The Doctor's TARDIS control room

The Doctor's TARDIS control room

The Doctor's TARDIS contained a console room, also known as a control room, which varied in structure and size across iterations.

This changing of TARDIS appearance was described by the Fifth Doctor as changing the "desktop theme" (TV: Time Crash). On at least two occasions, it was the Doctor's violent regeneration which caused their TARDIS to completely overhaul its internal dimensions, without aid of the Doctor. (TV: The Eleventh Hour, Twice Upon a Time).

According to River Song, a TARDIS usually had multiple console rooms (AUDIO: The Lifeboat and the Deathboat). Indeed, the Doctor's TARDIS was shown on multiple occasions to have a Secondary console room. (TV: The Masque of Mandragora, PROSE: The Dying Days), although both the Fourth and Eighth Doctors claimed it was actually the original, with the Eighth Doctor claiming he used it ages ago when he wore a tricorn hat.

Primary console room

According to multiple accounts, the console room often called "secondary" was actually originally intended to be the primary one (TV: The Masque of Mandragora, PROSE: The Dying Days), potentially used by an incarnation of the Doctor from "ages ago" who wore a tricorn hat. Nevertheless, the console room often treated as if it were the original-primary had many variable "desktop themes" (TV: Time Crash), differing between incarnations of the Doctor and disasterous events.

Secondary console room

There existed a second, wooden control room which the Fourth (TV: The Masque of Mandragora) and Eighth Doctors claimed was actually the primary, original control room. (PROSE: The Dying Days)

The Eighth Doctor recalled having used the wooden control room "ages ago" when he wore a tricorn hat, before he had begun using the secondary, white control room. (PROSE: The Dying Days) When the Fourth Doctor found the control room again, he found a recorder and a smoking jacket there, suggesting both the Second and Third Doctors had this room at times. (TV: The Masque of Mandragora)

This control room in its original form was simpler and more compact than the white control room, with the console resembling a desk, no visible time rotor and all the controls hidden behind what appeared to be fold-down wooden flaps; one flap also had a writing desk beneath it. It had more subtle roundels, some of them framing stained glass windows. For a brief period, the Fourth Doctor used this as the main control room. (TV: The Masque of Mandragora, The Hand of Fear, The Deadly Assassin, The Robots of Death, The Invisible Enemy)

After destroying the console in the main control room, the Fifth Doctor and Tegan Jovanka retreated to the secondary control room to gain the advantage on Chaos; Tegan commented that the secondary control room looked like "Sherlock Holmes's back bedroom". (AUDIO: The Kamelion Empire)

While looking for a Kymbra Chimera which had invaded the TARDIS, the Sixth Doctor and Frobisher discovered it and Peri in the second control room. (COMIC: Changes)

Ace discovered the second control room whilst exploring the TARDIS, which she originally thought to be the Doctor's study, and once again the Doctor battled the Mandragora Helix from inside it. (COMIC: Distractions, The Mark of Mandragora)

At least one second control room was lost when the Seventh Doctor ejected the primary one from the TARDIS in an attempt to defeat Qataka, a megalomaniac who had downloaded her mind into the TARDIS, the Doctor having tricked her into thinking that the life support systems were controlled from that console. However, Qataka was able to use the console to turn herself into the godlike Timewyrm. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Genesys, Timewyrm: Revelation)

At one stage, the Seventh Doctor suspected that the secondary control room had been deleted, as he hadn't seen it in a while. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)

The Eighth Doctor stated that the lush Victorian control room the Seventh Doctor used near the end of his lifetime (TV: Doctor Who) was this second control room — in actuality the original, which he had neglected in favour of the "secondary" white control room for a long time, having undergone some alterations. (PROSE: The Dying Days) Hence, once he started using that original room again, the white control room became the "secondary control room". The Doctor went there after his memory was erased by the Bruce Master's trap. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)

The Eighth Doctor was forced to again retreat to his secondary control room with Cardinal Ollistra, Doctor Eva Morrison and Commander Roxita when a group of Vashta Nerada infiltrated the ship, using a set of three spacesuits in this room as part of a plan to purge the Vashta Nerada from the TARDIS. At this time, the control room was once again made of simulated wood. (AUDIO: Day of the Vashta Nerada)