TARDIS control console

A TARDIS control console (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Armageddon Factor) — often simply known as "the console" or the TARDIS console — controlled most of the operations of the TARDIS. It was the namesake of the room of the TARDIS in which it was found — a room alternately known as the "control room" or "console room".

Functionality
A TARDIS console had a wide range of functions. Chiefly, it was the device used to control a TARDIS' flight. But it also contained a variety of other devices and buttons. It could be used to:
 * open the exterior doors (TV: An Unearthly Child, et al)
 * control the chameleon circuit (TV: Logopolis)
 * access the TARDIS information system (TV: Castrovalva) and a vocal archive (PROSE: The Nameless City)
 * dispense condiments (TV: Vincent and the Doctor)
 * make the TARDIS invisible (TV: The Invasion)
 * provide power to devices outside the TARDIS (TV: ''Utopia)
 * activate loudspeakers on the exterior of the TARDIS (TV: Utopia)

Eleventh Doctor's first console
The various systems of the Eleventh Doctor's initial console room were fairly well-understood. According to one account, each of the six panels controlled discrete functions. (GAME: 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 (so the Doctor could leave himself memos), 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 may also have been known as a zigzag plotter.

Design history

 * to be added