TARDIS

The Third Doctor emerging from the TARDIS in the 1970 serial Spearhead from Space.

The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters, but many examples of the form Tardis are found in media and, occasionally, licensed publications. In the 2005 series episode World War Three, the caller ID of the TARDIS is displayed on Rose Tyler's mobile phone as "Tardis calling." This usage is consistent with current British press style, in which acronyms are referred to with only the first letter capitalised (for example, Nato), while initialisms (which are not pronounced as words), such as BBC, are capitalised in their entirety. The capitalisation of the initial letter and having the rest in lower case is also the default setting for Nokia mobile phones. is a fictional time machine and spacecraft in the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. The name is an acronym of Time And Relative Dimension (or Dimensions) In Space.There is some disagreement over whether the "D" in the name stands for "dimension" or "dimensions"; both have been used in various episodes. The very first story, An Unearthly Child (1963), used the singular "Dimension" and other episodes followed suit for the next couple of years. The 1964 novelisation Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks used the plural "Dimensions" for the first time and the 1965 serial The Time Meddler (1965) introduced it to the television series. Since then both versions have been used on different occasions; for example, it is singular again when mentioned in Frontios (1984). In Rose (2005), the Doctor uses the singular form (although this was a decision of the actor Christopher Eccleston â€" the line was scripted in the plural).

A product of Time Lord technology, a properly maintained and piloted TARDIS can transport its occupants to any point in Time and Space. The interior of a TARDIS is much larger than its exterior, which can blend in with its surroundings through the ship's chameleon circuit. In the series, the Doctor pilots an unreliable, obsolete Type 40 TARDIS whose chameleon circuit is stuck, giving it the shape of a 1950s-style London police box.

Although "TARDIS" is the name of a type of craft, rather than a specific one, the Doctor's TARDIS is usually referred to as "the" TARDIS or, in some of the earlier serials, just as "the ship". (In the two 1960s Dalek films, the craft was referred to as Tardis, without the definite article.)

The programme has become so much a part of British popular culture that not only has the shape of the police box become more immediately associated with the TARDIS than with its original real-world function, the word "TARDIS" has been used to describe anything that seems bigger on the inside than on the outside.

The TARDIS has at least two console rooms â€" the primary, white-walled, futuristic one most used throughout the programme's history and the secondary console room used during Season 14, which has wood panelling and a more antique feel to it. Two other console rooms have also been seen, in the television movie and the 2005 series. The cavernous, steampunk-inspired console room of the television movie may have been a reconfiguration of either of the previously mentioned console rooms (as first suggested in New Adventures novels and later in the Big Finish Productions audio plays) or another one entirely.

In the Third Doctor serial The Time Monster (1972), the console room of the TARDIS was dramatically altered, including the wall roundels. This new set, designed by Tim Gleeson, was disliked by producer Barry Letts who felt that the new roundels resembled washing-up bowls stuck to the wall. As it turned out, the set was damaged in storage between production blocks and had to be rebuilt, so this particular design only saw service in the one serial.

In the 2005 series, the console room became a dome-shaped chamber with organic-looking support columns. The interior doors are now absent, with the police box doors being clearly visible from inside the TARDIS. How this configuration came about is not explained, but in The Gallifrey Chronicles, the TARDIS interior was severely damaged by a cold fusion explosion. Although The Gallifrey Chronicles was written before the start of the 2005 series, Parkin has commented in the Outpost Gallifrey fan fora that the TARDIS repairing itself after this coincidental event could explain the change in look. (As always the canonicity of the non-televised media is uncertain.)

The Virgin novels introduced a tertiary console room, which was described as resembling a Gothic cathedral (Nightshade by Mark Gatiss). Another novel (Death and Diplomacy by Dave Stone) suggested that the "native" configuration is so complex and irrational that most non-Time Lords who witness it are driven mad from the experience.

=The TARDIS console

=The main feature of the console rooms, in any of the known configurations, is the TARDIS console that holds the instruments that control the ship's functions. The appearance of the primary TARDIS consoles has varied widely but share common details: hexagonal pedestals with controls around the periphery and a moveable column in the centre that bobs rhythmically up and down when the TARDIS is in flight, like a pump or a piston. Although fan opinion is divided on this point, the arrangement of the controls implies that it was designed to be manned by more than one person. One piece of fan continuity, used in the spin-off media and also mentioned by the current production team, is that the consoles were supposed to be operated by between three to six Time Lords. This may explain why the Doctor tends to do a lot of manic running around the console while he is piloting the TARDIS.

The console can be operated independently of the TARDIS. During the Third Doctor's era, he occasionally detached the console from the TARDIS to perform repairs on it. In Inferno (1970) the Doctor rides a detached console into a parallel universe.

The console room from the 1996 television movie.

The central column is often referred to as the "time rotor", although when the term was first used in The Chase (1965) it referred to a different instrument on the TARDIS console. However, the use of this term to describe the central column was common in fan literature and was finally used on screen when the Doctor referred to the central column as the time rotor in the 1996 television movie. The current production team uses the term in the same way.

The secondary console was smaller, with the controls hidden behind wooden panels, and had no central column. The 1996 television movie console also appeared to be made of wood and the central column connected to the ceiling of the console room. The new series' console is circular in shape and divided into six segments, with both the control panels and the central column glowing green, the latter once again connected to the ceiling.

The new series console has a much more thrown-together appearance than previous consoles, with bits of junk from various eras substituting as makeshift controls, including a glass paperweight, a small bell and a bicycle pump, the latter identified in the Tenth Doctor interactive mini-episode Attack of the Graske as the vortex loop control. Two other controls, the dimensional stabiliser and the vector tracker were also identified, but although the stabiliser had been mentioned before in the series, the canonicity of the mini-episode is also unclear. As seen in World War Three, there is now a working telephone attached to the console.

Precisely how much control the Doctor has in directing the TARDIS has been inconsistently portrayed over the course of the series. The First Doctor did not initially seem to be able to accurately steer it, but over time subsequent Doctors seemed to be able to pilot it with more precision. However, writers continued to use the plot device of having the TARDIS randomly land somewhere, or imply that the TARDIS was "temperamental" in its courses through time and space.

Following the Key to Time season (1978â€"79), the Doctor installed a randomiser to the console which prevented the Doctor (and by extension the evil and powerful Black Guardian) from knowing where the TARDIS would land next. This device was eventually removed in The Leisure Hive (1980). In the new series, the Doctor is shown piloting the TARDIS at will, although he still makes the occasional error, such as returning Rose to Earth a year later than he meant to in Aliens of London (2005), or landing in 1879 instead of 1979 in Tooth and Claw (2006).

In Boom Town, a portion of the TARDIS console opened and a luminescent vapour could be seen within, described by the Doctor as the "heart of the TARDIS", harkening back to the description in The Edge of Destruction. In The Parting of the Ways (2005) it was shown that this is connected to the powerful energies of the time vortex.

TARDIS systems

The new series console room, first seen in Rose.

Because the TARDIS is so old, it is inclined to break down. The Doctor is often seen with his head stuck in a panel carrying out maintenance of some kind or another, and he occasionally has to give it "percussive maintenance" (a good thump on the console) to get it to start working properly. The second-hand nature of the TARDIS may account for some of this. Efforts to repair, control, and maintain the TARDIS were frequent plot devices throughout the show's run, creating the amusing irony of a highly advanced space-time machine which, at the same time, is an obsolete and unreliable piece of junk.

Control systems

The TARDIS possesses telepathic circuits, although the Doctor prefers to pilot it manually. In Pyramids of Mars (1975), the Fourth Doctor told Sutekh that the TARDIS controls were isomorphic, meaning only the Doctor could operate them. However, this characteristic seems to appear and disappear when dramatically convenient, and various companions have been seen to be able to operate the TARDIS and even fly it. It has been theorised that either the Doctor was lying to Sutekh or the isomorphic feature is a security feature that the Doctor can activate and deactivate when convenient. The Eighth Doctor does just this in the Big Finish Productions audio play Other Lives (2005) to allow his companion C'rizz to operate the console.

Apart from the sound that accompanies dematerialisation, in The Web of Fear (1966), the TARDIS console was also seen to have a light that winked on and off during landing, although the more usual indicator of flight is the movement of the central column. The TARDIS also possesses a scanner so that its crew may examine the exterior environment before exiting the ship. In the 2005 series the scanner display is attached to the console and is able to display television signals as well as various computing functions and occasionally what the production team has stated are Gallifreyan numbers and text.

In some of the First Doctor serials, the console room also contains a machine that dispenses food or nutrition bars to the Doctor and his companions. This machine disappears after the first few serials, although mention is occasionally made of the TARDIS kitchen.

In the television movie, access to the Eye of Harmony is controlled by means of a device that requires a human eye to open. Why the Doctor would program such a requirement is retroactively explained in the Big Finish Productions audio play The Apocalypse Element, where a Dalek invasion of Gallifrey prompts the Time Lords to code their security locks to the retinal patterns of the Sixth Doctor's companion Evelyn Smythe.

Defences

Some of the TARDIS's other functions include a force field and the Hostile Action Displacement System (HADS), which can teleport the ship away if it is attacked (The Krotons, 1968). The force field may no longer be present on the current TARDIS, as an external device had to be hooked up to provide one in The Parting of the Ways. The TARDIS's Cloister Bell sounds when "wild catastrophes and sudden calls to man the battle stations" are imminent (Logopolis).

The interior of the TARDIS is said to be in a state of "multidimensional temporal grace" (The Hand of Fear, 1976). The Fourth Doctor explained this meant that, "in a sense," things do not exist while inside the TARDIS. This has the practical effect of ensuring that no weapons can be used inside its environs. However, this last function is also inconsistent in its application â€" weapons were fired in the console room in both Earthshock (1982) and The Parting of the Ways. In Arc of Infinity, the Fifth Doctor was planning to repair the temporal grace circuits but was interrupted by the events of that story.

Other systems

The "Jade Pagoda," art by Peter Elson.

The TARDIS also grants its passengers the ability to understand and speak other languages. This was previously described in The Masque of Mandragora (1976) as a "Time Lord gift" which the Doctor shared with his companions, but was ultimately attributed to the TARDIS's telepathic field in The End of the World (2005). In The Christmas Invasion, it was revealed that the Doctor himself was an integral element of this capability. Rose was unable to understand the alien Sycorax whilst the Doctor was in a regenerative crisis. In The Impossible Planet (2006), it was said that the TARDIS normally even translates writing; in that episode, the TARDIS was unable to translate an alien script, and the Doctor said that meant the language was "impossibly" old. In the Ninth Doctor Adventures novel Only Human, the telepathic field includes a filter that replaces foul or undesirable language with more acceptable terms.

At times the TARDIS appears to have a mind of its own. It is heavily implied in the television series that the TARDIS is "alive" and intelligent to a degree (first in The Edge of Destruction), and shares a bond with those who travel in it; in the television movie the Doctor calls the TARDIS "sentimental." In The Parting of the Ways, the Doctor leaves a message for Rose when he believes he will never return, asking her to "let the TARDIS die." Later on in the same episode, Rose says that "this thing is alive," although it is unknown if she meant it literally. These characteristics have been made more explicit in the spin-off novels and audio plays. In the Big Finish audio play Omega, the Doctor meets a TARDIS which "dies" after its Time Lord master's demise.

In the novels, a portion of the TARDIS could be separated and used for independent travel. This was featured in two Virgin novels, Iceberg by David Banks and Sanctuary by David A. McIntee. This subset of the TARDIS, resembling a small pagoda fashioned out of jade, had limited range and functionality, but was used occasionally when the main TARDIS was incapacitated. A Yahoo! Groups electronic mailing list dedicated to discussion of the Doctor Who spin-off novels adopted the name "Jade Pagoda."

Other TARDISes

The interior of the Rani's TARDIS

Other TARDISes have appeared in the television series. The Master had his own TARDIS, a more advanced model. Its chameleon circuit is fully functional, so it has been seen in various forms including a filing cabinet, a grandfather clock, a fireplace, an Ionic column, and an iron maiden. While a TARDIS can materialise inside another, if both TARDISes occupy exactly the same space, a Time Ram will occur, resulting in total annihilation (The Time Monster). In Logopolis, the Master tricked the Doctor into materialising his TARDIS around the Master's, creating a dimensionally recursive loop, with each TARDIS appearing inside the other's console room.

Other Time Lords with TARDISes included the Meddling Monk and the Rani. The War Chief provided dimensionally transcendent time machines named SIDRATs (Space and Inter-Dimensional Robot All-purpose Transporter, according to the novelisation of The War Games) to the alien race known as the War Lords. In the script for The Chase, Dalek time machines are known as DARDISes.

In the spin-off media, Gallifreyan Battle TARDISes have appeared in the comic books, novels and audio plays, which fire "time torpedoes" that freeze the target in time. The renegade Time Lady Iris Wildthyme's own TARDIS was disguised as a No. 22 London Bus, but was slightly smaller on the inside than it is on the outside. The Eighth Doctor Adventures novels have stated that future model Type 102 TARDISes will be fully sentient, and able to take on humanoid form (Alien Bodies). The Eighth Doctor's companion Compassion was the first Type 102 TARDIS (The Shadows of Avalon), and she was seen to have enough firepower to annihilate other TARDISes (The Ancestor Cell). The "unofficial" Ninth Doctor from the 40th anniversary animated webcast Scream of the Shalka had a TARDIS console room that looked similar to the Eighth Doctor's steampunk version.

In the Big Finish audio play The One Doctor, confidence trickster Banto Zame impersonated the Doctor. However, due to incomplete information, his copy of the TARDIS (a short range transporter) was called a Stardis instead, resembled a portaloo rather than a police box, and was not dimensionally transcendental. In Unregenerate!, the Seventh Doctor and Mel stopped a secret Time Lord project to download TARDIS minds into bodies of various alien species. This would have created living TARDIS pilots loyal to the Time Lords and ensuring that they would have ultimate control over any use of time travel technology by other races. Those created before the project was shut down departed on their own to explore the universe.

Since the destruction of Gallifrey and the Time Lords as stated in the 2005 series, the Doctor believes that his TARDIS is the last in the universe (Rise of the Cybermen, 2006). The removal of Gallifrey — and by implication the Eye of Harmony — may also be why the TARDIS in Boom Town needed to refuel using radiation from a space-time rift. In Rise of the Cybermen the Doctor also states that the TARDIS draws power from "the universe", but is unable to do so if in an alternate reality.

Other appearances

Merchandising

As one of the most recognisable images connected with Doctor Who, the TARDIS has appeared on numerous items of merchandise associated with the programme. TARDIS scale models of various sizes have been manufactured to accompany other Doctor Who dolls and action figures, some with sound effects included. Fan-built full-size models of the police box are also common. There have been TARDIS-shaped video games, play tents for children, toy boxes, cookie jars, book ends, key chains and even a police-box-shaped bottle for a TARDIS bubble bath. The 1993 VHS release of The Trial of a Time Lord was contained in a special edition tin shaped like the TARDIS.

With the 2005 series revival, a TARDIS-shaped DVD/CD cabinet, standing 22 inches (55 cm) tall with adjustable shelves, was made by Cod Steaks Ltd, a Bristol-based model-making company. Other TARDIS-related merchandise announced in conjunction with the new series included a TARDIS coin box and a TARDIS that detects the ring signal from a mobile phone and flashes when an incoming call is detected, as well as a children's book, the TARDIS Manual which contained information on the ship and a pop-out-and-make cardboard model. The complete 2005 season DVD box set released in November 2005 resembles a TARDIS.

A model TARDIS, used in the television series' production in the 1970s, sold at auction in December 2005 for £10,800.