Peter Brachacki
Encyclopedia
Peter Brachacki was a production designer
Production designer
In film and television, a production designer is the person responsible for the overall look of a filmed event such as films, TV programs, music videos or adverts. Production designers have one of the key creative roles in the creation of motion pictures and television. Working directly with the...

 who worked for BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...

 in the 1960s. Although he worked on several programmes, he is best remembered as the first production designer for Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

in 1963, making him responsible for the iconic design of the TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...

 interior.

Doctor Who

Brachacki was production designer for the very first episode of Doctor Who, An Unearthly Child
An Unearthly Child
The serial that became An Unearthly Child was originally commissioned from writer Anthony Coburn in June 1963, when it was intended to run as the second Doctor Who serial. At this stage, it was planned that the series would open with a serial entitled The Giants, to be written by BBC staff...

, shot and broadcast in 1963. Despite the success of his design for the TARDIS interior set, he was not enthusiastic about working on the programme and did so under duress. He worked only on the very first episode and its re-mount, thereafter being replaced on the opening serial by Barry Newbery and never working on the series again. Director Waris Hussein
Waris Hussein
Waris Hussein is a British-Indian television director and film director best known for his many productions for British television....

 recalled in later interviews that he was never happy with Brachacki's contribution and only kept him on as designer out of necessity, as there was not the time to request a replacement.

Brachacki’s concept for the TARDIS interior included:
  • the sterile, white timeless look
  • the scattering about of random furniture and objects from different periods
  • the central hexagonal console, designed so that all controls should be equally accessible to a single pilot
  • the moving time column, intended to give an at-a-glance indication of the ship's status and whereabouts
  • the roundels set into the wall, intended to pulsate when the ship was in motion. (This and other initial concepts were never realised due to budgetary restraints.) Hussein later noted that the roundel pattern arose simply from the fact that the plastic with which Brachacki had made his initial concept model featured round patterning.


The TARDIS interior saw occasional redesigns over the following twenty-six years, but always in line with the original concept. The console room was completely redesigned for the show's fourteenth season, but still the concept was retained of the single central console and the roundels on the wall. This became the default TARDIS design: hence the same concept applied for the brief glimpse of the interior of the Rani's TARDIS in the episode season twenty-two serial The Mark of the Rani
The Mark of the Rani
The Mark of The Rani is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts from 2 February to 9 February 1985...

. Similarly the Meddling Monk's TARDIS, and the Master's TARDIS during the Pertwee era, always followed roughly the same design as the Doctor's TARDIS, mostly because these last were obviously the same sets as were used for the Doctor's TARDIS, slightly redressed.

The TARDIS interior was completely redesigned again for the Doctor Who
Doctor Who (1996)
Doctor Who is a television movie based on the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Developed as a co-production amongst Universal Television, BBC Television, BBC Worldwide, and the American network FOX, the 1996 television film premiered on 12 May 1996 on CITV in Edmonton,...

 movie, and the new series that began broadcasting in 2005. Even then the central console was retained, and the new television series includes the geometric patterns on the walls.

Other TV work

Peter Brachaki also worked as production designer on:
  • "Blake's 7
    Blake's 7
    Blake's 7 is a British science fiction television series produced by the BBC for its BBC1 channel. The series was created by Terry Nation, a prolific television writer and creator of the Daleks for the television series Doctor Who. Four series of Blake's 7 were produced and broadcast between 1978...

    " (1978)
  • "When the Boat Comes In
    When the Boat Comes In
    When the Boat Comes In is a British television period-drama produced by the BBC between 1976 and 1981.The series stars James Bolam as Jack Ford, a First World War veteran who returns to his poverty-stricken town of Gallowshield in the North East of England in the 1920s.The memorable traditional...

    " (1976)
  • "Fall of Eagles
    Fall of Eagles
    Fall of Eagles is a 13-part British television drama aired by the BBC in 1974. The series was created by John Elliot and produced by Stuart Burge....

    " (1974)
  • "Play for Today
    Play for Today
    Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted...

    " - All Good Men (1974)
  • "The Witch's Daughter" (1971)
  • "The Silver Sword" (1971)
  • "Paul Temple
    Paul Temple
    Paul Temple is a fictional character created by British writer Francis Durbridge for the BBC radio serial Send for Paul Temple in 1938. Temple is an amateur private detective and author of crime fiction...

    " (1969) TV Series
  • "The Liver Birds
    The Liver Birds
    The Liver Birds is a British situation comedy, set in Liverpool, Merseyside, North-West of England, which aired on BBC1 from 1969 to 1978, and again in 1996. It was created by Carla Lane and Myra Taylor. The two Liverpool housewives had met at a local writers club and decided to pool their talents...

    " (1969) TV Series (as Peter Brachacki)

External links

  • Peter Brachacki at the Internet Movie Database
    Internet Movie Database
    Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...

    .
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