#totp

This is not the post I had planned at all!

I’ve been working on something else for a while. In fact I’m a bit late with that as the research has taken longer than normal. But in the meantime something popped up and I just had to share it. Friday evenings on our house are filled with the BBC4 repeats of Top of the Pops. One of the episodes this week, from May 1984, featured something that made me point at my telly like Leonardo DiCarprio. It was this trio of consoles. But what Doctor Who stories feature these props and why were they on Top of the Pops?

First let’s look at their Doctor Who appearances. The unit with the circular screen can be seen in The Twin Dilemma. Designer Valerie Warrender made sure to give it a suitably glittery finish.

THE TWIN DILEMMA, 1984

Here is a closer look at the console screen. 

The consoles next appearance is the very next story, Attack of the Cybermen. This story features several variations on the same prop. Some featuring the circular screen and others filled with coloured lights but no glitter this time. 

ATTACK OF THE CYBERMEN, 1985

This story features no less than nine of these consoles. In the middle of this group of three is the same circular screened version as seen in The Twin Dilemma. Keep an eye on this picture as I’ll be referring back it later.

Elsewhere on the same set is the group of three consoles pictured above. A third and final set backs onto the group in the first Attack photo above but are not seen on screen. 

So where do these props feature in Top of the Pops? Two months after their appearance in Twin Dilemma, three of the consoles appear in the music video for Dancing With Tears In My Eyes by Ultravox. The video is about a nuclear disaster and the consoles appear in some sort of facility complete with white suited boffins. 

On the left is a console that appears to be the same as the one on the left of my first Attack picture. 

The next console we see is the same circular screened affair from The Twin Dilemma and Attack. 

The final console screen in Ultravox’s video is not actually seen in Doctor Who. Its pattern of lights in four columns doesn’t match any seen on screen. However, as mentioned, Attack features three of these props that we don’t get a clear look at so I’m wondering if it’s one of those. 

The fact that Ultravox’s video is clearly not a BBC production leads me to assume these props belonged to a prop house such as The Trading Post. So who knows where else they appear. If you have any ideas please let me know. Otherwise that’s it for this week pop pickers. I’ll be back with something else soon.