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Friction contrafibulator

From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference
Revision as of 12:53, 17 April 2014 by OfficialBBC (talk | contribs) (Its all three Doctors being pluralised, not just the War.)

The friction contrafibulator was a button on the console of the Doctor's TARDIS. When Vincent van Gogh attempted to touch it, the Eleventh Doctor leapt across the TARDIS to stop him. (TV: Vincent and the Doctor)

Later, he used the button to stabilise the TARDIS interior when confused by the presence of the Eleventh, Tenth, and War Doctors. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)

Behind the scenes

File:C is for contrafibularity - Blackadder - BBC
The Curtis-written Blackadder scene that inspired the friction contrafibulator

Though the word is superficially technobabble, it's also a subtle connection to another Richard Curtis script: Blackadder the Third's Ink and Incapability. In that story Blackadder frustrates lexicographer Samuel Johnson by throwing out a few nonsense words — including contrafibularity — after Johnson has claimed that his dictionary contains "every single word" in the English language.

Breaking down this non-word to its real components, we find that it means contra (against) + fibula (the smaller of the two major bones of the leg) : "pulling one's leg".

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