Materialisation (TARDISes)

Materialisation was a vital functionality of TARDISes that allowed them to travel through space and time, by "disappearing there and reappearing here,", (TV: Rose) using a dematerialisation circuit. TARDISes would dematerialise in order to enter the Time Vortex, travel through it, and arrive at the destination by re-materialising, or materialising. The process would take varying amounts of seconds, sometimes taking a significant amount of time, or near instantly arriving, of ships fading in and out of existence, or gradually disappearing without fading, with a loud, wheezing, groaning sound accompanying it. Both the visual and auditory effects could be turned off, thereby allowing TARDISes to land invisibly (TV: The Impossible Astronaut), and silently (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Impossible Astronaut, The Time of the Doctor).

TARDIS De/Rematerialisation
De/Rematerialisation was controlled by a component called the dematerialisation circuit. The circuit would only work if the specific model of TARDIS was designed to use the specific model of dematerialisation circuit or it would not work. For example, a Type-40 TARDIS, designed to use a Mark 1 Dematerialisation Circuit, would not be able to dematerialise if a Mark 2 Dematerialisation Circuit was used instead. (TV: Terror of the Autons)