the tube in TEH (and skyfall!)

right so this is a thing i already wrote about a little in my addition to this post a while ago.

basically in the empty hearse the supposed district line is actually a jubilee line train. the district line security footage looks like this:

as you can clearly see the interior and exterior this is the same type of train as these here which are jubilee line trains.

and then the bomb is in this one:

which is the (now longer in use) district line train. completely different carriage shape, green poles instead of yellow etc.

and for a show that’s so heavily centered on london this is weird as fuck? i use jubilee line a lot so it’s glaringly obvious to me but you don’t even need to be a londoner to notice the different types of these trains. so i’ve always been wondering WHY this is, is there a deeper meaning to it?(the lost special or something lol) or is it because the filming location which i believe is the disused charing cross jubilee line platform, but if that’s the case why not just go with jubilee line in the first place? it stops at westminster too so it would have fit the storyline and locations and all. ??¿¿¿???? why?

ANYWAY. so i was watching skyfall the other night and it appears they just took this thing (besides pretty much the rest of the film too) from there as well?? or maybe it’s just a coincidence. maybe despite filming in obvious jubilee line trains/platforms film makers insist on making it the district line? who knows. anyway.

here’s bond at supposedly temple station (sorry shitty screen cap)

yellow and green lines on the walls indicate circle and district lines. the train is a jubilee train.

yep still a jubilee train and terminates at wimbledon which is a district line destination.

it even has a district line map inside the train.

(some more tube nerding about bond here and here.)

i’m tagging some of you meta writers here if i may, if anyone might have any more insight/intel on this one, has it already been discussed in greater length, answers, theories, anything! cheers! @tjlcisthenewsexy @raggedyblue @sarahthecoat @devoursjohnlock @inevitably-johnlocked

nice catch! I wonder about this too. I know sometimes in filmmaking, one location stands in for another because it’s easier and less expensive to film there, so most of it could just be that. I’m sure it would have been easier to take over a closed station, than to try to film in one that’s in use. (There are setlockers visible in shot in one scene in TEH!) But my recollection is that the detached carriage that was full of wires and stuff, and was going to need to accommodate lights, various camera angles, etc, was a purpose built set, so they definitely chose that appearance. Then there’s all this weird intertext with bond, especially skyfall, so who knows if that was just the same “we film where we can get permission and make the logistics work”, or a deliberate visual quotation?

yeah the bomb carriage was definitely a purposely built set so that makes it even less sense to me, why not just build one to match with the carriages shown in the security footage, nevermind the name of the tube line! or maybe i’m just being pedantic haha. but the tube nerd in me will not have peace until i get some answers!

also as far as i remember the tube line in skyfall being specifically the district line didn’t have huge plot related significance? or maybe if they’d gone further west towards the MI6 building (district and circle go westbound along the river, jubilee goes northbound from westminster) but i think they got off around embankment?? can’t believe i can’t remember anymore i just watched it. anyway. rambling now. at least bond can get away with the consistency of the train appearances etc even if it might bug a londoner who rides the tube a bit!

but the main question is, why so obviously different trains, mofftiss??

especially in an episode that included a massive train nerd (and sherlock mirror) who was a key character in both the case aspect and the character aspect of the show. *shrug*

the tube in TEH (and skyfall!)

right so this is a thing i already wrote about a little in my addition to this post a while ago.

basically in the empty hearse the supposed district line is actually a jubilee line train. the district line security footage looks like this:

as you can clearly see the interior and exterior this is the same type of train as these here which are jubilee line trains.

and then the bomb is in this one:

which is the (now longer in use) district line train. completely different carriage shape, green poles instead of yellow etc.

and for a show that’s so heavily centered on london this is weird as fuck? i use jubilee line a lot so it’s glaringly obvious to me but you don’t even need to be a londoner to notice the different types of these trains. so i’ve always been wondering WHY this is, is there a deeper meaning to it?(the lost special or something lol) or is it because the filming location which i believe is the disused charing cross jubilee line platform, but if that’s the case why not just go with jubilee line in the first place? it stops at westminster too so it would have fit the storyline and locations and all. ??¿¿¿???? why?

ANYWAY. so i was watching skyfall the other night and it appears they just took this thing (besides pretty much the rest of the film too) from there as well?? or maybe it’s just a coincidence. maybe despite filming in obvious jubilee line trains/platforms film makers insist on making it the district line? who knows. anyway.

here’s bond at supposedly temple station (sorry shitty screen cap)

yellow and green lines on the walls indicate circle and district lines. the train is a jubilee train.

yep still a jubilee train and terminates at wimbledon which is a district line destination.

it even has a district line map inside the train.

(some more tube nerding about bond here and here.)

i’m tagging some of you meta writers here if i may, if anyone might have any more insight/intel on this one, has it already been discussed in greater length, answers, theories, anything! cheers! @tjlcisthenewsexy @raggedyblue @sarahthecoat @devoursjohnlock @inevitably-johnlocked

nice catch! I wonder about this too. I know sometimes in filmmaking, one location stands in for another because it's easier and less expensive to film there, so most of it could just be that. I'm sure it would have been easier to take over a closed station, than to try to film in one that's in use. (There are setlockers visible in shot in one scene in TEH!) But my recollection is that the detached carriage that was full of wires and stuff, and was going to need to accommodate lights, various camera angles, etc, was a purpose built set, so they definitely chose that appearance. Then there's all this weird intertext with bond, especially skyfall, so who knows if that was just the same "we film where we can get permission and make the logistics work", or a deliberate visual quotation?

That moment when you’re rewatching The Empty Hearse and hear that the Jubilee line lost the entire seventh car between Westminster and St James Park that nobody but the guy who binge-watches footage noticed, and then realize that there are six episodes after that moment and all these fans who relentlessly binge-watch think something is wrong because the 7th could be missing….

The huge subtextual significance of The Empty Hearse and everything that happens in it is either the most brilliant piece of television or the craziest, most-bizarre coincidence in modern storytelling.

For a little more explanation, realize that the story is about an insider who planted a “bomb” in a missing “carriage” in order to set chaos to the political status quo; a bomb hidden in a cavity, a bomb with four chambers with red and blue veins, a bomb beneath Sumatra Rd, a tube station that was almost completed but couldn’t be open to the public because of the **laws of the time**, a bomb that wasn’t deactivated but simply paused, a threat that no one realized was possible except for that loser who binge watches the footage….

Ouch, Gatiss, that last one stings a little, but we’ll survive

Aaaaahhhhh!

Ok one thing about this episode tho.

idk if op says jubilee line on purpose but.. as a londoner (and once upon a time a bit of a tube nerd) this very thing has always bothered the living shit out of me in TEH. The dude works on district line right. But the train on the surveillance footage is a jubilee line train! (It’s the one I use the most so I know it when I see one.) The one with the bomb in it however is a district line carriage. So. I know mofftiss like their little details so why this??? I’d say it’s quite obvious at least to people who use the tube a lot. 

Now i haven’t been in this fandom for that long so I’m not sure if this has already been discussed/explained away, someone please help me out here! @the-7-percent-solution​ @tjlcisthenewsexy​ @raggedyblue​ 

Is this a Meaningful Thing or just something as dull as them not being able to film district line for some reason or something..

Interesting! Signal boost!

signal boost, cos i have the same question. I'm intrigued by @messedupsockindex saying how recognizable the trains on the different lines are! i also assume that the carriage used as the "bomb" was a purpose built set, since they were going to mess it up with all the wires and lights. I don't know if they also blew it up to get the fireball shot, or if that was all cgi. Might be something in BTS stuff about that? But if it was a built set, then they chose how it should look.

That moment when you’re rewatching The Empty Hearse and hear that the Jubilee line lost the entire seventh car between Westminster and St James Park that nobody but the guy who binge-watches footage noticed, and then realize that there are six episodes after that moment and all these fans who relentlessly binge-watch think something is wrong because the 7th could be missing….

The huge subtextual significance of The Empty Hearse and everything that happens in it is either the most brilliant piece of television or the craziest, most-bizarre coincidence in modern storytelling.

For a little more explanation, realize that the story is about an insider who planted a “bomb” in a missing “carriage” in order to set chaos to the political status quo; a bomb hidden in a cavity, a bomb with four chambers with red and blue veins, a bomb beneath Sumatra Rd, a tube station that was almost completed but couldn’t be open to the public because of the **laws of the time**, a bomb that wasn’t deactivated but simply paused, a threat that no one realized was possible except for that loser who binge watches the footage….

Ouch, Gatiss, that last one stings a little, but we’ll survive

this reminds me of apollo 13, when the nerdy guys with the pocket protectors were the heros who saved the mission. I LOVE how specific this reference is, with the six out of seven carriages accounted for and the seventh one hidden and PAUSED. OH, and everyone knows what "jubilee" means, right? They could have picked any tube line, but they picked the one with the name that refers to freedom after long captivity.