Andrew Orton
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andreworton.bsky.social
Andrew Orton
@andreworton.bsky.social
2.2K followers 870 following 2.1K posts
Television historian, writer, artist, 33% of Mulgrave Audio, comic inks and colours. Author of books about Doctor Who, Blake's 7 and Robin of Sherwood. Usually found recreating BBC studio sets in CG. Solvitur ambulando. Marra. Durham.
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Andrew Orton @andreworton.bsky.social · Nov 23
Well, #DoctorWho is 61 today. How better to celebrate? An Unearthly Child, in Lime Grove D, 1963! #CGSets
A CG recreation of the studio set for An Unearthly Child, showing the junkyard, school yard and TARDIS interior from the position of the gallery. A CG recreation of the studio set for An Unearthly Child, showing the junkyard, school yard and TARDIS interior from the position of the upper floor of the junkyard. A CG recreation of the TARDIS interior in studio for An Unearthly Child. The central control console is visible, as is a large hexagonal light fixure above. A close-up CG recreation of the TARDIS console on set for An Unearthly Child, with the Doctor's die-cut Westminster clock on a pedestal int he foreground.
andreworton.bsky.social
So, we all know that the second recording block of Shada was cancelled due to strike action - but the sets were planned out in full... What would it have looked like? Wonder no more!
TC6, 19th November 1979. #DoctorWho #CGSets
A CG recreation of the TARDIS interior from Doctor Who's Shada. It shows the central console in a grey room with roundels on the walls and a blue CSO cloth used as the TARDIS' scanner screen. The K9 robot dog prop sits on the floor. A CG recreation of the Krarg spaceship interior from Doctor Who's Shada. It shows grey walls with a yellow chain pattern, and grey columns. At the front is a monitor screen, with Skagra's grey mind-stealing sphere on a dais in front of it. A CG recreation of the Krarg spaceship corridors from Doctor Who's Shada. It shows grey walls with a yellow chain pattern, and grey columns. The corridor sweeps around to the right. In the foreground, an out-of-place wooden door is embedded into a wall: the entrance into Chronotis' TARDIS. A CG recreation of the set layout from Doctor Who's Shada, from above. It shows several sets: the TARDIS interior, with an adjoining workship area, Chris Parson's laboratory, and the composite Krarg spaceship set, with control room, corridors and a Krarg generation vat.
November 25, 2025 at 6:07 PM
andreworton.bsky.social
I've got Inferno on. Christ, it's good. #DoctorWho
November 25, 2025 at 11:10 AM
andreworton.bsky.social
'Oh, undergraduates talking to each other, I expect. I've trying to have it banned.' This is Shada, in TC3, 3rd November 1979. #DoctorWho #CGSets
A CG recreation of Professor Chronotis' room from Doctor Who's Shada. It shows the TARDIS police box standing in a wood-panelled study, lined with bookshelves. A CG recreation of the spaceship cell from Doctor Who's Shada. It shows a grey and white, three-walled room, with the fourth wall open to camera. There are no doors. A CG recreation of two sets from Doctor Who's Shada in studio. It shows Professor Chronotis' wood-panelled study, alongside the grey control room on the Thinktank space station. This shows a central console with a number of reclined seats built around it. A CG recreation of the studio from Doctor Who's Shada. It shows the sets for the Thinktank control room, the Professor's study, the spaceship cell, and the Krarg generation chamber: a vat which is able to rise from a horizontal to vertical position. There is also a large area set aside for blue-screen work, with blue floor and wall cloths.
November 24, 2025 at 6:58 PM
andreworton.bsky.social
The Five Doctors in studio! All three days in the thread below... #DoctorWho #CGSets
andreworton.bsky.social Andrew Orton @andreworton.bsky.social · Dec 5
Finishing off the Black Guardian sequence with Part 8: The Five Doctors - which I know you may have seen recently! TC6, 29th-31st March 1983 (designer Malcolm Thornton)

Our final session was for the 20th Anniversary special, and comprised a single three-day block. #DoctorWho #CGSets 1/9
A CG recreation of the Time Lord Council room from The Five Doctors. Pink walls and a beige floor and a raised area surround a gold table. A secret doorway is half open, leading to the dark Game Control room.
November 19, 2025 at 7:11 PM
andreworton.bsky.social
I’ve got Ambassadors of Death on. That’s the one which spends six episodes telling you that General Carrington is the traitor, before the big twist at the end: General Carrington is the traitor!

Also, after five episodes of Ambassadors of Death, the Ambassadors turn out to be… *Ambassadors* 😲
November 18, 2025 at 11:11 PM
andreworton.bsky.social
#DoctorWho Enlightenment in studio, for session 2. Production had calmed down a bit by this point, as you'll see from the thread below... #CGSets
andreworton.bsky.social Andrew Orton @andreworton.bsky.social · Dec 4
Enlightenment! The Black Guardian Trilogy Part 7
TC8, 30th January-1st February 1983 (designer Colin Green) #DoctorWho #CGSets
This session focused on scenes on Striker's ship. 1/5
A CG recreation of hte companionway set from Enlightenment. It shows a wood-pannelled corridor with a central staircase rising up.
November 18, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Reposted by Andrew Orton
madeofstone1.bsky.social
Got these new trainers today but I can't get it out of my head that they look like fuckin DC Tosh Lines from The Bill
November 9, 2025 at 9:31 PM
andreworton.bsky.social
Woke up this morning with a Bhangra version of the Only Fools and Horses theme going through my head. It sounded quite good.
November 18, 2025 at 8:34 AM
andreworton.bsky.social
Enlightenment studio recreation! This is the first session, filled with sailing ship interiors... but also a strange medieval castle with a shapeshifting robot in it. Why? Read the thread to find out... #DoctorWho #CGSets
andreworton.bsky.social Andrew Orton @andreworton.bsky.social · Dec 3
More Black Guardian Trilogy - Part 6! Enlightenment, TC1, 16-18th January 1983 (designer Colin Green) #DoctorWho #CGSets

After strike action in November, a planned Dalek story was axed to allow Enlightenment to use its studio. 1/6
A CG recreation of the TARDIS interior from Enlightenment. It looks dark an moody with dusky lighting.
November 17, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Reposted by Andrew Orton
izskinner.bsky.social
‘I’ve never seen a silent lawyer before’ - Doctor von Wer

#DoctorWho The Highlanders, 3D animation
November 17, 2025 at 9:22 AM
andreworton.bsky.social
Thanks, Paul! Glad you enjoyed it :)
Still available… #DoctorWho
paulodykes.bsky.social Paul Dykes @paulodykes.bsky.social · 9d
I really enjoyed @andreworton.bsky.social’s erudite Black Archive on Castrovalva, one of the stories I have my earliest memories of watching. Many fascinating insights on television production, ontology, rationalism vs empiricism, recursion, and why Bidmead’s hard science fiction was pure fantasy.
The cover of the Black Archive book on Castrovalva by Andrew Orton.
November 16, 2025 at 5:37 PM
andreworton.bsky.social
The King’s Demons, in TC1! Alongside bits of Terminus… Click the thread below for more info…
#DoctorWho #CGsets
andreworton.bsky.social Andrew Orton @andreworton.bsky.social · Dec 2
The Black Guardian Trilogy in studio! (Part 5)
The King's Demons, TC1, 18-20th December 1982 (designer Ken Ledsham) #DoctorWho #CGSets

Enlightenment was the next story planned, but strike action delayed it, meaning The King's Demons was next up. 1/6
A CG recreation of the studio sets for The King's Demons, from above, showing the TARDIS interior, the composite Great Hall set, the dungeon, and the reconstructed Liner set from Terminus.
November 16, 2025 at 5:07 PM
andreworton.bsky.social
Lee Dixon really is the Mark Lawrenson of modern football commentary #ENGSRB #football
November 13, 2025 at 8:01 PM
andreworton.bsky.social
The lovely scaffolding set that is Terminus! Click the post for more pictures... #DoctorWho #CGSets
andreworton.bsky.social Andrew Orton @andreworton.bsky.social · Nov 28
The Black Guardian Trilogy – Terminus!
TC8, 25-27th October 1982 (designer Dick Coles) #DoctorWho #CGSets (Part 4)

The second block of Terminus involved scenes on a scaffolding-heavy set, representing the Terminus interior. 1/11
A CG recreation of the scaffolding sets of the Terminus spacestation. A metal staircase is visible.
November 13, 2025 at 7:31 PM
andreworton.bsky.social
Terminus, Day 1! Click the post below for a thread of images of the studio... #DoctorWho #CGSets
andreworton.bsky.social Andrew Orton @andreworton.bsky.social · Nov 27
The Black Guardian Trilogy (Part 3)
Terminus by @stephengallagher.co.uk, TC6, 11-12th October 1982 (designer Dick Coles) #DoctorWho #CGSets

Terminus was allocated six studio days, but potential strike action curtailed this to five... 1/5
A CG recreation of the Liner corridor from Terminus. There are several metallic-looking doors with skull images on.
November 12, 2025 at 6:02 PM
andreworton.bsky.social
Currently watching the only #DoctorWho story to contain the word 'prophylactic'.
November 12, 2025 at 12:51 PM
andreworton.bsky.social
Me: 'This is a great, late-era Beatles song. They were fantastic together.'

*Looks the song up in MacDonald*

MacDonald: 'Only one of The Beatles played on this track.'
November 12, 2025 at 8:24 AM
andreworton.bsky.social
I remain utterly bemused you'd dress Jodie Whittaker in this costume, then put her in that TARDIS. What were they thinking? #DoctorWho
Jodie Whittaker as Doctor Who, wearing a light-grey/blue coat, standing on a hillside. She looks serene, cool and bright. Jodie Whittaker's TARDIS interior, a dark, miserable place with horrid dark blue hexagons as walls and some hideos yellow plastic columns that don't look anything like crystals. The control column is a dirty mechanical mess of metal that looks like it came from a Kwik-Fit Motor Factors' yard.
November 11, 2025 at 7:23 PM
andreworton.bsky.social
The older I get, the more I'm convinced this is the best Beatles song.
Tomorrow Never Knows (Remastered 2009)
YouTube video by The Beatles - Topic
www.youtube.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:58 PM
andreworton.bsky.social
Mawdryn Undead: the luxury liner! #CGSets #DoctorWho
andreworton.bsky.social Andrew Orton @andreworton.bsky.social · Nov 26
The Black Guardian Trilogy - the studio sessions (Part 2)
Mawdryn Undead, TC8, 22-24th September 1982.

Day 1 of the second block began with the first of several remounts, with Mawdryn's TARDIS scenes re-done with improved exposed-brain make-up!
#DoctorWho #CGSets 1/7
A CG recreation of the sets for Mawdryn Undead in TC8, from above. Visible are the TARDIS control room, the Transmat control, and a large art deco composite set of Mawdryn's spaceship.
November 11, 2025 at 6:32 PM
andreworton.bsky.social
A piece of text reading, 'Right, hear me out. James Bond is the human extrusion in our universe of an elemental force from the dawn of time representing mankind’s connection with goodness as developed from savagery. He’s reborn with a new face in every generation and stands against the forces of evil as represented through technology, treachery and billionaires; all those men, Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan, Craig: they’re all James Bond, fragments of a super-Bond shadowed into our world to fight the forces of darkness using their own technology against them in an everlasting battle with the endless personification of evil to the end of time. What do you mean I haven’t got the job?'
November 11, 2025 at 5:23 PM
andreworton.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3q2... #BBC
MITCH BENN - I'M PROUD OF THE BBC
YouTube video by yesthatmitch
www.youtube.com
November 11, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Reposted by Andrew Orton
andreworton.bsky.social
The Black Guardian Trilogy - the studio sessions (Part 1)

Mawdryn Undead, TC8, 8-9th September 1982 (designer, Stephen Scott) #DoctorWho #CGSets 1/3
A CG recreation of the studio set of Mawdryn Undead, from above, showing the TARDIS interior, school, Brigadier's rooms and Transmat capsule sets. A CG recreation of the Transmat capsule set from Mawdryn Undead, in close-up. It shows several rostra and wall flats, in orange and pink colours, to an art deco design.
November 25, 2024 at 5:57 PM
andreworton.bsky.social
It's #Blakes7 Season B day, so here's something I made for fun: the studio shoot for Redemption! #CGSets
#Blake's7
andreworton.bsky.social Andrew Orton @andreworton.bsky.social · Nov 20
Here's something I haven't put online before! #Blakes7 Redemption, in TC6 on 8-10th September 1978. Vere Lorrimer also shot the Liberator sequences for Killer in this session. The other sets visible are the Spaceworld Command Centre, the Detention Cell, and Roy Evans' Tiny Lift. #CGSets
A CG render of BBC TV Centre studio 6, showing the Liberator Flight Deck, Teleport Room, the Spaceworld Command Centre and the Detention Cell. A CG render of BBC TV Centre studio 6, showing the Liberator Flight Deck, Teleport Room, the Spaceworld Command Centre and the Detention Cell, from another angle. A CG render of the Spaceworld Command Centre in close-up. A CG render of the Liberator Flight Deck, shown through the hexagonal entrance tunnel.
November 8, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by Andrew Orton
andreworton.bsky.social
uh... Kylie? #DoctorWho 13/13
Peter Davison as the Doctor, in 1982. He's sitting in a deckchair with arms folded. Kylie Minogue in a cricket jumper and skirt made of the same material as the fifth Doctor's trousers. She's sitting in a deckchair in a similar pose to the previous photograph.
November 7, 2025 at 12:27 PM