Chapter By Chapter features me reading one chapter of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.
Only a few chapters left in this book. And since I’m running out of stuff to talk about in the opener I’ve been giving random thoughts about Doctor Who and my experience with it. I want to talk about the TARDIS console room, the main always-used set. There have been many designs over the years but in modern Who, ever since the TV movie, I think they try too hard. Look at the original:
I think I fast forwarded to when they first enter but even the thumbnail works. Later TARDIS designs had a more high-tech look to the console itself but seemed a bit cramped. The original on the other hand was a bit more roomy, though not the grand cathedral of most modern TARDIS rooms. For example:
Not as many decorations because the third Doctor was trying to get it working again, the roundels are a bit too large (that would be tweaked eventually) but none of them are painted backdrops racing to meet airtime. I’m not going to go through the whole history here (I found this video that goes up to Matt Smith if you want to see them all–forgive the “desktop” term, a dumb line from the Fifth/Tenth’s short) but the point is these early sets were roomy without overdoing it. The new ones seem to be large just to be large and I’ve not really been a fan of either of them. Sometimes simple is the best. Though I do miss the monitor being tucked away. What did the Third do, buy a television set?
Of course after the previous chapter if our current team doesn’t hurry up they won’t have a TARDIS to control. So let’s check in with them.
