Eccleston/ Tennant Console at Doctor Who Experience

[peterdalek]

I thought I'd post pics of the console from the Doctor Who Experience

Here they are:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb52/Peterdalek/DSCF1124.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb52/Peterdalek/DSCF1125.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb52/Peterdalek/DSCF1127.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb52/Peterdalek/DSCF1129.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb52/Peterdalek/DSCF1140.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb52/Peterdalek/IMGP2400.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb52/Peterdalek/IMGP2403.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb52/Peterdalek/IMGP2407.jpg

I hope these are of use, it was tricky getting some angles as the console was not accessible from all sides

[wayne venomous]

Excellent pics! 

I was dying to have a really good look of this console close up, however my over-excited 3 year old had other ideas. The post-it notes on the corners of the monitor were a nice touch!

It's interesting to note the sheer variety of different parts on this console. The car stereo, the dirt catcher housing from a dishwasher filter, the helping hands with the magnifying glass, not to mention the braided fuel hoses and industrial control units.

I wonder how many years it would take to put together an exhaustive list of EVERY part on this console?....   

[ten]

Thank you!

These are great.

Just what the poor people amongst us who have no hope of attending the Experience need... 

[galacticprobe]

Excellent pics!  
It's interesting to note the sheer variety of different parts on this console. The car stereo, the dirt catcher housing from a dishwasher filter, the helping hands with the magnifying glass, not to mention the braided fuel hoses and industrial control units.

I wonder how many years it would take to put together an exhaustive list of EVERY part on this console?....  

Don't forget about the sextant, or the bubble globe glass paper weights. There is a thread I think in the Console Reference section where many of the components of this console have been ID'd, so you might want to take a look in there. Incidentally, that car stereo/CD player is a 10th Doctor component; it wasn't there during the 9th Doctor's tenure, but like the 1st Doctor's Fast Return Switch, it was added because it was needed in the storyline, namely for inserting the control disc in "Blink."

Dino.

[wayne venomous]

I did kinda wonder what the CD player was for but that makes sense.

Of course, it would be from the episode that genuinely freaked me out........! 

[galacticprobe]

I noticed another little detail on this console while watching "The Doctor's Wife" episode during the BBC America 'Doctor Who' marathon last Saturday. The Idris/TARDIS tells Rory to "Use the purple slide on the nearest panel to shut down the TARDIS force field..." Well, I found the slide and you actually see Rory use it in that brief scene. Here it is, cropped from a much larger photo to focus on the slide (it's on the framework at the top, between the two console ribs:

This is another component added to the console for the storyline (after the fact since this is an Eleventh Doctor story; I wasn't sure where to put this one, so I put it in the Tennant 'Experience' refs). Notice in the above photo the panel is sagging at the top, probably melted during the Regeneration Meltdown. Also notice the small, rectangular plate with the four hoses coming out of it directly below the purple slide.

Now take a look at that area of the console before the Meltdown (again cropped from a much larger photo to focus on that area):

I know it's a little difficult to see the whole thing because the studded ball is in the way, but notice that plate with the four hoses is in place where the Slide should be. (It's dropped down on the sagging panel above.) And you can tell this is the same area of the console because in both photos, the sextant is on the rib to the left, and the Mat/Demat lever is on the rib to the right.

Here's another angle of the same ribs and panel from a later story (above - middle - photo from Eccleston era, below from Tennant before the meltdown). I know it's not easy to see the whole thing with that monitor in the way, but you can still see that plate with the hoses attached to the framework where the purple slide will eventually go:

Some of the components on the panel have changed around a bit (as console panels usually do), but the major ones are still there, such as the crystal pointy thing, the long rectangular boxy thing, and those little silver disc things just above and to the right of the point...

So it is the same panel and the same area of the console. And what I find strange is, that for such a short scene they modified the old console so neatly - just look how perfectly that slide is installed - when they could have just clamped it to, say, the metal mesh grid panel to the left of the sextant rib.

Anyway I thought people who might want to build this version of the console might like to see the slide up close, and where it is, and point out that once again, like the 1st Doctor's Fast Return Switch and the 10th Doctor's car stereo CD slot, this was an "add-on" component needed for an 11th Doctor storyline. (1+10=11? Nah; just coincidental. Other Doctor stories have done it, really obviously in some 3rd and 4th Doctor stories, but I couldn't resist since the Fast Return Switch and the car CD slot have been mentioned specifically in other threads.)

Dino.

[davidnagel]

I see what you mean now... here's a better pic of it prior to DWE

[superrichi1a]

I've been thinking about this, and trying to figure it out in my head.
I'm a bit of a New Series console nut, I flatter myself that, even amoung a group such as ourselves, things about this console become immediatly apparent to me in the way that they don't to other people who don't share the passion. What strikes me immediatly is that, in the Tennant pre-meltdown picture, the hose plate is off-centre, and, as a clincher, light is shining up around the back of the plate, and around the ends of the hosed in a way that wouldn't happen if it were fixed into the frame work. However, it is clearly in place for Eccle's reign.
What I think has happpened is in between series 1 and 2, when the console was moved to a new location, and had to be repaired in several places, framework around the hose plate perhaps melted, as happened with the time-rotor, and had to be  extensively repaired. Rather than try to place the plate back on, they instead simply replaced it with a slider.
When Giaman's episode was budgeted, Moffat had to slim down major parts of Gaiman's story to fit within budget, why waste money on an easily replaceable slider? Inbetween series 1 ans 2 is the only realistic time it could have happened, as far as I am concerned.
Also, look closer. During series 1 the console rings were painted in a BBC Custom crackle paint, probably the same with which they painted the sonics. After series 1, the main centre ring was repainted in Plasticote Heritage Gold crackle paint, and the disks on which the time rotor sat were simply painted an aged yellow colour.
ALL THE PICTURES WHICH CLEARLY SHOW THE HOSE PLATE IN PLACE EXHIBIT THIS OLDER CERAMIC CRACKLE PAINT, indicating SERIES 1, BEFORE the move. All the pictures I can find of Tennant's Plasticote variant are somewhat ambiguous, obviously most of the promo photos for the console were taken for the launch of the New Series. Perhaps if someone is quick with a pause button, they could prove me wrong, but all the evidennce suggests to me that during Tennant's tenure, the hose plate was indeed replaced by the slider

Sorry if I went on a bit, I've a bit of  an obbsession with the New Series console.

[Scarfwearer]

Sorry if I went on a bit, I've a bit of  an obbsession with the New Series console.

This is what we're about. You're right on topic, so carry on...

Crispin

[davidnagel]

See now I'm not sure... here's some snaps from "Tonight's the Night" where they filmed a little scene within the TARDIS, and the hose arrangement is clearly visible. This was shot around May 2009.





Unless of course, removing the hose reveals that slider gap and they simply plopped a purple tag in it...?

[galacticprobe]

ALL THE PICTURES WHICH CLEARLY SHOW THE HOSE PLATE IN PLACE EXHIBIT THIS OLDER CERAMIC CRACKLE PAINT, indicating SERIES 1, BEFORE the move... Perhaps if someone is quick with a pause button, they could prove me wrong, but all the evidennce suggests to me that during Tennant's tenure, the hose plate was indeed replaced by the slider

Perhaps I can answer this challenge. If you look at the bottom pic in my post, you'll see the hose plate is in place (no slider) behind the monitor, and you'll also notice on the sextant rib the car stereo CD slot is in place as well, indicating this pic is post "Blink", which was a late Series 3 episode. Ergo - and not meaning to shout - BUT THAT PROVES THIS IS THE CONSOLE WAY POST SERIES 1, AND AFTER THE MOVE. And still no slider.

The middle pic posted by Davidnagel (in his second post above) does show a slight sag in the panel - probably a result from the melting of other panels during the post Eccleston regeneration mini episode, but not thought of as being bad enough to replace the entire panel (cost saving); the sagging after the Tennant regeneration meltdown is far worse.

The bottom pic of Davidnagel's second post clearly shows the hose plate in place - again no slider - and this is a Tennant era pic because if you look at the sextant on the rib, the sextant is missing its eyepiece and its mirrors. Those items were in place during Eccleston's era (my middle pic, from Eccleston's era, shows the sextant is intact, as does the pic posted by Davidnagel in his first post above). The sextant lost its eyepiece and mirrors during Tennant's era.

If anyone can get some grabs of this panel from Tennant's final episodes, pre-regeneration start, it would help, but I doubt the slider will be there especially since there was no mention of its use until "The Doctor's Wife".

Dino.

[superrichi1a]

OK...Well... that's... um...well... completely disproved my theory.

Still, I'm sure it wasn't placed there JUST for The Doctor's Wife, all logic and sommon sense would completely discredit that idea. Perhaps it was added in 2009 for the specials, they made a couple of changes around then to clean up areas that would have looked rubbish in HD?

[galacticprobe]

Or... There's one more thing that we hadn't thought about: that hose plate being held in place by the black rubberized lining of the slider slot (and this is BBC budget here) a little hot glue or such. The back of that plate, which we can't see, could be nothing but a flat piece of metal that squeezed nicely into the slot that was cut, and then lined with rubber to hold it there.

The only time the console room was seen in use at all during the 2009 specials was in "The End of Time Part1/Part2". So those would be the episodes to look at to check for the slider. The console only made brief "cameo" appearances in "The Next Doctor" and "The Waters of Mars". It was the two-parter "End of Time" where the console room and console really came into play. (I'd suggest checking the start of "The Eleventh Hour", but I think there were way too many sparks flying around to get a real good look at anything on the console.)

When the glue (but surprisingly not the rubber) melted during the regeneration flambet, the plate came off and sank down with the more-sagging panel, leaving just the blank, black rubber-lined slot. It would then have been easy to get one of those slider knobbie thingies, stick it onto a piece of something as simple as a Popsicle stick, and bung it into the slot for either a "cover up" for the 'Experience' so there wasn't just an open slot, or use in "The Doctor's Wife". I'm actually starting to lean towards the former as photos from the 'Experience' began emerging long before "The Doctor's Wife" was filmed. Either way, it wasn't there before the Tennant/Smith regeneration.

Now that would explain things in a plausible sense, wouldn't it?

Dino.

[wayne venomous]

Here's another angle of the same ribs and panel from a later story (above - middle - photo from Eccleston era, below from Tennant before the meltdown). I know it's not easy to see the whole thing with that monitor in the way, but you can still see that plate with the hoses attached to the framework where the purple slide will eventually go:

I spy a Vauxhall Corsa (or Opel Corsa, Holden Barina or Chevrolet Chevy depending where you are in the world) handbrake! (or E-brake)

One of these:

The post-2000 version according to the label although that's not to say it wasn't used on earlier cars.

[galacticprobe]

Looks like it's time for another browse through the JC Whitney web site! (Or a junkyard, as that would no doubt be cheaper than a new one.) Still, another part ID'd means one step closer to complete parts identification.

Dino.

NOTE: Web site = zip/zero/zilch... Onward, down the plughole of the universe to the junkyard.