New Exterior Prop for Matt?

[atomicgraph]

Hey Folks,

Posted this on the TBF.
Found an article on yahoo about this too:

http://uk.tv.yahoo.com/03032009/19/doctor-tardis-makeover.html

More fuel for the fire? Though personally, I'm not too convinced they'd get a whole new police box prop.

Gaz

"a new digital era for the show" i hope the tardis isn't gonna just turn into a big green rectangle

[TG]

Gosh No, I don't think I could cope with Matt getting the chameleon circuit working again at this stage.
I doubt Star Trek would have been so successful with the Enterprise one week and a banana the next  :-/

[Rassilons Rod]

Gosh No, I don't think I could cope with Matt getting the chameleon circuit working again at this stage.
I doubt Star Trek would have been so successful with the Enterprise one week and a banana the next  :-/

[policeboxnut]

I think everyone has their favourite police box prop - for me it was TY-J. Still, the charm of the Tardis is that is has always looked a little bit wrong in terms of its accuracy when compared to an actual police box.
So if they made it totally accurate, I think it would lose its charm. And we wouldn't have a new design to fall in love with all over again.
Nobody understand this obsession I have with the Tardis - they all smile patronisingly and say 'oh, that's nice' - really hacks me off sometimes. It's why I love TR2 - we all love the Tardis!!

[Dematerialiser]

I agree, I like them all to various degrees but TYJ is my favourite from a design point of view (all those nice little features and quirks). My least favourite is the NST because I think the square panels and very spindly windows really does break the mold in terms of what's gone before, and the sign graphics are a bit too modern looking for me - all those sleek fonts. I think the NST looks great from some angles (usually 3/4 view) and horrible flat-on.

Anyway, I empathise with the whole 'oh, that's nice' thing. Some people get it (they see my Tardis-in-progress and say "wow, cool") and other's just don't.
Usually (and this is very irritating) the people who don't get it never think twice about blabbing on for an hour about whether Beckam should have transferred to another football club (whilst actually wearing a Beckham football shirt... shall we all put on our DW costumes now, don't think so..); or will talk at you at length about how they're planning to decorate their house but can't decide on magnolia or apple white paint. If you're lucky you might just get someone to comment on the massive blue  police box standing outside, but it's likely to be "Oh, that's nice." or "What is it"  or, in my case,  "isn't it finished yet?" 

I think everyone has their favourite police box prop - for me it was TY-J. Still, the charm of the Tardis is that is has always looked a little bit wrong in terms of its accuracy when compared to an actual police box.
So if they made it totally accurate, I think it would lose its charm. And we wouldn't have a new design to fall in love with all over again.
Nobody understand this obsession I have with the Tardis - they all smile patronisingly and say 'oh, that's nice' - really hacks me off sometimes. It's why I love TR2 - we all love the Tardis!!

[Rox]

Sorry Demat, but can't agree with you about the fonts; the signbox lettering is the same lettering they've used on the Underground since at least the 1930's.  The fonts on the sign itself are pretty standard and nothing I see as being modern (although I would have preferred the PUBLIC CALL to have been the same aspect ratio as POLICE BOX rather than stretched - but that's me being REALLY picky).  I did consider keeping the normal aspect ratio on my build, but caved in because if I need to change the signs in future, I know I can so it didn't really matter.  (I'm sometimes tempted to change the one on the back of the box to 'BAD WOLF' just for the hell of it...!) 

Having said all that about the fonts, I'm often surprised at how old some fonts are, when they look new; I have a book on 20th Century design, and you'd be surprised what came from the 20's and 30's that we assume are 'new' today.

[Rox]

Oh and putting my cynical head on, there's no way the 'new' exterior will look like the classic TARDIS.  That would be shooting the Beeb in the foot.

Look at it this way.  The new series has a 'new look' TARDIS, different enough from the old TARDIS for diehards to be upset, but not different enough for kids and parents to care.

This means the BBC can licence 'classic' toys completely seperately from the new series.  Meaning multiple contracts with companies of varying sizes.  From the small model makers up to Character Options and their toys in supermarkets up and down the land.

And if we look back to those dark days in the late 80's when the only Doctor Who toys were Dapol's hilarious efforts (Davros with two arms, 5 sided console, etc) you could only get them in small shops and Cash and Carry warehouses.

Now, we can see Doctor Who toys everywhere we go - Sainsburys, Tesco, Asda....  Dalek masks and voice changers, model TARDISes, even classic figures in mainstream supermarkets!  And when kids see our TARDIS at the rescue, they're excited by it and know what it is (in fact, it's cool now!) rather than being a weird box thing.

We're in a Golden Age for Doctor Who, even if we don't like everything that's on screen (and there are some who hate the new series with a passion).  But if this inspires the next generation of kids to keep Doctor Who going, it may well still be on the telly long after we have shuffled off...

Sorry, went off tangent - but as it is, it's an advantage for the new series TARDIS to be significantly different - and I don't really expect that to change.

[Dematerialiser]

I have a book on 20th Century design, and you'd be surprised what came from the 20's and 30's that we assume are 'new' today.

Hi Rox

You made my point for me - I said it it 'looks' modern, by that I mean because it's in-line with current tastes (just look at Futura - it was designed in 1924 and looks like it only came out yesterday..!); they'll never (probably) do Tardis signs in Times because it's just not in vogue.  I still find the whole NST look the kind of thing a modern police box designer (if the Met were still building them) would come up with to look right in today's London. Then again, the previous Tardis signs were 'of their time' so perhaps I shouldn't complain.

But... The way that PUBLIC CALL is stretched is really lazy design imo - there's a space that needs to be filled in a balanced way and instead of choosing something from the same font family the designer just went fontwidth=115% and walked away saying "job done". LOL!. Oh well, I hope that if they do change the Tardis prop someone looks a little more at the heritage of both the show and font design and does something that's a little more 'out of time' instead of in-step with the times. But then that's just my opinion as a designer - it's always getting me into trouble.

[Rox]

Life would be boring if we all had the same opinions, Demat... 

We're both on the same page about the PUBLIC CALL, that's for sure.  I suppose what I'm saying is that the fonts used are contemporary with the time Police Boxes were built and used, so it's not really all that out of place for me - but the stretched portion is.  I think it would have looked fine with the same font, not stretched. 

I think thickening up the window frames and altering the signs would probably help make it look more classic without altering the entire design.  Even if they used the same font, but changed the stretched portion. 

(All bearing in mind the merchandising options, and the fact that would allow their licencees to make minor alterations to their models instead of having to completely retool them)

[avadh]

It would be great to see the new tardis exterior look exactly like a real police box. The only time it happened before was in the 2 peter cushing dalek films in the 60s. If it doesent look like a real police box then something at least like the brachaki or season 18 tardis would be great.

[kalarcana]

Gosh No, I don't think I could cope with Matt getting the chameleon circuit working again at this stage.
I doubt Star Trek would have been so successful with the Enterprise one week and a banana the next  :-/

But what's wrong with a banana?  The Doctor loves bananas. 



Rick

[policeboxnut]

'Well; it seems we still have a long way to go' a wise Klingon once said.
Sorry to mix genres but it seemed the most cogent paradigm I could think of.
I think the Brachacki was spot on - the first version before it got slashed about, that is. That's what a Tardis should look like - a scaled down version of the real police box but with the little quirks that make it lovable.
Having said that, I got used to the TY-J over the years because it was all I knew of the Tardis - I started watching in 1981 so th first prop I saw was the TY-J. For me, that is the Tardis. So a new one needs to look like the TY-J with an extra roof stack. Like my Sketchup model for instance!!!!!

[handofomega]

I can see then redoing the exterior of the TARDIS.  However, I am not sure if the BBC would spend a WHOLE heap of cash on redoing the interior.   The interior had to cost a great deal to begin with and I can't see the Beeb parting with enough cash to re-make it if it is still a viable set.

[Rassilons Rod]

I think they might. If they have the same budget this year for the specials that they would usually have for a series, there might be some cash left over. And if Season 5 is going to be in HD, they wouldn't want dodgy paint smears or broken bits showing up on screen.

Back (briefly) to what I said about the 903 thing. I read on tardis wikia that apparently he's said somewhere about "900 years of time travel" and that makes it sound like he's ditched the time he spent on Gallifrey. A bit of a leap I think, but it kinda works

-Marc

[Rox]

Back (briefly) to what I said about the 903 thing. I read on tardis wikia that apparently he's said somewhere about "900 years of time travel" and that makes it sound like he's ditched the time he spent on Gallifrey. A bit of a leap I think, but it kinda works

-Marc

Didn't Christopher Eccleston say 900 years of Police Box travel?  Rather than 900 years of time travel?