The Doctor's TARDIS
Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. Something blue.
The Doctor's TARDIS — frequently called the TARDIS or the Ship by the First Doctor and some of his companions — was an obsolete Type 40 TARDIS (DW: The Deadly Assassin, Victory of the Daleks) used by the Doctor as his primary means of transport. Capable, like all TARDIS's, of travelling through space and time, the Doctor voyaged in his vessel from the Big Bang (DW: Terminus, Castrovalva, BBCR: Slipback) to the end of the universe in the year 100 trillion (DW: Utopia).
It was not without its share of faults. Foremost among them, it often took the Doctor to places he did not choose. (DW: The Edge of Destruction The Unquiet Dead, Aliens of London, The Idiot's Lantern et. al.) The TARDIS, when it had the opportunity, claimed it took the Doctor where he was needed. (DW: The Doctor's Wife)
Procurement
In his first incarnation, the Doctor implied he had built his TARDIS himself. (DW: The Chase) Whether there was any truth to this or not, he and others later stated that he had, in fact, stolen it. (DW: The War Games, Planet of the Dead et. al.) One account claimed he had stolen the TARDIS from the Time Lord Marnal (EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles) whilst others implied it came from the general, government-controlled "stockpile" of TARDISes after the model had been officially decommissioned. (DW: The Deadly Assassin, ST: The Exiles, DWM: Time & Time Again) The Fourth Doctor told Adric that "it was in for repairs on Gallifrey when [he] borrowed it". When the Alzarian countered that he thought the Doctor outright owned the vehicle, the Doctor said, "Well, on sort of 'finders, keepers' basis, yes." (DW: Logopolis)
When the Doctor first decided to leave Gallifrey, he had the chance to take a Type 53, but dismissed it as "soulless" in favour of the Type 40 (NA: Lungbarrow). The TARDIS herself said she was "a museum piece", though this may not have been literally true. (DW: The Doctor's Wife)
None of these accounts precluded the possibility that he had somehow been responsible for its creation. Indeed, another account compromised between theft and creation, claiming that while the Doctor had not completely built the TARDIS, he had substantially modified/rebuilt it. According to this view he achieved control of the TARDIS without using a direct mental link. This let him bypass the feature on most TARDISes which sent a tracking signal to the Time Lords. (EDA: The Taking of Planet 5)
This notion of the Doctor bypassing a mental link with the TARDIS was muddied by other accounts that showed him having a significant mental link with the TARDIS. For instance, the TARDIS assisted him with his first regeneration (DW: The Tenth Planet) and triggered a physical response in him when it was near destruction (DW: Journey's End)
These accounts notwithstanding, the most direct commentary on the Doctor's acquisition of the TARDIS came from the TARDIS herself. (DW: The Doctor's Wife) When House transferred the soul of the TARDIS into Idris, the TARDIS gave her side of the story. She confirmed she had been out of commission, a "museum piece", when the First Doctor met her. She also confirmed that the Doctor had stolen her, denying the Eleventh Doctor's attempt to characterise the action as "borrowing". She also stated that she had stolen him. She was unlocked and had deliberately let him steal her because she wanted to explore the universe and sensed he would be an ideal match. According to the TARDIS, the Doctor's first words to her, some seven hundred years before, were:
You are the most beautiful thing I've ever known . . .
Model and type
The precise model number of the Doctor's TARDIS was a matter of some confusion, particularly when it was compared to those of other Time Lords. The Monk claimed to have a Mark IV TARDIS, while the Doctor had a Mark I. (DW: The Time Meddler) The dematerialisation circuit of the Master's TARDIS was a Mark II, compared to the Doctor's Mark I. (DW: Terror of the Autons) However, it was unclear whether this meant that the Master's TARDIS, as a whole, was a Mark II. When the Teselecta scanned the Doctor's TARDIS, its records stated the timeship was a Type 40, Mark 3. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
During a visit by the Fourth Doctor to Gallifrey, the Doctor's TARDIS was unambiguously called a "Type 40". At that time, it was made clear that all other Type 40s had long since been officially decommissioned and replaced by newer models. The fact that the Doctor's TARDIS was a Type 40 was not common knowledge, even to the Castellan. (DW: The Deadly Assassin) This designation was used with greater frequency afterward. It was even used by the Eleventh Doctor as an excuse to Winston Churchill for his tardy response to Churchill's summons. (DW: Victory of the Daleks) When the TARDIS had the opportunity to speak to the Eleventh Doctor in the body of Idris, she called herself a "Type 40" without any qualification. (DW: The Doctor's Wife)
Exterior
Almost all TARDISes were designed to blend into their surroundings by means of a mechanism usually called the "chameleon circuit", but occasionally the "camouflage unit". Some later models seemed to let the pilot choose a desired exterior, overriding what would have been "natural" for the surroundings. (DW: Time and the Rani, Time-Flight)
The Doctor's TARDIS would have had both abilities, were the chameleon circuit operational. Before he met Ian and Barbara, the First Doctor had landed on Iwa, where the TARDIS had posed as a boulder in that planet's desert. (TN: Frayed) On Quinnis, the Doctor was unhappy when the TARDIS landed in a bazaar and chose to turn into a market stall, complete with a striped awning. (CC: Quinnis) The Fourth Doctor showed Adric how the TARDIS could be changed to the shape of an Egyptian pyramid, implying he could override the chameleon circuit's "automatic" functionality. (DW: Logopolis)
In any case, the defining characteristic of the Doctor's TARDIS was that its chameleon circuit had broken after assuming the shape of a police box in 1963 London. It had been working until it landed in I.M. Foreman's junkyard. The Doctor's granddaughter said the TARDIS had previously appeared as a sedan chair and an ionic column. The Doctor and she expressed surprise that it had not changed form when they arrived at a new destination. (DW: "The Cave of Skulls")
By his eleventh self, the Doctor was telling his companions that the chameleon circuit was working, but for whatever reason, invariably assumed its customary police box shape:
It’s camouflaged. It’s disguised as a police telephone box from 1963. Every time the TARDIS materialises in a new location, within the first nanosecond of landing, it analyses its surroundings, calculates a twelve-dimensional data map of everything within a thousand-mile radius and then determines which outer shell would best blend in with the environment.... and then it disguises itself as a police telephone box from 1963.
Despite this apparent disdain and an aborted attempt to repair the chameleon circuit (DW: Attack of the Cybermen), by the time of his ninth incarnation the Doctor had grown fond of the police box disguise. (DW: Boom Town) It's possible the TARDIS may also have felt this way, given that, despite statements of the circuit being "stuck", the details of its police box appearance altered from time to time.
Dangers
Friends and enemies could identify the TARDIS by its unvarying shape. The Daleks (DW: The Chase) even used miniature copies of the TARDIS for target practice (DW: Death to the Daleks). The Cybermen recognised it (DW: Earthshock), as did the Black Guardian's operative known as the Shadow. (DW: The Armageddon Factor) Sarah Jane also recognised it (although it was parked inside a building at the time), which led to her reunion with the Tenth Doctor. (DW; School Reunion) Donna Noble was also on the look-out for the TARDIS between The Runaway Bride - Partners in Crime.
On one occasion, an actual police box scared away a group of invading aliens from Earth when they mistook it for the Doctor's ship. (BE: Useless Things)
Captain Jack Harkness was on the look-out for "a version of" the police box throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries to avoid meeting the Doctor before their initial meeting. (DW: Utopia) Members of LINDA also knew of the outer shape of the Doctor's TARDIS, as well as the Abzorbaloff. (DW: Love & Monsters)
Because the police box shape was relatively easily recognised, the Doctor made several attempts to change the exterior of the TARDIS. None were particularly successful. In the end, he forewent changing how the TARDIS's outer shell looked by his Ninth incarnation, deciding that he liked it.
- These attempts are chronicled at chameleon circuit.
Another danger lay in the fact if it exploded, under certain conditions at least, the TARDIS would take the entire universe along with it to oblivion. Though this did happen, the Doctor reversed the damage with the Pandorica created by the Alliance. (DW: The Pandorica Opens, The Big Bang)
Door
Generally, the TARDIS had two doors along one of the craft's four sides. They could open inward and outward. The right-hand door had a lock. On the left-hand door was a panel, in which was a replica of a phone used in real police boxes to summon the police. A sign on this small door offered instructions on use of the phone. On most occasions, the left-hand door was set to a fixed position. Likewise, the windows on the door were most often seen in a closed position.
There were exceptions to all these statements.
- The Second Doctor once entered through the top of the TARDIS, by lifting a panel on which the roof lamp rested. (TVC: Peril at 60 Fathoms) He also attempted to enter through the back panels, the occasional cat flaps and once through the central beacon. It was indicated that these would usually work, but did not in this case. (PDA: Heart of TARDIS)
- The lock was sometimes on the left-hand door, even though normal entry was still through the right. (DW: most serials prior to The War Machines)
- The left-hand door was sometimes used for egress and the right-hand one stayed in a fixed position.
- Sometimes both doors could be pushed open. (DW: Rose, Father's Day) or pulled (DW: The Runaway Bride, The Beast Below)
- The windows on the doors and around the exterior could be opened, at least during the First Doctor's tenure. (DW: "World's End", "Desperate Measures", "The Centre")
- The emergency phone was sometimes on the right-hand panel while the Second Doctor inhabited the TARDIS, but by the time of his adventure on Dulkis, it had returned to the left-hand door. (DW: The Dominators)
- During the Doctor's first incarnation, a faded St Johns Ambulance logo could be seen on the door, even though it was sometimes barely visible under a layer of paint. During his second incarnation, it was not present. (DW: The Dominators onwards) When the TARDIS regenerated itself at the start of his eleventh incarnation, a new St John sticker appeared on the door. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
- The exact wording on the sign on the telephone door varied slightly over time — once it, and the writing otherwise on the front of the TARDIS, was changed to read BAD WOLF. (DW: Turn Left) When the TARDIS "regenerated" consequent to the Tenth Doctor's regeneration, this sign became backlit. (DW: The Eleventh Hour onwards)
- By the time he was going to have the chameleon circuit repaired by the Logopolitans, the Fourth Doctor had installed a handle on the telephone panel on the left-hand door. This remained a subtle, if functional, part of the design. (DW: The Empty Child)
- At some point prior to arriving to his unexpected death in San Francisco, the Seventh Doctor affixed a small handle to the right-hand door. (DW: Doctor Who) This handle persisted after the "regeneration" of the TARDIS consequent to the arrival of the Eleventh Doctor. (DW: Rose onwards)
- The Eleventh Doctor somehow fixed the TARDIS doors to accommodate his robotic T-Rex companion Kevin, although it is never explained or shown how.
Lock and key
Operation
Entry to the Doctor's TARDIS was usually effected by inserting a key into a lock, just as would be expected with a real police box. However, the lock did not respond to police-issued keys. (DW: Black Orchid, Blink)
Susan suggested that the key forced the user to insert it precisely or the lock would self-destruct. (DW: "The Survivors"). Later, the key was isomorphic (DW: Spearhead from Space). Use of the key by several people other than the Doctor or those to whom he had given it suggests this isomorphic property had ceased to work.
It could be opened with the standard Gallifreyan key for its outdated model. (DW: The Invasion of Time)
Design and features
The external design of the key changed over time. It usually appeared to be an ordinary Yale lock key. (DW: Spearhead from Space, Rose, et al) However, it occasionally appeared to have a more ornate, Gallifreyan motif. (DW: Planet of the Spiders, Ghost Light, Doctor Who)
The key could be modified to track and locate the TARDIS, allowing the Doctor to find the TARDIS if it was within a hundred years of his position. (IDW: The Forgotten) The key was known to express a link to the TARDIS by glowing or becoming hot to the touch. (DW: Father's Day, The Eleventh Hour)
At one point, the Tenth Doctor installed a system that let him lock the TARDIS remotely using a fob (as a joke, the TARDIS roof light flashed and an alarm chirp was heard, similar to that used on vehicles on Earth). He could open the door remotely. (DW: The End of Time) He also discovered with the help of River Song after their adventure in The Library, that the door would open when he snapped his fingers (DW: Forest of the Dead, Day of the Moon), although this function would not be used consistently until the Eleventh Doctor's tenure.
Interior configuration and appearance
The TARDIS interior went through occasional metamorphoses, sometimes by choice, sometimes for other reasons, such as the Doctor's own regeneration. (MA: Invasion of the Cat-People, DW: The Eleventh Hour)
Some of these changes were physical in nature (involving secondary control rooms, etc.), but it was also possible to re-arrange the interior design of the TARDIS with ease, using the Architectural Configuration system. (DW: Logopolis, Castrovalva, DWAN: 2006 Doctor Who Annual, BFA: Relative Dimensions ) The Fifth Doctor also called this changing "the desktop theme" (DW: Time Crash) and the TARDIS actively archived disused (and yet-to-be-used) control room configurations (DW: The Doctor's Wife). The TARDIS was capable of doing this using a variation of the chameleon circuit. (REF: Doctor Who: The Visual Dictionary)
Roundels
The TARDIS interior walls generally consisted of roundels — circular or hexagonal indentations that lined the TARDIS console room's interior walls and sometimes the walls deeper in the ship's interior. Some roundels concealed TARDIS circuitry and devices. (DW: The Wheel in Space, Death to the Daleks, Logopolis, Castrovalva, Arc of Infinity, Terminus, Vengeance on Varos, DWM: Kane's Story) At least one was a scanner. (DW: The Claws of Axos, The Beast Below)
Mass
The Doctor's TARDIS was said by Romana II to weigh fifty thousand tonnes in Alzarius's gravity. Presumably this was a measure of internal weight since the TARDIS was easily carried by the Marshmen (DW: Full Circle), just as it had been previously by Mongols and Greeks using horses and carts (DW:Marco Polo, DW: The Myth Makers). A quarter of this mass was jettisoned for the TARDIS to escape Event One. (DW: Castrovalva) One time, when the TARDIS mapped its exterior dimensions onto its interior ones- making it the same size inside as outside- it was larger than Gallifrey, but given that it had been infected by the Faction Paradox biodata virus at this time, this may have had an impact on its interior configuration (EDA: The Ancestor Cell).
Control room
The control or console room of the Doctor's TARDIS was the space in which the operation of the craft was usually effected. It was dominated by a large, hexagonal console, typically in or near the middle of the room. The room held a scanner for viewing the outside and offered immediate access to the exterior ship through a set of doors. According to one source, the trip from the console room to the outside required the passenger to step through the real world interface at the heart of the outer plasmic shell. (DW: Logopolis) Many other accounts demonstrated that the doors were just doors, though the TARDIS was cocooned in a breathable atmosphere. (DW: The Runaway Bride, The Stolen Earth, The Beast Below, Meanwhile in the TARDIS)
There were many variants of the Doctor's control room. Indeed the Doctor's TARDIS had more than one control room.
- For more details, please see control room.
Other rooms
Library
There was a library in the TARDIS. (EDA: War of the Daleks, NA: All-Consuming Fire, NA: The Dimension Riders) Its books included Jane's Spaceships (EDA: War of the Daleks), Every Gallifreyan Child's Pop-Up Book of Nasty Creatures From Other Dimensions (NA: All-Consuming Fire), The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (DW: Doctor Who), Robinson Crusoe, (PDA: Heart of TARDIS) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (signed first printing, with last page missing), War and Peace, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The I-Spy Book of British Birds. (BFA: Storm Warning)
The console room also had a library at the end of the Seventh Doctor's life and the start of the Eighth Doctor's. (DW: Doctor Who) By the time the Eleventh Doctor was recovering from regeneration after-effects, the pool fell into it after a crash-landing. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
Wardrobe
The Doctor kept some of the clothes from his previous regenerations, as well as clothing for other people in the TARDIS wardrobe. (DW: Pyramids of Mars, The Androids of Tara, The Twin Dilemma, Time and the Rani, The Unquiet Dead, The Christmas Invasion, The Idiot's Lantern, Victory of the Daleks, BFA: No Place Like Home) Some of these clothes were picked up along the way or left behind by prior travelling companions. It contained clothing from various times and environments, to suit the time and place the TARDIS' occupant(s) found themselves. This proved useful on numerous occasions for the Doctor's companions, many of whom left on their travels without bringing many clothes of their own.
At least some of the clothes had pockets that were bigger on the inside. Most of these were worn by the Fourth, Seventh, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
During the events of The Unquiet Dead, the Ninth Doctor gave incredibly long directions to the wardrobe. By the time of the events of First Night, it had changed location. The directions the Eleventh Doctor gave River Song were considerably shorter.
Cloister bell/room
The cloister room was related to the cloister bell, which sounded when disaster was imminent. (DW: Logopolis, Time Crash, The Waters of Mars, The Eleventh Hour, VG: Destiny of the Doctors) The room appeared to be a garden with benches on the sides of the room and plants decorating the pillars. The Fourth Doctor visited this room with Adric prior to his regeneration. (DW: Logopolis) Ace attempted to relax in the cloister room, but gave up when the bell would not stop ringing. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark) When the TARDIS interior went through a metamorphosis, the cloister room became a grand and gothic room with an interface with the Eye of Harmony. (DW: Doctor Who) When the main console room was converted into a paradox machine to maintain the effects of the paradox the Master had created, the bell rang unceasingly. (DW: Last of the Time Lords) It rang when the TARDIS was in extreme danger with occupants in it after the matrix has been removed and a malevolent lifeforce possessed it. (DW: The Doctor's Wife)
Holding ring
The holding ring was a storage area of the TARDIS which let the Doctor preserve certain rooms. When Lucie, Susan and Alex investigated it, the ring contained the rooms of many of his former companions, preserved as they had been the last time the companion were in the TARDIS. The rooms were saved in chronological order, suggesting that Susan was indeed the Doctor's first companion. Susan later teased her grandfather, calling his habit of saving rooms overly sentimental. He suggested that the ring was one of the few ways his time-travelling life allowed him to put down roots. After Susan, Alex and Lucie departed the TARDIS for new adventures on Earth, the Doctor reconsidered the wisdom of keeping so many rooms in stasis. Insisting to himself he needed to look towards the future, he deleted all the rooms on the holding ring — "except that one". (BFA: Relative Dimensions)
Swimming pool
The TARDIS had a swimming pool. It was used by Leela and Borusa was hidden from the Sontarans in it. Leela mistakenly called it "the bathroom", confusing the pool for a bathtub. (DW: The Invasion of Time) It was later jettisoned due to leakage, which Mel found bothersome. (DW: Paradise Towers)
It was replaced some time later. (VG: Destiny of the Doctors) After the TARDIS' crash following the Doctor's tenth regeneration, the pool's water -- or perhaps the pool itself -- fell into the library. (DW: The Eleventh Hour) After the TARDIS had fixed itself, the swimming pool was restored but the Doctor did not know where it was. (DW: The Eleventh Hour) He eventually found it. He offered to swim a few laps to give Amy and Rory some privacy. (DW: Amy's Choice) Later, to save River Song after she had leapt off a New York skyscraper, the Doctor had Amy and Rory open all the doors leading to the pool to cushion River's landing in the sideways TARDIS. (DW: Day of the Moon) The Doctor said he got rid of it to "Give the TARDIS a bit of welly" when going outside the universe. (DW: The Doctor's Wife)
Others
- The Zero Room - This room was unaffected by the outside world and smelt of of roses for some reason unknown even to the Doctor. It was a refuge for Time Lords undergoing regenerations in danger of failing. It was accidentally jettisoned along with other rooms in the TARDIS to escape from Event One. (DW: Castrovalva) A new one was built. (BFA: Renaissance of the Daleks)
- Some of the companions shared accommodations. (DW: The Edge of Destruction) Many companions had their own rooms in the TARDIS, decorated to their tastes (DW: Meglos). Some of the companions were given previously used rooms; in the case of Turlough, it is most likely because Tegan didn't know where to find other rooms. (DW: Terminus)
Romana's room was jettisoned. (DW: Logopolis) The Doctor was asked if he had a room. He did not answer. The other bedrooms had also been deleted by House when it possessed the TARDIS, leaving Amy and Rory's the only one at the end of the episode. (DW: The Doctor's Wife)
- There were at least fourteen bathrooms. One had a leaky faucet for three centuries. Because he had misplaced his washers, the Doctor kept it from flooding the TARDIS by sealing it in a time loop that made the same drop of water leak out over and over again. (MA: The Well-Mannered War)
- There was a laboratory which Ace used to create her explosive Nitro-9. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)
- The box-room was a storage space. (DWM: Exodus)
- The TARDIS at one point also had extensive utility areas and corridors which, along with the swimming pool area, became battlegrounds during an Sontaran invasion of the TARDIS. (DW: The Invasion of Time) The Doctor was under the impression it had been jettisoned until he stumbled across it in his tenth incarnation. (IDW: Tesseract)
- Mel said that the Doctor used the TARDIS Laundromat to wash his clothes. (BFA: The One Doctor)
- A food machine area was originally near (but not in) the console room. (DW: The Edge of Destruction and others)
- There was a zoo of endangered animals, a coffee machine and a jungle-like room. (DWM: Changes)
- There was what appeared to be a cricket club and pitch deep within the bowels of the TARDIS. It is here that the freshly regenerated Fifth Doctor chose his outfit. (DW: Castrovalva, BFA: No Place Like Home)
- There was a large salon which the Doctor referred to as a "boot cupboard", much to Sarah Jane Smith's surprise. When Sarah Jane said it was a bit too big to be a boot cupboard he replied, "I've seen bigger boot cupboards." (DW: The Masque of Mandragora)
- The Doctor had an art gallery with works from throughout history. (DW: The Invasion of Time) He had rescued them from the disasters which history stated destroyed them (BFA: Dust Breeding)
- The TARDIS had a full kitchen (BFA: Relative Dimensions) which included a refrigerator. (IDW: The Whispering Gallery) The Doctor pointed out the location of the kitchen to Captain Avery after letting him into the TARDIS. (DW: The Curse of the Black Spot)
- There were several gardens and rooms with wide-open meadows. (BFA: No Place Like Home)
- There was a garage. The Doctor kept a Vespa motor scooter in storage within the TARDIS. (DW: The Idiot's Lantern) The Sixth Doctor once rented a Volkswagen and stored it in the TARDIS as well. (PDA: Instruments of Darkness)
- By his eighth incarnation the Doctor had a croquet court in the TARDIS. (BFA: Caerdroia)
- By the time of the Doctor's tenth incarnation, several rooms from years (and centuries) past still existed deep within the TARDIS, including the cathedral-like room where the Doctor once fought the Master (DW: Doctor Who) and a bedroom that had once been used by Adric. (IDW: Tesseract)
- It had a sick bay. In the Eleventh Doctor's TARDIS this was up the stairs, to the left, then left again. It apparently had medical supplies to heal Mo from live vivisection. (DW: Cold Blood)
- It had a drawing room, which the Doctor claimed to be his "private study". Inside it were momentos of his many incarnations' travels.(VG: TARDIS) The items inside it varied. (VG: The Gunpowder Plot)
- There was a sun room with a sun lounger. (VG: TARDIS)
- There was a green door near the drawing room, which the Doctor told Amy not to go through. (VG: TARDIS)
- When The Doctor was trying to get out of his universe, he said he was deleting the scullery room and Squash court seven to give the TARDIS an extra boost. (DW: The Doctor's Wife) This indicated he had at least six other Squash courts.
Systems
Specific control systems
The Fourth Doctor claimed that the TARDIS controls were isomorphic, though this appeared to have been a ruse for the benefit of Sutekh the Destroyer. (DW: Pyramids of Mars) Indeed, various companions were able to operate the TARDIS and even fly it. (DW: Castrovalva, DW: Four to Doomsday, DW: The Visitation, DW: The Five Doctors, DW: The Parting of the Ways, DW: The Sontaran Stratagem, DW: Journey's End, DW: The Time of Angels, DW: The Lodger) The Time Lords were also able to pilot the TARDIS by remote control, usually, as the Doctor once bitterly noted, so he might take care of "some dirty work they don't want to get their lily-white hands on." (DW: Colony in Space, DW: The Brain of Morbius)
The Second Doctor once used a portable Stattenheim remote control to summon his TARDIS (DW: The Two Doctors). The TARDIS was also vulnerable to diversion or relocation by the Guardians, Eternals, and other immensely powerful beings such as the Keeper of Traken (DW: The Ribos Operation, DW: Enlightenment, DW: The Keeper of Traken) and the Silence (DW : The Big Bang )
The Fourth Doctor installed a randomiser in the navigational subsystems. It was eventually removed. (DW: The Armageddon Factor, DW: The Leisure Hive)
The Eleventh Doctor's console
The 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, 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 was called a zigzag plotter.
Temporal grace
The Fourth Doctor once said the interior of the TARDIS existed in a state of "temporal grace", that weapons didn't function inside the TARDIS. (DW: The Hand of Fear) However, the system seemed to be malfunctioning by the time the Fifth Doctor was piloting the vessel. (DW: Earthshock, Arc of Infinity) During his travels with Lucie Miller, the Eighth Doctor explained that the temporal grace system had not worked in years. (BFA: Human Resources) Later, Jack Harkness discharged an energy weapon in the Ninth Doctor's TARDIS and the Tenth Doctor and Martha had to dodge energy bolts fired into the TARDIS. (DW: The Parting of the Ways, Human Nature) The Eleventh Doctor indicated that when he had told Mels about temporal grace, it had actually been "a clever lie" to deter her from firing her gun inside the TARDIS. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
Emergency systems
The Doctor's TARDIS contained emergency systems such as the Jade Pagoda, a 'life boat' of some description, which could in theory be piloted (NA: Iceberg). In emergencies it would lock onto the nearest planet with a breathable atmosphere and bearable climate. (NA: Sanctuary)
The TARDIS also had a system which, when the TARDIS was adrift in space and unmanned, would automatically lock onto the nearest centre of gravity. (DW: Voyage of the Damned) There were also emergency settings established by the Doctor. Emergency Program One was a way to rescue his companions (but not the Doctor himself) if the Doctor's death seemed inevitable, transporting the TARDIS (with the companion inside) back to the companion's respective time and home. (DW: Bad Wolf, Silence in the Library). Another could reunite the TARDIS with the Doctor if they were separated; initially it required some one to enter the TARDIS and insert an 'authorised command disk' to activate it (DW: Blink). After this, it seemed to be fully installed and integrated into the ship's systems; the TARDIS automatically commenced the emergency program without external aid in various attempts to reach the Doctor, who had been trapped in a time-loop. (SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith)
The TARDIS contained a switch labelled "LTD" (standing for "Locate The Doctor"). This was used by Lucie Miller. (BFA: The Beast of Orlok)
The TARDIS was capable of extensive self-repair after suffering a hull breach or having been dumped into a core of z-neutrino energy. (DW: Voyage of the Damned, DW: Journey's End) After more extensive damage, a complete rebuilding could take place, changing the interior and exterior appearances. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
The TARDIS had an alarm system known as the cloister bell that activated in dire circumstances. (DW: Logopolis, Doctor Who, Turn Left, The Waters of Mars, The End of Time)
Another emergency program activated when the TARDIS exploded. This particular program locked the control room in a time loop to protect any occupant. (DW: The Big Bang) There was also a safety mechanism for when TARDIS rooms were deleted, automatically relocating any living beings in the deleted room, depositing them in the control room. (DW: The Doctor's Wife)
Defensive systems
Beyond the chameleon circuit, the TARDIS could teleport itself a short distance away from its current location if it was being attacked. The Doctor called this the Hostile Action Displacement System (HADS). (DW: The Krotons)
A related system was meant to protect the TARDIS from landing in the path of oncoming vehicles, by preventing it from landing on, for example, train tracks. This feature failed when the TARDIS landed on train tracks in Vichy France. The Second Doctor, Ben, Jamie and Polly had to physically push the TARDIS out of the railway bed before the next train came down the tracks. (CC: Resistance)
The TARDIS was at one point temporarily given a defensive shield utilising a Tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator. (DW: The Parting of the Ways) Prior to this, it also had its own shielding. (DW: The Pirate Planet)
Offensive systems
The TARDIS later gained some offensive systems of sort; this may have been caused by its development into the Edifice. This weapon allowed the Edifice/the Doctor's TARDIS to destroy Gallifrey, although this was only accomplished by channelling all of the Edifice's energy into the weapons. (EDA: The Ancestor Cell)
Intuition circuits
Using a holographic representation of the universe connected to the TARDIS' neural net, the TARDIS was effectively able to make hunches, guesses where it needed to be. Though the TARDIS was able to guess where it was needed, it was unable to inform the Doctor of what he needed to do once he got there. (VD: ...And Eternity in an Hour)
Invisibility
The TARDIS had the ability to become completely invisible. The first time this was shown was when a spaceship fired upon it when it materialised on the dark side of the moon. The missile that hit the TARDIS damaged its visual stabilizer, causing it to become invisible. The Second Doctor eventually fixed the component. (DW: The Invasion)
The Eleventh Doctor landed his TARDIS invisibly in the Oval Office in 1969, although it is not clear if the visual stabliser was involved. President Richard Nixon was present when the TARDIS landed. He remained unaware of it until it became visible. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut) The Doctor also used invisibility to hide his TARDIS in Area 51. (DW: Day of the Moon)
The Eleventh Doctor said he rarely used this feature because it drained an enormous amount of the TARDIS' power. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut)
Other systems
- The TARDIS appeared to be able to lock onto the presence of other Time Lords, particularly members of the Doctor's family, even when doing so would create a temporal paradox. (DW: The Doctor's Daughter)
- The Doctor made modifications and additions from time to time. At one point the TARDIS was equipped to write computer files to standard Earth CD-ROMs (DW: World War Three). He also modified the control console to accept DVDs to allow Sally Sparrow to use a specialised control disc to activate the TARDIS (DW: Blink)
- The TARDIS could be put one second out of synch with time. The Tenth Doctor did this once to prevent the Master from taking it. (DW: The End of Time)
- The TARDIS had the ability to allow both the Doctor and others to understand a wide variety of languages. (DW: The Christmas Invasion) See separate article for a more in-depth discussion.
- The TARDIS had a link to the Matrix. Following the Last Great Time War, this Matrix was the only one left. (IDW: The Forgotten)
- It had stabilizers activated by blue buttons. These were first used by River Song, though it was unknown if the Eleventh Doctor previously knew about these or not. He said that they made the journey boring. (DW: The Time of Angels)
- It had brakes, which, according to River Song, were always on, which is why the TARDIS landed with a characteristic wheezing noise. When she landed the TARDIS without the brakes on, it landed without any sound. (DW: The Time of Angels)
- It had buttons for Ketchup and Mustard. (DW: Vincent and the Doctor)
- The TARDIS had a part called the "rectifier". (DW: The Lodger)
- The TARDIS' engines automatically shut down when there were no people in the craft. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)
- The TARDIS had 'telepathic circuits' that could transmit messages to individuals through their thoughts. (DW: The Doctor's Wife)
- The TARDIS could alter the environment within its rooms and even fast-forward time within itself (or at least create the illusion of time passing). (DW: The Doctor's Wife)
- The TARDIS could stabilise the bodies of the Gangers, by virtue of them entering the Control Room. (DW: The Almost People)
- The TARDIS had a voice interface which the Doctor could communicate with. It could assume the form of a known individual. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
- The TARDIS had an extractor fan. This was used to get rid of gases in the control room. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
- The TARDIS contained a lift leading to at least three floors. (VG: TARDIS)
Personality
TARDISes were intelligent. The Doctor's TARDIS developed a personality. It was called "sentimental" by the Eighth Doctor (DW: Doctor Who) and "stupid" by K9 (DW: The Invasion of Time). Though intelligent, it was usually unable to communicate in words with the Doctor. (DW: The Edge of Destruction, The Runaway Bride) Even when the TARDIS did not take the Doctor where he wanted to go, it took him where it felt he needed to be. (DW: The Doctor's Wife) The Sixth Doctor considerd "her" to be one of his most trusted companions. (VG: Destiny of the Doctors)
The TARDIS displayed a prejudicial fear of the time-locked Jack Harkness. (DW: Utopia) It showed a similar hostility to Charley Pollard when she began to travel with the Sixth Doctor (BFA: The Condemned), apparently due to the paradoxical nature of her very existence. (BFA: Storm Warning) This resulted in the TARDIS 'refusing' to protect Charley from viruses as it had protected his previous companions. (BFA: Patient Zero)
When the Doctor's history was changed so his third incarnation regenerated ahead of schedule, the TARDIS sensed he had been infected with the Faction Paradox biodata virus, which threatened to turn him into a member of the Faction. The TARDIS took the infection into itself, holding itself together even after being nearly torn apart in a dimensional anomaly. (EDA: The Shadows of Avalon) Had it not, the Doctor would likely have become corrupted by the Faction.
When the Tenth Doctor was attacked by Es'Cartrss, the TARDIS tried to help him in the Matrix, taking the forms of his companions and helping him regain his memories. (IDW: The Forgotten)
The Doctor responded to the TARDIS' personality by showing it great tenderness. He referred to it as his "dear old thing" on more than one occasion. (DW: The Deadly Assassin, DW: The Robots of Death) The Eleventh Doctor was overtly demonstrative towards it, calling it both "dear" and "you sexy thing" shortly after its own regeneration. (DW: The Eleventh Hour) In many of his incarnations he anthropomorphized it by referring to the TARDIS as "she" or "her". Indeed, at least one account suggested that it wasn't a colloquialism: the TARDIS actually was female. (ST: The Lying Old Witch in the Wardrobe)
She also exhibited a rudimentary sense of humour, choosing to display only images of attractive female companions to Amy Pond when ordered to exhibit past companions of the Doctor, causing him to chide her for not at least including "the tin dog". (DW: Meanwhile in the TARDIS #2)
The TARDIS displayed a feminine personality when her matrix was temporarily transferred into the humanoid body of Idris. While in this form, she thought Rory was "pretty" and stated that she had chosen the Doctor as a travelling companion. She also referred to the TARDIS remains in a junkyard as "her sisters," implying that she considered all TARDISes on some level as female. The TARDIS referred to the Doctor's previous companions as "strays" and did not know the names of Amy and Rory, dubbing them "the orangy girl" and "the pretty one". She did, however, seem to be somewhat familiar with Earth culture, once comparing the Doctor's efforts to build a working TARDIS console to "a nine-year-old trying to rebuild a motorbike in his bedroom". She was puzzled by the Doctor's reference to fish fingers. When asked her name by the Doctor, she chose to be called "Sexy" because that's what he called her in private (she later introduced herself to Rory and Amy this way); she also expressed fondness for being called "Old Girl". Just prior to Idris' body being destroyed and the TARDIS' consciousness reverting to what it was, the TARDIS shared a tearful "hello" with the Doctor and was heard to utter the words "I love you" as the shell of Idris disappeared (DW: The Doctor's Wife)
- Episode writer Neil Gaiman, writing in The Brilliant Book 2012 indicated that Idris/The TARDIS was at one point also scripted to remark that she chose to remain in the police box form not because of a broken chameleon circuit, but because the Doctor liked it. She also was to have qualified her calling Rory "pretty" and Amy as "the orangy girl" by stating she rarely remembered the names of the Doctor's companions. As neither point made it on to the screen, their place in canon is debatable.
Behind the scenes
- The importance of the TARDIS to the Doctor Who franchise was recognised in late 2009 when the BBC unveiled a new version of the Doctor Who logo which entered service in 2010; the logo incorporates the initials DW formed in the familiar police box shape of the Doctor's TARDIS.
- Although the TARDIS has been a constant presence in the series since 1963, it has almost always been essentially a mode of conveyance, with the majority of stories taking place away from the vessel. There have been a few exceptions, such as DW: The Edge of Destruction and Time Crash in which the entire action of a story takes place within the TARDIS. DW: Amy's Choice also falls into this category, although given the illusionary nature of the story, much of it was filmed on locations and sets other than the actual TARDIS. DW: The Invasion of Time was the first story to give viewers an extensive tour of the bowels of the TARDIS (other than occasional glimpses of individual rooms); a more modest "tour" occurred in DW: Castrovalva. Viewers also saw new aspects of the TARDIS in the 1996 TV movie. In the comic strips, several stories have taken place almost entirely within the TARDIS, including DWM: Changes and IDW: Tesseract. In DW: The Doctor's Wife, more of the TARDIS was actively explored (albeit very similar areas) and parts of said areas were used by the antagonist to try to trap or kill the occupants; this episode marked the first time since the series had returned to television in 2005 that extensive areas beyond the control and wardrobe rooms were explored on screen.
- The Doctor's TARDIS appeared in the video game Fallout in a random encounter.
- The TARDIS has appeared in every televised Doctor Who story with the exception of Mission to the Unknown, Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Sea Devils, The Sontaran Experiment, Genesis of the Daleks and Midnight.
- The characteristic wheezing noise of the dematerialising TARDIS is made by scraping a key against piano wire.
- The TARDIS cameos in The Legend of Dick &nd Dom, when Dick & Dom are travelling through the mists of time, the TARDIS is seen in the background.
- In a cut scene in Journey's End, the Doctor gives the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor a piece of the TARDIS while Donna tells them a fast way of growing one.
See also
- The Doctor's TARDIS from an alternate timeline.
