Pilot Episode Police Box Porch in Toymaker

[kert gantry]

Following up on Tony Farrell's excellent research into the second set of Police Box doors made for the Pilot episode (and, now we know, reused in The Massacre), this still from The Celestial Toymaker shows they had another outing.  Giveaways are the lack of sign-boxes on the sides, no base and the clean right-hand window frame.  The patches of dirt on the left-hand window seem to match up with the Massacre pics as well.     

[kiwidoc]

Oh yes, great spotting!

[tony farrell]

What a brilliant find! Well spotted Thomas!

[kert gantry]

Thanks folks.

There's another colour shot of the dancing floor, showing Sgt. Rugg and Mrs. Wiggs trapped on it.  Can't remember if you can see much more of the porch in that one, but I'll try and dig it out.

[Rassilons Rod]

Good catch! Certainly looks like it

I believe they did also knock up some other boxes for another scene in Toymaker. Isn't there a scene where they have to figure out which is the real one from three?

One of those was painted white for the Mind Robber.

[frostedwindows]

There's this scene in The Halls of Dolls: "Steven notices 4 cupboards along one wall, all the same shape as the TARDIS but painted white. Only 3 of them will open; the fourth may be the real TARDIS in disguise." Can't find any picture refs alas.

[Angelus Lupus]

Here's what I managed to find

From the BBC, here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0122z2l/p0122z0c
I must say, seeing those colour images really makes me wish someone would colourise the old Hartnel and Troughton adventures, look at the stuff we're missing in B/W

[kert gantry]

Great pic, Angelus.  I'll keep hunting for the other Dancing Floor photo, I know I have it somewhere.

Toymaker had some great iconic TARDIS moments.  I'd love to see how they did the conveyer belt of fake TARDISes in episode one ("There are hundreds of them!" says Steven). 

[Rassilons Rod]

I'd love to see how they did the conveyer belt of fake TARDISes in episode one ("There are hundreds of them!" says Steven).

Probably the same way they did the dalek conveyor belt in Power

[kert gantry]

You could well be right! 

[kert gantry]

Second pic.  Low on porch detail but you can see the wall of the set through the open door as Dodo makes her escape, showing there are no sides at all.

[galacticprobe]

It's a bit dark, but lightened up a bit...

...and you can see the back wall of the room, with the studio lighting across it. (Too bad they didn't think to throw a black cloth or something against that wall. You'd think someone would have noticed that in rehearsal.)

Dino.

[darren79]

The latest edition of 'Nothing at the end of the lane' has an excellent feature on the design of the pilot episode and differences to the transmitted episode.




For the remount:

'The TARDIS doors were no longer to be visible from inside the ship, to avoid the earlier problems (the doors got in the way and affected the manual operation of the main doors), Newbery designed a free-standing framework in two halves, using the existing doors, one on each side. Eric Walmsley (Barry's assistant) recalls, "We mounted the frame on castors, it was designed to divide and strike to allow the artists to enter without causing a problem."

The doors weren't actually used for the remount but the silhouette of the frame can be seen through roundels on either side of the doors.

[tony farrell]

Well, it looks as if I was correct when I posted this two years ago:



Thanks for the confirmation!

[kert gantry]

Well, it looks as if I was correct when I posted this two years ago:

Indeed. Just one of the many revelations we've had on this site as a result of your  excellent research.

Come back soon.

Tom