The Jigsaw of Traken
Arguably the most signi. cant innovation of the 1980-81 season - producer John Nathan- Turner’s . rst - came with new designer Tony Burrough’s designs for the penultimate adventure, The Keeper of Traken.
Wheeled ‘towers’, each side hung with a di. erent fascia, were rotated and reassembled to make di. erent sets - in this case, inspired in part by turnof- the-century art nouveau, in part by the modernist architect Gaudí. Burrough’s talent for designing these so-called ‘jigsaw’ sets made a big impression on Nathan- Turner, who saw not just how they could be used to achieve a greater unity of feel, but their economic value, too: “Designers who are good with jigsaw sets are invaluable to Doctor Who as they enable us to achieve a large-scale look to a production without spending excessive amounts of money,” he told Doctor Who Magazine in 1982.