Studio lighting

From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference
RealWorld.png

"Studio lighting" and sometimes "lighting" were credits for people who were in fact lighting directors during the 1963 version of Doctor Who. However, they were often not formally credited at all. In fact, the job was never credited until Eric Monk appeared in the end titles of the first part of Terror of the Autons.

They were responsible for devising and implementing a lighting plan for episodes, but had no direct control over the camera operators, like modern directors of photography do. As with most other behind-the-scenes personnel of that era, lighting directors were not employed by the Doctor Who production office, but were instead BBC employees who floated around the various BBC programmes in production at the direction of the head of the BBC lighting department. Nevertheless, directors and producers could request certain lighting directors to light their programmmes.

In modern, BBC Wales Doctor Who, the lighting director has two rough analogues. In that the lighting director was responsible for creating a broad lighting plan, he had one of the two main functions of the modern director of photography. But as he also often physically hung lights and otherwise actually executed that plan, it would not be unreasonable to compare some of his responsibilities to those of a gaffer.

In the early days, because of the studio-bound nature of the original Doctor Who, the lighting director was actually much closer to being a theatrical lighting designer than a modern cinematographer.

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Season 6

Season 7

Season 8

Season 9

Season 10

Season 11

Season 12

Season 13

Season 14

Season 15

Season 16

Season 17

Season 18

Season 19

Season 20

Season 21

Season 22

Season 23

The Mysterious Planet - Mike Jefferies
Mindwarp - Don Babbage
Terror of the Vervoids - Don Babbage
The Ultimate Foe - Don Babbage

Season 24

Season 25

Season 26

Dimensions in Time