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Tardis Floor Plaque?

Started by Lora, Jan 05, 2011, 07:56 am

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galacticprobe

Well, now we know what it was made from. But I do remember hearing (and seeing - it was either on one of the "Who" specials or a DVD extra) one of the people involved with the show's production that when it was first installed for the New Series, there was something about the TARDIS written (engraved, embossed, etc.). The wording was similar to what's on the Matt Smith plaque, but it was different.

So something was on it at one time and was worn away from all of the foot traffic from 2005 to 2009. "What did this plaque originally say?" That's the mystery no one seems to know (or remember).

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

superrichi1a

They must have had hundreds of pictures of it during the building process, and Ed Thomas would certainly be the man to ask. Perhaps if someone could get hold of him, now that he has left Doctor Who, and that set has been made more or less (emphasis on the "or less" but there) redundant, he won't be bound to the same secrecy rules as before.
I did a quick eBay search of antique door plates, and nothing even remotely matching the plaque popped up. I think that we may be dealing with an odd one here, in the way that the BBC usually use needlessly expensive items on their props/sets, where a cheap one would do just as well. There's no other reason behind it than to flaunt wealth and put a spanner in the works for prop-builders like us.
I think the reverse has happened here - they have used a cheap door plate that will prettymuch have disappeared from the consumer eye.
Isn't it how ironic that we have to think of solutions out of the box, in order to build our boxes a lot of the time?

kiwidoc

Brilliant improvisation, and it looks like you've nailed the shape  -looking forward to seeing it!

Volpone

I liked your first idea a lot, but looking again, they do look a lot like Time Lord symbols.  At the risk of making an unsolicited suggestion, at some point you may want to walk around on it a bit and/or "dirty it up" just a bit to make it look a bit weathered.  But you can always do that later if you decide to.  It's a lot harder to un-weather something like that.
"My dear Litefoot, I've got a lantern and a pair of waders, and possibly the most fearsome piece of hand artillery in all England. What could possibly go wrong?"
-The Doctor.

galacticprobe

May 17, 2014, 04:47 am #19 Last Edit: Sep 22, 2015, 07:51 am by galacticprobe
Has anyone been able to guesstimate how large this plaque is supposed to be? It's hard to tell, looking at it in the top of the ramp leading to the console platforms:
Door-ramp.jpg
Here's a cropped shot showing the main doors and entry ramp (and that is the bottom of the photo I cropped it from; just the bit from the console rim up was cropped out). The ramp seems to be just as wide as the doorway opening (or close to it), and that plaque looks like it's about 1/4th the width of the ramp; sitting in the center of the ramp it's really hard to tell, but measuring things against the computer screen 1/4th the width looks pretty close, yet also seems pretty large. (Open the image in a new tab just in case your browser resized it to fit the window. I know image size is a questionable issue considering the Forum's problems lately, but in this case the larger image may help with scaling the size of this plaque.)

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

galacticprobe

May 18, 2014, 05:13 am #20 Last Edit: May 18, 2014, 05:13 am by galacticprobe
I can hardly wait to see how this beauty turns out!

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"