Season 14 Console Panel Control Layouts

[Scarfwearer]

[float-right][/float-right]Here is my attempt to identify the layout of the console panels beneath the covers on the season 14 console.
It's a work in progress, and I would be glad to hear any suggestions or corrections or alternative theories about what we can deduce here.

The Stories
The four bolded stories below contain scenes in the wooden console room.

The Masque of Mandragora
The Hand of Fear
The Deadly Assassin
The Face of Evil
The Robots of Death
The Talons of Weng Chiang

I'm assuming that this console is small enough that it did not need to be dismantled, so the continual reordering and rearrangement of the panels on the other consoles would not occur. It's possible that some alterations were made to the panel layouts but Occam's razor suggests I should assume not unless it proves unavoidable.


Several of the panels visible (1, 3 and 5) look quite similar - with an array of 32 lighted switches in 4 coloured rows of 8 buttons. It's possible that they were modified and moved over time, but it's also possible that several similar panels were made as I'm assuming.

Panel 2 appears to be lights. Panel 4 appears to be a writing desk tidy, Panel 6 is unknown.

There follows a breakdown of the individual panels listing what I've figured out so far:
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Panel 1
[float-left][/float-left][float-right][/float-right]The controls above the array of 32 buttons look like small wheels on cocktail sticks, and in two different sizes. I'm not wholly sure about this as the fuzzy picture could be of lighted rocker switches. If that were the case, and the console was not modified, the picture to the left would have to be the otherwise unseen Panel 6. Not impossible, but seems less likely given what I said above about symmetry.
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Panel 2
[float-right][/float-right]These look like small round lights. Unclear whether they are switches or lights.

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Turned around...

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Panel 3, Panel 4 (drawer), Panel 5

It's possible at this stage that the unknown panel is Panel 3 and that 3-4-5 shown here are actually 4-5-6 on the diagram above. I'm assuming not because otherwise panels 6 and 1 would be adjacent and very similar, and symmetry seems to suggest that the similar panels should alternate. But that's just an assumption.
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Panel 3
[float-left][/float-left]Panel 3 looks like Panel 1, but does not have Panel 2 to it's right. The top row also look like rocker switches rather than the knobs seen on panel 1.
The left 3 of these rocker switches have been seen lit red.
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Panel 4
[float-left][/float-left]Panel 4 contains a drawer with several vertical separators above it
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Panel 5
[float-left][/float-left]Panel 5 looks like Panels 1 and 3, but the colour order of the button rows is different (Panel 5 has Blue at the top whereas Panels 1 and 3 have yellow at the top).
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Panel 6
I have yet to find any definitive reference material for panel 6.

I have more DVD-watching to do to see whether I can glean anything else from what's been shown.

Crispin

[maverickjsmith]

This little console has always had my attention. The simplistic controls were always an attractor to me because an immensely (supreme understatement) complex machine such as the TARDIS can be controlled with simple buttons.

Bravo on the screen caps.

By the way, are you gearing up to add all those colorful buttons to your little wooden console?

[Rassilons Rod]

Great caps Crispin!

A few weeks ago (the last time we discussed this), I did start doing a plan for it - sadly I lost the file, but it could be redone again easily. I think there was only one panel never seen, but I suspect that it was another pseudo-duplicate.

I'll see if I can do another (better?) one soon

[galacticprobe]

Is it possible that Panel 6 was another writing desk? We know that one desk faced away from the entry steps ("Deadly Assassin"), and another desk appears to be open on the side that faces the steps ("Robots of Death"). Here's that image:


I suppose it's possible they spun the console around at some point between "Assassin" and "Robots", but just maybe it did have two desks?

As to Maverick's comments on the simplicity of this console's controls for such a complex vehicle as the TARDIS, one must remember that this is a "Type 40, Mark I" TARDIS ("The Time Meddler"), that was already a museum piece when the Doctor was young (Idris/TARDIS: "The Doctor's Wife"), and that this was the "old" control room ("Masque of Mandragora"). So the simplistic controls fit right in with this style of console. In "Mandragora" the Doctor did admit that he probably stopped using that control room because of "uncontrolled" landings (and probably more uncontrolled functions), and thus designed/created the "new" control room that we first saw in "An Unearthly Child".

Just speculation.

Dino.

[Scarfwearer]

I think it's entirely possible that the unseen panel was another writing desk, which might be a reasonable choice for anyone doing a replica of this console... Given that some of the panels look similar, I want to be sure that there really was one that can't be positively identified as having being seen before jumping to any conclusions.
If Panel 3 is a second writing desk, and not a button panel with a script resting on it, the symmetry of the other panels will apparently be off, but an assumed symmetry is only a weak indicator.
Close study of the available footage is needed, I think.

Crispin

[rocket]

I seem to recall seeing a picture somewhere of the console with two desk sections, I'll see if I can find it.

[Rassilons Rod]

There was a "cartoon" style drawing of all the major console rooms in one DWM... I remember seeing it posted somewhere and I think it showed the panels of the Season 14 (It certainly showed all 3 walls) - I would love to see that again if anyone knows what or where!

When I was looking through my screen grabs, I was certain that there were 2 writing desks (opposite each other) and then the two very similar ones either side the one that faces the fourth wall. That leaves the panel with the round lights and the unseen one, which I am assuming was a near replica of the seen-only-once round-lights-panel.

Given that we already have near duplication of the two panels with square illuminated switches and the two writing desks, near duplication of the remaining panel in the unseen position seems almost guaranteed in my opinion.

I believe these two photos confirm the layout of all seen panels and suggest the concept of the final missing one.

Crispin's pic.


Galacticprobe's pic.


-Marc

[Rassilons Rod]

I found my files and this is my suggested layout... I think I followed Crispin's numbering ok...

[handofomega]

Could the things on Panel one above the coloured buttons be pull out switches similar to what they used to have in old automobiles to turn on the head-lights or to lock the doors?       That is what I have always though they were.   When I did my wooden console recently I look at a LOT of these images closely.   I always thought that they were some sort of pull out switch mechanism.

[celation]

The switches/lights above the rows of push-buttons appear to be two different things.

In the pictures where there are red dots on them, they appear to be as I've shown below - green panel lights with chrome surround of some kind, with circular red stickers on the ends of three of them. You can see the same circular red stickers on the first of each of the rows of rectangular buttons below them. This is my interpretation. Scuse the dodgy render...



There are other pictures, however, which don't have these lights, but instead appear to be toggle switches (almost certainly - you can see the hex-nuts) with possibly toy car wheels (of two different sizes) stuck on the ends. Whether these are two different panels, or the same panel with modifications, I can't tell.

Though the fact that two positions of this panel have been seen - one with a writing desk to the right, and one with the panel with many rows of smaller buttons suggests that it is actually two different panels. The debate continues.

(EDIT: Much of which is what Crispin seems to have already theorised in his first post...)

[Scarfwearer]

I'm pretty sure there are at least two variants of this panel, possibly three - unless changes were made mid-season. Those red stickers look like actual lamps in some shots. Those knobs do look like toy car wheels, or possibly pull-out switches as HandofOmega suggests. If we can't find any really good closeups I guess I'll just have to assemble something approximate.

Marc, you have the numbering going clockwise, I've got it going anti-clockwise!

I think your panel numbered 2 should be to the right of your panel 5 (with the yellow top row), not panel 3 (with the blue top row), according to the photos I've seen. Take another look at Dino's photo.

It seems possible that there were two writing desks, but I really want to see photographic evidence...

Crispin

[rocket]

Turns out the picture I'd seen of this console with two writing desks was just a model someone had made, so no point in taking that as an acturate depiction of the real console. There must be someone out there who knows for sure

[Organic Mechanic]

For the "wheel and axle" bits, they put me in mind of the pull switches on organs.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/56/398320720_a950ea245a.jpg

[Rassilons Rod]

Marc, you have the numbering going clockwise, I've got it going anti-clockwise!

I think your panel numbered 2 should be to the right of your panel 5 (with the yellow top row), not panel 3 (with the blue top row), according to the photos I've seen. Take another look at Dino's photo.

Ok, I will mirror the numbers left to right, that should fix it

Numbering aside, I think I have the panels in the right order - using the two photos I re-quoted. The first one shows the desk with the two regularly seen panels either side of it. So the bottom 3 panels I did can't be wrong, can they?

And then the one with the round lamps goes one more to the right, followed by the desk?

It seems possible that there were two writing desks, but I really want to see photographic evidence...

I would say so... given what I put above. If we're assuming that the panels haven't been moved around (as we said, it's probably too small to require disassembly)  I think that if they rotated the entire console, then the panel now on our right from the desk (when the desk is as the back) would need to be one with square buttons... But in that photo it is the round lights.

PS: It's slightly counter intuitive that if I give the URL some link text that it reverts to the thread title It should read "two photos I re-quoted"

[celation]

Absolutely. What Marc said. And Crispin.

Either they've shifted the panels round, or there are two writing desks.

It could be that they have shifted the panels. The scene from Deadly Assassin requires a close-up of the writing desk part, as the Doctor is going to leave a note in the TARDIS. If the panel to the left with the semi-random array of smaller buttons didn't look up to the job (bear in mind we have only seen long shots of this panel) they might have shifted the other buttoned one round.

I would agree with you Crispin that although your (currently) 5,4,3 panels are correct for the Deadly Assassin pic:



the round buttoned panel should be to the right of a yellow-top-row panel, followed by a writing desk.



Therefore, the only configuration which makes the two pictures work together, is:



Hope you don't mind me modifying your image, Marc. Not as neat as yours... I've renumbered by flipping left to right the panel numbers. This keeps your numbering, Crispin, of 3,4,5, but throws the others off. Sorry.

I've also made some other small modifications. The two different yellow-top-row panels are differentiated by the presence/absence of the red dots or the different sized wheels.

I've also removed the lower level of round dark buttons as I couldn't see any, and I've removed the top row of lights/switches from the blue-top-row panel, and reduced the number of columns to seven, as that's all I can see. Could be wrong on this.

I'll post some pictures to back this up on my next post. It seems to make sense...

Exciting working this out!