It's like a cathedral
- Publication: Radio Times
- Date: 2023-12-02
- Author: Huw Fullerton
- Page: 18
- Language: English
Doctor Who is back with a bigger and brighter new Tardis. It debuted last Saturday now RT gets a tour round the Time Lord's new temple
DOCTOR WHO DOMINATES the schedules this season, with David Tennant's three anniversary specials (which will be shown on BBC1 on 25 November, 2 and 9 December) swiftly followed by a Christmas adventure introducing new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa.
With Russell T Davies back as showrunner, it's all part of a new dawn for the 60-year-old sci-fi series - and this calls for a redesign of the Tardis. Exit the orange, crystalline columns of Jodie Whittaker's model that was used from 2018 to 2022, and enter something whiter, more clinical and, well, bigger. A lot bigger.
"It's like a cathedral," says producer Vicki Delow. "It takes your breath away, both on screen when it first appears, but also when you walk into it. You feel it."
When RT steps aboard at Bad Wolf Studios in Cardiff, it's hard to deny that assessment. This new Tardis interior is on a larger scale than ever before - to film it, the camera operators have to climb a flight of stairs to a raised platform. Apparently, they've even flown drones in there.
"We're in [studio] stage six, which is the tallest we have at 50 feet," says set designer Phil Sims. "We built it as high as we possibly could, though we couldn't go to 50 feet, because we need to make allowances for lights and structure above it." Originally, it was planned as a giant sphere, although in the end Sims and his team opted for a squatter, doughnut shape, which looks better on screen (and fits under the roof). The new set is also, obviously, bright white - a choice inspired by the original 1963 design by Peter Brachacki, as well as recent alternate Tard-ises that have paid tribute to it.
"Russell really wanted it to be white," producer Phil Collinson says. "There's a starkness to it. It's not the warm, comfortable Tardis that's been around since 2005"
The Tardis's standard hexagonal console has also grown in size - each side is now nearly twice the length of the 1963 version and littered with mysterious instruments including a "sonic socket" for the Doctor's screwdriver. There are navigation and engine areas "and the coffee section," Sims adds. Yes, you can now get a latte from the Tardis.
Who said Who couldn't move with the times? Although considering there was a coffee spillage on its screen debut, perhaps it wasn't the best choice of accessory - "It does cost us a fortune to clean this white Tardis!" laughs Collinson.
LIGHT DISPLAY
Every "roundel" is an individual LED light, the colour of which can be changed. "We can control each light individually,' says producer Phil Collinson. "It can pulse, flash, do Mexican waves, backwards and forwards. We change the colours for different episodes. It's like being in an Ibiza nightclub."
THE TIME ROTOR
The central column of the Doctor's ship moves up and down with the opening and closing of white "petals" within a glass tube. Behind the scenes, this is operated manually by one unlucky member of crew. "We attached the top to a pulley," says designer Phil Sims. "Whoever's our art department assistant at the time has the joy of sitting up there and pulling on the rope."
DOORWAYS TO WHERE?
Set over three levels, the new Tardis has internal doors leading to as-yet-unseen areas. "The doors open like the iris of a camera lens," says Sims. Currently, this is achieved with special effects, but in the future he hopes to build a working version.
1963 ORIGINAL
Peter Brachacki's design at the BBC's Lime Grove Studios. The six-sided control console and indented walls were already in place, but in order to save money the wall on the right was an enlarged photograph
AT THE CONTROLS
Look closely at the new console, and you'll spot a cracked ceramic finish, based on Japanese raku pottery. It's also a callback to the 2005-10 Tardis flown by Christopher Eccleston, and by David Tennant the first time around. "It's something Russell was fond of in his previous incarnation of the Tardis, where there was a cracked patina on the console," says Sims.
Caption: DOCTOR, DOCTOR David Tennant will hand the keys to the Tardis to Ncuti Gatwa in time for Christmas
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- APA 6th ed.: Fullerton, Huw (2023-12-02). It's like a cathedral. Radio Times p. 18.
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- Chicago 15th ed.: Fullerton, Huw. "It's like a cathedral." Radio Times, edition, sec., 2023-12-02
- Turabian: Fullerton, Huw. "It's like a cathedral." Radio Times, 2023-12-02, section, 18 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=It's like a cathedral | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/It%27s_like_a_cathedral | work=Radio Times | pages=18 | date=2023-12-02 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=14 March 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=It's like a cathedral | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/It%27s_like_a_cathedral | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=14 March 2025}}</ref>
