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The chameleon circuit enables the outer shell of a TARDIS to assume any shape, in order to blend in with its surroundings. A TARDIS with a functioning chameleon circuity can appear as almost anything, if its owner desires.
The chameleon circuit of the Doctor's TARDIS, however, has rarely worked properly since the First Doctor made a sudden departure from Totter's Lane, Shoreditch, 1963, and has usually remained in the shape of a London police box. ("An Unearthly Child")
The Doctor has occasionally attempted to fix his TARDIS's chameleon circuit. He hoped to repair it in Logopolis by using block transfer computations, but the Master interfered with the Logopolitans' calculations. ("Logopolis"). He succeeded in repairing it for a brief period when he returned to Totter's Lane in 1986, but it quickly reverted to its usual police box form. ("Attack of the Cybermen")
The Doctor once referred to the chameleon circuit as a "cloaking device", possibly for the benefit of the American Grace Holloway, who was probably familiar with Star Trek. ("Doctor Who: The TV Movie") The fact that the Doctor hesitated slightly before using the term "cloaking device" suggests that he was trying to think of an alternative to "chameleon circuit".
- It has been suggested that when the Doctor "borrowed" his TARDIS from Gallifrey, it was in for repairs, and one of the broken systems was the chameleon circuit.
Other TARDISes have displayed the versatility of which a working chameleon circuit is capable. The Monk's TARDIS appeared as a sarcophagus ("The Time Meddler") in an English church of 1066, a large stone on Tigus, and a stone block in Ancient Egypt. The Doctor caused it to appear as an Ionic column, a stage coach, a tree, an igloo, a rocket, and a biplane before impishly setting it as a police box. ("The Daleks' Master Plan")
The Master's TARDIS has appeared as a horse box ("Terror of the Autons"), a computer bank ("The Time Monster"), a Corinthian column ("The Time Monster", "Logopolis", "Time-Flight"), a grandfather clock ("The Deadly Assassin", "The Keeper of Traken"), the calcified Melkur ("The Keeper of Traken"), a police box ("Logopolis"), a fireplace ("Castrovalva"), a Concorde airplane ("Time-Flight") and an "iron maiden" ("The King's Demons").
The Rani's TARDIS took the form of a cabinet ("The Mark of the Rani") and a translucent pyramid ("Time and the Rani").