Game - Set - & Match

[warmcanofcoke]

Occasionally as I watch Doctor Who I look at some of the props and can recognize them as ordinary objects. Its kind of like a game. You'll will be watching WHO and be engrossed in the story and then you catch a detail out of the corner of your eye, and suddenly you're looking at that piece of set and not worrying if the Doctor will save the day or not. 

However as I grow older sometimes these objects could only be recognized by someone of my age.

example: Four to Doomsday - Microfiche readers (Background Props).

[warmcanofcoke]

In Shada under Professor Chronotis's Tardis Console



1979 Printer cable conections

[warmcanofcoke]

Behind the scenes footage Carnival of Monsters, Vision Mixer:

Invisible Enemy Titan Shuttle controls:

[Rassilons Rod]

Vision and sound mixers were very commonly used for spaceships, back in the day.

Just look at the control decks in an AT-AT, Star Destroyer or in the Death Star.

Good call though

[warmcanofcoke]

I have an old Mackie 24 8-Bus that I want to use in a movie as a transporter control one day =D

[galacticprobe]

Those 1979 printer connections? Loads of the equipment I worked on aboard my Coast Guard Cutters still used those same connectors in 2005! Ageless 'tronics. If it keeps doing the job, don't change it. (And again when some of that equipment was changed out I never thought to grab some of those connectors. But I think you can still find them at electronics stores.)

Dino.

[warmcanofcoke]

a new posting - http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=4273.msg49156#msgx49174
recently Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff discovered that the Etheric Beam Locator (Genesis of the Daleks 1975) was an old Reflex Klystron VA22A valve used in Radar.

[DoctorWho8]

I cannot take credit for it at all.  The credit goes to PurpleBlancmange and Mark Quested.
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

[metrosonus]

Those 1979 printer connections? Loads of the equipment I worked on aboard my Coast Guard Cutters still used those same connectors in 2005! Ageless 'tronics. If it keeps doing the job, don't change it. (And again when some of that equipment was changed out I never thought to grab some of those connectors. But I think you can still find then at electronics stores.)

Dino.

That's probably because the military (and many other places) used dedicated and custom written, low level language software and the speed of an older connection like the parallel port connecters shown, were more than fast enough to relay information from a sensor or something to a computer. 


As far as low budget went, I always thought the British shows had better set dressings. The American sci fi shows from the same era pulled pretty heavily on 2001 so everything tended to be white and pretty minimal. But one thing I always noticed was the close cousin to the microfiche reader, the book reader. Typically these were found in libraries for the visually impaired. Rather than microfilm, you'd place a book on the tray and it would be magnified on the screen. There was one in in the back of Dr. Huer's office in Buck Rogers. For a while, I had the exact same model in the library I worked at, at my college.

[fridaysgoldfish]

the vision mixer sliders look like some of the controls off the new console...

[warmcanofcoke]

one thing I always noticed was the close cousin to the microfiche reader, the book reader. Typically these were found in libraries for the visually impaired. Rather than microfilm, you'd place a book on the tray and it would be magnified on the screen. There was one in in the back of Dr. Huer's office in Buck Rogers. For a while, I had the exact same model in the library I worked at, at my college.

I think it is very interesting to find everyday re-purposed items that were used as props in Doctor Who. It also helps builders of consoles here at the forum to identify items used in the show - it is a form of mental exercise that may help us build science fiction props, and solve problems we wouldn't otherwise be able to. Many times I will find a bit of junk that would make an amazing prop because 99% of the time no one would know what it was. FloppyDiskNinja recently posted an article identifying a component of the 2005 Tardis console as an antique rheostat.