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[[Image:3doctardis.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The [[Third Doctor]] emerging from the TARDIS in the 1970 serial ''[[Spearhead from Space]]''.]]
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{{Image|Tardis-consoleroom-2005.jpg|right|350px|As well as being a [[time machine]], a TARDIS is bigger on the inside than the outside, with a 'console room' from which the craft is piloted. Several designs have appeared in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' over the years, all featuring a hexagonal console, roundels, and a central column that rises and falls while the TARDIS is in flight. This is the first console room of the 21st-century series, envisaged as a living, [[coral]]-like structure.}}
A '''TARDIS''' is a type of [[time travel|time machine]] in the long-running [[United Kingdom|British]] [[science fiction on television|science fiction television]] programme ''[[Doctor Who]]''. The name is an [[acronym]] of '''T'''ime '''A'''nd '''R'''elative '''D'''imension  (or Dimensions) '''I'''n '''S'''pace,<ref>''[[BBC]]'': [http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/tardiscam/intro.shtml A Beginner's Guide to the TARDIS].</ref><ref>Generally, 'TARDIS' is written in all upper case letters, but many examples of the forms 'Tardis' or 'tardis'  are found in media and, occasionally, licensed publications. In the 2005 series episode ''World War Three'', the [[caller ID]] of the TARDIS is displayed on Rose Tyler's [[mobile phone]] as "Tardis calling." This usage is consistent with current [[Abbreviation#Style conventions|British press style]], in which [[acronym]]s are referred to with only the first letter capitalised (for example, Nato), while [[initialism]]s (which are not pronounced as words), such as BBC, are capitalised in their entirety. The capitalisation of the initial letter and having the rest in lower case is also the default setting for [[Nokia]] mobile phones.</ref><ref>There is some disagreement over whether the "D" in the name stands for "dimension" or "dimensions"; both have been used in various episodes. The very first story, ''An Unearthly Child'' (1963), used the singular "Dimension" and other episodes followed suit for the next couple of years. The 1964 novelisation ''Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks'' used the plural "Dimensions" for the first time and the 1965 serial ''The Time Meddler'' (1965) introduced it to the television series. Since then both versions have been used on different occasions; for example, it is singular again when mentioned in ''Frontios'' (1984). In ''Rose'' (2005), the Doctor uses the singular form (although this was a decision of the actor [[Christopher Eccleston]] — the line was scripted in the plural).</ref> and is larger insider than out.<ref>This was not a new idea. It had been used in 1956 by [[C. S. Lewis]] in chapters 13 and 16 of ''The Last Battle''. (Earlier, Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940) had used it in ''The Master and Margarita'' (chapter 22), but this book was suppressed by the Soviet authorities and had not appeared by 1963.)</ref> Such is the popularity of ''Doctor Who'' that the word TARDIS has become firmly established in popular vocabulary, even appearing in the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'',<ref>''Ask Oxford: [http://www.askoxford.com/worldofwords/wordfrom/shorter/?view=uk The Essence of the Oxford English Dictionary]''. The OED's verdict: "This is not a new term by any means (Dr Who [''sic''] was first broadcast in 1963), but over the years it has gradually become established as a way of referring to something larger on the inside than it appears from the outside, as well as meaning 'a time machine'. Our database reveals several examples of the former sense, e.g. 'the high-ceilinged back bar of this Tardis-like pub' (''1990 Good Pub Guide'')."</ref> and used to refer either to something that appears bigger on the inside than outside, or as a general-purpose term for a [[time machine]].


The '''TARDIS''' is a [[time travel|time machine]] and [[spacecraft]] in the [[United Kingdom|British]] [[science fiction on television|science fiction television]] programme ''[[Doctor Who]]''. The name is an [[acronym]] of '''T'''ime '''A'''nd '''R'''elative '''D'''imension  (or Dimensions) '''I'''n '''S'''pace.<ref>There is some disagreement over whether the "D" in the name stands for "dimension" or "dimensions"; both have been used in various episodes. The very first story, ''[[An Unearthly Child]]'' (1963), used the singular "Dimension" and other episodes followed suit for the next couple of years. The 1964 novelisation ''[[The Daleks|Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks]]'' used the plural "Dimensions" for the first time and the 1965 serial ''[[The Time Meddler]]'' (1965) introduced it to the television series. Since then both versions have been used on different occasions; for example, it is singular again when mentioned in ''[[Frontios]]'' (1984). In ''[[Rose (Doctor Who)|Rose]]'' (2005), the Doctor uses the singular form (although this was a decision of the actor [[Christopher Eccleston]] — the line was scripted in the plural).</ref>
From the first episode of ''Doctor Who'' in 1963, and for most of the series's run, the TARDIS used by the programme's main character, the "Doctor", has remained in the shape of a [[police box]], a type of telephone booth designed for contacting and supporting the [[police]] and a common sight in the UK until the advent of police [[radio]]s. The explanation for this is that this type of time machine is able to blend in with its surroundings, but the mechanism enabling this - later called the "[[chameleon]] circuit" - failed in the first episode. Nowadays, the Doctor seems to prefer to keep the exterior that way.


Generally, 'TARDIS' is written in all upper case letters, but many examples of the forms 'Tardis' or 'tardis'  are found in media and, occasionally, licensed publications.<ref>In the [[List of Doctor Who serials#Series 1 (2005)|2005 series]] episode ''[[World War Three (Doctor Who)|World War Three]]'', the [[caller ID]] of the TARDIS is displayed on [[Rose Tyler]]'s [[mobile phone]] as "Tardis calling." This usage is consistent with current [[Abbreviation#Style conventions|British press style]], in which [[acronym]]s are referred to with only the first letter capitalised (for example, Nato), while [[initialism]]s (which are not pronounced as words), such as BBC, are capitalised in their entirety. The capitalisation of the initial letter and having the rest in lower case is also the default setting for [[Nokia]] mobile phones.</ref> The name TARDIS is a registered [[trademark]] of the [[BBC|British Broadcasting Corporation]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.patent.gov.uk/tm/t-find/t-find-number?detailsrequested=C&trademark=1068700 |title=Case details for Trade Mark 1068700 |accessdate=2007-01-28 |publisher=[[United Kingdom Patent Office|UK Patent Office]] }}</ref> In 1996, the BBC applied to the [[United Kingdom Patent Office|UK Patent Office]] to register the TARDIS as a [[trademark]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.patent.gov.uk/tm/t-find/t-find-number?detailsrequested=C&trademark=2104259 |title=Case details for Trade Mark 2104259 |accessdate=2007-01-17 |publisher=[[United Kingdom Patent Office|UK Patent Office]] }}</ref> This was challenged by the [[Metropolitan Police Service|Metropolitan Police]] who felt that they owned the [[intellectual property|rights]] to the police box image. However, the Patent Office found that there was no evidence that the Metropolitan Police — or any other police force — had ever registered the image as a trademark. In addition, the BBC had been selling [[Doctor Who merchandise|merchandise]] based on the image for over three decades without complaint by the police. The Patent Office issued a ruling in favour of the BBC in 2002.<ref name="trademark">{{cite web |url=http://www.patent.gov.uk/tm//legal/decisions/2002/o33602.pdf |title=IN THE MATTER OF Application No. 2104259 by The British Broadcasting Corporation to register a series of three marks in Classes 9, 16, 25 and 41 AND IN THE MATTER OF Opposition thereto under No. 48452 by The Metropolitan Police Authority |accessdate=2007-01-17 |last=Knight |first=Mike |format=[[PDF]] |publisher=[[United Kingdom Patent Office|UK Patent Office]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2352743.stm |title=BBC wins police Tardis case |accessdate=2007-01-17 |date=[[2002-10-23]] |work=[[BBC News]] }}</ref>
The UK's remaining police boxes are now more firmly associated with dimensionally atypical time machines than with the police itself. For example, the [[London, United Kingdom]]-based [[Metropolitan Police Service|Metropolitan Police]] service have been largely unsuccessful in keeping their police boxes out of the realm of science fiction. As well as the name TARDIS being a registered [[trademark]] of the [[BBC|British Broadcasting Corporation]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.patent.gov.uk/tm/t-find/t-find-number?detailsrequested=C&trademark=1068700 |title=Case details for Trade Mark 1068700 |accessdate=2007-01-28 |publisher=[[United Kingdom Patent Office|UK Patent Office]] }}</ref> in 1996 the BBC applied to the [[United Kingdom Patent Office|UK Patent Office]] to register the image as a [[trademark]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.patent.gov.uk/tm/t-find/t-find-number?detailsrequested=C&trademark=2104259 |title=Case details for Trade Mark 2104259 |accessdate=2007-01-17 |publisher=[[United Kingdom Patent Office|UK Patent Office]] }}</ref> This was challenged by the 'Met', who felt that they owned the [[intellectual property|rights]] to the police box design.<ref>The link to ''Doctor Who'' is unacknowledged on the official police box webpage: ''Metropolitan Police Service: [http://www.met.police.uk/history/policebox.htm Police Boxes].</ref> However, the Patent Office found that there was no evidence that the Metropolitan Police — or any other police force — had ever registered the image as a trademark. In addition, the BBC had been selling [[Doctor Who merchandise|merchandise]] based on the image for over three decades without complaint by the police. The Patent Office issued a ruling in favour of the BBC in 2002.<ref name="trademark">{{cite web |url=http://www.patent.gov.uk/tm//legal/decisions/2002/o33602.pdf |title=IN THE MATTER OF Application No. 2104259 by The British Broadcasting Corporation to register a series of three marks in Classes 9, 16, 25 and 41 AND IN THE MATTER OF Opposition thereto under No. 48452 by The Metropolitan Police Authority |accessdate=2007-01-17 |last=Knight |first=Mike |format=[[PDF]] |publisher=[[United Kingdom Patent Office|UK Patent Office]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2352743.stm |title=BBC wins police Tardis case |accessdate=2007-01-17 |date=[[2002-10-23]] |work=[[BBC News]] }}</ref>
 
The programme has become so much a part of British [[popular culture]] that not only has the shape of the police box become more immediately associated with the TARDIS than with its original real-world function, the word "TARDIS" has been used to describe anything that seems bigger on the inside than on the outside.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.jessesword.com/sf/view/424
| title = Full record for Tardis-like adj.
| work = Science Fiction Citations
| accessdate = 2006-04-19
}}</ref> It is also used as a popular term for a time machine.


==The TARDIS in ''Doctor Who''==
==The TARDIS in ''Doctor Who''==
''Some [[spoiler]]s below''


A product of [[Time Lord]] technology, a properly maintained and piloted TARDIS can transport its occupants to any point in Time and Space. The interior of a TARDIS is much [[Creative geography|larger]] than its exterior, which can blend in with its surroundings through the ship's chameleon circuit. In the series, the [[Doctor (Doctor Who)|Doctor]] pilots an unreliable, obsolete Type 40 TARDIS whose chameleon circuit is stuck, giving it the shape of a 1950s-style London [[police box]].
A product of [[Time Lord]] technology, a properly maintained and piloted TARDIS can transport its occupants to any point in [[Time]] and [[Space]]. The interior of a TARDIS is much [[Creative geography|larger]] than its exterior, which can blend in with its surroundings through the ship's chameleon circuit. In the series, the [[Doctor (Doctor Who)|Doctor]] pilots an unreliable, obsolete Type 40 TARDIS whose chameleon circuit is stuck, giving it the shape of a 1950s-style London police box.
 
Although "TARDIS" is a type of craft, rather than a specific one, the Doctor's TARDIS is usually referred to as "the" TARDIS or, in some of the earlier [[List of Doctor Who serials|serials]], just as "the ship". (In the two 1960s [[Dr. Who (Dalek films)|Dalek films]], the craft was referred to as ''Tardis'', without the definite article.)


==Conceptual history==
==Conceptual history==
[[Image:Earls Court Police Box.jpg|right|thumb|Police box mounted with a modern surveillance camera located outside Earl's Court tube station in London.]]  
{{Image|Earls-court-london-police-box.jpg|right|200px|[[Police box]] mounted with a modern surveillance camera located outside [[Earl's Court]] tube station in [[London, United Kingdom]].}}
When ''Doctor Who'' was being developed in 1963, the production staff discussed what the Doctor's time machine would look like. Due to budgetary constraints,<ref>Howe; Walker (2003), p. 23</ref> it was decided to make it resemble a [[police box]]. This was explained in the context of the series as a disguise created by the ship's "[[chameleon]] circuit", a [[cloaking device|mechanism]] which is responsible for changing the outside appearance of the ship in order to fit in with its environment. A further premise was that the circuit was broken, explaining why it was "stuck" in that form.
When ''Doctor Who'' was being developed in 1963, the production staff discussed what the Doctor's time machine would look like. Due to budgetary constraints,<ref>Howe & Walker (2003: 23).</ref> it was decided to make it resemble a police box. This idea came from BBC staff writer [[Anthony Coburn]],<ref>Howe & Walker (2003: 15-16).</ref> who is believed to have conceived the time machine's external form after spotting a real police box while walking near his office on a break from writing the episode. At the time of the series's debut, the police box was still a common fixture in British cities, and with some 700 in London alone, it was a logical choice for camouflaging a time machine. In that first episode,''An Unearthly Child'', however, the TARDIS is first seen in a junkyard; it subsequently malfunctions, retaining the police box shape rather than changing its external form to blend in with a new landscape.


The idea for the police-box disguise came from [[BBC]] staff writer [[Anthony Coburn]], who rewrote the programme's first episode from a draft by [[C. E. Webber]].<ref>Howe; Walker (2003), p. 15-16</ref> Coburn is believed to have conceived the time machine's external form after spotting a real police box while walking near his office on a break from writing the episode. In that first episode, "[[An Unearthly Child]]", the TARDIS is first seen in a 1963 junkyard; it subsequently malfunctions, retaining the police box shape in a prehistoric landscape.
To a degree, the idea may have begun as a creative ploy by the BBC to avoid building a new TARDIS for every adventure, and indeed the original police box prop itself was an existing 1950s structure from the BBC police drama series ''Dixon of Dock Green'', pressed into service as a time machine. This saw action only in the untransmitted pilot episode, as it proved difficult to manhandle through the studio; a lighter replacement was built which lasted until 1975.<ref>''Policeboxes.com:'' [http://www.ibphoto.co.uk/policeboxes/thist.htm History of the TARDIS]''.</ref>


At the time of the series' debut in 1963, the police box was still a common fixture in British cities, and with some 700 in [[London]] alone, it was a logical choice for camouflaging a time machine.  While the idea may have begun as a creative ploy by the BBC to save time and money on props, it soon became an [[in-joke]] genre convention in its own right as the old-style police box was phased out of use. The [[anachronism]] has become more pronounced since there have been very few police boxes of that style left in Britain for some considerable time. Despite changes in the prop, the TARDIS has become the show's most consistently recognisable visual element.
As the old-style police box was phased out of use, the TARDIS's anachronistic appearance become more obvious, with very few police boxes of that style left in Britain. Despite this, the TARDIS has become the show's most consistently recognisable visual element.


The type of police box the TARDIS resembled was normally constructed out of concrete. However, the props for the television series were originally made out of wood, and later on from fibreglass, for easy transportation and construction on location as well as within the confines of a studio set. The props have also varied slightly in their dimensions and designs over the years, and do not conform precisely to their real-life counterparts.
The police box props for the television series were originally made out of wood, and later on from fibreglass, for easy transportation and construction. They have also varied slightly in their dimensions and designs over the years, and do not conform precisely to their real-life counterparts. The type of police box the TARDIS resembled was normally constructed out of concrete, surmounted with a flashing light to alert passing police officers of an incoming call. The TARDIS has been shown to contain a non-working telephone behind an information panel, but the light flashes while the machine is in flight.


The production team conceived of the TARDIS travelling by [[materialization (science fiction)|dematerialising]] at one point and rematerialising elsewhere, although sometimes in the series it is shown also to be capable of conventional space travel. The ability to travel simply by fading into and out of different locations became one of the trademarks of the show, allowing for a great deal of versatility in setting and storytelling without a large expense in special effects. The distinctive accompanying sound effect — a cyclic wheezing, groaning noise — was originally created in the [[BBC Radiophonic Workshop]] by [[Brian Hodgson]]. He produced the effect by dragging a set of house keys along the strings of an old, gutted [[piano]]. The resulting sound was then recorded and electronically processed with echo and reverb.
The production team conceived of the TARDIS travelling by dematerialising at one point and rematerialising elsewhere, although sometimes in the series it is shown also to be capable of conventional space travel. The ability to travel simply by fading into and out of different locations became one of the trademarks of the show, allowing for a great deal of versatility in setting and storytelling without a large expense in special effects. The distinctive accompanying sound effect — a cyclic wheezing, groaning noise — was originally created in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop by Brian Hodgson. He produced the effect by dragging a set of house keys along the strings of an old, gutted piano. The resulting sound was then recorded and electronically processed with echo and reverb.


==General characteristics==
==General characteristics==
[[Image:Hartnellconsole.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The console room from the first episode of ''[[Doctor Who]]'', "[[An Unearthly Child]]" (1963).]]
TARDISes are grown, not made (''The Impossible Planet''; the spin-off media, which are of uncertain canonicity, suggest that they are "birthed"). They draw their power from several sources, but primarily from the [[Black hole#The singularity|nucleus]] of an artificial [[black hole]], known as the Eye of Harmony the 1996 ''Doctor Who'' television movie). In ''The Edge of Destruction'' (1964), the power source of the TARDIS (referred to as the "heart of the TARDIS") is said to be beneath the central column of the console, with the rise and fall of the column an indication of its functioning.
TARDISes are grown, not made (''[[The Impossible Planet]]''; the [[Doctor Who spin-offs|spin-off media]], which are of uncertain [[canon (fiction)#Doctor Who|canonicity]], suggest that they are "birthed"). They draw their power from several sources, but primarily from the [[Black hole#The singularity|nucleus]] of an artificial [[black hole]], known as the [[Eye of Harmony]] ([[Doctor Who (1996)|the 1996 ''Doctor Who'' television movie]]). In ''[[The Edge of Destruction]]'' (1964), the power source of the TARDIS (referred to as the "heart of the TARDIS") is said to be beneath the central column of the console, with the rise and fall of the column an indication of its functioning.
 
The TARDIS usually travels by dematerialising in one spot, traversing the [[Time vortex (Doctor Who)|time vortex]], and then rematerialising at its destination, without physically travelling through the intervening space. However, it has been seen to be able to fly through physical space, first in ''[[Fury from the Deep]]'' (1968) and more recently in ''[[The Parting of the Ways]]'' (2005), ''[[The Christmas Invasion]]'' (2005) and ''[[The Runaway Bride (Doctor Who)|The Runaway Bride]]'' (2006). As seen in ''The Runaway Bride'', however, this puts a strain on the TARDIS's systems.
 
Apart from the ability to travel in space and time (and, on occasion, to other dimensions), the most remarkable characteristic of a TARDIS is that its interior is much larger than it appears from the outside. The explanation is that a TARDIS is "dimensionally transcendental", meaning that its exterior and interior exist in separate dimensions. In ''[[The Robots of Death]]'' (1977), the [[Fourth Doctor]] tried to explain this to his [[companion (Doctor Who)|companion]] [[Leela (Doctor Who)|Leela]], using the [[analogy]] of how a larger cube can appear to be able to fit inside a smaller one if the larger cube is farther away, yet immediately accessible at the same time (see [[Tesseract]]). According to the Doctor, transdimensional engineering was a key Time Lord discovery. To those unfamiliar with this aspect of a TARDIS, stepping inside the ship for the first time usually results in a reaction of shocked disbelief as they see the interior dimensions.
 
[[Susan Foreman|Susan]], the Doctor's granddaughter, claimed to have coined the name TARDIS: "I made [it] up from the initials". However, the word TARDIS is used to describe other Time Lords' travel capsules as well. ''The Discontinuity Guide'' by [[Paul Cornell]], [[Keith Topping]] and [[Martin Day]] suggests that  "[she] was an influential young lady, and her name for time machines caught on." The [[Virgin New Adventures]] novel ''[[Lungbarrow]]'' by [[Marc Platt]] records Susan telling the [[First Doctor]] that she gave him the idea when he was, implicitly, the "[[Other (Doctor Who)|Other]]".
 
 
==The Doctor's TARDIS==
[[Image:Secondaryconsole.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The secondary console room from the  1976–1977 season.]]
In the programme, the Doctor's TARDIS is an obsolete Type 40 TT capsule (presumably TT stands for "time travel") that he unofficially "borrowed" when he departed his home planet of [[Gallifrey]]. According to the [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] novel ''[[The Gallifrey Chronicles]]'' by [[Lance Parkin]], it previously belonged to a Time Lord named Marnal, who was, like the Doctor, somewhat of a renegade. By the time of ''[[The Ribos Operation]]'' the Doctor had been flying it for 523 years.
 
There were originally 305 registered Type 40s, but all the others had been decommissioned and replaced by new, improved models (''The Deadly Assassin''). However, the changing appearance of the primary console room over the years and the [[Second Doctor]]'s statement in 1972's ''[[The Three Doctors]]'' ("Ah! I can see you've been doing the TARDIS up a bit. I don't like it.") suggests that the Doctor does upgrade the TARDIS's systems on occasion, though it has been implied that the ship's ability to reconfigure its interior architecture applies to the console room too.
 
The TARDIS was already old when the Doctor first took it, but exactly how old is a matter of conjecture; the [[Doctor Who spin-offs|spin-off media]] have, on a number of occasions, had the TARDIS wait around for the Doctor for decades and even centuries in relative time. In ''[[The Empty Child]]'' (2005), the Ninth Doctor claimed that he has had "900 years of phone box travel", meaning the TARDIS is at least that old or has been stuck in that shape for that amount of time from the Doctor's personal perspective.
 
===Exterior===
As noted above, although the TARDIS is supposed to blend inconspicuously into whatever environment it turns up in, it invariably retains the shape of a [[police box]] (which it first took when landing in 1963) because of a faulty chameleon circuit. The exact nature of the fault has never been specified. The circuit was first mentioned, but not given a technical name, in the second episode of the series, where the First Doctor and Susan noted it was malfunctioning. It was first termed the "camouflage unit" in ''[[The Time Meddler]]'' (1965). The name was changed to "chameleon circuit" in the [[Target Books]] novelisations of the serials, and this term eventually made its way on screen in ''[[Logopolis]]'' (1981). In the 2005 series episode ''[[Boom Town (Doctor Who)|Boom Town]]'', when [[Rose Tyler|Rose]] refers to the TARDIS's cloaking device, the [[Ninth Doctor]] clarifies that it is called the chameleon circuit. In ''[[Boom Town (Doctor Who)|Boom Town]]'' (2005), the [[Ninth Doctor]] implied that he had stopped trying to fix the circuit quite some time ago because he'd become rather fond of the police box shape — a claim the [[Eighth Doctor]] likewise made in the 1996 television movie.
 
Cosmetically, the police box exterior of the TARDIS has remained virtually unchanged, although there have been slight modifications over the years. For example, the sign on the door concealing the police telephone has changed from black letters on a white background to white on black and white on blue at various times. Other modifications include the continual jumping back and forth of wording on the phone panel from reading "Urgent Calls" to "All Calls". The "POLICE BOX" sign was wider from [[List of Doctor Who serials#Season 18 (1980–81)|Season 18]] onwards and for the 2005 series, but not for the television movie. Early in the programme the TARDIS also had a [[St John Ambulance]] badge on the main doors, but this eventually disappeared. ''The Empty Child'' revealed that the exterior telephone is non-functional because it is not hooked up to any telephone lines.
 
Despite the anachronistic police box shape, the TARDIS's presence is rarely questioned when it materialises in the present-day United Kingdom. In ''Boom Town'', the Doctor simply noted that humans do not notice odd things like the TARDIS, echoing a similar sentiment expressed by the [[Seventh Doctor]] in ''[[Remembrance of the Daleks]]'' (1988), that humans have an "amazing capacity for self-deception."
 
For most of the series' run, the exterior doors of the police box operated separately from the heavier interior doors, although sometimes the two sets could open simultaneously to allow the ship's passengers to look directly outside and vice versa. The entrance to the TARDIS is capable of being locked and unlocked from the outside with a key, which the Doctor keeps on his person and occasionally gives copies of to his companions. In the 1996 television movie, the [[Eighth Doctor]] (and the [[Seventh Doctor|Seventh]] before him) kept a spare key "in a cubby hole behind the 'P'" (of the POLICE BOX sign).
 
In the 2005 series, the keys are also remotely linked to the TARDIS, capable of signalling its presence or impending arrival by heating up and glowing. The TARDIS keys have varied in design from an ordinary [[pin tumbler lock|Yale key]] to an [[ankh]]-like key embossed with an alien pattern (identified in [[Terrance Dicks]] and [[Malcolm Hulke]]'s 1972 book ''The Making of Doctor Who'' as the constellation of Kasterborous, Gallifrey's home system) from the [[Third Doctor]]'s era on. It was seen once again as the Yale key version for the revived series in 2005.
 
The TARDIS lock's security level has varied from story to story. Originally, it was said to have 21 different "holes" and would melt if the key was placed in the wrong one (''[[The Daleks]]'', 1963). The [[First Doctor]] was also able to unlock it with his ring (''[[The Web Planet]]'', 1965) and repair it by using the light of an alien sun refracted through the ring's jewel (''[[The Daleks' Master Plan]]'').
 
The exterior dimensions can be severed from the interior dimensions under extraordinary circumstances. In ''[[Frontios]]'' (1984), when the TARDIS was destroyed in a [[Frontios#Tractator|Tractator]]-induced meteor storm, the interior ended up outside the police box shell with various bits embedded in the surrounding rock. The Doctor eventually tricked the Gravis, leader of the Tractators, into reassembling the ship. In ''[[Father's Day (Doctor Who)|Father's Day]]'' (2005), a temporal paradox resulting in a wound in time threw the interior of the ship out of the wound, leaving the TARDIS an empty shell of a police box. The Doctor attempted to use the TARDIS key in conjunction with a small electrical charge to recover the ship, but the process was interrupted and the TARDIS was only restored after the paradox was resolved.
 
===Interior===
[[Image:TARDIS wardrobe.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The TARDIS wardrobe from ''The Christmas Invasion''.]]
Once through the doors of the police box, the TARDIS interior has a vast number of rooms and corridors. The exact dimensions of the interior have not been specified, but apart from living quarters, the interior includes an art gallery (which is actually an ancillary power station), a bathroom with a swimming pool, a medical bay and several brick-walled storage areas (all seen in ''[[The Invasion of Time]]'', 1978). Portions of the TARDIS can also be isolated or reconfigured; the Doctor was able to jettison 25% of the TARDIS's structure in ''[[Castrovalva]]'' to provide additional "thrust."
 
Despite a widespread assumption that the interior of the TARDIS is infinite, there are indications that it is not. In ''[[Full Circle (Doctor Who)|Full Circle]]'' (1980), [[Romana]] stated that the weight of the TARDIS in [[List of Doctor Who planets#A|Alzarius's]] Earth-like gravity was 5 × 10<sup><small>6</small></sup> [[kilogram]]s. Presumably that referred to its internal weight as the TARDIS has been seen on several occasions to be light enough to be lifted by several men (although most real police boxes were concrete) and any movement of the exterior has also been known to be transmitted to its interior.
 
A distinctive architectural feature of the TARDIS interior is the "[[roundel]]." In the context of the TARDIS, a roundel is a circular decoration that adorns the walls of the rooms and corridors of the TARDIS, including the console room. Some roundels conceal TARDIS circuitry and devices, as seen in the serials ''[[The Wheel in Space]]'' (1968), ''Logopolis'', ''[[Castrovalva]]'' (1981), ''[[Arc of Infinity]]'' (1983), ''[[Terminus (Doctor Who)|Terminus]]'' (1983), and ''[[Attack of the Cybermen]]'' (1985).  The design of the roundels has varied throughout the show's history, from a basic circular cut-out with black background to a photographic image printed on wall board, to translucent illuminated discs in later serials. In the secondary console room, most of the roundels were executed in recessed wood panelling, with a few decorative ones in what appeared to be [[stained glass]]. In the new series, the roundels are built into hexagonal recesses in the walls of the new console room.
 
Other rooms seen include living quarters for many of the Doctor's companions, although the Doctor's own bedroom has never been mentioned or seen. The TARDIS also had a "Zero Room" — a chamber that was shielded from the rest of the universe and provided a restful environment for the [[Fifth Doctor]] to recover from his [[Doctor (Doctor Who)#Changing faces|regeneration]] in ''Castrovalva'' — but it was among the 25% jettisoned. However, the [[Seventh Doctor]] spin-off novel ''[[Deceit (Doctor Who)|Deceit]]'' indicated that the Doctor rebuilt the Zero Room shortly before the events of that novel. (As always the canonicity of the spin-off media is uncertain.)
 
Although the interior corridors were not seen in the 2005 series, the fact that they still existed was established in ''[[The Unquiet Dead]]'', when the Doctor gave Rose some very complicated directions to the TARDIS wardrobe. The wardrobe is mentioned several times in the original series and spin-off fiction, and seen in ''[[The Androids of Tara]]'' (1978), ''[[The Twin Dilemma]]'' (1984) and ''[[Time and the Rani]]'' (1987). The redesigned version, from which the [[Tenth Doctor]] chooses his new clothes, was seen in ''[[The Christmas Invasion]]'' (2005) as a large multi-levelled room with a spiral staircase. Designer Ed Thomas has suggested that more rooms may be seen in coming episodes.<ref>{{cite news
  | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/5222610.stm
  | title=Time Lord handed permanent home
  | publisher=BBC News
  | date=[[2006-07-27]]
  | accessdate=2006-07-28
}}</ref>
====The console room====
[[Image:Tardisconsole.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The console room from the 1984-1988 seasons.]]
The most often seen room of the TARDIS is its console room, where its flight controls are housed. The console room was designed by [[Peter Brachaki]] and was the only set he designed for the show. The set was costed over several episodes since it was expensive. The basic design of the hexagonal console and wall roundels has persisted to the present day.<ref>{{cite visual | director=Levine, Ian | date=2006 | url= http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0775493 |title= Inside The Spaceship: The Story Of The TARDIS | medium=Documentary | location=  London | distributor=BBC Worldwide}}</ref>
 
The TARDIS has at least two console rooms — the primary, white-walled, futuristic one most used throughout the programme's history and the secondary console room used during [[List of Doctor Who serials#Season 14 (1976–77)|Season 14]], which has wood panelling and a more antique feel to it. Three other console rooms have also been seen, including a [[steampunk]]-inspired version in the television movie, a more organic chamber in the 2005 series and a short-lived version in the Third Doctor serial ''[[The Time Monster]]'' (1972).<ref> The set was dramatically altered, including the wall roundels. This new set, designed by Tim Gleeson, was disliked by producer Barry Letts who felt that the new roundels resembled washing-up bowls stuck to the wall. As it turned out, the set was damaged in storage between production blocks and had to be rebuilt, so this particular design only saw service in the one serial.</ref>
 
In the 2005 series, the console room became a dome-shaped chamber with organic-looking support columns. The interior doors are now absent, with the police box doors being clearly visible from inside the TARDIS.
 
 
=====The TARDIS console=====
The main feature of the console rooms, in any of the known configurations, is the TARDIS console that holds the instruments that control the ship's functions. The appearance of the primary TARDIS consoles has varied widely but share common details: hexagonal pedestals with controls around the periphery and a moveable column in the centre that bobs rhythmically up and down when the TARDIS is in flight, like a pump or a piston.
 
The console can be operated independently of the TARDIS. During the Third Doctor's era, he occasionally detached the console from the TARDIS to perform repairs on it. In ''[[Inferno (Doctor Who)|Inferno]]'' (1970) the Doctor rides a detached console into a parallel universe.
 
[[Image:Tvmconsole.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The console room from the 1996 television movie.]]
The central column is often referred to as the "time rotor", although when the term was first used in ''[[The Chase (Doctor Who)|The Chase]]'' (1965) it referred to a different instrument on the TARDIS console. However, the use of this term to describe the central column was common in fan literature and was finally used on screen when the Doctor referred to the central column as the time rotor in [[Doctor Who (1996)|the 1996 television movie]]. The current production team uses the term in the same way.
 
The secondary console was smaller, with the controls hidden behind wooden panels, and had no central column. The 1996 television movie console also appeared to be made of wood and the central column connected to the ceiling of the console room. The new series' console is circular in shape and divided into six segments, with both the control panels and the central column glowing green, the latter once again connected to the ceiling.
 
In ''Boom Town'', a portion of the TARDIS console opened and a luminescent vapour could be seen within, described by the Doctor as the "heart of the TARDIS", harkening back to the description in ''The Edge of Destruction''. In ''[[The Parting of the Ways]]'' (2005) it was shown that this is connected to the powerful energies of the [[Time vortex (Doctor Who)|time vortex]].
 
==TARDIS systems==
[[Image:Tinterior1.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The new series console room, first seen in ''Rose''.]]
Because the TARDIS is so old, it is inclined to break down. The Doctor is often seen with his head stuck in a panel carrying out maintenance of some kind or another, and he occasionally has to give it "percussive maintenance" (a good thump on the console) to get it to start working properly. The second-hand nature of the TARDIS may account for some of this. Efforts to repair, control, and maintain the TARDIS have been frequent plot devices throughout the show's run, creating the amusing irony of a highly advanced space-time machine which, at the same time, is an obsolete and unreliable piece of junk.
 
===Controls===
The TARDIS possesses telepathic circuits, although the Doctor prefers to pilot it manually. In ''[[Pyramids of Mars]]'' (1975), the Fourth Doctor told [[List of Doctor Who villains#Sutekh|Sutekh]] that the TARDIS controls were [[isomorphic]], meaning only the Doctor could operate them. However, this characteristic seems to appear and disappear when dramatically convenient, and various companions have been seen to be able to operate the TARDIS and even fly it. It has been theorised that either the Doctor was lying to Sutekh or the isomorphic feature is a security feature that the Doctor can activate and deactivate when convenient. The Eighth Doctor does just this in the [[Big Finish Productions]] audio play ''[[Other Lives]]'' (2005) to allow his companion [[C'rizz]] to operate the console.
 
The TARDIS also possesses a scanner so that its crew may examine the exterior environment before exiting the ship. In the 2005 series the scanner display is attached to the console and is able to display television signals as well as various computing functions and occasionally what the production team has stated are Gallifreyan numbers and text.
 
===Defences===
Some of the TARDIS's other functions include a force field and the Hostile Action Displacement System (HADS), which can [[teleportation|teleport]] the ship away if it is attacked (''[[The Krotons]]'', 1968). The force field may no longer be present on the current TARDIS, as an external device had to be hooked up to provide one in ''The Parting of the Ways''. The TARDIS's [[List of Doctor Who items#C|Cloister Bell]] sounds when "wild catastrophes and sudden calls to man the battle stations" are imminent (''Logopolis'').
 
The interior of the TARDIS is said to be in a state of "multidimensional temporal grace" (''[[The Hand of Fear]]'', 1976). The Fourth Doctor explained this meant that, "in a sense," things do not exist while inside the TARDIS. This has the practical effect of ensuring that no [[weapon]]s can be used inside its environs. However, this last function is also inconsistent in its application — weapons were fired in the console room in both ''[[Earthshock]]'' (1982) and ''The Parting of the Ways''. In ''Arc of Infinity'', the [[Fifth Doctor]] was planning to repair the temporal grace circuits but was interrupted by the events of that story.
 
===Other systems===
The TARDIS also grants its passengers the ability to understand and speak other languages. This was previously described in ''[[The Masque of Mandragora]]'' (1976) as a "Time Lord gift" which the Doctor shared with his companions, but was ultimately attributed to the TARDIS's telepathic field in ''[[The End of the World (Doctor Who)|The End of the World]]'' (2005). In ''The Christmas Invasion'', it was revealed that the Doctor himself was an integral element of this capability. [[Rose Tyler|Rose]] was unable to understand the alien [[List of Doctor Who monsters and aliens#Sycorax|Sycorax]] whilst the Doctor was in a regenerative crisis. In ''[[The Impossible Planet]]'' (2006), it was said that the TARDIS normally even translates writing; in that episode, the TARDIS was unable to translate an alien script, and the Doctor said that meant the language was "impossibly" old. In the Ninth Doctor Adventures novel ''[[Only Human]]'', the telepathic field includes a filter that replaces foul or undesirable language with more acceptable terms.
 
At times the TARDIS appears to have a mind of its own. It is heavily implied in the television series that the TARDIS is "alive" and intelligent to a degree (first in ''The Edge of Destruction''), and shares a bond with those who travel in it; in the television movie the Doctor calls the TARDIS "sentimental." In ''The Parting of the Ways'', the Doctor leaves a message for [[Rose Tyler|Rose]] when he believes he will never return, asking her to "let the TARDIS die." Later on in the same episode, Rose says that "this thing is alive," echoing The Doctor's earlier statement in ''Boom Town''. These characteristics have been made more explicit in the [[Doctor Who#spin-offs|spin-off]] novels and [[radio drama|audio plays]]. In the Big Finish audio play ''[[Omega (Doctor Who audio)|Omega]]'', the Doctor meets a TARDIS which "dies" after its Time Lord master's demise.
 
In ''[[The Runaway Bride (Doctor Who)|The Runaway Bride]]'' (2006), the Doctor uses the TARDIS to make it snow by means of "atmospheric excitation".
 
==Other TARDISes==
[[Image:Rani TARDIS.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The interior of the Rani's TARDIS]]
Other TARDISes have appeared in the television series. [[Master (Doctor Who)|The Master]] had his own TARDIS, a more advanced model. Its chameleon circuit is fully functional, so it has been seen in various forms including a [[filing cabinet]], a [[Longcase clock|grandfather clock]], a [[fireplace]], an [[Ionic order|Ionic column]], and an [[iron maiden (torture device)|iron maiden]]. While a TARDIS can materialise inside another, if both TARDISes occupy exactly the same space, a Time Ram will occur, resulting in total annihilation (''The Time Monster''). In ''Logopolis'', the Master tricked the Doctor into materialising his TARDIS ''around'' the Master's, creating a dimensionally recursive loop, with each TARDIS appearing inside the other's console room. In the reconstructed ''[[Shada]]'', the Time Lord known as [[Professor Chronotis]] has a TARDIS disguised as his quarters at Cambridge University.
 
Other Time Lords with TARDISes included the [[Meddling Monk]] and the Rani. The [[List of Doctor Who villains#W|War Chief]] provided dimensionally transcendent time machines named SIDRATs (Space and Inter-Dimensional Robot All-purpose Transporter, according to the novelisation of ''[[The War Games]]'') to the alien race known as the [[The War Games|War Lords]]. In the script for ''The Chase'', Dalek time machines are known as DARDISes.
 
Since the destruction of Gallifrey and the Time Lords as stated in the 2005 series, the Doctor believes that his TARDIS is the last in the universe (''[[Rise of the Cybermen]]'', 2006). The removal of Gallifrey — and by implication the Eye of Harmony — may also be why the TARDIS in ''Boom Town'' needed to refuel using radiation from a space-time rift. In ''Rise of the Cybermen'' the Doctor also states that the TARDIS draws power from "the universe", but is unable to do so while in an alternate reality.


{{endspoiler}}
The TARDIS usually travels by dematerialising in one spot, traversing the [[Time vortex (Doctor Who)|time vortex]], and then rematerialising at its destination, without physically travelling through the intervening space. However, it has been seen to be able to fly through physical space, first in ''Fury from the Deep'' (1968) and more recently in ''The Parting of the Ways'' (2005), ''The Christmas Invasion'' (2005) and ''The Runaway Bride'' (2006). As seen in ''The Runaway Bride'', however, this puts a strain on the TARDIS's systems.


The [[28 October]] [[2006]] ''[[Radio Times]]'', in an image of the [[Torchwood Institute]] headquarters, identified [[List of Torchwood items#T|a piece]] of large [[coral]] on [[Captain Jack Harkness]]'s desk as the beginnings of a TARDIS. [[John Barrowman]], who plays Jack in ''[[Torchwood]]'' and ''[[Doctor Who]]'' confirmed that "Jack's growing a TARDIS...It's probably been there for 30 years. I suppose in 500 years he'll be able to begin the carving process".
Apart from the ability to travel in space and time (and, on occasion, to other dimensions), the most remarkable characteristic of a TARDIS is that its interior is much larger than it appears from the outside. The explanation is that a TARDIS is "dimensionally transcendental", meaning that its exterior and interior exist in separate dimensions. In ''The Robots of Death'' (1977), the [[Fourth Doctor]] tried to explain this to his companion Leela, using the [[analogy]] of how a larger cube can appear to be able to fit inside a smaller one if the larger cube is farther away, yet immediately accessible at the same time. According to the Doctor, transdimensional engineering was a key Time Lord discovery. To those unfamiliar with this aspect of a TARDIS, stepping inside the ship for the first time usually results in a reaction of shocked disbelief as they see the interior dimensions.


==Other appearances==
Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter, claimed to have coined the name TARDIS: "I made [it] up from the initials". However, the word TARDIS is used to describe other Time Lords' travel capsules as well. ''The Discontinuity Guide'' by Paul Cornell, Keith Topping and Martin Day suggests that  "[she] was an influential young lady, and her name for time machines caught on." The Virgin New Adventures novel ''Lungbarrow'' by Marc Platt records Susan telling the First Doctor that she gave him the idea when he was, implicitly, the "Other".


===Merchandising===
==Merchandising==
As one of the most recognisable images connected with ''Doctor Who'', the TARDIS has appeared on numerous items of merchandise associated with the programme. TARDIS scale models of various sizes have been manufactured to accompany other ''Doctor Who'' dolls and action figures, some with sound effects included. Fan-built full-size models of the police box are also common. There have been TARDIS-shaped video games, play tents for children, toy boxes, cookie jars, book ends, key chains and even a police-box-shaped bottle for a TARDIS bubble bath. The 1993 [[VHS]] release of ''The Trial of a Time Lord'' was contained in a special edition tin shaped like the TARDIS.
As one of the most recognisable images connected with ''Doctor Who'', the TARDIS has appeared on numerous items of merchandise associated with the programme. TARDIS scale models of various sizes have been manufactured to accompany other ''Doctor Who'' dolls and action figures, some with sound effects included. Fan-built full-size models of the police box are also common. There have been TARDIS-shaped video games, play tents for children, toy boxes, cookie jars, book ends, key chains and even a police-box-shaped bottle for a TARDIS bubble bath. The 1993 [[VHS]] release of ''The Trial of a Time Lord'' was contained in a special edition tin shaped like the TARDIS.


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}}</ref>
}}</ref>


===Popular culture===
==Popular culture==
The TARDIS has frequently appeared or been referred to in popular culture outside of ''Doctor Who''.   
The TARDIS has frequently appeared or been referred to in popular culture outside ''Doctor Who''.   


*TARDIS has come to be used for anything surprisingly spacious (appearing in adverts for small cars, for example) and it has been immortalised in space: [[3325 TARDIS|Asteroid 3325]] was named "TARDIS" in its honour.  In the 1989 movie ''[[Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure]]'', the two protagonists travel in a time machine disguised as a [[phone booth]], although it is no bigger inside than outside, and humour is derived from its being crowded.  In the 1995 movie ''[[Blue Juice]]'', JC, a character played by [[Sean Pertwee]] (son of Third Doctor actor Jon Pertwee), talks up his rather small caravan as being "a lot bigger on the inside — you know, like the TARDIS".  
*TARDIS has come to be used for anything surprisingly spacious (appearing in adverts for small cars, for example) and it has been immortalised in space: [[3325 TARDIS|Asteroid 3325]] was named "TARDIS" in its honour.  In the 1989 movie ''[[Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure]]'', the two protagonists travel in a time machine disguised as a [[phone booth]], although it is no bigger inside than outside, and humour is derived from its being crowded.  In the 1995 movie ''[[Blue Juice]]'', JC, a character played by [[Sean Pertwee]] (son of Third Doctor actor Jon Pertwee), talks up his rather small caravan as being "a lot bigger on the inside — you know, like the TARDIS".  
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*When answering children's questions on an episode of the BBC television programme ''[[Blue Peter]]'' in October 2006, British [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Tony Blair]] compared the interior of his official residence at [[10 Downing Street]] to the TARDIS when asked if it was larger on the inside than it looked from the street. "Yes, I mean a lot bigger, we call it like the Tardis."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5401250.stm|title=No 10 'like Tardis', says Blair|publisher=[[BBC News Online]]|date=[[2006-10-03]]|accessdate=2006-10-03}}</ref>
*When answering children's questions on an episode of the BBC television programme ''[[Blue Peter]]'' in October 2006, British [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Tony Blair]] compared the interior of his official residence at [[10 Downing Street]] to the TARDIS when asked if it was larger on the inside than it looked from the street. "Yes, I mean a lot bigger, we call it like the Tardis."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5401250.stm|title=No 10 'like Tardis', says Blair|publisher=[[BBC News Online]]|date=[[2006-10-03]]|accessdate=2006-10-03}}</ref>
   
   
*The TARDIS made a background appearance in "Marooned", an episode of the science fiction comedy series ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' (in a corner of the [[Red Dwarf#Starbug|Starbug]] launching bay).  An episode of the [[situation comedy]] ''[[Chelmsford 123]]'' includes a brief scene in which the TARDIS materialises in [[Roman Britain]] in the year 123 and the silhouetted figure of the Doctor rushes out to [[Urination|urinate]] in the woods — implying that the TARDIS does not have a [[toilet]].  A TARDIS console was also on the bridge of the ''Terra Venture'' in the ''[[Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy]]'' television series.  The TARDIS has also appeared in many [[Doctor Who spoofs|''Doctor Who'' spoofs and parodies]] over the years.
*In 1988 the band [[The KLF#The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu|The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu]] (later known as [[The KLF]]) released the single "[[Doctorin' the Tardis]]" under the name [[The KLF#The Timelords|The Timelords]].  The song is a mix of [[Gary Glitter]]'s "Rock and Roll (Part 1)", [[Sweet (band)|Sweet]]'s "Blockbuster" and the [[Doctor Who theme music|''Doctor Who'' theme]], with sparse vocals inspired by the Daleks and [[Harry Enfield]]'s "Loadsamoney" character, in addition to sampling the original theme music composed by [[Ron Grainer]].  The TARDIS also gets a mention in the lyrics of the song "[[How Long's A Tear Take To Dry?]]" by the [[Beautiful South]] (from their album ''[[Quench (album)|Quench]]''), and in the lyrics of the song "All Things To All Men" by [[The Cinematic Orchestra]] (featuring [[Roots Manuva]] on vocals).
   
   
*In the 1999 millennium production ''[[Blackadder Back and Forth]]'', the latest incarnations of the eponymous antihero and his idiotic servant Baldrick travel in a time machine apparently designed by Leonardo da Vinci and somewhat resembling a TARDIS, but again not bigger inside than out. The resemblance of a police box to a portable toilet often leads to parodies of the TARDIS (as in the abovementioned audio play ''The One Doctor''); in the ''[[Bottom (TV series)|Bottom Live 2003]]'' comedy tour, [[Adrian Edmonson]]'s character Eddie refers to his time-travelling toilet invention as a "TURDIS".
==The Doctor's TARDIS==
In the programme, the Doctor's TARDIS is an obsolete Type 40 TT capsule (presumably TT stands for "time travel") that he unofficially "borrowed" when he departed his home planet of [[Gallifrey]]. By the time of ''The Ribos Operation'' the Doctor had been flying it for 523 years (though it is not clear whether these are Earth years or Gallifrey years).
*The TARDIS also appeared, abandoned and ignored, in a corner in [[Doctor Strange]]'s study during the ''[[Marvel Mangaverse]]'' event published by [[Marvel Comics]] in 2002.  The main artist on this series and architect of the event, [[Ben Dunn]], is a ''Doctor Who'' fan, also having included a Doctor-inspired character in the cast of his [[Ninja High School]] comic.
 
The TARDIS was already old when the Doctor first took it, but exactly how old is a matter of conjecture; the [[Doctor Who spin-offs|spin-off media]] have, on a number of occasions, had the TARDIS wait around for the Doctor for decades and even centuries in relative time. In ''The Empty Child'' (2005), the Ninth Doctor claimed that he has had "900 years of phone box travel", meaning the TARDIS is at least that old or has been stuck in that shape for that amount of time from the Doctor's personal perspective.
 
===Exterior===
As noted above, although the TARDIS is supposed to blend inconspicuously into whatever environment it turns up in, it invariably retains the shape of a [[police box]] (which it first took when landing in 1963) because of a faulty chameleon circuit. The exact nature of the fault has never been specified. In ''Boom Town'' (2005), the Doctor implied that he had stopped trying to fix the circuit quite some time ago because he'd become rather fond of the police box shape — a claim the Eighth Doctor likewise made in the 1996 television movie.  
 
Despite the anachronistic police box shape, the TARDIS's presence is rarely questioned when it materialises in the present-day United Kingdom. In ''Boom Town'', the Doctor simply noted that humans do not notice odd things like the TARDIS, echoing a similar sentiment expressed by the Seventh Doctor in ''Remembrance of the Daleks'' (1988), that humans have an "amazing capacity for self-deception."


*In the [[Computer role-playing game|PC game]] [[Fallout (computer game)|Fallout]], the TARDIS is featured in an [[Easter egg (virtual)|Easter Egg]], where it appears in a desolated piece of desert and disappears when approached.<ref>{{cite web
For most of the series' run, the exterior doors of the police box operated separately from the heavier interior doors, although sometimes the two sets could open simultaneously to allow the ship's passengers to look directly outside and vice versa. The entrance to the TARDIS is capable of being locked and unlocked from the outside with a key, which the Doctor keeps on his person and occasionally gives copies of to his companions. In the 1996 television movie, the Eighth Doctor (and the Seventh before him) kept a spare key "in a cubby hole behind the 'P'" (of the POLICE BOX sign).  
| last = Meltzer
| first = Steve
| year = April, 2002
| url = http://www.quandaryland.com/jsp/dispArticle.jsp?index=619
| title = Fallout Walkthrough
| publisher = Quandary Computer Game Reviews
| accessdate = 2006-04-19
}}</ref> The [[MMORPG]] ''[[Asheron's Call]]'' uses the TARDIS in a similar manner.<ref>{{cite web
| last = "Maggie the Jackcat"
| url = http://www.thejackcat.com/AC/Odds'nEnds/tardis.htm
| title = TARDIS
| work = Maggie the Jackcat's Fabulous AC Guide
| accessdate = 2006-04-19
}}</ref>
* In ''Cylon Attack'', a game for the [[BBC Micro]] by A&F, the TARDIS occasionally crosses the screen.  It is invulnerable.  


*In 1988 the band [[The KLF#The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu|The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu]] (later known as [[The KLF]]) released the single "[[Doctorin' the Tardis]]" under the name [[The KLF#The Timelords|The Timelords]]. The song is a mix of [[Gary Glitter]]'s "Rock and Roll (Part 1)", [[Sweet (band)|Sweet]]'s "Blockbuster" and the [[Doctor Who theme music|''Doctor Who'' theme]], with sparse vocals inspired by the Daleks and [[Harry Enfield]]'s "Loadsamoney" character, in addition to sampling the original theme music composed by [[Ron Grainer]].  The TARDIS also gets a mention in the lyrics of the song "[[How Long's A Tear Take To Dry?]]" by the [[Beautiful South]] (from their album ''[[Quench (album)|Quench]]''), and in the lyrics of the song "All Things To All Men" by [[The Cinematic Orchestra]] (featuring [[Roots Manuva]] on vocals).
The TARDIS lock's security level has varied from story to story. Originally, it was said to have 21 different "holes" and would melt if the key was placed in the wrong one (''The Daleks'', 1963). The First Doctor was also able to unlock it with his ring (''The Web Planet'', 1965) and repair it by using the light of an alien sun refracted through the ring's jewel (''The Daleks' Master Plan''). In the 2005 series, the keys are also remotely linked to the TARDIS, capable of signalling its presence or impending arrival by heating up and glowing. The TARDIS keys have varied in design from an ordinary Yale key to an ankh-like key embossed with an alien pattern.  
*"Tardis" was also the name of a mid-1990s era Internet time server program, which used a blue police box as its onscreen icon.


*At [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] radio stations, a "Tardis Booth" refers to a small studio where an interviewee or reporter may participate in a radio programme in another city or timezone. It is so-called because it "'transports you' to wherever the interview is."<ref>{{cite web
The exterior dimensions can be severed from the interior dimensions under extraordinary circumstances. In ''Father's Day'' (2005), a temporal paradox resulting in a wound in time threw the interior of the ship out of the wound, leaving the TARDIS an empty shell of a police box, only restored after the paradox was resolved.
|url = http://imaginingaustralia.blogs.com/photos/launch/andrewpetetardisbooth.html
|title = Launch Photos July 2004 — Tardis Booth 1
|publisher = Imaginingaustralia.blogs.com
|accessdate = 2006-09-05
}}</ref>
*Since 1986, all [[Sun Microsystems|Sun]] [[UNIX]] workstations at the Department of [[Information Technology]] and [[Electrical Engineering]] of the [[ETH Zurich]] have been called "Tardis".<ref>{{cite web
| last = Oetiker
| first = Manuel
| year = [[2005-12-19]]
| url = http://computing.ee.ethz.ch/os/unix/tardis.en.html
| title = All about TARDIS
| publisher = ETH Zurich, Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering
| accessdate = 2006-04-19
}}</ref>
*The ''Tardis Project'' is a student-run [[UNIX]] computing facility established in 1987 in the Computer Science department (now [[University of Edinburgh School of Informatics|Informatics]]) of the [[University of Edinburgh]].<ref>{{cite web
|url = http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk
|title = The University of Edinburgh Tardis Project
|publisher = School of Infomatics, University of Edinburgh
|accessdate = 2006-08-06
}}</ref>  The name was chosen because the project's first computer was a GEC-63, a [[minicomputer]] housed in a large blue cabinet resembling the TARDIS.
*TARDIS is also the name of two separate types of [[radar]] interface: one for airports which is an acronym for "Terminal Automated Radar Display and Information System"<ref>{{cite news
  | url=http://www.senate.gov/~schumer/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/PR00087.html
  | title=Schmer Releases FAA Evaluation of Stewart Airport
  | publisher=Senator Schumer Website: Press Room
  | date=[[1999-11-29]]
  | accessdate=2006-06-21
}}</ref> and one for the [[Panavia Tornado]] fighter aircraft, an acronym for "Tornado Advanced Radar Display Information System".<ref>{{cite news
  | url=http://www.baesystems.com/newsroom/2004/feb/090204news1.htm
  | title=BAE Systems Receives $70 Million Contract for Radar Map Display Subsystem on UK Tornado Aircraft
  | publisher=BAESYSTEMS.com
  | date=[[2004-02-09]]
  | accessdate=2006-06-21
}}</ref> Whether the acronyms were influenced by ''Doctor Who'' is not known.
*"[[Time's Orphan]]", an episode of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', featured [[Miles O'Brien (Star Trek)|Chief O'Brien]] using, among other equipment, a hexagonal console with outward-facing control panels (visible in the background) in his effort to recover his daughter from a time vortex.
*An episode of ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' entitled "[[Future Tense (Enterprise episode)|Future Tense]]" paid homage to the TARDIS by having the crew encounter a timeship that is bigger on the inside than on the outside.  


*In ''[[Spiceworld The Movie]]'', the [[Spice Girls]]' tour bus is larger on the inside than on the outside and the interior decoration is TARDIS-inspired.
===Interior===
Once through the doors of the police box, the TARDIS interior has a vast number of rooms and corridors. The exact dimensions of the interior have not been specified, but apart from living quarters, the interior includes an art gallery (which is actually an ancillary power station), a bathroom with a swimming pool, a medical bay and several brick-walled storage areas (all seen in ''The Invasion of Time'', 1978). Portions of the TARDIS can also be isolated or reconfigured; the Doctor was able to jettison 25% of the TARDIS's structure in ''Castrovalva'' to provide additional "thrust."


*An old blue police box is seen (and obliquely commented on) in the sixth episode of the short-lived BBC time travel crime drama ''[[Crime Traveller]]''.
A distinctive architectural feature of the TARDIS interior is the "[[roundel]]." In the context of the TARDIS, a roundel is a circular decoration that adorns the walls of the rooms and corridors of the TARDIS, including the console room. Some roundels conceal TARDIS circuitry and devices, as seen in the serials ''The Wheel in Space'' (1968), ''Logopolis'', ''Castrovalva'' (1981), ''Arc of Infinity'' (1983), ''Terminus'' (1983), and ''Attack of the Cybermen'' (1985). In the secondary console room, most of the roundels were executed in recessed wood panelling, with a few decorative ones in what appeared to be stained glass. In the new series, the roundels are built into hexagonal recesses in the walls of the new console room.


*The Fourth Doctor and the TARDIS appeared briefly in an episode of ''[[Robot Chicken]]''.
Although the interior corridors were not seen in the 2005 series, the fact that they still existed was established in ''The Unquiet Dead'', when the Doctor gave Rose some very complicated directions to the TARDIS wardrobe. The wardrobe is mentioned several times in the original series and spin-off fiction, and seen in ''The Androids of Tara'' (1978), ''[[The Twin Dilemma]]'' (1984) and ''[[Time and the Rani]]'' (1987). The redesigned version, from which the tenth Doctor chooses his new clothes, was seen in ''The Christmas Invasion'' (2005) as a large multi-levelled room with a spiral staircase. Designer Ed Thomas has suggested that more rooms may be seen in coming episodes.<ref>{{cite news
  | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/5222610.stm
  | title=Time Lord handed permanent home
  | publisher=BBC News
  | date=[[2006-07-27]]
  | accessdate=2006-07-28
}}</ref>
====The console room====
The most often seen room of the TARDIS is its console room, where its flight controls are housed. The console room was designed by [[Peter Brachaki]] and was the only set he designed for the show. The set was costed over several episodes since it was expensive. The basic design of the hexagonal console and wall roundels has persisted to the present day.<ref>{{cite web| director=Levine, Ian | date=2006 | url= http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0775493 |title= Inside The Spaceship: The Story Of The TARDIS | medium=Documentary | location=  London | distributor=BBC Worldwide}}</ref>


*[[Kylie Minogue]] used the sound of the TARDIS materialising during the introduction to the song 'Light Years' on her Showgirl Homecoming tour.
In the 2005 series, the console room became a dome-shaped chamber with organic-looking support columns. The interior doors are now absent, with the police box doors being clearly visible from inside the TARDIS.


*Tardis Environmental Ltd., primarily a supplier of [[portable toilet]]s in the [[West Midlands]], is named after the TARDIS. Their company logo is an orange police box and their company slogan is: ''"Just  what the Doctor ordered"''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tardishire.co.uk/portable_toilet_hire.htm |title=Tardis Environmental UK: Tardis Portable Toilet Hire |accessdate=2007-01-21}}</ref> A 'Tardis' is apparently a UK industry-wide [[nickname]] for a single re-circulating [[chemical toilet]] unit on account of its resemblance to the Doctor's time machine.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.partyoffers.co.uk/articles/portable_toilet_hire_for_the_uk_event_industry.html |title=Portable Toilet Hire For The UK Event Industry |accessdate=2007-01-21 |last=Stebbings |first=Jon |year=2006 |work=Party Offers}}</ref>
=====The TARDIS console=====
The main feature of the console rooms, in any of the known configurations, is the TARDIS console that holds the instruments that control the ship's functions. The appearance of the primary TARDIS consoles has varied widely but share common details: hexagonal pedestals with controls around the periphery and a moveable column in the centre that bobs rhythmically up and down when the TARDIS is in flight, like a pump or a piston.


*Disney Channel TV sitcom series, ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]]'', has an episode which features a phone box-shaped dimensional travelling device.<ref>{{cite episode
The console can be operated independently of the TARDIS. During the Third Doctor's era, he occasionally detached the console from the TARDIS to perform repairs on it. In ''Inferno'' (1970) the Doctor rides a detached console into a parallel universe.
| title = The Suite Smell of Excess
| episodelink = The Suite Smell of Excess
| series = The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
| serieslink = The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
| credits = [[Billy Riback]], [[Kelly Sandeur]]
| airdate = 2006-06-02
| season = 2
| number = 15
}}</ref> Although the type of phone box is a conventional 21st century design(and no larger inside than out), this would seem to be a slight reference to the TARDIS.


==Footnotes==
The central column is often referred to as the "time rotor", although when the term was first used in ''[[The Chase (Doctor Who)|The Chase]]'' (1965) it referred to a different instrument on the TARDIS console. However, the use of this term to describe the central column was common in fan literature and was finally used on screen when the Doctor referred to the central column as the time rotor in the 1996 television movie. The current production team uses the term in the same way.
<div class="references-small">
<references />
</div>


==References==
The new series' console is circular in shape and divided into six segments, with both the control panels and the central column glowing green, the latter once again connected to the ceiling. In ''Boom Town'', a portion of the TARDIS console opened and a luminescent vapour could be seen within, described by the Doctor as the "heart of the TARDIS", harkening back to the description in ''The Edge of Destruction''. In ''[[The Parting of the Ways]]'' (2005) it was shown that this is connected to the powerful energies of the [[Time vortex (Doctor Who)|time vortex]].
<div class="references-small">
*{{cite book | last = Harris | first = Mark | title = The Doctor Who Technical Manual | publisher = [[Random House]] | date = 1983 | location = [[United Kingdom|UK]] | id = ISBN 0-394-86214-7}}
*{{cite book | last = Nathan-Turner | first = John | authorlink = John Nathan-Turner | title = The TARDIS Inside Out | publisher = Picadilly Press, Ltd | date = 1985 | location = [[United Kingdom|UK]] | id = ISBN 0-394-87415-3}}
*{{cite book | last = Howe | first = David J. | authorlink = David J. Howe | coauthors = [[Stephen James Walker]] | title = The First Doctor Handbook | publisher = [[Virgin Books|Virgin Publishing]] | date = 1994 | location = [[London]] | id = ISBN 0-426-20430-1}}
*{{cite book | last = Howe | first = David J. | authorlink = David J. Howe | coauthors = [[Stephen James Walker]] | title = The Television Companion: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who | publisher = [[Telos Publishing Ltd.]] | date = 2003 | location = [[United Kingdom|UK]] | id =  ISBN 1-903889-51-0}}
*{{cite book | last = Howe | first = David J. | authorlink = David J. Howe | coauthors = Arnold T. Blumberg | title = Howe's Transcendental Toybox: The Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who Collectibles |publisher = [[Telos Publishing Ltd.]] | date = 2003 | location = [[United Kingdom|UK]] | id = ISBN 1-903889-56-1}}
</div>


==See also==
==TARDIS systems==
*[[Creative geography]]
Because the TARDIS is so old, it is inclined to break down. The Doctor is often seen with his head stuck in a panel carrying out maintenance of some kind or another, and he occasionally has to give it "percussive maintenance" (a good thump on the console) to get it to start working properly. Efforts to repair, control, and maintain the TARDIS have been frequent plot devices throughout the show's run, creating the amusing irony of a highly advanced space-time machine which, at the same time, is an obsolete and unreliable piece of junk.


{{wiktionary|tardis}}
''Spoilers end here''


==External links==
==Footnotes==
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/characters/tardis.shtml The TARDIS on the official BBC ''Doctor Who'' website]
{{reflist|2}}
* [http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~trekker/policeboxes/ The TARDIS Library] - A guide to the various props used over the years, and their relationship to real police boxes
*[http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~abr/drwho/tardis/type40/ TARDIS Manual] - an extensive, fan-written guide with much speculative information.
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/making/360/index.shtml TARDIS 360° Views] - virtual views of the 2005 series TARDIS console room
*[http://homepages.bw.edu/~jcurtis/Z1R0_2.htm Doctor Who Collectibles: An Annotated Bibliography]
*[http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/5629/tardis/ A TARDIS Storage Shed]
*[http://www.tardisbuilders.co.uk/ TARDIS builder's site, with free plans]
*[http://www.shillpages.com/dw/tardis.htm More TARDIS pictures]
*[http://www.whoniverse.org/tardis/ The TARDIS Technical Index] - an extensive fan-written guide
*[http://www.policeboxes.com Policeboxes.com] - a catalogue of model police boxes


[[Category:Acronyms]]
[[Category:Suggestion Bot Tag]]
[[Category:Doctor Who]]
[[Category:CZ Live]]

Latest revision as of 11:01, 24 October 2024

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As well as being a time machine, a TARDIS is bigger on the inside than the outside, with a 'console room' from which the craft is piloted. Several designs have appeared in Doctor Who over the years, all featuring a hexagonal console, roundels, and a central column that rises and falls while the TARDIS is in flight. This is the first console room of the 21st-century series, envisaged as a living, coral-like structure.

A TARDIS is a type of time machine in the long-running British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. The name is an acronym of Time And Relative Dimension (or Dimensions) In Space,[1][2][3] and is larger insider than out.[4] Such is the popularity of Doctor Who that the word TARDIS has become firmly established in popular vocabulary, even appearing in the Oxford English Dictionary,[5] and used to refer either to something that appears bigger on the inside than outside, or as a general-purpose term for a time machine.

From the first episode of Doctor Who in 1963, and for most of the series's run, the TARDIS used by the programme's main character, the "Doctor", has remained in the shape of a police box, a type of telephone booth designed for contacting and supporting the police and a common sight in the UK until the advent of police radios. The explanation for this is that this type of time machine is able to blend in with its surroundings, but the mechanism enabling this - later called the "chameleon circuit" - failed in the first episode. Nowadays, the Doctor seems to prefer to keep the exterior that way.

The UK's remaining police boxes are now more firmly associated with dimensionally atypical time machines than with the police itself. For example, the London, United Kingdom-based Metropolitan Police service have been largely unsuccessful in keeping their police boxes out of the realm of science fiction. As well as the name TARDIS being a registered trademark of the British Broadcasting Corporation,[6] in 1996 the BBC applied to the UK Patent Office to register the image as a trademark.[7] This was challenged by the 'Met', who felt that they owned the rights to the police box design.[8] However, the Patent Office found that there was no evidence that the Metropolitan Police — or any other police force — had ever registered the image as a trademark. In addition, the BBC had been selling merchandise based on the image for over three decades without complaint by the police. The Patent Office issued a ruling in favour of the BBC in 2002.[9][10]

The TARDIS in Doctor Who

Some spoilers below

A product of Time Lord technology, a properly maintained and piloted TARDIS can transport its occupants to any point in Time and Space. The interior of a TARDIS is much larger than its exterior, which can blend in with its surroundings through the ship's chameleon circuit. In the series, the Doctor pilots an unreliable, obsolete Type 40 TARDIS whose chameleon circuit is stuck, giving it the shape of a 1950s-style London police box.

Conceptual history

(CC) Photo: Robynne Blume
Police box mounted with a modern surveillance camera located outside Earl's Court tube station in London, United Kingdom.

When Doctor Who was being developed in 1963, the production staff discussed what the Doctor's time machine would look like. Due to budgetary constraints,[11] it was decided to make it resemble a police box. This idea came from BBC staff writer Anthony Coburn,[12] who is believed to have conceived the time machine's external form after spotting a real police box while walking near his office on a break from writing the episode. At the time of the series's debut, the police box was still a common fixture in British cities, and with some 700 in London alone, it was a logical choice for camouflaging a time machine. In that first episode,An Unearthly Child, however, the TARDIS is first seen in a junkyard; it subsequently malfunctions, retaining the police box shape rather than changing its external form to blend in with a new landscape.

To a degree, the idea may have begun as a creative ploy by the BBC to avoid building a new TARDIS for every adventure, and indeed the original police box prop itself was an existing 1950s structure from the BBC police drama series Dixon of Dock Green, pressed into service as a time machine. This saw action only in the untransmitted pilot episode, as it proved difficult to manhandle through the studio; a lighter replacement was built which lasted until 1975.[13]

As the old-style police box was phased out of use, the TARDIS's anachronistic appearance become more obvious, with very few police boxes of that style left in Britain. Despite this, the TARDIS has become the show's most consistently recognisable visual element.

The police box props for the television series were originally made out of wood, and later on from fibreglass, for easy transportation and construction. They have also varied slightly in their dimensions and designs over the years, and do not conform precisely to their real-life counterparts. The type of police box the TARDIS resembled was normally constructed out of concrete, surmounted with a flashing light to alert passing police officers of an incoming call. The TARDIS has been shown to contain a non-working telephone behind an information panel, but the light flashes while the machine is in flight.

The production team conceived of the TARDIS travelling by dematerialising at one point and rematerialising elsewhere, although sometimes in the series it is shown also to be capable of conventional space travel. The ability to travel simply by fading into and out of different locations became one of the trademarks of the show, allowing for a great deal of versatility in setting and storytelling without a large expense in special effects. The distinctive accompanying sound effect — a cyclic wheezing, groaning noise — was originally created in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop by Brian Hodgson. He produced the effect by dragging a set of house keys along the strings of an old, gutted piano. The resulting sound was then recorded and electronically processed with echo and reverb.

General characteristics

TARDISes are grown, not made (The Impossible Planet; the spin-off media, which are of uncertain canonicity, suggest that they are "birthed"). They draw their power from several sources, but primarily from the nucleus of an artificial black hole, known as the Eye of Harmony the 1996 Doctor Who television movie). In The Edge of Destruction (1964), the power source of the TARDIS (referred to as the "heart of the TARDIS") is said to be beneath the central column of the console, with the rise and fall of the column an indication of its functioning.

The TARDIS usually travels by dematerialising in one spot, traversing the time vortex, and then rematerialising at its destination, without physically travelling through the intervening space. However, it has been seen to be able to fly through physical space, first in Fury from the Deep (1968) and more recently in The Parting of the Ways (2005), The Christmas Invasion (2005) and The Runaway Bride (2006). As seen in The Runaway Bride, however, this puts a strain on the TARDIS's systems.

Apart from the ability to travel in space and time (and, on occasion, to other dimensions), the most remarkable characteristic of a TARDIS is that its interior is much larger than it appears from the outside. The explanation is that a TARDIS is "dimensionally transcendental", meaning that its exterior and interior exist in separate dimensions. In The Robots of Death (1977), the Fourth Doctor tried to explain this to his companion Leela, using the analogy of how a larger cube can appear to be able to fit inside a smaller one if the larger cube is farther away, yet immediately accessible at the same time. According to the Doctor, transdimensional engineering was a key Time Lord discovery. To those unfamiliar with this aspect of a TARDIS, stepping inside the ship for the first time usually results in a reaction of shocked disbelief as they see the interior dimensions.

Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter, claimed to have coined the name TARDIS: "I made [it] up from the initials". However, the word TARDIS is used to describe other Time Lords' travel capsules as well. The Discontinuity Guide by Paul Cornell, Keith Topping and Martin Day suggests that "[she] was an influential young lady, and her name for time machines caught on." The Virgin New Adventures novel Lungbarrow by Marc Platt records Susan telling the First Doctor that she gave him the idea when he was, implicitly, the "Other".

Merchandising

As one of the most recognisable images connected with Doctor Who, the TARDIS has appeared on numerous items of merchandise associated with the programme. TARDIS scale models of various sizes have been manufactured to accompany other Doctor Who dolls and action figures, some with sound effects included. Fan-built full-size models of the police box are also common. There have been TARDIS-shaped video games, play tents for children, toy boxes, cookie jars, book ends, key chains and even a police-box-shaped bottle for a TARDIS bubble bath. The 1993 VHS release of The Trial of a Time Lord was contained in a special edition tin shaped like the TARDIS.

With the 2005 series revival, a TARDIS-shaped DVD/CD cabinet, standing 22 inches (55 cm) tall with adjustable shelves, was made by Cod Steaks Ltd, a Bristol-based model-making company. Other TARDIS-related merchandise announced in conjunction with the new series included a TARDIS coin box and a TARDIS that detects the ring signal from a mobile phone and flashes when an incoming call is detected, a TARDIS "Zipperdrobe" (wardobe made of fabric), as well as a children's book, the TARDIS Manual which contained information on the ship and a pop-out-and-make cardboard model. The complete 2005 season DVD box set released in November 2005 resembles a TARDIS. Firebox, a UK based manufacturer of computer peripherals have made a 4-port USB Hub shaped like a TARDIS.[14]

A model TARDIS, used in the television series' production in the 1970s, sold at auction in December 2005 for £10,800.[15]

Popular culture

The TARDIS has frequently appeared or been referred to in popular culture outside Doctor Who.

  • TARDIS has come to be used for anything surprisingly spacious (appearing in adverts for small cars, for example) and it has been immortalised in space: Asteroid 3325 was named "TARDIS" in its honour. In the 1989 movie Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, the two protagonists travel in a time machine disguised as a phone booth, although it is no bigger inside than outside, and humour is derived from its being crowded. In the 1995 movie Blue Juice, JC, a character played by Sean Pertwee (son of Third Doctor actor Jon Pertwee), talks up his rather small caravan as being "a lot bigger on the inside — you know, like the TARDIS".
  • When answering children's questions on an episode of the BBC television programme Blue Peter in October 2006, British Prime Minister Tony Blair compared the interior of his official residence at 10 Downing Street to the TARDIS when asked if it was larger on the inside than it looked from the street. "Yes, I mean a lot bigger, we call it like the Tardis."[16]

The Doctor's TARDIS

In the programme, the Doctor's TARDIS is an obsolete Type 40 TT capsule (presumably TT stands for "time travel") that he unofficially "borrowed" when he departed his home planet of Gallifrey. By the time of The Ribos Operation the Doctor had been flying it for 523 years (though it is not clear whether these are Earth years or Gallifrey years).

The TARDIS was already old when the Doctor first took it, but exactly how old is a matter of conjecture; the spin-off media have, on a number of occasions, had the TARDIS wait around for the Doctor for decades and even centuries in relative time. In The Empty Child (2005), the Ninth Doctor claimed that he has had "900 years of phone box travel", meaning the TARDIS is at least that old or has been stuck in that shape for that amount of time from the Doctor's personal perspective.

Exterior

As noted above, although the TARDIS is supposed to blend inconspicuously into whatever environment it turns up in, it invariably retains the shape of a police box (which it first took when landing in 1963) because of a faulty chameleon circuit. The exact nature of the fault has never been specified. In Boom Town (2005), the Doctor implied that he had stopped trying to fix the circuit quite some time ago because he'd become rather fond of the police box shape — a claim the Eighth Doctor likewise made in the 1996 television movie.

Despite the anachronistic police box shape, the TARDIS's presence is rarely questioned when it materialises in the present-day United Kingdom. In Boom Town, the Doctor simply noted that humans do not notice odd things like the TARDIS, echoing a similar sentiment expressed by the Seventh Doctor in Remembrance of the Daleks (1988), that humans have an "amazing capacity for self-deception."

For most of the series' run, the exterior doors of the police box operated separately from the heavier interior doors, although sometimes the two sets could open simultaneously to allow the ship's passengers to look directly outside and vice versa. The entrance to the TARDIS is capable of being locked and unlocked from the outside with a key, which the Doctor keeps on his person and occasionally gives copies of to his companions. In the 1996 television movie, the Eighth Doctor (and the Seventh before him) kept a spare key "in a cubby hole behind the 'P'" (of the POLICE BOX sign).

The TARDIS lock's security level has varied from story to story. Originally, it was said to have 21 different "holes" and would melt if the key was placed in the wrong one (The Daleks, 1963). The First Doctor was also able to unlock it with his ring (The Web Planet, 1965) and repair it by using the light of an alien sun refracted through the ring's jewel (The Daleks' Master Plan). In the 2005 series, the keys are also remotely linked to the TARDIS, capable of signalling its presence or impending arrival by heating up and glowing. The TARDIS keys have varied in design from an ordinary Yale key to an ankh-like key embossed with an alien pattern.

The exterior dimensions can be severed from the interior dimensions under extraordinary circumstances. In Father's Day (2005), a temporal paradox resulting in a wound in time threw the interior of the ship out of the wound, leaving the TARDIS an empty shell of a police box, only restored after the paradox was resolved.

Interior

Once through the doors of the police box, the TARDIS interior has a vast number of rooms and corridors. The exact dimensions of the interior have not been specified, but apart from living quarters, the interior includes an art gallery (which is actually an ancillary power station), a bathroom with a swimming pool, a medical bay and several brick-walled storage areas (all seen in The Invasion of Time, 1978). Portions of the TARDIS can also be isolated or reconfigured; the Doctor was able to jettison 25% of the TARDIS's structure in Castrovalva to provide additional "thrust."

A distinctive architectural feature of the TARDIS interior is the "roundel." In the context of the TARDIS, a roundel is a circular decoration that adorns the walls of the rooms and corridors of the TARDIS, including the console room. Some roundels conceal TARDIS circuitry and devices, as seen in the serials The Wheel in Space (1968), Logopolis, Castrovalva (1981), Arc of Infinity (1983), Terminus (1983), and Attack of the Cybermen (1985). In the secondary console room, most of the roundels were executed in recessed wood panelling, with a few decorative ones in what appeared to be stained glass. In the new series, the roundels are built into hexagonal recesses in the walls of the new console room.

Although the interior corridors were not seen in the 2005 series, the fact that they still existed was established in The Unquiet Dead, when the Doctor gave Rose some very complicated directions to the TARDIS wardrobe. The wardrobe is mentioned several times in the original series and spin-off fiction, and seen in The Androids of Tara (1978), The Twin Dilemma (1984) and Time and the Rani (1987). The redesigned version, from which the tenth Doctor chooses his new clothes, was seen in The Christmas Invasion (2005) as a large multi-levelled room with a spiral staircase. Designer Ed Thomas has suggested that more rooms may be seen in coming episodes.[17]

The console room

The most often seen room of the TARDIS is its console room, where its flight controls are housed. The console room was designed by Peter Brachaki and was the only set he designed for the show. The set was costed over several episodes since it was expensive. The basic design of the hexagonal console and wall roundels has persisted to the present day.[18]

In the 2005 series, the console room became a dome-shaped chamber with organic-looking support columns. The interior doors are now absent, with the police box doors being clearly visible from inside the TARDIS.

The TARDIS console

The main feature of the console rooms, in any of the known configurations, is the TARDIS console that holds the instruments that control the ship's functions. The appearance of the primary TARDIS consoles has varied widely but share common details: hexagonal pedestals with controls around the periphery and a moveable column in the centre that bobs rhythmically up and down when the TARDIS is in flight, like a pump or a piston.

The console can be operated independently of the TARDIS. During the Third Doctor's era, he occasionally detached the console from the TARDIS to perform repairs on it. In Inferno (1970) the Doctor rides a detached console into a parallel universe.

The central column is often referred to as the "time rotor", although when the term was first used in The Chase (1965) it referred to a different instrument on the TARDIS console. However, the use of this term to describe the central column was common in fan literature and was finally used on screen when the Doctor referred to the central column as the time rotor in the 1996 television movie. The current production team uses the term in the same way.

The new series' console is circular in shape and divided into six segments, with both the control panels and the central column glowing green, the latter once again connected to the ceiling. In Boom Town, a portion of the TARDIS console opened and a luminescent vapour could be seen within, described by the Doctor as the "heart of the TARDIS", harkening back to the description in The Edge of Destruction. In The Parting of the Ways (2005) it was shown that this is connected to the powerful energies of the time vortex.

TARDIS systems

Because the TARDIS is so old, it is inclined to break down. The Doctor is often seen with his head stuck in a panel carrying out maintenance of some kind or another, and he occasionally has to give it "percussive maintenance" (a good thump on the console) to get it to start working properly. Efforts to repair, control, and maintain the TARDIS have been frequent plot devices throughout the show's run, creating the amusing irony of a highly advanced space-time machine which, at the same time, is an obsolete and unreliable piece of junk.

Spoilers end here

Footnotes

  1. ↑ BBC: A Beginner's Guide to the TARDIS.
  2. ↑ Generally, 'TARDIS' is written in all upper case letters, but many examples of the forms 'Tardis' or 'tardis' are found in media and, occasionally, licensed publications. In the 2005 series episode World War Three, the caller ID of the TARDIS is displayed on Rose Tyler's mobile phone as "Tardis calling." This usage is consistent with current British press style, in which acronyms are referred to with only the first letter capitalised (for example, Nato), while initialisms (which are not pronounced as words), such as BBC, are capitalised in their entirety. The capitalisation of the initial letter and having the rest in lower case is also the default setting for Nokia mobile phones.
  3. ↑ There is some disagreement over whether the "D" in the name stands for "dimension" or "dimensions"; both have been used in various episodes. The very first story, An Unearthly Child (1963), used the singular "Dimension" and other episodes followed suit for the next couple of years. The 1964 novelisation Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks used the plural "Dimensions" for the first time and the 1965 serial The Time Meddler (1965) introduced it to the television series. Since then both versions have been used on different occasions; for example, it is singular again when mentioned in Frontios (1984). In Rose (2005), the Doctor uses the singular form (although this was a decision of the actor Christopher Eccleston — the line was scripted in the plural).
  4. ↑ This was not a new idea. It had been used in 1956 by C. S. Lewis in chapters 13 and 16 of The Last Battle. (Earlier, Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940) had used it in The Master and Margarita (chapter 22), but this book was suppressed by the Soviet authorities and had not appeared by 1963.)
  5. ↑ Ask Oxford: The Essence of the Oxford English Dictionary. The OED's verdict: "This is not a new term by any means (Dr Who [sic] was first broadcast in 1963), but over the years it has gradually become established as a way of referring to something larger on the inside than it appears from the outside, as well as meaning 'a time machine'. Our database reveals several examples of the former sense, e.g. 'the high-ceilinged back bar of this Tardis-like pub' (1990 Good Pub Guide)."
  6. ↑ Case details for Trade Mark 1068700. UK Patent Office. Retrieved on 2007-01-28.
  7. ↑ Case details for Trade Mark 2104259. UK Patent Office. Retrieved on 2007-01-17.
  8. ↑ The link to Doctor Who is unacknowledged on the official police box webpage: Metropolitan Police Service: Police Boxes.
  9. ↑ Knight, Mike. IN THE MATTER OF Application No. 2104259 by The British Broadcasting Corporation to register a series of three marks in Classes 9, 16, 25 and 41 AND IN THE MATTER OF Opposition thereto under No. 48452 by The Metropolitan Police Authority (PDF). UK Patent Office. Retrieved on 2007-01-17.
  10. ↑ BBC wins police Tardis case. BBC News (2002-10-23). Retrieved on 2007-01-17.
  11. ↑ Howe & Walker (2003: 23).
  12. ↑ Howe & Walker (2003: 15-16).
  13. ↑ Policeboxes.com: History of the TARDIS.
  14. ↑ Doctor Who Tardis 4-Way USB Hub. Firebox.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-31.
  15. ↑ Miniature Tardis sells at auction, BBC News, 2005-12-15. Retrieved on 2006-04-19.
  16. ↑ No 10 'like Tardis', says Blair. BBC News Online (2006-10-03). Retrieved on 2006-10-03.
  17. ↑ Time Lord handed permanent home, BBC News, 2006-07-27. Retrieved on 2006-07-28.
  18. ↑ Inside The Spaceship: The Story Of The TARDIS (2006).
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