Tennant era

[lswl]

Ok, after lots of consideration, I realized I wanted a Tennant console. I'm thinking just the console, I don't have room for the whole inside   So, anyone have any ideas on the panels to get them to light up, is there like a thick clear shrink wrap thing out there I can use and put rope lights down? I've got some stuff to make the timerotor light up, (ropelights) so I need help with panels. I've got no clue, and if I can't make a Tennant, I'll probaly go with a Baker or something.  This is all in the brainstorming stage, so I might abort mission, probably not, so I would appreciate some help from more experienced console builders.

[rocket]

I thought about doing this myself. I figured green rope lights would be the go, with that thin metal sheet that has little holes drilled all through it. I don't know what it's actually called, but it looks sort of like a metal version of peg board.

[galacticprobe]

There are two panels with that metal "peg board". They are open to the inside of the console (they're where most of the smoke came out) and when you can catch them just right, you can see inside that part of the console. It looks like the other panels are clear, and there are straight fluorescent light fixtures set vertically near the center of the console, with the tubes of the lights having pale bluish green filters over them to give that colored glow. And those filters over the internal lights would have to be pale otherwise the amber "bubble" globes that are on the console (like the one the Doctor was fiddling with at the beginning of "The End of the World") wouldn't look as amber as they do. (I've got a lamp with a green light in it and when I put an amber bubble globe on top of it it looks dark green instead of amber, and in behind the scenes pics the console panels don't look as green as they do on screen; they look pale bluish green.) You can see this on the Series 1 DVD Extras when they give a "tour" of the new console and console room.

The column, however, I think has a light at its top as well as taking some of the light from the console because it gets brighter when the TARDIS is in flight and is dimmer when the TARDIS is landed (but still has some glow to it from the bottom end). Also, it seemed to get most of its light from the top at the end of "The Doctor Dances" when the column and console were alternating being lit; the console went dark as the column lit up and vice versa, though it doesn't seem to do that in many other episodes.

You can get that metal mesh material in home improvement stores. As for the other panels, I would use multiple layers of fluorescent light fixture covers - the patterned textured ones: multi-layered for strength. The originals were created with laminated layers of plastic sheets and clear resin and ended up almost two inches thick. (I read that in one of the new books they've been coming out with, but I can't remember which one.)

If anyone can elaborate on that, or correct me if I'm wrong, please do. (Maybe someone could shoot Purple an e-mail to get his take on that, if he has any knowledge on this console. His knowledge on just about every other thing "Who" is practically infallible, so he might know something about this topic.)

Dino.

[lswl]

There are two panels with that metal "peg board".
You can see this on the Series 1 DVD Extras when they give s "tour" of the new console and console room.


You can get that metal mesh material in home improvement stores. Dino.

Ok, now I want the DVD, and what is the mesh called?

[mechanoid]

I think it is called perforated sheet. Although you can get an alternative product called expanded metal mesh which looks similar, or so I'm told.

[galacticprobe]

Here's a decent res pic of the two panels in question:

This one with the console's telephone on it:


And this one from the 10th Doctor era when this panel has the gyro compass repeater on it:

In the above photo you can actually see one of the lights inside the console, and the color looks more ice-bluish than green (as does the glow from the panel with the telephone on it). But with filming filters, and those green spots they threw into the console room to give everything a green glow, things did look very green on screen.

Dino.

[lswl]

By my guess I'd say the panels are about 2.5 to 3 feet ish. Anyone know how accurate that is?

[galacticprobe]

Well, the console itself is about 6 feet in diameter. I know the below photos aren't quite directly overhead shots (I don't know if there are any) but they should give you something to calculate (guesstimate?) panel size with.





Dino.

[slidin_sidewayz]

It never fails to amaze me just how crap looking some props can be when you see them up close, not to mention nice and clear. I think it was something I read about the (ill-fated) show ENTERPRISE that the producers were worried about shooting the show in HD and it looking somewhat less than impressive. I see a lot of those console parts are just chucked on willy-nilly and some hose and pipe-type parts aren't even connected to anything! As an Autoelectrician who like to take pride in wiring, etc, I'm sad to think they slapped it together so messily. :-(

[galacticprobe]

I think that was their intention when they designed this console. The TARDIS having barely survived The Great Time War, repaired herself the best she could with what she had (supposedly only a match box-sized fragment remaining, and being left on Earth with the injured Doctor sometime in the 19th Century, if I remember the story behind it correctly). It took the TARDIS almost a century to "regenerate", and the Doctor probably recovered from his injuries, but regenerated from old age waiting for the TARDIS.

So this was supposed to be a 'beater' version of the TARDIS (as we say in the US... she runs and gets you where you need to go, but isn't the best thing to look at). But as my son - whose college degree included many Japanese philosophy courses - says, one Japanese philosophy is to see great beauty in imperfection. I guess depending on how you look at it, this could be the winner of the "Miss TARDIS Beauty Pageant". (Granted, right now she'd be the only contestant, but you get the idea.)

Dino.

[AtomsInTime]

I found this plan view from the BBC:

(Sorry it's so small...)
Don't know if it's any help,

AtomsInTIme

[galacticprobe]

I think it's the best (and only) "overhead" shot of the console we're likely to get. Someone should be able to extrapolate what size the panels are from this. Going on the approximate dimension of the console being six feet in diameter, allowing for the edging and the central part where the column is, off the cuff I'd say each panel was roughly 18 inches deep, about the same on its widest edge, and about 6 inches wide at the narrow edge.

Someone else can have a go at the size of the ribs and other structural bits.

Dino.

[invadrzim]

I found my collection of Coral references, or at least some of them. these 2 seem to show good views of the console as a whole.
if scale cant be figured with the above screenshot maybe it can be figured from these near 90 degree dead on shots

[galacticprobe]

Here's one more that's nearly 90 degrees on (the long edge) so you can see the 6-foot rim at its fullest. And it shows the edge of a panel almost straight on to you can get the long and short edges of it from there (hopefully).

Screen grab from "Time Crash", courtesy of the BBC web site as seen in its upper right corner. (If your browser has automatically re-sized this for the forum, just open the image in a new window and you can see it at full size.)


For panel depth I think the diagram Atomsintime posted is the best overhead shot for that; knowing the 6-foot diameter measure it still looks like about 18 inches (at a guess).

Dino.

[galacticprobe]

If you're referring to that black grid with the round circles in it between the console's ribs, it's not metal. It's a rubber "grate" that's usually used on hard floors. Anyone who's been aboard a Navy ship or Coast Guard Cutter will recognize it as the stuff they had on the deck of the bridge because it's thick enough to cushion your feet against the steel deck, and it's raised about 1.5 inches or so to keep your feet dry when the spray gets in and wets the deck (hence the holes in it).

They come in sections that interlock together like other rubber floor matting. You can usually find it in home improvement stores. I'm not sure of its exact name, but if you ask for something like perforated rubber floor matting they'll know what you're after.

Dino.