No love for the Newbery box?

[rocket]

Does it even really matter? Obviously if someone were to build a Newbery they would most likely include a back wall.

[Rassilons Rod]

You're right, of course!

But I'm a big geek and I can't deny it

[rocket]

lol, fair enough

[gerald lovell]

"The Sun Makers" and once again, there's something funny going on at the back, in fact moving about in the breeze:



And in a later more distant shot, there's something billowing out in the wind from the back of the box; a curtain perhaps?

[DoctorWho8]

Yep, a curtain would make sense because they had K-9 in the prop, and since the left door was fixed in place (until Logopolis), they had to put him in the back. So you probably see gaffer tape on the back in that first shot.  Ah, DVD, always finding treasures.
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

[Rassilons Rod]

Well, well, well... So there is an even bigger case for no back

I wonder if they actually put a real panelled  back on it... We still never see the back when it returns in Logopolis/ Castrovalva/ Black Orchid. Except for the black inside in Logopolis...

[fivefingeredstyre]

When I had my picture taken against it at Longlete during the 20th Anniversary celebration, It had a plywood (I think) fillit inserted in the back closing it off. (I remember it quite clearly, as it had wooden noggins over it to give it a bit of rigidity...)

I wish I still had the picture that was taken now, but that's long since disappeared...

[Volpone]

Here's my two cents, just as a rational person with no expertise or ties to the series (beyond growing up watching it on PBS): 

Consider the Newbery build in the context of the time.  They'd had the original prop kicking around for over a decade.  The fact that it had been too tall for the lift had been problematic.  The fact that, while designed to be taken down, it had been set up solid (and after they had to take it apart apparently it got a bit rickety) and the fact that it was likely very cramped inside all bring me to a conclusion: 

When they designed it, they made it shorter.  They also made it so that it could be taken apart.  Because it was designed so it could be taken apart they likely just left the back part off most of the time.  1) it gave the actors and the prop guy who worked the light more room "inside" 2) it was probably about 13% less work to assemble the prop and 20% less stuff to pack and unpack.  As an added benefit, as the other poster mentioned, this meant they had a "spare" panel for emergencies. 

My people have a saying, "after you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, is the answer" (apologies to Conan Doyle if I butchered the quote).  I would submit to you that the prop was built with four sides, but most of the time they never put the back on it. 

[Rassilons Rod]

The image in this post confirms, for me anyway, that the back was deliberately designed so. However the
question remains about how the 1980's refurbishment was done (see Black Orchid). i.e. the Doors
positioning in the post below.

I have just discovered a photo which proves that the back wall didn't exist (at least for this one story).



Yeah, that is true about Logopolis. I have read that it was the original TYJ doors (and roof) that was used,
not fibreglass pulls.

So now, the question about the Logopolis refurb is (assuming there never was a back wall) did they:

• just put the TYJ door formers in the hole in the back, and then call it the front?


• just put a blank board in for the interior shot?

But I'm not really sure that one photo proves it...

I'm not definitively saying it's not the case though... As this post shows, it was never MEANT to have a back.
Though the plans do say "FRAMED HD/BD PANEL"

http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=1988.msg22998#msg22998