TARDIS exterior (The Leisure Hive)
During the Doctor's TARDIS's use by the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors, its outer shell had a distinct TARDIS police box exterior design.
One account indicated this was the fourth major design of the Doctor's TARDIS exterior. (PROSE: TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual [+]Loading...["TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual (reference book)"])
When the TARDISes of the First, Second, and Third Doctors split from the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS due to temporal fission, they all had this exterior appearance. (TV: The Five Doctors [+]Loading...["The Five Doctors (TV story)"])
Design[[edit] | [edit source]]
Its sides were panelled, with four panels per slat and two slats per side, with the highest panel being six-segment blue-frame windows.
The TARDIS doors opened inward and had a door handle on the right door. The TARDIS lock was located on the left side of the right door, adjacent to the upper part of the second highest panel.
The left door had a telephone panel with white writing on a blue background. As a distinct detail, this panel had a handle on it.
The Police Public Call Box signs had white writing on a blue background. (TV: The Leisure Hive [+]Loading...["The Leisure Hive (TV story)"], et al.)
The design had a two-tiered roof. (PROSE: TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual [+]Loading...["TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual (reference book)"])
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Doctor's TARDIS[[edit] | [edit source]]
By one account, this design was created when the Fourth Doctor tried to fix the chameleonic fluctation which created a version of the TARDIS exterior without a tiered roof. With some tinkering, this new design emerged which had a roof and general shape closer to the first police box exterior. (PROSE: St Anthony's Fire [+]Loading...["St Anthony's Fire (novel)"])
On Terra Alpha, the TARDIS exterior was painted pink. (TV: The Happiness Patrol [+]Loading...["The Happiness Patrol (TV story)"])
By one account, the Seventh Doctor stopped using this design after he tried to fix his ship's chameleonic fluctuation, replacing it with something closer to the original exterior which had the St John's Ambulance badge once more. (PROSE: St Anthony's Fire [+]Loading...["St Anthony's Fire (novel)"])
By another account, this exterior was destroyed when the TARDIS was struck by cannon fire which displaced the outer shell. This triggered the Hostile Action Displacement System, causing the TARDIS to retreat to the Time Vortex where it grew a new shell. The remains of the old shell were used as fire wood by soldiers. (AUDIO: The Angel of Scutari [+]Loading...["The Angel of Scutari (audio story)"])
There were brief points in which this exterior diverted from its usual police box shape. As the Sixth Doctor attempted to repair the TARDIS's chameleon circuit, it changed appearance to a wardrobe, a pipe organ, and a metal gateway, before returning to its police box form. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (TV story)"])
A version of this design with a more extreme Police Public Call Box sign was used by one Ninth Doctor. (TV: The Curse of Fatal Death [+]Loading...["The Curse of Fatal Death (TV story)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- This exterior was designed by Tom Yardley-Jones. (DOC: A New Beginning)
- A paper model of this design was released in Build the TARDIS.
