T
tony farrell
Guest
Barry Newbery was one of the most prolific designers ever to be associated with Doctor Who; he holds the record for working on more episodes of the "classic series" than any other designer in its 26 year history - a total of 62 episodes across 14 stories from "An Unearthly Child" in 1963 to 1984's "The Awakening".
Having worked briefly as a freelance designer, Barry Newbery joined the BBC in the late 1950s. Early work for the nation's favourite broadcaster included "Comedy Playhouse" and "The Last Man Out", a 1962 WWII drama starring Barry Letts (who needs no introduction), Richard Hurndall (who equally needs no introduction) and which was written by Shaun Sutton (who was to replace Sydney Newman as the BBC's Head of Series in the late 1960s). It's a small world!
In 1963, Barry Newbery became the designer for a small science fiction programme called Doctor Who. He (along with Raymond P Cusick - who also needs no introduction) was drafted in to replace the programme's original designer Peter Brachacki. Brachacki had designed the sets for the original Pilot Episode, but - due to sudden unexpected hospitalisation - had left the show by the time the first episode was re-mounted, thus paving the way for Barry Newbery.
Newbery worked closely with Shawcraft to rejig the original Tardis Interior (which was repainted a very pale green throughout now gained the computer banks/fault locator and doors to the living quarters) and to dirty-down the originally pristine Police Box exterior. In addition, Barry recreated the Totter's Lane Junkyard and Coal Hill School sets as well as designing the stone-age settings for the subsequent episodes:
For the majority of Doctor Who's first two years Newbery would share the design work with Raymond Cusick, with Cusick taking the Science fiction stories, while Newbery worked on the historical adventures. After creating the Stone Age settlement for "An Unearthly Child", Barry went on to create the sumptuous sets for "Marco Polo", "The Aztecs", the cities and deserts in "The Crusade" and what can only be described as a Wagnerian interpretation of Saxon England for "The Time Meddler":
In the late spring of 1976, as he was preparing his designs for Masque of Mandragora, Barry Newbery was interviewed by Jan Vincent-Rudzky and Stephen Payne on behalf of the Dr Who Appreciation Society and an edited version of this interview was printed in the society's magazine "Tardis" (volume1, issue 11, October 1976):
The quotes from Barry Newbery are extracted from this 1976 interview and are reproduced here with the kind permission of Doctor Who archivist Richard Bignell.
On the subject of designing the sets for "Marco Polo", Newbery had this to say:
In 1965 he designed half the episodes of the marathon "Dalek Master Plan" and - for him - there then followed another rare sojourn into pure science fiction with "The Ark" before returning to 19th century Arizona for "The Gunfighters":
On "The Dalek Master Plan", Barry Newbery shared this amusing memory:
However, "The Ark" seems to have held less happy memories for him:
And, whilst he evidently enjoyed working on "The Gunfighters", he freely admitted the limitations of the BBC's facilities when it came to realising the mid-west!
1968 saw his only contribution to the Troughton era with "The Dominators" which introduced the memorable Quarks:
Whilst 1970 saw Newbery design only one adventure for Pertwee's Doctor - "The Silurians":
He completed three stories for Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor - "The Brain of Morbius" and "The Masque of Mandragora" in 1976, followed by "The Invisible Enemy" in 1977. His final work for Doctor Who came in 1984 when he designed the Fifth Doctor story "The Awakening":
Outside of Doctor Who, Newbery worked on a wide range of projects including the long-running tale of sea-faring folk, "The Onedin Line" as well as the police dramas such as "Z Cars" and "Softly Softly". In 1979 he won an Royal Television Society Television Award for his work on "The Lost Boys" and in the following year, he received a BAFTA nomination for "The Prince Regent".
Barry Newbery was a keen student of the Italian Renaissance; as such, it is appropriate that our story of his version of the Tardis begins with the magnificent medley of monsters and medieval machinations which is "The Masque of Mandragora"!
In conversation with Jan Vincent-Rudzky and Stephen Payne, Newbery stated that:
As we'll see later, whilst the prop may have been lighter, what of Barry Newbery's claim that he wanted to make the Tardis exterior more accurate than it had been of late? Well, with the best will in the world, if an accurate representation of either a genuine Police Box or of the Brachacki original was the aim, it cannot be said that this was actually achieved:
But was what was actually constructed the same as what was planned? The short answer to this is 'no'!
And here, drawn using the dimensions stated in the BBC's plans, is the Newbery Tardis exterior as it was planned:
As can be seen, whilst not a slavish copy of either a Metropolitan Police Box or the Brachacki Original, in spirit, the version Newbery planned was much closer in design than was actually achieved in practice. But why the difference(s)?
Barry Newbery sadly passed away in 2015 and interviews with this most modest of designers are rare. Thus, any attempt to answer this question must be largely supposition. However, careful study of the proposed dimensions of his design may provide us with at least part of the answer; the reason for the changes seems to lie in his proposals for the dimensions of the new Tardis' doors:
Newbery's proposed height for the new Tardis' doors was 1944 millimeters which equates to 76.54" (with the width being 17.08"). In his stocking feet, Tom Baker stands at 1910 millimeters or 75.2". Add the height of his shoes - say 0.8 inches - and the lead actor's height comes out as 76". Newbery's design would have left barely half an inch clearance above Tom's head. And, if we were to include either his bouffant hair and/or his wide-brimmed fur felt hat, there would have been no clearance whatsoever. Indeed, Tom Baker would have been forced to stoop when entering the Tardis. Hardly an ideal state of affairs for everyone's favourite Time Lord!
The upshot seems to be that the realisation that the doors were simply too short (and narrow) forced a redesign or scaling-up of the Tardis' doors proportions (without fundamentally increasing the overall height or width of the box) to suit the physical stature of the show's leading actor!
Before we discuss the dimensions of the Newbery Tardis as built rather than as planned, it is necessary to study the actual appearance of the prop and to note any changes that were made to it during its screen use. In order to do this, each story in which the new version of the Tardis appeared will be discussed in the order that they were made rather than in the order they were transmitted. That way, any changes identified can be described in chronological order.
THE MASQUE OF MANDRAGORA (PRODUCTION CODE 4M):
The director chosen for Serial 4M was Rodney Bennett, whose last Doctor Who work had been on "The Ark In Space" two seasons earlier. Given the story's renaissance Italian setting, Bennett was eager for “The Masque of Mandragora” to be filmed overseas. However, Producer Philip Hinchcliffe instead suggested that cast and crew travel to Portmeirion, a Welsh village designed by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis. Portmeirion boasted architecture inspired by the Mediterranean region and had notably featured as the backdrop to Patrick McGoohan's 1960s series "The Prisoner". Filming took place there between 3/5/76 and 6/5/76 and marked the first use of the Newbery Tardis:
Following a two week break in which Tom Baker and Lis Sladen recorded "Doctor Who and the Pescatons", studio work for Mandragora began on May 25th.
It is on this date that the following publicity photographs provide our first truly clear views of the new Tardis exterior:
The first thing to notice is the fact that - contrary to the three that were originally planned - there were only two steps above the doors. The second thing to notice is the Tardis' lamp:
The actual lens appears to have sections covered in some kind of reflective or (perhaps) Aluminium tape. In addition, there appear to be three distinct facets to the lens with the upper two having a slightly larger diameter than the bottom one. The subject of the Tardis' lamp is one to which we shall return.
Two further observations are noteworthy: Firstly - and this is obvious in the black & white photo of Tom and Lis - there appear to be traces of white paint on the side panel's window frames. This may indicate that the window frames were originally intended to be white just as those of the original Brachacki Box were or, it could simply be traces of undercoat showing through the Prussian Blue topcoat. It may even be residue from the fixative used to secure the Perspex window panes within their frames.
The second observation is just about visible through the Tardis' open door; whilst not obvious on first glance, careful study reveals the presence of the internal light-boxes which, according to the plans, were fitted on the inside of the windows to prevent them being seen through from the outside of the box. These can be distinguished from the rest of the interior because of the distinct shadow their bottom edge casts on the inside of the box:
THE HAND OF FEAR (PRODUCTION CODE 4N):
After production had concluded on "The Seeds Of Doom" the previous Season, Elisabeth Sladen informed Philip Hinchcliffe that she wanted to leave Doctor Who early in the next block of stories. Her swansong in the regular role of Sarah Jane Smith came in the form of "The Hand of Fear" with location filming being carried out at at the ARC Quarry in Wotton Under Edge, Gloucestershire on June 14th and 15th 1976. (Unusually an actual quarry appeared in the series as a quarry rather than doubling for a bleak alien landscape!)
Sladen's actual departure from the series was filmed on June 18th at the nearby town of Thornbury, Gloucester.
Perhaps understandably for a prop which was only a couple of months old, the Tardis appears to be unchanged from its previous appearance in "The Masque of Mandragora". Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for its next appearance.
THE DEADLY ASSASSIN (PRODUCTION CODE 4P):
Though not required on location, the Newbery Tardis was, nevertheless, utilised in both the opening and closing episodes of Robert Holmes' masterful reworking of The Manchurian Candidate - the all-time classic which is "The Deadly Assassin"!
The dimly lit corridors of the of the Capitol's 'underbelly' serve not only to heighten the atmospheric tension in this superb adventure but also serve to conceal the first of many changes which were to be carried out on the Newbery Tardis. These two photographs were taken during the camera rehearsals for episode one:
Note the absence of the roof lamp.
This screen grab shows the same scene from the transmitted episode:
Note that the lamp has been fitted but, it is nothing more than a simple tube and a crooked tube at that!
For the remainder of episode one, the Tardis is recorded from a low angle thus obscuring the temporary lamp:
It is not until episode four's dematerialisation scene that we finally get to see the Tardis' lamp once more:
As can be seen, the Tardis is actually videotaped from the left-hand side - note the absence of the prop's rear sign-box. Note too, the lamp's power lead hanging down on the left-hand of the picture i.e., the rear elevation of the prop.
Lastly, note that this is not the same lamp which was fitted in "The Masque of Mandragora"! The lens is completely different; whereas in "Masque" the lamp had three distinct facets and was fitted with some kind of silvered tape, in episode four of "The Deadly Assassin", the lamp has smaller - less pronounced - facets at the top and bottom of the lens only. There is no evidence of any silver tape and - indeed - the lamp's white cap appears to have a slightly greater diameter than the original version.
The Tardis gaining a new lamp was to be matched in the next story by The Doctor gaining a new companion - the indomitable Leela!
THE FACE OF EVIL (PRODUCTION CODE 4Q):
Though entirely studio-bound, nevertheless a considerable amount of filming work was undertaken for this adventure. This filming work took place at the BBC's Ealing Studios between 20th and 28th September 1976 and - as with the first two stories of Season 14 - the Tardis' landing and take-off were both filmed.
THE ROBOTS OF DEATH (PRODUCTION CODE 4R):
Whereas in "The Deadly Assassin", we saw the left-hand side of the prop, when the tardis lands in the Sandminer's scoop, we see the right-hand side of the box. Note, again, the absence of the rear sign-box. In addition, the white paintwork is still visible on the side's windows and - in this shot - we get a much clearer view of the replacement lamp:
As can be seen unlike the original lamp in "The Masque of Mandragora", the lamp which debuted in episode four of "The Deadly Assassin" has a series of small circular facets both above and below a central bulge. The lamps circular cap is a much greater diameter (as is its circular base) and it has thicker supporting struts:
THE TALONS OF WENG-CHIANG (PRODUCTION CODE 4S):
Season fourteen was brought to a close with Robert Holmes' masterpiece "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" - a mischievously macabre mixture of Sax Rohmer's 'Fu Manchu' and Gaston Leroux's 'Phantom of the Opera' with just a hint of Jack The Ripper and "The Good Old Days" thrown into the fog-filled streets of Victorian London.
As The Doctor and Leela emerge from the Tardis into the cold night of the East End Docklands, yet another change to the Police Box prop becomes apparent - the front sign-box has been repaired, resulting in the 'window' for the signage insert now being wider and 'offset' when compared to the corner-posts:
The solid piece of the sign-box on the right-hand side is now much shorter than the equivalent section on the left-hand side.
To sum up our story so far - Newbery was commissioned to create a new Tardis for Season Fourteen. In spirit it was conceived as being much closer in design to the original Police Box/Tardis. However, the original design was altered - possibly to take into account Tom Baker's height. This alteration, whilst not substantially increasing the over all height of the box, did nevertheless greatly alter the heights of the doors and therefore the proportions of the new Tardis with the result that (of all the Tardises) it actually ended up looking less like a genuine Metropolitan Police Box than either its predecessor or its successors!
Its original lamp only survived for the first two stories of its existence and within nine months of its creation, the box was already becoming damaged to the extent that the front sign-box had had to be repaired. The nature of this repair will become more obvious in the next season.
and yourself.
