Unwilling Adventurer

One of the advantages of multi-camera TV is that because the TARDIS set isn’t permanent in the 60’s, there is plenty of opportunity to erect different parts and walls of the ship and have various cameras around it. We noticed that a lot of the episodes change the position of the doors. Mainly when you think of Who you think of the doors being on the left of the screen but this era often changed it so that the doors could be on any side of the shot from any angle. Also because the doors don’t resemble a police box from the inside, sometimes it’s hard to know where they are.

We like this shot below of Barbara leaving through the doors and over Ian’s shoulder. A really nice set up and looks great and intriguing. We follow Ian around the console as he leaves the ship. He’s the hesitant one and we follow at Ian’s pace.

It’s noticeable in The Web Planet below in which the cameras move around the TARDIS quite a bit. There is also a lot more focus on the furniture and the astral map and such. It feels like a home.

Sometimes you see the scanner on the wall as the characters look at it

sometimes they look up at the scanner you cannot see.

Here in the Edge of Destruction, The Doctor and Barbara emerge from the living quarters on the right of the shot.

And here on the right of the shot, the team welcome Vicki into the main doors of the ship, offering yet another dimension and angle to the TARDIS.

We feel this gives it a greater sense that the TARDIS is three dimensional and full of space. You can see that the ship has all sides and the camera is like someone walking around it. The shots then can work within the main console room and around it’s central pivotal rotar in which the actors can frame to achieve beautiful shots

In the Sensorites, the doors are on the right and as a first in DW history, the characters actually walk through the doors into the spaceship/rocket, seeing both sets at the same time.

Generally the TARDIS set had to be taken down before they filmed other sets because of lack of space.  

We love all these little touches to make it more real and believable that it is a fully functioning working ship and home. When the characters walked through doors into the sleeping quarters, we follow them though, there is always a camera to catch them as they live their lives and adventures.