Everything Is an iPod In The Future: Difference between revisions

* The TARDIS in ''Doctor Who'' can be thought of as a version of this, in its original 1960s incarnation. The original set designer, Peter Brachacki, gave it a sterile white feel covered in a regular geometric pattern of circles with hints of neoclassical architecture to make it look "timeless", rather than making it deliberately futuristic. Due to the low budget the control console in the middle of the room was covered with conventional buttons, dials, levers and switches (Brachacki's original concept called for controls moulded specifically to the pilot's hands), but the sterile white roundel-covered walls became iconic and continue to inform the design of the current TARDIS sets nearly 50 years on. Amusingly, attempts by subsequent less visionary designers to make the TARDIS look deliberately futuristic (especially with [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0d/TARDIS_console_1983.jpg the console design in the 1980s], which looked like a giant [[wikipedia:BBC Micro|BBC Micro]]) dated at alarming speed.

** That original circular design on the walls is a hugely-enlarged photo of a pill packet!

* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' used iPad-like devices back in 1987. The goal was to save on the prop budget by using replaceable painted glass "touch screens" that could be updated to suit the plot, rather than designing a new machine with buttons and dials every time one was needed.

** However, in ST:TNG and subsequent ''[[Star Trek]]'' shows, we frequently see characters' desks with PADDs scattered around on top of them as if they were sheets of paper, instead of each crewmember having one PADD that they carry with them to do their work on.