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A TARDIS console room or control room was the area which housed the TARDIS' generally hexagonal control console, by which the TARDIS was operated. The room was usually laid out such that the console was in the middle of the room, or at least so that it was a comfortable distance from all interior walls. Such rooms also had immediate access to an exterior door, and its interior walls were covered in roundels. Other than those generalisations, the shape of a control room, even within just the Doctor's TARDIS was highly variable.
The Doctor occasionally changed the design of his TARDIS' console room, either by choice (DW: Time Crash) or the TARDIS redesigned it for him (DW: The Eleventh Hour). By the time of his eleventh incarnation, the Doctor had changed the so-called "desktop theme" approximately 12 times, though the TARDIS revealed he would ultimately change the theme at least 30 times. Once a control room was reconfigured, the TARDIS would archive the old design "for neatness" - and she maintained an archive of not only old console rooms, but redesigns the Doctor hadn't even undertaken yet (DW: The Doctor's Wife).
Of the total number of redesigns established by the Eleventh Doctor and the TARDIS, details of only a half dozen are known.
The Doctor's console room
First version
When the interior of the TARDIS was first seen by Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, it was a bright white room, with roundels on the walls and a large computer bank taking up a major part of the 'back' wall. These computer banks contained the fault locator and various systems relating to navigational control. (DW: An Unearthly Child, DW: The Daleks)
This console was removed by the Third Doctor during his exile on Earth for use in his laboratory. He hoped he would be able to bypass the limitations that the Time Lords had placed on his ability to control the TARDIS by removing the console from the TARDIS itself. However, not only did he require a significant amount of power to make the TARDIS move more than a few seconds in time and a few hundred metres in space, he also removed so many security protocols that he travelled sideways in time into a parallel universe, where he was nearly killed before he managed to convince the alternate versions of his friends to help him return home. (DW: Inferno) The Doctor returned it to its old place later. (DW: Terror of the Autons)
The Doctor continued to rebuild the TARDIS console and the main interior of the TARDIS console room using "UNIT funds and equipment" throughout his exile as UNIT's scientific adviser. (DW: The Three Doctors)
The Doctor briefly changed the walls of the console room with what appeared like plastic furnishings appearing along the edges of the roundels. One of the roundels served as a replacement for the scanner, a picture appearing in its centre. (DW: The Time Monster) He later reverted to the more traditional design. (DW: The Three Doctors)
The Fifth Doctor rebuilt the console following damage done to it by a stray shot from a Cyberman's gun meant for him. (DW: Earthshock) Vislor Turlough later damaged the Heart of the TARDIS located in the control console, on orders of the Black Guardian (DW: Terminus), leaving it the room darker for some time until repairs were done. (DW: Enlightenment) He later refurbished it completely, giving it a sleeker, more high-tech appearance. In comparison to the control rooms that his earlier incarnations used, the Fifth Doctor's was more metalic grey than white.(DW: The Five Doctors) It would be used by his next two following incarnations (the Sixth and Seventh Doctors), (DW: The Twin Dilemma - Survival) following his regenration (DW: The Caves of Androzani).
The console in this room was duplicated by a matter-manipulating entity that the Rani had enslaved to do her bidding, seeking to replace the console room of her own TARDIS after the Master had separated it from the rest of her ship to save himself from the t-rex; the Doctor had sabatoged her TARDIS previously (DW: The Mark of the Rani). For a time, this console was used as an Oracle by the population of Alexandria in a duplicated version of Ancient Egypt that the entity had created by accident. The people accessed its databanks to learn about future technology. The duplicate console was eventually connected to the Rani's TARDIS, allowing her to control her ship once again (MA: State of Change).
Second version
Accounts differed over how the new TARDIS interior had come to pass.
One account suggests that the the TARDIS changed interiors after being trapped inside the Doctor's family estate, the House of Lungbarrow. It rebuilt itself to resemble the house after the Doctor temporarily severed the link between the interior and exterior to prevent his family stealing the ship. After he had restored the TARDIS, the console assumed a more Gothic, Victorian look, and now included a library. (NA: Lungbarrow, DW: Doctor Who)
Other accounts suggested that the Doctor had transferred to this alternate console room long before the Lungbarrow encounter. (NA: Human Nature, DWM: Ground Zero, BFA: Forty-five) Further altering accounts suggest that he had "built" it. (BFA: Excelis Decays)
Another account suggested that the room was merely another secondary console room, and that it had been there for some time, and was in fact meant to be the main console room all along. (NA: The Dying Days)
Third version
- See Edifice
Following the TARDIS' destruction after it was caught in a dimensional tear (EDA: The Shadows of Avalon), it reconstructed itself into a massive, bone-like structure that came to be known as the Edifice. Its console room at this stage was apparently based on the console room at the time of destruction, but appeared, like the rest of the ship, to be made of bone. This was due to the TARDIS containing the Faction Paradox biodata virus that had infected the Third Doctor after his early regeneration (EDA: Interference - Book Two, The Ancestor Cell). The console also manifested an 'avatar' of the Third Doctor composed of the dust in the ship, apparently the manifestation of the Third Doctor who should have existed before the Faction changed his history. This console room was 'destroyed' when the Doctor drained the Edifice of all its power in order to fire the ship's ancient weapon systems, erasing the Dust regeneration from history and forcing the TARDIS to spend the next century repairing itself. (EDA: The Ancestor Cell)
Fourth version
The TARDIS completed its regeneration on Earth, after the Doctor exhausted its power in the destruction of Gallifrey. Its interior now resembled a mixture of the original console room and the Eighth Doctor's console room. (EDA: Escape Velocity) The console was initially octagonal, (EDA: The Slow Empire) but was later reconfigured to be pentagonal. (EDA: Trading Futures) The Control Room was now hexagonal and contained four alcoves, two on either side of the main doors and the interior door. One contained filing cabinets and chests, another led to the library, the third contained a laboratory, and the fourth contained a kitchen (which looked out onto an English countryside vista and was an exact replica of the kitchen in the Doctor's house in Kent). This interior was destroyed when the Doctor used the TARDIS to contain the explosion of a cold fusion generator created by the TARDIS' original owner. (EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles)
Fifth version
By the Doctor's ninth incarnation, the control room had been changed to its "Coral" theme. This was a more organic design than earlier versions and apparently had been available as early as the era of the Fifth Doctor, who disliked it, considering it worse than the "leopard skin" version. (DW: Time Crash) Hexagonal impressions on the walls had replaced the roundels and the console incorporated many odds and ends, ranging from a device like a bicycle pump to a mallet used for percussive maintenance. There was a monitor on the console that displayed Gallefreyian writings with sticky notes on it, left by the Doctor. It could also show television channels.(DW: Rose onwards) However, to get Earth programming to appear on the screen, one needs to know how to work the console. (DW: The Christmas Invasion) It also contained a working telephone, used once by the Doctor. (DW: World War Three) The console room consisted of a circular area, with a red-tiled ramp leading from the doors to a hexagonal platform. On the platform was a second, circular platform. The entire room was supported by six coral pillars that met with the top of the time rotor at the room's ceiling. Sometimes not all the pillars were visible, even in a full console room shot. It is most likely that some are removed so they do not obstruct the view. There were also several black wires connecting to the time rotor. Under the main platform were storage areas large enough for the Doctor to enter himself to retrieve items (DW: Army of Ghosts), though some were packed to just below the top. (DW: The Unicorn and the Wasp) It was also dim, illuminated by the glow of green light from the time rotor column in the centre of the room and the lights in the hexagons on the walls. (DW: Rose - Doomsday) However, the glow was later made less noticeable as the Doctor used the other lights. (DW: The Runaway Bride - The End of Time)
It is presumed that the exit from this control room into the rest of the TARDIS is to the right, given that only the left side of the control room is shown. (DW: Rose - The Eleventh Hour)
The console room was set on fire and at least one column destroyed by the Tenth Doctor's violent regeneration into his eleventh incarnation. Much of the wiring in the ceiling fell apart and parts of the console exploded. The damage to the console was extensive enough to cause the Door Release Lever to malfunction. The Doctor nearly fell to his death (again) because of this. (DW: The End of Time, The Eleventh Hour)
It was rebuilt by the TARDIS, but decided to replace it with the Sixth version. The Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond, Rory Williams and the separated matrix of the TARDIS entered it when House had control of the TARDIS. House deleted the room for the power needed to leave the bubble universe he was in and enter Normal Space. (DW: The Doctor's Wife) It is not known whether the TARDIS kept a backup of this control room in her files.
Sixth version
Due to the violent nature of the Tenth Doctor's regeneration and the resultant damage to the TARDIS, it required time to repair itself. After the ordeal involving the Atraxi attempting to recapture Prisoner Zero had been resolved, the Doctor returned to the TARDIS and, upon seeing the replacement control room, immediately took the TARDIS to the Moon and back to Earth to "run her in". Soon after taking Amy Pond on board for the first time, the new TARDIS console also provided the Doctor with a new sonic screwdriver, as the previous one had been destroyed. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
Changes to the control room included a new hexagonal console with instruments resembling a typewriter, a telegraph, a gramophone, a set of hot and cold taps, and a view-screen made by Magpie Electricals. Each side of the console was centred around a different function (Helm, navigation, diagnostic, communications, fabrication, mechanical). (CON: Call Me the Doctor) A larger, circular, secondary view screen was set into one of the walls. (DW: Victory of the Daleks, The Hungry Earth) There were fewer roundels on the walls than in the past, and an area located underneath the main console which housed the Heart of the TARDIS. This version also possessed an actual phone, on which people could call the Doctor. (DW: Victory of the Daleks, The Big Bang, Bad Night) There was also a swing located under the glass floor the Doctor or anyone else could sit on to help with maintainence. (DW: The Vampires of Venice, The Pandorica Opens, Space) Within series five the railings were rectangular barred and black in color. They were later round barred and gold. (DW: A Christmas Carol)
It had at least three floors: a lower section, the console room level, and the second level. (DW: The Eleventh Hour) Unlike its immediate predessor, this console room had three visible exits to the rest of the TARDIS; two on the lower levels and one via a set of stairs.
console
The various systems of the Eleventh Doctor's console room were fairly well-understood. According to one account, each of the six panels controlled discrete functions. (VG: TARDIS)
- The mechanical panel contained the engine release lever, door release lever, gyroscopic stabiliser, locking down mechanism (described as a physical handbrake) and the TARDIS display dials.
- The helm panel contained the eyepiece (an alternative to visual scanners), the time rotor handbrake and the space/time throttle.
- The navigation panel contained a time and space forward/back control, directional pointer, atom accelerator (the spinning spiky ball) and the spatial location input (a computer keyboard).
- The diagnostic panel contained the inertial dampers, the cooling systems (gauges), a bunsen burner and a microphone/water dispenser.
- The communications panel contained an analogue telephone, digital com, voice recorder (so the Doctor can leave himself memos), analogue radio waves detector/monitor/changer and a scanner/typewriter.
- The fabrication panel contained the materialise/dematerialise function, harmonic generator, time altimeter, a fabrication dispenser (which was described as being able to produce sonic screwdrivers and other technology - which eventually housed the laser screwdriver) and a Heisenberg focusing device which was used to break Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. This device may also have been known as a zigzag plotter.
Secondary control room
There existed a small secondary control or console room which the Doctor claimed may have been the original console room. It was simpler and more compact than the main control room, with the console resembling a desk, no visible time rotor and all the controls hidden behind what appeared to be wooden panelling. 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. (DW: The Masque of Mandragora, The Hand of Fear, The Deadly Assassin, The Robots of Death, The Invisible Enemy)
While looking for a Kymbra Chimera which had invaded the TARDIS, the Sixth Doctor and Frobisher discovered it and Peri in the secondary control room. (DWM: Changes)
At least one secondary 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 TARDIS life support systems were controlled from that console. However, Qataka was able to use the console to turn herself into the godlike Timewyrm. (NA: 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. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)
Other control rooms
There also existed a tertiary control room, which was cool and dark grey with a small mushroom-shaped console. (NA: Nightshade, Sanctuary)
Soon after the TARDIS became infected by an organic material from Tír na n-Óg, (NA: Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark) the Doctor began adapting the Zero Room into another console room, disconnected from the Universe, so he could escape the effects. This control room/zero room was lost when the Seventh Doctor ejected it from the TARDIS in an attempt to destroy the sentient computer, Pool. (NA: Deceit)
During his tenth incarnation, the Doctor claimed that all previous console rooms remained within the TARDIS, waiting to be reused, much as the secondary control room had been accidentally rediscovered by him during his fourth incarnation. He further intimated that there may have been even more control rooms than were known to have been used. (IDW: Tesseract)
As Idris, the TARDIS told the the Eleventh Doctor it had so far archived thirty control rooms. The Doctor argued he had only changed the desktop theme a dozen times and it can't archive things that haven't happened yet. The TARDIS merely replied that he couldn't. (DW: The Doctor's Wife)