Planet of the Spiders

[lorisarvendu]

Planet of the Spiders 1974 ZZZ Season 11 Story 74

Brachacki Tardis (Altered)

Nice half-shot of the front and left-side from "Planet of the Spiders"

[lespaceplie]

Even with the low production budget, it amazes me that this prop went on in shambles for as long as it did. Continual patching seems as though it would have been more work, and ultimately more money, than building a new one, but then we wouldn't have the long legacy of variations.

[galacticprobe]

That photo shows the original Hartnell window frames with their little extra bar at the bottom are still in place on the side. You can also see that the door stiles have the bevels on them, while the side wall's stiles still don't have any.

When you consider that only the doors were replaced during the end of the Hartnell era (in "The War Machines", I think) and its roof "chopped down" early in the Troughton era, it really is amazing, as lespaceplie says, how long this prop lasted, which was I think until the last scene in Tom Baker's "Seeds of Doom" (below, which shows the other side and the bottom bar on those windows, and the bevelless side wall stiles as well).


Dino.

[geminitimelord]

Nice thing about my Hartnell box is some day when it becomes ragged and beat up I can chop the roof off and add a flat one and it will look like a Troughton/Pertwee box.

[markofrani]

Actually the doors were not replaced but merely shortened, presumably due to some damage, hence the need for the clover style door restraints. Before the refit, the doors on the original were restricted from coming forward by being tall enough to be behind the stepped detail above the doors ( there would have been no gap, which you can see quite clearly in this picture). You can also see in the above pic that the panels on the the now shortened door do not align with those on the side walls, and the bottom stile is now shorter than the corresponding stile on the side wall. I'm also sorry to correct you galacticprobe, but there were never any bevels on any of the panels on the Brachacki prop.

[Avadh]

In the top picture from planet of the spiders you can see on the rear side of the box that the left window is slightly twisted and sticking out. Also the sign boxes particularly on the front side of the box look bent and out of shape as well.

[galacticprobe]

That bending of the front sign box in the "Planet of the Spiders" photo might just be either a trick of the light or the camera lens because if you look at the other parts on the front, the roof, three-steps, and even the doors all look curved in the same way.

And Markofrani, you never have to apologize for correcting me when I get something wrong. (In fact, when I'm not sure of something, I usually add to my comments "And please correct me if I'm wrong...".) And I did know that the original Brachacki prop never had any bevels on its stiles. I only commented on the doors since they looked like they had bevels on them (again, maybe a trick of the light). Although I do remember reading somewhere on the history of the TARDIS prop that on the Brachacki prop, the doors were replaced during the filming of "The War Machines." (Now you've got me looking for that reference because I think I've gone mad! )

Dino.

[galacticprobe]

OK... I found the reference I was thinking of: http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~trekker/policeboxes/tv1.html.

It does say that the doors' windows were replaced "...with new "thicker set" versions that didn't have the secondary bottom bar detail." I may have misinterpreted this to mean the doors were also replaced. (That paragraph is about half way down the page on the above link, second one above the small banner that says "SEASON FOUR:" for anyone who hasn't read it yet, and the way I read it obviously made me think the doors were replaced, rather than just the windows. Maybe by the time I got to that part I'd already reached 'information overload'.)

The above link does go on to say just what Markofrani did about the doors suffering damage to the bottoms, and having that damaged part cut off, thus making them shorter and requiring those cloverleaf doorstops at the top.

(So that bevelled look of the door stiles I said was in the "Spiders" photo is either a trick of the light, or my eyes are getting worse than I thought!) I do, however, still think the bending that 'avadh' mentioned may be a trick of the light as it looks like the whole front of the box has the same degree of curve to it.

Dino.

[lorisarvendu]

A couple more screencaps, showing the roof just as the TARDIS leaves in episode 5 (hence the start of the fade)



And another close-up of the front.  I think that bowing of the sides is what they call pincushion distortion and is an artifact of the camera.  It certainly isn't that pronounced in longer shots.

[Kingpin]

You can also see the holes where the lantern posts used to reside (and just how hollow those corner posts actually are, the roof piece doesn't quite cover up where the cap had been removed).

[deck5]

Here's the latter image with the distortion processed out:

[lorisarvendu]

Aww...now you gone and bent the centre divider!

You know, even though I now see that the box is in such a mess by this time, I grew up with the Pertwee era and to me it still says "TARDIS" more than any other version. 

[Pravus]

"You know, even though I now see that the box is in such a mess by this time, I grew up with the Pertwee era and to me it still says "TARDIS" more than any other version."   
Posted on: June 8, 2011 02:17:14 PM,Posted by: deck5 

I couldn't agree more, no disrespect to any other Doctor or TARDIS. I am about ready to start my Pertwee style build after constant revisions to my plans. 

[Volpone]

Ha.  HA!  You learn something new every day.  One of the things about actual police boxes -vs- TARDISes is that the bottom stile is significantly wider than the rest.  It amused me to see that the models from the Hartnell era were accurate to a police box, with a wider bottom stile, but not to the actual prop.  And now, right under my nose, I see that I was mistaken.  The bottom stiles are the same size AFTER being cut down.  When the prop was built, the doors (and of course the sides) had wider stiles on the bottom. 

Not that there's anything I can do about this on my TARDIS. 

[joel the timelord_14]

This is the TARDIS I intend on building. The plans I'm going off are the original plans of the 1963 Brachacki TARDIS but I modified the roof to be shorter and the roof raise to be at a smaller angle. I'm still planning this but I think its going to be lots of fun to build. 
And these reference photos really help me especially with planning, so thank you for these photos.