Much excitement in the world of Doctor Who as the BBC revealed – albeit by way of one tiny teaser photograph – that the Doctor would be getting a brand new control room for his beloved TARDIS for this year’s Christmas Special, ‘The Snowmen’. Designed by the show’s production designer Michael Pickwoad, the new control room has now been revealed in all its glory in this brand new publicity photograph which displays a set which harkens back to the traditional control console of the ‘classic’ series with a bit of Star Trek style flashing lights and buttons around the outside. The walls also evoke the famous ‘roundels’ which characterised the original series’ control rooms. The new control room is the third to feature in the series since Doctor Who was revived in 2005, both previous sets having been created by designer Ed Thomas who moved on from the series a couple of years ago. The new set seems smaller, brighter and more compact than the most recent rather garish haphazard orange multi-levelled affair which featured stairs that never led anywhere (on screen), a glass floor around the console itself as well and an awkwardly-placed entrance door which opened out onto ugly unoccupied ‘studio floor’ spaces. Difficult to tell how the new one will look until we see how it’s lit and shot but it looks like something of an improvement to us on this evidence…

Doctor Who: The Snowmen will be screened at 5.15pm on Christmas Day on BBC1

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