That is a very curious and valid question, Mark. When you look back at the console in action:

(Nice semi-overhead shot - not sure which story this screen grab came from) you can see that the lighting around the collar was done with short fluorescent tube lighting - bright yet relatively low heat output. I have no idea what the red "filter" was made from back then, but from the level of light that's passing through it I would guess red perspex, with maybe a frosted backing to diffuse the light. (Though it could also have been translucent and not clear red perspex, which would eliminate the need for a diffuser.)

From that overhead shot of the console at the DWE, there doesn't appear to be any lighting of any kind around the inside of the collar. Again no idea why they didn't also restore that lighting when they restored the console, but if they had, I'm sure the amount of red perspex - and even a spray-paint-type of frosting for it for light diffusion - wouldn't have costed so much that it would have broken their wallets.

Still, all in all, we should me thankful that we at least do have this console in existence: as you say, coming up on 32 years (and in storage for close to 25 of those years!) and she's still intact and on display for all to see. That is saying something.

Dino.

Quote from: galacticprobe on Feb 09, 2015, 04:05 pm

(Nice semi-overhead shot - not sure which story this screen grab came from)

That looks like Time Lash.

Good spot on the lights Dino.

Thanks, Nate. The more I look at that grab and the red "slots", the more I keep thinking that the red part is translucent red perspex/plexi. From what little we can see of the red, it doesn't look "clear" with any light-diffusing filter behind it. It looks like the red perspex itself is light-diffusing. (Possible?)

Dino.

Anything is possible, Dino
I'm not sure. I myself have purchased some light saber blades in red perspex and have inserted some white diffuser material, and it looks pretty similar. But that doesn't mean the original wasn't a translucent red.

There is a more detailed discussion of this Time Rotor here: http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=3530.0

I just looked through that other thread and there are some close-ups of that collar (which each section is part of the console panel, rather than it being a separate collar like the console's predecessors had). That red - at least in those photos - look like a translucent perspex. In one of the photos (a dark one) really shows the light coming through the red slots which is what makes me think that's what it could be (could being the operative word ).


There are from the DWE and the restored console (I think), so I'm not sure if those are the original red "filters", but from the level of light coming through it I would guess that at least some of them could be original. But also, in those photos, the light tubes around the collar aren't lit - might not even be there - and the only light coming through the red slots is from the column. So... all guesswork until someone with more knowledge on this console comes forth and lets us in on some details.

Dino.

I was confused I thought you meant the red tube like parts inside the time rotor. You were talking about the Comparator sections. The red lines. .... Ok we are on the same page now.

I was talking about time rotor tubes that used to be red, I had actually forgot the collar lit up as well.

Quote from: galacticprobe on Feb 11, 2015, 05:43 pm
But also, in those photos, the light tubes around the collar aren't lit - might not even be there

Looking through some of the photos I took back when the Experience was at Olympia, it doesn't look like the collar lights are in the console prop at all any more.  Makes you wonder if they were in there back at Panopticon.

As a side note, a good episode to check to confirm that the red pieces in the collar were semi-transparent (I'm pretty sure they were, myself) is the opening to Battlefield, where they had the console prop in subdued lighting to hide the fact they'd had to trash the Console Room walls.

I don't think that those lower tubes ever really illuminated the collar red vertical rectangles satisfactorally, due to too much overhead lighting in most of the filming. Shame, as its a nice feature.

Quote from: rustymetaldog on Feb 13, 2015, 10:34 am
I don't think that those lower tubes ever really illuminated the collar red vertical rectangles satisfactorally, due to too much overhead lighting in most of the filming. Shame, as its a nice feature.

Agreed. From the looks of things in the overhead image above, they didn't have those "collar tubes" close enough to the red perspex for a start. If they had been closer, then much more light would have come through the red. (It would also have been brighter still if the red perspex had been "clear red" rather than "translucent red".)

Dino.

The downside to having them fully transparent though is that you'd easily see the bulbs on the inside of the prop.

Quote from: Kingpin on Feb 16, 2015, 01:53 am
The downside to having them fully transparent though is that you'd easily see the bulbs on the inside of the prop.

Erm... I think this is/was negated by that overhead shot from "Time Lash" showing those tubes/bulbs plain as day.

Dino.

Although... looking at 5 Doctors episode last night, the tubes are easily visible near the base of the time rotor, and nicely illuminate the red rectangles in a way I'd never fully appreciated. They seem much higher placed than in later stories... Maybe they just got moved? Maybe heat from them was going to spoil the outer acrylic case of the rotor? Have a look at the episode and see what you think.

Those type of tubes, same as far as I can see as the ones in the earlier Baker Rotor get hot as hell.

Had one as a reading lamp when I was a teenager and many a time I reached backwarda to turn it off and accedentally burnt my hand on the bulb!

On a side note, returning to the four red bulbs (which I miss so much), I seem to think from looking at older pictures earlier in the thread that the bulbs are actually missing altogether.

From that I mean the bulbs are missing, not just the red covers - in stead of four white, four red there appears to be just four white.
My eyes are getting old but I'm would lay a beer on them not being there and nothing there to replace them like currently.