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 Set Building! Now we had a TARDIS console, we also needed a console room for it to go in. As we had no ‘studio’ facilities as such, we ended up using Andrew’s bedroom for all the TARDIS interior scenes, though eventually we had to abandon this arrangement but more of that later.
Next Episode: Regenerations and recording recollections!
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The
console room walls were made from simple white painted hardboard panels
covered with white paper plates, I admit a bit of a backwards step when
compared to the realisation of the police box and the console, but rows of
opaque back-lit roundels was definitely beyond our meagre resources. The
good thing about our simple set was that we could arrange the panels in
different ways to create the different rooms which the script called for,
i.e. the main console room, the wardrobe room, Ian Lethbridge-Stewart’s
bedroom and a corridor, as well as the Rani’s console room and laboratory.
Although Andrew’s bedroom was fairly compact, it had the advantage of a
built-in wardrobe along one wall which had three plain white sliding doors
on it, thereby creating an instant wall. For the scanner, we used Andrew’s
portable TV which sat on a shelf in the middle section of the wardrobe. We
then slid the middle door to one side and inserted a white painted
hardboard panel in its place with a recess cut out of it so the scanner
could be seen. I also constructed a proper pair of exterior doors, but
unfortunately these were never seen in the final edit of the story. I
managed to borrow a hat stand from my mum’s boyfriend of the time, and we
also had one of Andrew’s parents’ dining chairs in the corner of the room.
The interior door off the console room was simply the bedroom door covered
in a white sheet, and in fact it was also a white sheet which was laid on
the floor to complete the set.
After
a few days of taking over the Clancy residence, Andrew’s mum became fed up
with the mess and disruption and suddenly announced that we would have to
find an alternative place to film if we wanted to complete the project.
Although we were obviously horrified at the situation initially, I
couldn’t really argue with her decision as I’m sure I would have felt the
same if I was in her position. Fortunately, help was at hand in the form
of my grandfather who worked for a small company which manufactured window
blinds, and they had a workshop near Hampton Court which would suit our
needs. I knew the proprietor myself as I had often worked there during the
school holidays, so he was quite happy to grant us the use of the premises
over a weekend. So it was here that the remaining interior scenes were
recorded, scenes which featured the Rani’s console room and laboratory and
also the few remaining scenes to be recorded of the Doctor’s own console
room The console set was arranged in the usual fashion, though we had to
take Andrew’s TV with us in order to incorporate the scanner into the
relevant scenes. The laboratory set featured the same panels adorned with
paper plates, along with the hexagonal base of the console as part of the
set. I managed to get my mum to procure a few hi-tech looking bits and
pieces from the hospital she worked at, namely some oxygenators and some
plastic tubing, and we arranged these about the set filled with different
coloured water in order to dress it in the manner of a real laboratory.
Ironically you never saw the Rani actually do anything in the laboratory;
it was simply an opportunity to feature a different set to cover some
extra dialogue in the script!