Module Assessment: Mood Board
The doctor flies a type 40 Tardis whose chameleon circuit got stuck as a police box in the 1960s. The first British police boxes were introduced in Glasgow 1981. They were cast iron hexagonal boxes with gas lanterns atop them. There function was to contain a phone which could call the local station and the lantern would light to signal near by officers if the station were to attempt to contact them.
The garden shed wooden boxes didn’t appear on the street corners of Britain until 1923 by chief constable Fred J. Crawley. They were expanded to be proposed as miniature stations instead of merely a signal point. Most of the boxes were in fact painted red and it wasn’t until popularised by Doctor Who that many of the boxes were repainted to be blue in the late 60s.
The blue paint dubbed in the 2011 opener as, “TARDIS blue.” Was selected for its interaction with film stock as it absorbs red, yellow and orange light more efficiently, reflecting blue back to the viewer.
There isn’t much information about the design philosophy behind the boxes however looking at other government building construction from the time has informed what I think may have gone into the ideation. Town halls and local authority buildings seem to adopt a neo-classical design philosophy with features of columns and bold triangular toppings. They’re very square and polygonal forming a bold straight-lined silhouette. Although far smaller and not overtly neoclassical; the boxes extrusions at the corners coupled with the pyramid roofing does seem to imitate that impression.
By the time the 60s rolled around the police box was a staple of the British street corner. The police’s reputation was PC plod a friendly, well-meaning force ready to help whenever called. Children brought up by the war’s generation sprouted a respect for authority unseen since. It’s therefore unsurprising to me that it would be chosen as the spaceship of the traveling doctor. “Advice and assistance obtainable immediately.” Bill Potts the Doctors season 10 companion notices the same connotation I point out when I say that the words plastered on the face of the Tardis align themselves neatly with the Doctors character throughout the show. “You don’t call the helpline because you ARE the helpline.”
The TARDIS in its disguise may appear a police box however when Russel T Davies rebooted the show in 2005, he also needed to impress it as a time machine alongside its 1960s demeanour. Whenever I observe the early 4 series of Doctor Who I always get a sense that Davies wanted to elevate any reference to either the Daleks, the Time lords or the Time War. The Arthur C Clarke quote, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” And its later distortion replacing magic for God. The timelords especially are described almost ethereally. The Tardis stands as the only anchor in the show linking directly back to Gallifrey. The air of magic I think extends to the Tardis. The warm burnt umber light behind the top sign alongside a stark white which bleeds across the Vaseline lens of series one reaching from the windows as through breaking free from a box that can’t contain the magic within.
Tardis Architectural Inspiration Analyis
I quickly decided that my interior would be the 2005-2009 TARDIS interior.
Subsequently I searched for an object to fit my scene. my first thought was to create a sonic screwdriver design to place somewhere within the scene. After some time modeling I realized that I wasn't sure wherein the scene the screwdriver would sit. After consideration I dropped the object as my first project, deciding instead to pursue the police box façade for my exterior scene as my assignment 1 model.
I first tried to deform a cube to the right shape with the correct extrusions however I found it difficult to acquire the right proportions and with the Tardis's mix of symmetry and asymmetry; I felt I need to try a new approach. The plan I decided upon was to deform a plane and spend time just perfecting 1 face of the Police Box which proved to be a far more effective method. I then duplicated it 3 times and and merged the vertices along the edges. while optically unnecessary I would be thankful for this part of the process further down the line.
When the main body of the box was complete I sat back and disliked the angular and sharp edges which was easily fixed as the appended edges allowed for a simple bevel.
Although most of the details were modelled the window borders were something which from the beginning I new I would use a displacement map to achieve. the aesthetic I wanted was the seal between panes of stained glass. I simply exported a UV map into photoshop and placed a harsh black grid over each window face.
There are 3 separate sections to the texture. The main body of blue over the Tardis was created in substance which would allow for detailed weathering while the signage an windows were completed in photoshop. this was only because I found it easier to deal with text on that platform rather than substance.
