Season 20 console: components research

[Elvis Gump]

I wish there were more interviews and documentation of how these various props being built with the people that made them, many of whom I assume are probably getting on up there in years. I wonder how much was design and how much was desperate scrounging for bits and bobbles to glue on.

Maybe you could organize an interview for Tardis Builders. We could make a list of questions a month in advance and then get a designer from the show to log on and disclose his secrets. =D That would be awesome

Yes indeed, it would be. But I'm in America, so not easy for me to do any detective work about who actually built consoles or worked in BBC props. I wonder if any of the consoles were really worked on with any consistency by dedicated staff, or they just pulled in whatever electrician or carpenter/fabricator was available when the thing broke or needed new switches and bits.

The closest I've seen to so far on the DVDs I've watched is the making of bits for "Talons of Weng Chiang" where they showed the guys building the giant rat which weirdly looked more realistic while they were testing it than it did in the actual show. I got the idea that they were kinda desperately pulling people in, friend of a friend networking to get people that could build the stuff they needed so tracking down who built what might be a task in itself.

I was just happy watching that to know the sewers Tom and Louise Jameson were walking around in were sets because they looked horribly foul on screen! That creeped me out more than anything in the whole story.

[warmcanofcoke]

But I'm in America, so not easy for me to do any detective work about who actually built consoles or worked in BBC props.

Well there is Mat Irvine (he wrote the book "Doctor Who Special effects") he's on a few of the DVD commentaries.

[galacticprobe]

Taking another look at this image, unless they actually light up, those yellow and orange "buttons" next to the silver toggle switches look more like peel-and-stick rubber feet that you can put on the bottom of boxes and such to prevent whatever the object is from marring the surface of a table or something. You usually see them in black at craft stores, but I'm sure they may also come in other colors (and if not a small dash of paint would work).

Does anyone else think they look like those rubber feet? Also, if you look at some of the other close-ups of the console you'll see other "buttons" that have the same shape. Makes one wonder if the Props Department didn't have enough in their budget for real buttons, and just used those rubber feet instead?

Dino.

[warmcanofcoke]

Taking another look at this image, unless they actually light up, those yellow and orange "buttons" next to the silver toggle switches look more like peel-and-stick rubber feet that you can put on the bottom of boxes and such

I was thinking they looked like individual mosaic tiles

[Elvis Gump]

Taking another look at this image, unless they actually light up, those yellow and orange "buttons" next to the silver toggle switches look more like peel-and-stick rubber feet that you can put on the bottom of boxes and such to prevent whatever the object is from marring the surface of a table or something. You usually see them in black at craft stores, but I'm sure they may also come in other colors (and if not a small dash of paint would work).

Does anyone else think they look like those rubber feet? Also, if you look at some of the other close-ups of the console you'll see other "buttons" that have the same shape. Makes one wonder if the Props Department didn't have enough in their budget for real buttons, and just used those rubber feet instead?

Dino.

Yep, they do to me too now that you mention it. I actually have some in their packaging someplace because I've used them a lot around the house with electronic components. The ones I have I'm pretty sure came from Wal-Mart here in America and they are sort of translucent milky white and slightly flexible with a peel and stick backing. They are usually found in the hardware area where they have those wood and nylon feet you can nail in the bottom of wood table and chair legs, and the little felt stick-ons for the bottoms of other things you might put on a wooden table or piece of furniture and so on.

I tried googling for an image but rubber or plastic feet brings up the most bizarre results. Something like this is probably what you mean if I'm thinking what you're thinking...
http://www.rocketradio.co.uk/16-stick-on-adhesive-rubber-feet---20-x-20-x-6mm-1059-p.asp

It would indeed be a very cheap solution to making fake buttons.

[warmcanofcoke]

Speaking of this particular configuration of the console, does anyone have any idea what this could be?

Here is a better image to help us figure it out.

[warmcanofcoke]

just noticed - these look like the same part only one has a dome

[Elvis Gump]

Speaking of this particular configuration of the console, does anyone have any idea what this could be?

Here is a better image to help us figure it out.

Could that be the slot door openings on an old Easy Bake Oven? I remember a girlfriend's daughter year's ago had one of those things and I swear it looked similar to that, though Google Image Search doesn't bring any of the vintage ones that the slot looks like that.

Those two spaced bits on the top of it look like they had screw-holes that might have been meant to hold a flip-up cover for whatever that was the opening for. I swear that thing looks terribly familiar. I even thought it might be the end of an old Polaroid camera where the prints ejected out, but it looks a little too big for that too.

It seems so familiar the more I look at it but I just can't place it. It could be that the shape looks a bit like the slot on the old Iomega Zip drives, but obviously this widget predates that by by 15-17 years... I'm stumped.

[warmcanofcoke]

Could that be the slot door openings on an old Easy Bake Oven?

biscuit trays, easy bake ovens and jolly rancher colored buttons .... I'm getting hungry


I'll have a look myself and see if I can't find an easy bake oven

*edit - didn't see anything on ebay

[lespaceplie]

I'm almost certain the origin of this part was identified some time ago on the old forum, but I can't remember what it is. Any ideas?

I really like this thread.

[lespaceplie]

It occurred to me that this part could be some sort of turn signal lamp enclosure like you might find on a trailer or caravan. It could even be a brake light from a scooter. That would explain the lens array textured red plastic (that looks purple in some scenes).

[timerotor]

It is purple.
JNT told me that they had simply stuffed Easter egg foil in those 'headers' which happened to be Purple. They are covered with a thin perspex window, yes... they really did stuff as simply as that.

[galacticprobe]

just noticed - these look like the same part only one has a dome

You could be right about that; it looks very close. Unfortunately I think that part without the dome only appeared in "The Two Doctors". (Notice on earlier versions of this console that part was one of those upturned "biscuit tray" things.) We've got a nice large image of the domed component. If we could get an equally large image of the un-domed one from "The Two Doctors" we'd be able to see it better and maybe know for sure.

Dino.

[warmcanofcoke]

We've got a nice large image of the domed component. If we could get an equally large image of the un-domed one from "The Two Doctors" we'd be able to see it better and maybe know for sure.

Dino.

here you go

http://s394.photobucket.com/albums/pp24/warmcanofcoke/?action=view&current=TheTwoDoctorspart.jpg

[galacticprobe]

Well, without that dome it sure looks like the same component. It probably is, too. Think about it: that console Troughton used in "The Two Doctors" had been in storage since 1983, after "The King's Demons." It wasn't until 1985 that "The Two Doctors" aired, so when they pulled that old console out of storage for the Troughton scenes, they probably had to put some of the panel pieces back together, and like all the other times a console came out of storage, pieces ended up on different panels, and some parts that were made up of two pieces, like the one in question with its dome over it, ended up missing part of it.

So I would say considering the time that passed and having the old console put back together, that this strange orange-ish component is the same one as was on the other panel, but without the dome.

Dino.