Police box

A police box or police public callbox was a telephone kiosk or callbox for use by members of the police.

History forgot the police box, with one of the last of its kind sitting on the Barnet By-Pass in 1981. (DW: Logopolis)

Appearances and references

 * Early in his travels, the Doctor's TARDIS assumed the exterior shape of a police box during a five-month stopover in 1963 London. Due a malfunction in its chameleon circuit, the TARDIS became locked into that shape (DW: An Unearthly Child)


 * Though it has briefly changed its shape on occasion, for the most part, the Doctor's TARDIS has remained in the shape of police box ever since.


 * Returned to London in 1965, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright amused themselves with the sighting of a real police box. (DW: The Chase)


 * To amuse himself, the Doctor manipulated the chameleon circuit of the Monk's TARDIS to make it assume several shapes, including that of a police box. (DW: The Daleks' Master Plan)


 * Dodo Chaplet entered the TARDIS believing it to be a police box and wanting to make an emergency call about an accident (DW: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve) The exact circumstances of why Dodo needed to make such a call, and her williingness to leave with the Doctor, became evident only later. (PDA: Salvation)


 * Tegan Jovanka entered the Doctor's TARDIS shortly after, mistaking it for an actual police box. (DW: Logopolis)


 * In 1981, as part of a complex plot, the The Master materialized his TARDIS around one of disguised his TARDIS around a real police box on the Barnet By-Pass. The Doctor's TARDIS, stil disguised as a police box, materialized around the Master's TARDIS, also disguised as a police box, creating a paradox and a trap for the Doctor. (DW: Logopolis).


 * A police officer at first mistook the Doctor's TARDIS for a real police box until invited inside by him. (DW: Black Orchid).


 * When the Doctor once more met the Monk, he had configured his TARDIS voluntarily into the shape of a police box. (DWM: 4-Dimensional Vistas)


 * In 1959 Wales, two American secret agents used a police box. (DW: Delta and the Bannermen)


 * An actual police box sat across the stree from where the Doctor had landed the TARDIS. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)


 * Bridgt showed LINDA slides of the Doctor's TARDIS, which she described as looking like "a faux police box". In fact, she only had photos of various real police boxes. (DW: Love & Monsters)

Behind the Scenes

 * The BBC holds a trademark to the British design of the police box as used on Doctor Who.


 * In the programme, the TARDIS is in the shape of a 1930s-era Metropolitan police box. (This makes the officer's recognition of the TARDIS in Black Orchid anachronistic.)