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11th doctor central column

Started by action_mat, Nov 09, 2010, 11:16 am

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action_mat


tmdad

Nice find!

Also useful for hemispherical enclosures on the console itself - like the TARDIS remote control as seen in "The Two Doctors".

riftmaster

has anyone got any images of the blown glass itself?

galacticprobe

Feb 05, 2011, 06:29 am #3 Last Edit: Feb 05, 2011, 06:52 am by galacticprobe
These from posts earlier and somewhere on the forum (probably in the Console Reference section for 2010, but to avoid having to hunt for them:

Top half of the column: sort of looks like a Christmas tree topper
12TC2010.jpg

And the bottom half (or maybe just the bottom piece, which is much larger than the others and looks like an inverted yard/lawn ornament "gazing globe")
13TC2010.jpg

And here's a shot of the column looking up into its top reaches. (I can't remember where I found this one, so if someone else has seen this image before please state where you've seen it.)

If you look closely at the top area, which is static, you'll see a huge teardrop-shaped piece with a hole in the bottom, into which the spire of the moving portion slides into and out of. And if you look just above that you'll see two of the flat discs with the small holes around their edges that were in the previous console's column. (In that column, you'll remember, they had the long tubes running through them, as seen in the photo following this one:
ConsoleRoom(column-cropped).jpg
OK, if you count the "globes" in the above photo you'll see that my second photo is of the bottom, largest globe, as my first photo shows the top three and spire and that's all there seems to be of the moving part: spire, three globes increasing in size as they go from the spire down, and the fourth large globe at the bottom.

Discs from previous console column:
Column(top-wire).jpg

If we didn't have that wood-like shielding around the column we'd be able to get a better look at its innards.

Oh, and those ebay globes? You can find them at most craft stores, so you can hold them and compare sizes in front of you rather than on a small computer screen.

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

kiwidoc

Nice pics, thanks Dino.   Hadn't noticed the plastic with holes in (as used in the previous console) before - that's interesting!

galacticprobe

Yeah. It's the little details that will kill you in the end. (Like that little wire running through the center of the 9th/10th Doctor's central column. What purpose does that serve?)

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

kiwidoc

I suspect that's what actually moved the innards (when they did move), or at very least held them at the right ratios/heights.  I love that internal type stuff.  Would love to see a picture of the console innards (not the building photos from the BBC, but actually the lighting etc they had underneath during the series.

galacticprobe

Feb 06, 2011, 05:33 am #7 Last Edit: Feb 07, 2011, 02:37 am by galacticprobe
Ditto. I'd also love to see how they got that column's innards to move together and apart the way they did: how they synced the two parts and such.

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

Elvis Gump

I had noticed and posted someplace that empty plexi ring thing which I noticed back when detail pictures of the new column came out. Since I've seen pictures of the Tennant era set where still standing when they filmed "The Beast Below" I'm a little skeptical that they'd raided the old column for it's mechanism; it could be that they simply used a spare part kept in case the Tennant column broke for any reason to construct the Smith one.

I had never noticed that cable running top down it seems in the Tennant column which make me wonder if the entire mechanism was controlled from above letting gravity work to mesh the two together? For example did the Tennant column pick up the top tubes while letting out the tension on the bottom tubes to unmesh them, then cycle so the tension went out of the top tubes while pulling up the bottom tubes to make them mesh?

It would be cool to know what they did to make it all work.

The only thing I don't like about the Smith column is the fact it has those metal looking blinders on either side that makes seeing into it harder. I wonder if they couldn't get a full clear tube or something or cracked/marred the finish and put them on there to hide it or something?

galacticprobe

Feb 07, 2011, 02:52 am #9 Last Edit: Feb 07, 2011, 02:55 am by galacticprobe
No doubt they had a few extra Tennant column parts in the shop just in case something broke; that was the biggest moving part, and things that move do break. They probably did use one of those in the Smith column. They did use at least one piece of the Tennant console on the Smith console, to sort of pass the torch as it were, so why not a spare part of the column as well?

And if you look closely at the Smith column, you'll se that they do have a complete, clear column glass that's completely cylindrical and it runs right up into the concentric circles overhead. It's only that "shield" that flares outward as it rises upward, and it's not actually attached to the glass cylinder of the column.

Why did they put that shield there? I have no idea. (Anyone have any inside info on that?)

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"