to film in but it looked great.

 

While I don't understand the constant need to change the console room with every new Doctor since Tennant, I can understand it if its meant to represent a new clean slate. But the exterior? I think everyone recognizes that and always will, even if they've never seen the show, ever.

 

Maybe it'll have the true McKenzie-Trench Mark II proportions for the first time, especially if the rumors of Mark Gattiss (sp?) playing the part of the iconic police box designer in the Christmas special prove true.

Of course, I'm just talking out of my "backside"...which makes for an interesting stage act.

 

Production designers come and go, and sets eventually get old and need to be rebuilt or replaced. It's natural enough that whoever is responsible for building the new version would want to do their own take on the design, because being creative is what they were hired to do.

That's the thing to remember: that this is a work of creativity. It's not just about maintaining some fixed and immutable continuity, it's about giving writers and designers and builders and actors the opportunity to exercise their creative talents. Production designers and artists have as much right to create new interpretations of familiar sets and props as actors and costume designers have to create new interpretations of the Doctor, or as composers do to create new arrangements of the main title theme, or as writers do to find new ways of telling stories about established characters or monsters.

As for the police box exterior, usually the changes are subtle enough that only the more attentive viewers would notice them anyway. So it's something you can usually get away with changing without it seeming like a change. And lots of past TARDIS props have had limitations due to production and budget considerations -- for instance, being smaller than a police box should be because it had to fit in the elevator at Lime Grove studio, or having a flat top because it was simpler to build than the original sloping version. If a later production has the budget to build a larger, more authentic version, then sure, why not? And since there have been multiple different versions to choose from over the course of the series and movies, it follows that different designers and producers would have different preferences about which versions to use as the templates for their own.

 

As an aside, apparently there's an announcement embargoed until midnight tonight- could be a companion casting, since filming starts next month.

ETA - it was a shitty teaser trailer for the animated Shada next month, and a list of extras. Well, that was so worth staying up for, obviously.

 

If we are getting a new TARDIS exterior, I hope it's in a lighter blue tone. Also, I would love if the "POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX" and the "PULL TO OPEN" signs had blue backgrounds like they did sometimes during the Classic Era.

 

I hope they keep the interior. I liked the current one and the 11th Doctor's version of it before. I don't like the ones that looked more like mistakes (coarl room with a console that is just junk glued onto a panel) or playrooms over the ones that look like they're control rooms for a time/space ship. If they do get a new room, I hope its at least more like the Smith/Capaldi one then it is the 9/10th Doctors one or 11's first one.

 

I'm on the other side, I hope they change it. The current one is a bit gloomy and cold. I would like something brighter and more welcoming.

 

have any of the TARDIS props ever matched closely as possible to an actual Police call box?

 

Bizarrely, the TARDIS prop from the 1960's Peter Cushing movies seems to be the most faithful to the look and size of the actual McKenzie-Trench mk2 design. The current prop is second-largest behind that.