Just noticed that the bars from the lantern are missing and that the lantern doesn't seem to sit on the roof block properly. I wonder whether they remade a new roof and didn't get the dimensions quite right??

BioDoctor900

Purple has the insight! http://purpleblancmange.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/the-day-of-the-doctor-not-a-review/
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

Just stumbled across this image on Facebook, May be a good reference point...

https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/q71/s720x720/1480656_396362640495652_499216747_n.jpg

Hope this comes in Handy

BioDoctor900

I was at the experience the other day and they had all of these lined up together.

The war Doctor's TARDIS has a more TYJ looking lamp.
Lined up, the 11th Doctor's TARDIS Seems to have a steeper slope on the roof as well as a much thicker base. I have pictures on PC, I'll try and upload some later-hope they show the differences i'm talking about

Gaz

A comparison shot of the Series 8 box from filming this past week to when it first debuted last September.  You can see it's worn down quite a bit in 9 months.

Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

I saw that too and just assumed it had been hauled in and out of the truck a lot (as you said Bill, 9 months). But in the newer photo, the crooked lamp cap is really annoying me more than the paint.

It is quite astonishing really, I'd actually forgotten that they were the same box as what seems to classify that look in "Time" is indeed it's neatness. Do we know if they are still using two props and sticking to the loose on/off location rule or is that it?

Looking at it one wonders what they must have done to get such a huge depreciation. Could that be why they keep changing props do you reckon? The fact that in full HD even with a refurb the weathering may still be painfully visible...

You would think they would develop a special cushioned crate for transporting the prop in so the edges and corners don't get dented or scratched. Could also help for continuity but the battering reminds me of the classic series boxes.

Let's not forget the TARDIS was originally intended to be a "battered blue box". And since her "rebuilding" at the end of "The Eleventh Hour", she's been though a bit of battering. Such instances that come quickly to mind are:

-being forced through a rift (the "plughole of the universe") - twice - in "The Doctor's Wife";
-sliding through acid-soaked ground in "The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People";
-'bouncing' off of, and then plowing through, the year 1938 in "The Angels Take Manhattan";
-sitting idle for "ages" while the Doctor sulked in "The Snowmen";
-forced into a crash landing on Trenzalore in "The Name of the Doctor" (atmospheric entry friction);
-who knows what sort of stresses or abuse while saving Gallifrey in "The Day of the Doctor";
-some serious battering through the Vortex over hundreds of years (her time) in "The Time of the Doctor".

And there are probably more instances where she's gone through some abuse that I can't think of. Also, we have no idea (yet) what she might have gone through after the Doctor regenerated (into Peter Capaldi). So some "weathering" (to include the crooked lamp cap) is only to be expected. (And don't forget the Original Series' TARDIS and how many times her lamp cap was off - or how much her entire lamp assembly was "off".)

Aging of the TARDIS exterior at this point is normal, just as much as slight changes in her appearance are. It sort of goes with the territory. The "Old Girl" has been like that since 1963, and we've always loved that about her. So let's try not to get too irritated with the changes she's going though now. (That is, unless they try to make her orange or some bizarre color, and try to keep her that way! )

Dino.

Growing up on the original show, I don't like the fact that it looked brand new. The TARDIS was always battered. It was supposed to look like an outdoor Police Box. I imagine the real ones were distressed over the years just from sitting outside (before they were taken out of service). If you wanted to disguise the exterior you would want it to look beat-up like the real ones.

To be fair though, now that they are not around I suppose the TARDIS exterior could be clean. I mean there aren't any around to blend in with, so it's going to stand out anyway.

To my knowledge, they are only using one prop for both indoor and outdoor filming.  It's the same practice since Series 5.
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

Here are excellent, high res photos from today's (June 19, 2014) filming.  Unfortunately, they are all watermarked, but they give great insight on the construction of the Series 8 box and the mysterious underside of the base, which shows metal framing instead of wooden substructure.  it also show the routing detail on the corner posts.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/115749693@N02/sets/72157645296666063/
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

P.S., can we get this thread renamed as the Series 8 Box Reference section?

Quote from: 13drwho on Jun 19, 2014, 11:51 am
To be fair though, now that they are not around I suppose the TARDIS exterior could be clean. I mean there aren't any around to blend in with, so it's going to stand out anyway.

Well, when you consider that the Chameleon Circuit is "stuck" in the Police Box form, after the TARDIS "regenerated" in "The Eleventh Hour" the exterior would look new, as it did. But then taking into account everything the TARDIS has been through since then, some battering and weathering is bound to occur (especially after sinking through that acid-soaked ground), so the weathering coming back shouldn't be that much of a surprise. At least they're bringing back the weathering gradually, unlike in the Classic Series where the weathering could change drastically from one story to the next.

Dino.

The thing is (at least logically if not canonically), the chameleon circuit is an electronic camouflage.  At the end of each adventure the exterior disintegrates and reintegrates at a new time/place.  It isn't like it would take the time to write to the database any dirt, damage, or vandalism to the physical exterior so it could recreate it at each new materialization.  It would look the same. 

Coming back on topic, this is an interesting development that makes me wonder how much thought went into the dressing of the prop through the years.  The old battered police box works from a dramatic perspective, but it is also practical from a prop perspective.  Get mud and moss and water damage on it?  Bang up a corner in shipping?  Doesn't matter.  It is supposed to look beat up and any real wear and tear is hidden by the faux weathering. 

Quote from: volpone on Jun 20, 2014, 01:14 am
At the end of each adventure the exterior disintegrates and reintegrates at a new time/place.  It isn't like it would take the time to write to the database any dirt, damage, or vandalism to the physical exterior so it could recreate it at each new materialization.  It would look the same.

Not sure it works "completely" that way, otherwise the arrows that were stuck in the door (Classic Series story "Silver Nemesis"; New Series episode "The Shakespeare Code") wouldn't have stayed stuck in the door and appeared with the TARDIS at the new destination. I think anything "resting" on the TARDIS (such as snow) would just fall away as she dematerialized ("The Unquiet Dead", "A Christmas Carol"), or paper affixed to the sides would burn off ("Vincent and the Doctor") as she traveled through the Vortex, but blemishes (or arrows) that are "gouged" or otherwise embedded into the existing exterior would become part of the permanent appearance and follow the TARDIS around (as with the arrows) until she needed another "Eleventh Hour" 'regeneration' (or a "respray" as River said near the end of "The Angels Take Manhattan").

So as the TARDIS ages and goes through the trials and tribulations of something that was already "a museum piece" over the 1,200 (or so) years ago when the Doctor "borrowed" her, her exterior - especially since it "can't" change - will show signs of weathering (and battering). But as mentioned, with the New Series weathering, at least they're introducing it gradually as it would normally happen, whereas in the Classic Series the weathering could suddenly go from bad to worse, and then not so bad and back to worse, in a matter of episodes within a single story (and the change could be worse from story to story: weathering not too bad in this story, pretty bad in the next, and then not too bad once again in the next).

Dino.