The Eccleston/Tennant reassembled Console Room

[Kingpin]

Shots from the episode:

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[warmcanofcoke]

It looks as it does in The Experience exhibition. Maybe it was filmed there on a night shoot?

This was filmed in the Experience in Cardiff. If you notice during the episode there will be no shots from the doors POV looking into the TARDIS, as in the experience no wall exists there.

Looking at the shots of the Tardis and the "Ramp" it looks like they just went to visit the Doctor Who Experience to film

[bobjohns]

and indeed there are no 'ceiling shots' either, everything is head height or below.

[superrichi1a]

At the Experience, since the special, the video of Tennant's regeneration continually playing on the screen seen in the last picture has been changed to a short selection of clips showing them filming at the Experience, the barriers around the console have changed meaning one can now step onto the ramp down to the door, the console is clearly a different, ice blue, colour, and there is evidence of where the production team literally ripped off damaged control pieces and discarded them underneath the grates around the console.

[galacticprobe]

...and there is evidence of where the production team literally ripped off damaged control pieces and discarded them underneath the grates around the console.

I'm sure there was quite a bit of damage to the console to begin with. Re-watching "The Eleventh Hour" the other day, in the brief view of the console during the opening seconds you can actually see one panel on the left side blow out and the rim break away just before they cut to the 11th Doctor hanging out of the doors. Also, some of Kingpin's fantastic photos of the console at the DWE show that damage: missing panel, dangling rim section, charred-black bulkhead inside the exposed area, not to mention the numerous scorch marks all around the console. (Just look at that one reddish bubble globe on this control panel with the amber bubble globe; one side of it is completely sooted over. This image also shows the blown-out panel and broken rim section:)

Notice that broken section is to the left of the rheostat. That would be the panel on the left as you looked in through the main doors as the rheostat rib directly faced the doors.

They did very careful filming of that console in "The Doctor's Wife", and were (hopefully) working on restoring the damage all of the pyrotechnics did in that explosive regeneration scene. So, considering the overall condition of this console, and what it's gone through with the move from Cardiff to London and back, I'm not surprised the production team did what it did to ready the console for filming the 50th.

As for the color of the light used on the console's panels... In some photos the console's panels look green, ice green, ice blue, pale blue, and even just a hint of a bluish tint like that of those "cool white" LEDs as in this publicity photo during Eccleston's run:

(NOTE: These are the same two panels and rib, and from almost the same angle.)

I'm sure the filters they used during filming made the panels look different shades of green, blue, greenish-blue, etc. Filming filters can do this sort of thing which is why the console appeared as different colors during its original use. As another example, those "gold" uniforms they wore in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation', 'Deep Space Nine', and 'Voyager' looked nicely gold on screen, but I've gotten to see them in person - one during a touring exhibit (a TNG uniform) and one on Tim Russ (Tuvok) when I had the chance to visit the 'Voyager' sets back in 1996 - and they're actually more of a "Goulden's Brown Mustard" color.

So as for the "original" color used to light the panels (since the panels are clear), I think we'll need to get that info from someone who was on the original production crew. Until we have that info, I think any shade between greenish and bluish would do.

Dino.

[galacticprobe]

I just had a thought on this, after a mention of Purple's blog in another thread...

I wonder if Purple would have any insight into this - the original color for the lighting, I mean. I know a few members are still in close contact with him... do you think you could drop a bug in his ear about that? He's been spot on with so many other details regarding consoles, so maybe he'll know something about this vexing detail?

Dino.

[galacticprobe]

Okay... I bit the bullet, went to Purple's blog (again, but this time not just to read his wisdom). I asked him (first if he remembered me), and then about the 2005 console's original lighting and what the coloring was. This is his response:

"Yes, I do remember you...

As to your question, my mate was on the build team for that console and from what I remember at the time, the colour was defined by lighting gels inside the console, rather than the bulbs - which were standard "house" bulbs - until some idiot replaced them with halogens which then melted the console and the rotor. Suffice to say, more panels and a new rotor column had to be supplied on the quick.

The lighting gel used was what I'd call "veridian" in colour, basically a very green tinted blue. The whole room was designed to have a semi aquatic feel to it and even on the spec sheets I have for it, it talks about this colour.

Since 2005, it's almost impossible to tell a true colour from what we see on screen as like all programmes these days, the footage is subjected to the grading process. Colour and contrast etc can (and will be) punched up to whatever the grader and director want. Yes the physical, on set lighting will also play tricks, but as I say, this is confounded (and compounded) further in the post production phase.

I've had a quick hunt around the net and found a supplier in your country. This is as close as I can find, it's a graphic unfortunately - but it'll sort of illustrate the colour. Not brilliantly, but this is better than nothing. A photograph would have been better, but there just aren't any.

However, take a look...

http://www.goknight.com/lee-filters-lighting-gel-sheet-116-medium-blue-green/

Hope that helps."

It's nice that he did remember me (hopefully fondly). He did confirm what I said about the lighting and filters, and added other tidbits about post-production that I hadn't thought of. But at least now we know what the original color of the console was, and how it was lit (a regular "house" bulb!). And just in case the above link that Purple provided to the gel manufacturer ever goes away or they discontinue that color, here's a jpg of it:


Hopefully this answers the question of the original color. Now the question is, when they filmed the 50th Anniversary special, did they use the original gels, and if so, was the color "tweaked" in post-production to give it that "turquoise" color? Or did they just use what was used to light it in the DWE and "tweak" the color as Purple described?

Dino.

[superrichi1a]

Fantastic read! Some really interesting stuff there, thank you 
I reckon, as it stands now, the console must have blue bulbs installed - and hence that's why it looks what I described as "ice" blue. My evidence is this: Purple said that they used just normal bulbs for the original console that lit up the gels to create an aquamarine look, but quite apart from how it appears on screen, here's another photo from my experience trip 30th Nov:



Apologies about the size and rotation, I can only post this on an iPad at the moment!

We can see an under-shot of the console here, and clearly reflected on the floor is a bright, not at all "greenish" blue. I'd argue this colour is not distorted by and gels, and additionally the refuse and old controls that generally litter the floor around the console now would indicate to me someone did so,e serious reworking on it!

[galacticprobe]

A little help with the photo orientation:

(Open the image in a new tab/window to see it full-size.)

Yeah... they're definitely using a different set of lights at the DWE than they were during the console's active years. Shame, really; it looked much better with its original lighting.

Also, if that's the actual floor it's sitting on now, then my guess is they cut the "legs" down some as well as chopping off the top of the column and console room. If you look at the photo Nate (warmcanofcoke) posted a little ways up in this thread of the console at the DWE (long shot photo) and how it's sitting, and then compare that to this "under construction photo:

you'll see just how tall that console really was. (Notice the worker dude standing just to the right of the console. Unless he's unusually short, that console has to be at least seven feet tall or more from floor to the top of the ribs!) So with the high hexagonal grate platform part of the flooring gone, and the round grate looking like it's been shortened as well, that console had to have its "legs" shortened or it would be sticking up way too high out of that opening in its round grate. (Another shame: maiming the console that brought the Series back to our TV screens. Sacrilege!)

Dino.