Doctor Who scrapped planned TARDIS twist in Tom Baker’s final story
The concept for the TARDIS's Cloister Room was initially very different.
As Doctor Who fans patiently await their first look at the Fourteenth Doctor's brand new TARDIS interior, production designer Malcolm Thornton has revealed that a twist was originally planned for the blue box in Tom Baker's final story.
Thornton worked on the Fourth Doctor's story Logopolis, which was the first to introduce the TARDIS's Cloister Room.
He revealed the scrapped twist when speaking at the BFI Southbank on Saturday 4th November, as part of a panel entitled The TARDIS: The Most Famous Time Machine in the Universe.
Thornton said of the Cloister Room: "That hadn't been established as a set at that stage, so it was a blank piece of paper for me.
"But my concept for the cloisters was going down into the bowels of the TARDIS - not on any sort of level with the control room and the other ancillary rooms, but to take the Doctor on a journey downwards…
"But the budget was the problem, really. Great idea, but the budgets for the design department on Doctor Who were pretty limited, really."
The Cloister Room went on to appear in a number of stories, while the TARDIS interior was further explored in episodes including The Doctor's Wife and Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS.
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Fans think they may have been given a sneak peek of the new TARDIS design last month, while earlier this year executive producer Joel Collins teased that he and the team had initially thought the design to be "just too ambitious, and too impossible".
He continued: "Phil [Sims, production designer] brought in a brilliant engineer, who spent months trying to solve the engineering riddle of this impossible, logic-defying set, which no one in their right mind should ever have even drawn in the first place. But that kind of sums up the show..."
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Meanwhile, Chanya Button, who directed the third of the upcoming 60th anniversary specials, said of the design: "Oh my gosh, it’s enormous. I mean, it’s absolutely beautiful.
"It’s sort of church-like in scale, and yet it’s also this intimate space that takes you from one place to another – to even larger, wider worlds."
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Authors
James Hibbs is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering programmes across both streaming platforms and linear channels. He previously worked in PR, first for a B2B agency and subsequently for international TV production company Fremantle. He possesses a BA in English and Theatre Studies and an NCTJ Level 5 Diploma in Journalism.
