"I just waded in there because it's Doctor Who and it's a legend, and it was the thought that I might get the chance to help recreate and refresh what had gone before," Edward Thomas said. "Reality dawns on you when you realise there's a fan base that's kept this series alive for 15 years, which is pressure enough, let alone making it visually-exciting and stimulating for a younger audience with little idea what Doctor Who is about."

Edward has overseen the look of the entire series, and played a major role in the design of the new TARDIS.

"To be able to completely re-design the interior of the TARDIS was amazing," he enthuses. "It's basic drive mechanism is the same but we've gone for a more organic look using materials such as glass, porcelain and even coral, with a raised central area and a domed roof."

The roundels in the walls remain, as does the coat stand by the door, but look closely at the central console and you will spot old handbrakes, pressure dials, loose nuts and bolts, an old trim-phone, post-it notes, glass balls, hammers and even a navigation sextant.

Edward said: "The Doctor's been traveling in the TARDIS for about 900 years, so the idea is he's had to improvise as he's gone along."

He admits he's probably been blessed with a bigger budget than previous Doctor Who production designers, and also has the benefit of computer-generated imagery. "When it comes to, say, creating a space station, whereas before you'd design it with the limitations of your studio mind, these days the world is your oyster. The Mill's wonderful CGI and the BBC's Mike Tucker and his model work mean I can extend the boundaries in terms of what I want to create."

More money, better models and CGI aside, however, one thing that hasn't changed is the production team's recycling of sets and props.

Edward says: "Most long-running series have sets and props they use all the time, but because Doctor Who is so varied, changing from week to week, we use things again, which I'm sure they did on the old shows. Technology has moved on but in some ways things haven't changed and the challenges are just as demanding today as they were then."

Doctor Who production design – FAQ

• There have been approximately 650 sets created during the series from location builds to studio builds.
• Each episode has specific colouring dependent on alien/bad guys.
• The interior TARDIS was designed with contributions from the whole design team - Dan Walker, Colin Richmond, Matthew Savage, Stephen Nicholas, Bryan Hitch and Peter Walpole all contributed to the final imagery.
• The new interior TARDIS is approx 6.5m high, 16m diameter, 1500m steelwork.
• There are 80 sheets of acrylic vac formed panels within the TARDIS forming the glass panels; 800m of jumbo pipe; 50 sheets of industrial wire mesh.
• The production designers went for more of an organic look using materials such as glass, porcelain and even coral, with a raised central area and a domed roof.
• Up to nine different blues and greens make up the exterior colour.
• Production designs to look out for throughout the series include: New DALEK, Captain Jack's ship, DALEK ship and the Nestene Lair which features in episode one.

Mike Tucker, head of the BBC Miniature Effects Unit is in prime position to compare the new Doctor Who with the old, having worked on the later TV runs featuring Colin Baker and then Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor.

"Russell T Davies said very early on that there's very little point in bringing the show back if we're going to change it beyond all recognition," said Mike. "What he's brought back is Doctor Who, but Doctor Who re-invented for the mindset and viewing tastes of the 21st century viewing public."

Mike and his team, together with Oscar-winning effects house The Mill, have helped bring the series bang up to date, using the very latest technology to give its visual effects a sophisticated, cutting edge look and feel.

"The kind of things we're doing now couldn't have been done 15 years ago when the show was last on. Computer technology in visual effects was in its infancy," he said. "During the last couple of Sylvester McCoy stories, what was then the BBC Video Effects Department was doing some groundbreaking stuff, but it was only after the show came off air that the real digital revolution came along. The gulf between what we can do now and did then is enormous. Effects we could never have achieved are now possible - that's the biggest change. Russell is well aware of that, so the scripts for the new series have pushed the show's level of ambition higher than ever, and what we've been asked to do is as challenging in its way as it was 15 years ago."

Mike delights in keeping viewers guessing about how the effects in the new Doctor Who were achieved. "You have to constantly find ways of fooling the next generation of audience, to stay one step ahead so you can say, you might think you know how that was done but actually we threw this or that into the mix to trick you."

In the world of miniature effects, the most visually-arresting scenes are, of course, often achieved by blowing things up.

"You do spend a lot of time making models and setting them up only to destroy them in a matter of seconds, but it's part of the job," Mike said. "The most important thing is that it looks good on screen."

Besides, what does reducing weeks' worth of work to debris matter when you get to work on the new Dalek?

Mike confirms: "The only overlap between our work and the full-sized world is we got to build the Dalek - what a bonus!"