Tony's Console Room Measurements

[tony farrell]

With people being made redundant at work, I thought wiser of using the work's scanner for private use. Apologies, but my drawings for the down-lighters and the recess in the scanner scaffolding will have to wait until I can replace my scanner on pay day   Still, I should be grateful that I still have a job; I know many who don't.

Drawings aside, I've been able to carry on researching various other elements of the original control room. Or, should that be console room? I think I prefer 'control room'!  

Bill Hartnell described the Tardis' architecture as being "soft". In the fictional world of Dr Who, this justified assembling the various parts of the studio set in different places from week to week. Walls, Perspex screens and computer towers/light boxes seemingly appearing and disappearing at random!




This random arrangement also applies to the fault locator wall.  When we first see it in 'An Earthly Child', we see it fully assembled but in 'The Dead Planet', we only see the half of it nearest the doors to the living quarters.






The top left-hand side of this picture shows that the half of the fault locator wall running towards the 'photographic roundel' wall hadn't been built.
The next time we see the fault locator wall is in 'The Edge of Destruction' when it was again assembled in full. The following photos show the modular nature of the fault locator wall. I've numbered the panels 1 to 5 for ease of identification only and not to imply that a particular order was intended (though, artistically I think it was)!

 

[tony farrell]

Regards

Tony

[celation]

Just wanted to chip in how much I'm enjoying reading this thread.

Little details there - like the different symbols at the tops of the background panels - brilliant! Thank you!

[kert gantry]

Echoing the sentiments above, this is all quite invaluable - thanks for the time and effort you've put in.

Had never noticed the strip-lights on the scaffolding before. It's the extra little details like this that make the original control room so special.

Watching Toymaker 4, I noticed all the Fault Locator light panels appear to have been removed, or is it just lack of illumination that makes them look that way?  Seem to remember they are all back again for the FL's (final?) appearance in Tomb 1.

[tony farrell]

Thanks for the compliments Celation and Kert. It's nice to be appreciated though, it must be said, it isn't hard work at all - I'm enjoying doing it!

Thanks for the screen grab from the Celestial Toymaker - this isn't a DVD that I have. I think you're right, the indicator panels aren't just not illuminated; they aren't there at all!

I'd have to recheck this, but, from memory, I don't think the fault locator wall which appeared in the first episode of 'Tomb' was the same panels but a redesigned version. Didn't it have dark grey panels? I'll have to look and get back to you on that one - in the meantime, this is a grab from "The War Games" which shows the fault locator panels as they finally appeared.

Kind Regards

Tony

[kert gantry]

Just had a quick glance at Tomb, and it looks like the original set of walls restored to their former glory.



Have to say, I think this was the last time in the 60s that the control room looked really good, with a fair number of the original elements still present and in reasonable condition (even the see-through panels around the scanner tower appear to be back).  The nadir was probably reached in (the otherwise wonderful) Web of Fear, with blank flats used where roundelled walls should be.

Can't quite decide whether those War Games FL walls are the old ones redressed or a complete replacement, though I'm tending towards the latter.

[DoctorWho8]

I think they are the original flats remounted to run horizontally instead of vertically.
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

[croooow]

The fault locator in "Tomb" isn't the actual set piece but rather a rear projected picture of it. They reused the slide from when they rear projected it in "The Dalek Invasion of Earth".

[Rassilons Rod]

Interesting, I've never spotted that before. It does look a bit odd, for sure.

Here are all the grabs that show it, from http://tragicalhistorytour.com/.

Dalek Invasion Of Earth




Tomb Of The Cybermen

[kert gantry]

Interesting, I've never spotted that before. It does look a bit odd, for sure.

Neither had I - this site never ceases to educate me!  Yes it does look odd - everything leaning in DIOE and out of scale in Tomb.

DoctorWho8, I think those War Games horizontal roundel walls are from a reprint done in 1966.  The more I look at the Fault Locator wall, the more it looks like a completely new replacement.  So maybe Toymaker was the original FL's last gasp.

[tony farrell]

Brilliant photos guys - thanks very much indeed!
This site and the knowledge in it never ceases to amaze me as well. I must have watched DIOE more times than I can remember and never noticed that the fault locator wall was a back-projection.
Thanks for the grabs from 'Tomb' - saves me having to go rummaging around in the cupboard under the stairs where I keep my tapes and DVDs (I really need to have a sort-out)!    I agree, it is definitely the same photograph as the wide panel is in exactly the same place compared to the uprights of the scanner scaffold recess. So, it does look like the last actual physical appearance of the fault locator wall was - minus the electrics - in 'Toymaker'.....A slightly sad ending though, maybe bits of it could have been reused for 'The War Games'.
I have a question for Kert, but if anyone else would like to chip in, please do: I'd be interested to know where the information for re-printing/photographing the printed roundel walls comes from as this is not something I've heard before. As far as I understand it, three photographic wall were originally made for 'An Earthly Child' (by which I mean actually glued to rigid backing flats - not just the canvas walls seen in the Pilot Episode).  Two of the photographic walls had five columns of roundels, whilst the third wall had three columns of roundels only.
Regards
Tony

[kert gantry]

I have a question for Kert, but if anyone else would like to chip in, please do: I'd be interested to know where the information for re-printing/photographing the printed roundel walls comes from as this is not something I've heard before. As far as I understand it, three photographic wall were originally made for 'An Earthly Child' (by which I mean actually glued to rigid backing flats - not just the canvas walls seen in the Pilot Episode).  Two of the photographic walls had five columns of roundels, whilst the third wall had three columns of roundels only.
Regards
Tony

Well, the roundel reprint is a theory of mine (hence the rather cowardly "I think" at the start of that sentence!), based purely on visual evidence.  It started when I used a pic from a Troughton episode to make an action figure-scale photographic wall.  Comparing stills from the Troughton era to the earliest episodes, I began to notice subtle differences: most notably the original photo-roundels seem to be spaced fractionally wider apart when compared to those seen later (where the gap between the edges is almost non-existent).  Also the later roundels look more evenly spaced and 'contrasty', with less detail evident in the shadowed areas (though that could be a studio lighting issue). We first see these horizontal roundels in 1966 - certainly in Toymaker (maybe The Ark, but I don't have the DVD yet).  Anyway, here's a couple of pics  - from The Chase, showing the original photo flats, and from The Mind Robber.  What do others think?  






 

[galacticprobe]

Actually, if you check out the last two images in this thread here http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=1010.15 (especially the first of the two photos) you'll see that same look of dark/light areas on some of the early Hartnell photo-enlarged roundel walls. You can tell it's still early Hartnell by the configuration of the "flags" at the top of the central column.

Here are two other Hartnell images with the photo-enlarged walls (later Hartnell images: different column "flag" configuration) and they have those same dark/light areas, so it may just be a studio lighting thing, as you suspect.



(Images courtesy of Shillpages)

Dino.

[Rassilons Rod]

Brilliant photos guys - thanks very much indeed!

I would recommend tragical history tour, they have lots of images. I used to complain about them being full of spy ware and stuff, but it doesn't seem to be a problem anymore (or then I have learned how to use my browser!!)
http://tragicalhistorytour.com/

Also chronovore seems to be back up too...
http://chronovore.org/wpg2

[tony farrell]

Thanks for the links Rassilonsrod - am familiar with Chronovore, but ll certainly give the other a try.
Dino's second picture shows that the bottom of the blow-up wall (to Hartnell's right) is already damaged, so there is absolutely no reason why the walls couldn't have been replaced/reprinted at some point - possibly in 1966.
We should also remember that Dr Who was originally recorded in 405 line definition (interestingly referred to at the time as high definition  ) and although available from 1964, 625 line transmissions were confined to the London area and used for trialing what was to become BBC2. So, its not really until 1965/66 that programmes moved to the 625 line format. In 405 lines shadows become blurred and extended and details are (sometimes mercifully) lost.
Lime Grove studios were antiquated even by the standards of the time and this shows in the quality of some transmitted material - no more so when different media (film/video/telecine) were used. The quality of film gives a much higher definition and so, what isn't visible on video is much clearer. So a publicity shot or photo taken for the BBC archive can be superb but as soon as you transfer moving film to video (telecine), the definition is lost and you get a 'shuddering' effect because film is 24 frames a second whilst video is 25 frames. The two effectively aren't compatible and if not very carefully synchronised, the video can actually be recording the blanks between each frame of film! 
Thankfully the earliest Dr Who episodes have been now been 'vidfired' which effectively doubles the definition by - as I understand it - selecting the lines from the previous frame and using these to fill in 'missing' lines in the next frame and so on. The pause button on the DVD player therefore comes in very handy.
Prompted by your contributions I followed the he link to the blow-up wall topic and noticed a couple of things: