Home > TARDIS

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

The TARDIS, an acronym of Time And Relative Dimensions (or Dimension) In Space, is a fictional time travelling machine in the British television programme Doctor Who and is the product of Time Lord technology. In the series, a Type 40 TARDIS is piloted by the main character of the Doctor. A properly piloted and working TARDIS is capable of transporting its occupants to any point in all of space and time. The name TARDIS is a registered trademark of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

There is some disagreement over whether the "D" in the name stands for "dimension" or "dimensions"; both have been used in various episodes. ¹ Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter, claimed to have coined the name TARDIS, but the name appears to be applied to all Time Lord time machines by others. This apparent inconsistency, like others over the course of the programme's history, has generated some lively debate among fans. TARDIS is correctly spelled as an acronym but there are many examples of the non-acronym format Tardis being used in media and licensed publications.

The vehicle (referred to as a ship) "travels" by dematerializing (vanishing) from one point and, after traversing the space-time vortex, simply rematerializing (appearing from nothing) anywhere else. This peculiar device was one of the trademarks of the show, allowing for a great deal of versatility in setting and storytelling without a large expense in special effects. The distinctive sound of this dematerialization/rematerialization effect, a cyclic wheezing, groaning noise, was originally created in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop by Brian Hodgson running his keys along the strings of an old, gutted piano.

TARDISes draw their power from a variety of sources, but their primary source of power is a dimensional link to an artificially created black hole created by the legendary Time Lord OmegaOmega is a fictional character from the long-running British science fiction television series, Doctor Who''. In the context of the series, Omega is known as one of the founding fathers of the Time Lords of the planet Gallifrey, and is a revered figure in. Each TARDIS's individual link, and the black hole itself, is known as the Eye of HarmonyThe Eye of Harmony in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who is the name given by the Time Lords to the artificially created black hole that provides nearly inexhuastible amounts of energy to their home planet of Gallifrey.. Other elements needed for the proper functioning of the TARDIS and requiring occasional replenishment include mercuryMercury also called quicksilver is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Hg ( L. hydrargyrum and atomic number 80. A heavy, silvery, transition metal, mercury is one of only two elements that are liquid at room temperature (the othe (used in its fluid links) and the rare ore Zeiton 7.

1 The Doctor's TARDIS

In the programme, the Doctor's TARDIS is an obsolete Type 40 that he borrowed "unofficially" when he departed his home planet of GallifreyGallifrey is a fictional planet in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who''. The planet is home to both the Doctor, and others of his race, the Time Lords. It is supposed to be located in the constellation of Kasterborous, a. All the other Type 40s have long since been decommissioned and replaced by new, improved models, although the changing appearance of the primary console room over the years imples that the Doctor does upgrade the TARDIS's systems every now and then.

The Doctor's TARDIS appears from outside to be an ordinary 1950Events January January 5 US Senator Estes Kefauver introduces a resolution calling for examination of organized crime in the USA January 6 The United Kingdom recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations withs style blue British police boxA police box is a telephone kiosk or callbox for use by members of the police. Police boxes pre-date the modern era, where every police officer (in developed countries) is likely to carry a two-way radio. They contained a telephone linked directly to the (a phone booth designed for police communications). Although it is only as big as a telephone box on the outside, the TARDIS is extremely large inside with a vast number of rooms and corridors. The show has explained that this is because the TARDIS is "dimensionally transcendental", meaning that its exterior and interior exist in separate dimensions. In The Robots of DeathRobots of Death The Robots of Death is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who starring Tom Baker as the Doctor and Louise Jameson as his companion Leela. The plot is essentially a murder mystery of the type where a group of p, the Doctor uses the analogyAn analogy is a comparison between two different things, in order to highlight some form of similarity. Analogies are often used to explain new or complex concepts by showing the similarity between something familiar and something else. Analogy types In l of how a larger cube can appear to be able to fit inside a smaller one if the larger cube is further away, yet immediately accessible at the same time.

Although it is supposed to blend inconspicuously into whatever time or environment it turns up in, it invariably shows up in the police box shape. At the time of the series' debut in 1963, the police box was still a common fixture in British cities. With some 700 in London alone, it was a logical choice for camouflaging a time machine. The concept of the police box disguise came from BBC staff writer Anthony Coburn , who wrote the programme's first episode from an outline by C.E. 'Bunny' Webber . The idea may also have been a creative ploy by the BBC to save time and money in props, but soon became an in-joke genre convention in its own right as the old-style police box was phased out of use. The anachronism has become more pronounced since there have been very few police boxes of that style left in Britain for some considerable time.

The rationalisation for being "stuck" in the shape of a police box was attribued in the second episode of the series to a malfunction in the ship's chameleon circuit, the mechanism which is responsible for changing the outside appearance of the ship in order to fit in with its environment. Despite his considerable ingenuity in other fields and his ownership of a sonic screwdriver, the Doctor has been unable to fix this problem completely; the occasional temporary success has always been followed by a return to the status quo. Ironically, the exterior appearance of the TARDIS (despite slight changes in the prop) has become the most unchanging feature of the show over the course of its run, and the shape of the police box is now more immediately associated with the Doctor than with the police.

The TARDIS console room as seen during the Fifth Doctor's era.

The Doctor's TARDIS has at least two console rooms - the primary, white-walled, futuristic one seen most often throughout the programme's history and the secondary console room used during the fourteenth season ( 1976– 1977), which has wood panelling and a more antique feel to it. The cavernous, steampunk-inspired console room seen in the Doctor Who telemovie may be a reconfiguration of either of these rooms or another console room entirely. The main feature of the 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 have varied widely but share common details; hexagonal pedestals with controls around the periphery and a moveable column in the center that bobs rhythmically up and down when the TARDIS is in flight. The secondary console was smaller, with the controls hidden behind wooden panels, and had no central column. The entrance to the TARDIS can be locked and unlocked from the outside with a key, which the Doctor keeps on his person.

A distinctive architectural feature of the TARDIS interior is the "roundel," a circular decoration that adorns the walls of the rooms and corridors of the TARDIS, including the console room. Some roundels conceal TARDIS circuitry and devices, as seen in the serials The Wheel in Space , Logopolis , Castrovalva , Arc of Infinity and Terminus. The design of the roundels has varied throughout the show’s history, from a basic circular cut-out with black background to a photographic image printed on wall board, to translucent illuminated discs in later serials. In the Third Doctor serial The Time Monster , the interior 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 Time Monster. In the aforementioned secondary console room, most of the roundels were executed in recessed wood paneling, while three (just to the left of the viewer screen) appeared to be stained glass.

Because the Doctor's 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. Efforts to repair, control, and maintain the TARDIS were frequent plot devices throughout the show's run. This creates the amusing irony of a highly-advanced space-time machine which is at the same time an obsolete and unreliable piece of junk.

The TARDIS is possessed of telepathic circuits, although the Doctor prefers to pilot it manually. In Pyramids of Mars, its controls are said to be isomorphic, that is, only the Doctor can 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. The Time Lords are also able to operate the TARDIS by remote control, ( Genesis of the Daleks) and, once, so did the renegade Time Lord known as the Rani ( The Mark of the Rani). In The Two Doctors the Doctor himself used a portable Stattenheim remote control to summon his TARDIS to him.

Some of the TARDIS's other functions include the Hostile Action Displacement System (HADS), which can teleport the ship away if it is attacked. The Cloister Room on the TARDIS sounds the Cloister Bell when disaster is imminent. The interior of the TARDIS also exists in a state of "Temporal Grace", which is supposed to ensure that no weapons can be used inside its environs. This last function is also inconsistent in its application.

At times the TARDIS also appears to have a mind of its own. It is heavily implied in the television series that the TARDIS is intelligent to a degree, and has a bond with those who travel in it (in Enemy Within, the Doctor calls the TARDIS "sentimental"). These characteristics have been made more explicit in the spin-off novels and audio plays. In the Big Finish Productions audio adventure Omega, the Doctor meets a TARDIS which "dies" after its Time Lord master has passed away.