Comments on: New series console room playset!

By: Hendiadys

Hendiadys — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:26:33 +0000

I think the TARDIS interior is such a fantastic, and as yet unexplored, opportunity for a definitive playset along the lines of the Real Ghostbusters’ Fire Station. With the console room in the very centre, the same scale as the one shown above, and then further rooms and spaces coming out of it until an entire table top is filled. It could either be sold as a massive block, like the Fire Station, or as a construction set as more of the interior is seen in the series.

The problem, I guess, is that a precedent has been set for a TARDIS interior being ephemeral, and we could see this one for barely four years before the whole thing is reset again. Which might be a shame.

By: Andy M

Andy M — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:55:30 +0000

Homely and comforting in a way the previous one wasn’t

See, I like my TARDIS interiors to scream “alien!” which is maybe why I love the H.R.Giger-ish Eccleston-coral and I’m not so keen on this one. I like the references to the 60′s design but some of it reminds me too much of Cushing’s garden shed monstrosity.

By: John Hoare

John Hoare — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:35:27 +0000

This opinion got me whacked around the head last weekend, probably rightly, but I’m still not that keen on the current console room. I love the general idea – especially the Hartnell-esque ceiling panel, and the multi-level nature of it – but the wide shots just look far too cluttered for me.

It definitely looked at its best in Amy’s Choice – the way it was lit god rid of a lot of the clutter. It just looks to me like there’s a gorgeous design struggling to get out.

By: Hendiadys

Hendiadys — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:33:26 +0000

I like it, and it’s completed by the way Matt Smith’s Doctor moves around it. I kind of struggle to appreciate that it “grew” like that (along with the sonic screwdriver), but there’s no going back now. I always preferred the Pertwee-scientist rationale to the stuff the Doctor had, but I guess those things aren’t being contradicted; we now just have new aspects to take into account.

I don’t feel it’s cramped, because I’m very conscious of the staircases leading off to the sides. I’d like to see more of the TARDIS next year, so we get the sense that this is very much the control area rather than the place they’re always hanging out.

Otherwise, I really like the TARDIS interior, and did from the very start. Homely and comforting in a way the previous one wasn’t, with adventure playground qualities (ironically not captured by that playset) that must be great for kids at playtime. It’s a bit self-consciously wacky I guess, but I think they’ve made it work, even then.

By: Andy M

Andy M — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:07:04 +0000

Oh yes, it was definitely time for a change.

I think it would work better as a TARDIS that the Doctor had mostly rebuilt himself after the explosion, which is what I was guessing would happen in the 11th Hour before it aired, but I’m not too keen on the idea that it rebuilt itself like that. But it’s really only the console itself I don’t like, the set looks good, especially when shot properly.

By: Seb Patrick

Seb Patrick — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 09:31:03 +0000

Admittedly it doesn’t work as something that’s just suddenly appeared – its piecemeal nature means that it would work much better if it had been the pre-existing console room introduced to us at the outset of the series (i.e. built up during all the offscreen years rather than suddenly presented to us “new”). But I still think it’s a lovely design in and of itself. I’d become incredibly bored of the 2005-era room (although I wish they’d kept it under the white lighting of that first trailer rather than making it orange and blue), and the change was welcome.

By: Andy M

Andy M — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 09:21:03 +0000

Are we still loving the new console room at the end of the series then? Personally I’m still not sure about it, it looked great in Amy’s Choice but in most episodes it seems to be shot from that elevated angle with the door in the background that makes it look really cramped. For me they’ll never be able to improve on the coral version anyway (the way it was shot in S1 & 2 before they whacked all the lights up, at least), I like the idea of it being grown organically. The new “this console room is a bit ker-azee, LIKE ITS OWNER DO YOU SEE” idea seems a bit obvious and, well, shit.

By: Jonathan Capps

Jonathan Capps — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:06:58 +0000

Oh dear Christ, that’s abominable.