Time Vector Generator

[warmcanofcoke]

Reference images for the Time Vector Generator


(In Jamie's Hand)


(On Jamie's belt)


(In Jamie's Hand again)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/photonovels/wheelinspace/two/index.shtml

I hope we can find clearer images in the future.

[galacticprobe]

The main body definitely looks corrugated, and "roughly" the size of the light sabers used in (dare I mention it) "The Phantom Menace". The lightest end looks smooth, and I'd guess that's the white end; the other end looks corrugated like the main body, and has about the same shade of grey to it, so since that is supposed to be the gold end, it is possible that the whole unit is indeed gold. (I've seen dowels and rods with that sort of corrugation on them in hardware and craft stores, so finding one of those shouldn't be too much of a hassle, and would save a lot of work having to make those ridges in the main body.)

There is that shiny bit of ring between the colored tops and the main body that could be metal (chrome?) rings. And at the very ends of the main body are slightly darker "grey" bands, and it's anyone's guess what color they are.

Maybe someone with the knowhow and the image software could take the known colors and use that info to "colorize" that image of Jamie (5th image down: seems to be the clearest) so we could see what the actual prop "may" have looked like in person?

Dino.

[Rassilons Rod]

Could they be tube lamps, still in their protective packaging? Like the ones used in the Time Column and behind the glass screens in front of the Fault Locator?

[warmcanofcoke]

you wanted something like this Dino

[galacticprobe]

Whoa! That's impressive, Nate! If those are the right colors - going by skin tones and Jamie's red kilt tartan (and his green neck tie) - then we could have the right colors for the Time Vector Generator.

As for it being one of the lamps, even without its protective sleeve it still looks too big (at least too long) to be one of those. It may be another size of lamp, but I think that would have been a bit dangerous to play around with. I've accidentally bumped one of those before while trying to replace it and it doesn't take much to make them explode, and they do explode (not in the way an incandescent bulb does). Those tubes go off like grenades!

So taking safety into consideration, I doubt it was a light tube in a corrugated sleeve. However, that's not to say a props guy wasn't inspired by one of those tubes to create this prop. (After all, it was a pepper pot - actually the salt pot according to the interview in "The Chase" DVD Special Features - that inspired the Daleks, so why not a light tube in a protective sleeve to inspire the TVG?)

Good ideas and designs do come from the oddest things. Just take three bites out of a good-sized round biscuit (about 3 or 4 inches in diameter) and you'll see the basic shape of a Ferengi starship!

Dino.

[Oblivion]

Mmmm, the shot of it in front of the space helmet gives the impression its slightly transparent to me 

[galacticprobe]

Mmmm, the shot of it in front of the space helmet gives the impression its slightly transparent to me  

That could just be an optical illusion (or a film/video artefact) from a "bulge" in the corrugated cardboard wrapping (if it is cardboard wrapping). All of the other images of the TVG show it as a solid (completely opaque) object; no part of anything behind it in those other images is showing through it.

And if the BBC, operating on a shoestring budget, did take something like a sawed-off broom handle and wrap it in cardboard with one layer pulled off to get that corrugated look to it, then it is well within the realm of plausibility that what "appears" to be part of the space helmet showing through it, is just a strategically-placed (but by intention) bulge in the cardboard.

Dino.

[Davros Skaro]

The bulge in the cardboard could be where the switch is to turn it on & off. Just a thought, cause that's what I would do to hide the switch.