The Bad Wolf Era
The 60th Anniversary Specials (2023), Season One (2024) —
On September 24th 2021, the BBC announced that Russell T Davies would be returning to Doctor Who, to see the series through the 60th anniversary and into a new era beyond. To create this new series, the BBC partnered with Bad Wolf — a production company formed by Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter in 2015.
While this new era would be made by an entirely different studio, and partnering with streaming platform Disney+ for international distribution, not everything would be changing from a production standpoint. The decision was taken to retain the two TARDIS props which were currently in use; TARDIS I-5–6 and TARDIS J-7–8. In these instances, doors 5 & 7 are the left-hand doors (with the “Pull to Open” panel) while doors 6 & 8 are the right-hand doors.
These two props had been used interchangeably on the series since Series 12 in 2020 and while individual doors had swapped between the props on rare occasions, they have yet to appear in their original configurations during the Bad Wolf era.
One change made to the props before production began in May 2022 was to apply a new coat of paint, giving them a more uniformly blue appearance.
The 60th Anniversary Specials (2023)
To celebrate Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary in November 2023, the programme opted to do something more unique than simply bringing back previous incarnations for a special appearance. Instead, David Tennant returned as a wholly new incarnation of the Doctor. This time around, Tennant was the Fourteenth Doctor, and while similar to his previous Tenth Doctor, there were marked differences in his approach to the role.
For the TARDIS’ first appearance in the specials, recorded on 18th May 2022 in Camden, the frame and right-hand door of TARDIS J were paired with the left-hand door of TARDIS I, to create the hybrid TARDIS J-5–8. This hybrid was the only prop used throughout The Star Beast.
The second special, Wild Blue Yonder, features three slightly different hybrid props across the episode.
The final scene, in which the Doctor and Donna are reunited with Wilf, was filmed as part of the same Camden block as the previous story, and so utilises the same TARDIS J-5–8 hybrid. The inverse of this prop, using the frame and right-hand door of TARDIS I with the left-hand door of TARDIS J was used for the pre-titles sequence when the Doctor and Donna crash into Newton’s apple tree, creating TARDIS I-7–6.
When the prop returns to studio for the remainder of filming on the episodes, the parts are swapped around again, and are presented as TARDIS J-7–6 for all studio scenes.
These two specific hybrids — TARDIS I-5–8 and TARDIS J-7–6 — would remain in these configurations right through until the closing story of Season One in 2024.
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TARDIS J-7–6 is the primary prop used for the final special, The Giggle, appearing as the main TARDIS prop at UNIT throughout the episode. When the box is split into two by the Fifteenth Doctor, this is the version left behind with his earlier incarnation.
TARDIS I-5–8 was used on location in Bristol in June 2022, for the sequence of the Doctor and Donna travelling back to 1925 to confront the Toymaker. By the time this prop was back in studio, split off to become the Fifteenth Doctor’s ship, the base has been replaced with a new one, featuring a fold-out ramp to make the TARDIS wheelchair accesible.
While principal filming on the anniversary specials was wrapped up in the summer of 2022, David Tennant returned to Cardiff around nine months later to complete various pick-up shots and promotional material. During this period, he also shot a specially-written scene for Children in Need, dubbed Destination: Skaro. For this sequence, the prop is in the configuration of TARDIS I-5–8.
Season One (2023/24)
Ironically, the hybrid prop used to represent the box left behind with the Fourteenth Doctor — TARDIS J-7–6 — is the most prominent combination of elements used for production on the Fifteenth Doctor’s first series, featuring in all but one episode. TARDIS J-7–6 is the only TARDIS prop used in The Church on Ruby Road, Space Babies, Boom and Rogue.
The inverse of this prop — TARDIS I-5–8 — is the sole prop utilised for Dot and Bubble.
The remaining four episodes of the series make use of both props to varying extents. In The Devil’s Chord, TARDIS J-7–6 remains the primary prop, appearing on location for Abbey Road and in Maestro’s void, while TARDIS I-5–8 makes only a brief appearance when the Doctor and Ruby travel forwards to a potential future London.
73 Yards features both props to a similar degree. It’s TARDIS J-7–6 in which the Doctor and Ruby arrive on the Welsh coast, but when Ruby returns 40 years later, TARDIS I-5–8 has been sanded down and given a ‘weathered’ appearance to indicate four decades of abandonment.
The final two episodes of the series feature both combinations of prop interchangeably, sometimes within the same scene, and also see the return of an earlier hybrid.
It’s TARDIS I which the Doctor returns to with a spoon on the tent planet, although we don’t see the front of the prop, so it’s impossible to confirm which doors were attached to the prop at this time.
It’s not as simple as assuming it retains the I-5–8 configuration used since Wild Blue Yonder, because while this is the version of the prop which is formed by UNIT’s Time Window in The Legend of Ruby Sunday and which features on location at the end of Empire of Death, when the Doctor and Ruby make their dramatic arrival at UNIT it’s in the hybrid TARDIS I-7–8; a combination last seen in Newton’s apple tree the year before.
TARDIS J-7–6 makes a number of appearances throughout the story — it’s this prop from which Sutekh emerges at the end of The Legend of Ruby Sunday, and for most Time Window scenes in Empire of Death.
