Tardis

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Tardis
This article needs a big cleanup.

Holy T:NPOV violations Batman! Like with TARDIS, this page needs to reflect the pre-Time Lord retcons of the 1960s era, as many things, such as Gallifrey, hadn't been invented yet.

These problems might be so great that the article's factual accuracy has been compromised. Talk about it here or check the revision history or Manual of Style for more information.

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The Doctor's TARDIS — also called the Ship, the Box, and simply the TARDIS (PROSE: Time and Relative [+]Kim Newman, Telos Doctor Who novellas (Telos Publishing, 2001)., COMIC: Food for Thought [+]Nick Briggs, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics UK, 1994).) — was the Doctor's primary means of transport. It was capable of travelling through space and time. The Doctor voyaged all across the universe in this vessel, from the Big Bang (TV: Terminus [+]Steve Gallagher, Doctor Who season 20 (BBC1, 1983)., Castrovalva [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982)., AUDIO: Slipback [+]Eric Saward, BBC Audio Dramas (BBC Radio 4, 1985)., PROSE: Nothing O'Clock [+]Neil Gaiman, Puffin eshort (Puffin Books, 2013).) to the end of the universe, (TV: Utopia [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007)., Listen [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014)., AUDIO: The Chaos Pool [+]Peter Anghelides, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2009)., COMIC: Petals [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) and from the centre of the universe (TV: Terminus [+]Steve Gallagher, Doctor Who season 20 (BBC1, 1983)., Twice Upon a Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2017 (BBC One, 2017).) to its outermost edges. (TV: Planet of Evil [+]Louis Marks, Doctor Who season 13 (BBC1, 1975)., Underworld [+]Bob Baker and Dave Martin, Doctor Who season 15 (BBC1, 1978).) The craft was also capable of travelling between parallel realities, in spite of the fact that it was not specifically designed for inter-dimensional travel. (TV: Inferno [+]Don Houghton, Doctor Who season 7 (BBC1, 1970)., Rise of the Cybermen [+]Tom MacRae, adapted from Spare Parts (Marc Platt), Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).) Like all other TARDIS models, the Doctor's TARDIS was controlled via a central control console. (TV: An Unearthly Child [+]Anthony Coburn, adapted from The Pilot Episode (Anthony Coburn), Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963)., et al.)

Other Time Lords frequently characterised the Doctor's TARDIS as woefully out-of-date. (TV: The Claws of Axos [+]Bob Baker and Dave Martin, Doctor Who season 8 (BBC1, 1971)., The Ribos Operation [+]Robert Holmes, Doctor Who season 16 (BBC1, 1978).) Narvin called it "scrap", compared to his own Type 400. (AUDIO: The Quantum Possibility Engine) Indeed, by at least the time of the Fourth Doctor, if not earlier, the TARDIS model — called a "Type 40" — had been pulled from general service on Gallifrey, and replaced by more advanced models. (TV: The Deadly Assassin [+]Robert Holmes, Doctor Who season 14 (BBC1, 1976)., The Invasion of Time [+]David Agnew, Doctor Who season 15 (BBC1, 1978).)

The craft was prone to a number of technical faults, ranging from depleted resources (TV: An Unearthly Child [+]Anthony Coburn, adapted from The Pilot Episode (Anthony Coburn), Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963)., The Wheel in Space [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1968)., Vengeance on Varos [+]Philip Martin, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).) to malfunctioning controls (TV: The Edge of Destruction [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1964).) to a simple inability to arrive at the proper time or location. (TV: The Visitation [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982)., Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985)., The Eleventh Hour [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010)., Victory of the Daleks [+]Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010)., The Girl Who Waited [+]Tom MacRae, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011). et al.) However, because the TARDIS was a living being, these "faults" may instead have been at least partially attributed to the manifestation of the ship's free will. Indeed, the TARDIS itself once told the Eleventh Doctor that while it may not have always taken him where he wanted to go, it had always taken him to where he needed to go. (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) As the Twelfth Doctor knew her, the TARDIS was always "looking for trouble"; he loved her for it. (TV: Thin Ice [+]Sarah Dollard, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).)

As the centuries passed and all of the Doctor's companions came and went, the Doctor's faithful TARDIS remained their constant companion. Apart from the TARDIS, the Doctor only had memories. (AUDIO: Relative Dimensions [+]Marc Platt, Eighth Doctor Adventures (Big Finish Productions, 2010).) They shared an unbreakable bond, and the Doctor came to feel that in the end, it was just the Doctor and their TARDIS, travelling the universe together. (AUDIO: The Girl Who Never Was, TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) The Eighth Doctor thought of her as his oldest friend. (AUDIO: Wild Animals) Such was this bond, that, in an alternate timeline, the TARDIS eventually became the Doctor's final resting place, containing his personal time stream. (TV: The Name of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).) The TARDIS eventually chose a name for herself, but she never revealed it to anyone, not even the Doctor (PROSE: Toy Story [+]Lawrence Miles, Faction Paradox short stories (Mad Norwegian Press, 2004).) who, for their part, referred to her as "Sexy". (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)

The Doctor's TARDIS was depicted in many cultures on Earth in a variety of forms, such as being depicted as the temple of the household "gods", the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble, by Lobus Caecilius's family after they were rescued from the destruction of Pompeii, (TV: The Fires of Pompeii [+]James Moran, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).) being painted on a church's stained glass window after the Doctor "smote [a] demon" at a convent in the 1300s, (TV: The End of Time [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2009 and New Year Special 2010 (BBC One, 2009-2010).) and the Eleventh Doctor using the power of its image to counter the influence of the Prometheans. (COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (2013).) According to the Moment, the noise the TARDIS made when it appeared brought hope to anyone who heard it, no matter how lost they were. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).).

River Song was known to steal the TARDIS when the Doctor was out. (TV: The Husbands of River Song [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2015 (BBC One, 2015).)

At some point, the TARDIS started emitting growling noises at various times (TV: Wild Blue Yonder [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023)., The Devil's Chord [+]Doctor Who (BBC One and Disney+, 2024)., Rogue [+]Kate Herron and Briony Redman, Doctor Who series 14 (BBC One and Disney+, 2024).) as it had fell under the influence of Sutekh. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 14 (BBC One and Disney+, 2024).)

Following the Fourteenth Doctor's bi-generation and the defeat of the Toymaker, the Fifteenth Doctor used his prize from the Toymaker's game to bi-generate the TARDIS as well, enabling one version of the TARDIS to stay with the retired Fourteenth Doctor whilst the Fifteenth Doctor used the other to continue travelling across time and space. (TV: The Giggle [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).).

History[]

Procurement[]

Dubious origins[]

According to one account, the Ships on the Homeworld were born from the Matrix, whom they referred to as Mother. As part of a secret plan, Mother also conceived two hybrid offspring, twin sisters who were only half-Ship. When the time came for them to choose their Homeworlder pilots, one chose "the dangerous-looking one", and the other chose "the cuckoo". At this point, Mother expressed "complete resignation" with the latter Ship, realising that she had been wasting her time with her. (PROSE: Toy Story [+]Lawrence Miles, Faction Paradox short stories (Mad Norwegian Press, 2004).)

By most accounts though, the ship that would become the Doctor's TARDIS was one of 305 Type 40 TT capsules that had been manufactured. (TV: The Deadly Assassin [+]Robert Holmes, Doctor Who season 14 (BBC1, 1976).) Like her sister ships, she was installed with the Record of Rassilon. (TV: State of Decay [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1980).)

Both the First and Third Doctors implied he had built his TARDIS himself, (TV: The Chase [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 2 (BBC1, 1965)., COMIC: Backtime [+]Dick O'Neill, TVA comic stories (Polystyle, 1971).) which the Twelfth Doctor mentally described, in hindsight, as an empty boast trying to impress "the apes" whom the Doctor had, in a way, looked down upon. (PROSE: Twice Upon a Time [+]Paul Cornell, adapted from Twice Upon a Time (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) A dissenting account claimed that this boast was genuine, and that the Doctor had been a genius mathematician whose unprecedented equations allowed him to conceptualise Space and Time into a single concept, the Idea of the Living Matter, based on which he had built the one and only TARDIS. (PROSE: The Equations of Dr Who [+]The Dr Who Annual 1966 (Doctor Who annual, 1965).) Graham O'Brien later told Thomas Edison that the TARDIS was "copyright: her". (TV: Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror [+]Nina Métivier, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).)

Though many accounts instead depicted TARDISes as a class of vehicle common on the Doctor's homeworld, (TV: The Time Meddler [+]Dennis Spooner, Doctor Who season 2 (BBC1, 1965)., The Name of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013)., etc.) one of the Doctor's fellow Time Lords, the War Chief, still knew the Doctor as an expert in TARDIS engineering, who might be able, if he could be convinced to do so, to help him improve the flawed SIDRATs that the War Chief had given the War Lords. (TV: The War Games [+]Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1969).) The Eleventh Doctor indeed had the ability to build a TARDIS console from scratch. (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)

One of the Seventh Doctor's repressed memories "from before he was born", (PROSE: Human Nature [+]Paul Cornell, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1995).) thus relating to the early life of the Other, a semi-mythical figure from early Gallifreyan history who had helped raise the Gallifreyan civilisation into that of the Masters of Time, (PROSE: Lungbarrow [+]Marc Platt, adapted from Lungbarrow, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1997).) inspired John Smith to write the tale of The Old Man and the Police Box, wherein which the Doctor/Other had originally been an inventor from Victorian England who kept making alterations to his police box prototype until it had the ability to travel in time and space, at which point the old man decided to run away from Earth aboard his serendipitously-created Ship. Smith's account gave no indication of a hard break between the time traveller creating the Time Lord society and the life of the First Doctor, stating that the man eventually grew bored of the world he'd created and ran back to Earth aboard the same old police-box-shaped time machine. (PROSE: Human Nature [+]Paul Cornell, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1995).)

The Doctor steals an old Type 40 travel unit

By most accounts, the Doctor stole his TARDIS upon leaving Gallifrey. (PROSE: Lungbarrow [+]Marc Platt, adapted from Lungbarrow, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1997).)

However, by most accounts, the Doctor had actually stolen the TARDIS. The Doctor himself admitted this on many occasions. (TV: The War Games [+]Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1969)., Frontier in Space [+]Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973).', Logopolis [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1981)., Planet of the Dead [+]Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts, Doctor Who Easter Special 2009 (BBC One, 2009)., The Big Bang [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010)., The Time of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013)., Death in Heaven [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014)., COMIC: The World Shapers [+]Grant Morrison, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1987)., AUDIO: The Beginning [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW., Trial of the Valeyard [+]Alan Barnes and Mike Maddox, The Sixth Doctor Adventures (Big Finish Productions, 2013)., The Great War [+]Nicholas Briggs, Dark Eyes (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Dark Eyes, Big Finish Productions, 2012).) a theft that the TARDIS, once she gained the ability to speak, with a humanoid body as anchor, described as mutual; wanting to see the universe, she had herself stolen a pilot to run away with, (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) in line with the account that she had chosen him as her pilot. (PROSE: Toy Story [+]Lawrence Miles, Faction Paradox short stories (Mad Norwegian Press, 2004).)

Previous owners[]

If it had not been built by the Doctor, the TARDIS was previously owned by "several irresponsible owners" before the Doctor, (AUDIO: Collision Course) though accounts differed as to whether the last of them was Marnal (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Lance Parkin, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2005).) or Marianna. (AUDIO: The Abandoned [+]Nigel Fairs and Louise Jameson, The Fourth Doctor Adventures (Big Finish Productions, 2014).) After Ulysses and Penelope Gate wiped Marnal's mind and deposited him in 1883 England, they took his TARDIS with them; (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Lance Parkin, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2005).) the Doctor once identified it as a "family heirloom". (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors [+]Lance Parkin, BBC Books (1998).) Susan suspected that the TARDIS had at one point been to Goliatha where a Golithan Spiney Back Beetle had found its way into the TARDIS control console. (AUDIO: The Hollow Crown [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) In one account of her first night aboard the TARDIS, Susan found evidence that led her to suspect it had once had a much larger crew who voyaged the cosmos in it. (AUDIO: The Beginning [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

Some other accounts differed on the TARDIS's status prior to the Doctor's theft of it, and implied that it came from the general, government-controlled "stockpile" of TARDISes after the model had been officially decommissioned. (TV: The Deadly Assassin [+]Robert Holmes, Doctor Who season 14 (BBC1, 1976)., PROSE: The Exiles, COMIC: Time & Time Again [+]Paul Cornell, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1993).) The Fourth Doctor told Adric that "it was in for repairs on Gallifrey when [he] borrowed it." When Adric countered that he thought the Doctor outright owned the vehicle, the Doctor said, "Well, on a sort of 'finders, keepers' basis, yes." (TV: Logopolis [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1981).)

The choice[]

The TARDIS was eventually withdrawn from service and set to be scrapped, the First Doctor suspecting that it had been already been decommissioned, (AUDIO: The Beginning [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) before it was "borrowed" by the Doctor and his granddaughter Susan in their escape from Gallifrey. Upon entering, the Doctor declared the TARDIS to be the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)

When the Doctor first decided to leave Gallifrey, he had the chance to take a Type 53 but dismissed it as "soulless" in favour of the Type 40. (PROSE: Lungbarrow [+]Marc Platt, adapted from Lungbarrow, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1997).) Although he already possessed a Type 50 TARDIS the Doctor needed to leave Gallifrey in a "hurry," according to the Fifth Doctor, and he stole a different TARDIS instead of his first TARDIS. However, he made it clear that if things had gone differently during his escape, he would have taken the Type 50. (AUDIO: Prisoners of Fate)

By one account of the theft, Susan was one of Rassilon's descendants, Lady Larn, and had hidden herself aboard the TARDIS, electing to join the Doctor when he stole the craft. (PROSE: Birth of a Renegade) In another, the Doctor's only company when he boarded the TARDIS was the Hand of Omega which overrode the safeguards that forbade the ship from travelling into Gallifrey's past so that the Doctor, the reincarnation of the Other, could collect his granddaughter. (PROSE: Lungbarrow [+]Marc Platt, adapted from Lungbarrow, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1997).) In another, the Doctor had simply found the TARDIS and with no one claiming possession of it, he helped himself to it. (POEM: Something Borrowed, Something Blue)

In another account, in which Susan found the ship at the same time as her grandfather, the Doctor had not initially intended to take the Type 40, being persuaded to do so by a Gallifreyan echo of Clara Oswald. Detecting the breach into the repair shop, two Time Lord workers were surprised that anyone would steal a faulty TARDIS. (TV: The Name of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).) In this account, the TARDIS engines were in the process of being dismantled by Quadrigger Stoyn, his face being badly burnt when the Doctor took off. (AUDIO: The Beginning [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) In another account, the TARDIS' former owner Marianna had been aboard. (AUDIO: The Abandoned [+]Nigel Fairs and Louise Jameson, The Fourth Doctor Adventures (Big Finish Productions, 2014).)

The TARDIS' departure from Gallifrey caused a "commotion", one that the Eleventh General recalled witnessing. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) The Doctor's original TARDIS hired a Celestial Intervention Agency agent named Maris to locate the Doctor, angry at having been left behind in favour of an inferior model. Meanwhile, the Master and the Rani learnt of the Doctor's escape and became desperate to figure out where he had gone. (PROSE: Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (BBC Children's Books, 2018).)

The TARDIS herself said she was "a museum piece", though this may have been figurative. (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)

None of these accounts precluded the possibility that the Doctor had somehow been responsible for its creation. Indeed, another account compromised between theft and creation. It claimed while the Doctor had not built the TARDIS from scratch, he had substantially modified/rebuilt it. According to this view, he achieved control of the TARDIS without using a direct mental link. This let him bypass the feature on most TARDISes which sent a tracking signal to the Time Lords. (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5) As a result, while the Doctor still had a significant mental link with the TARDIS early in his travels, such as when the ship assisted him with his first regeneration, (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966).) he did not impose his will on it, allowing the TARDIS to go where it wished rather than exerting direct control. The TARDIS herself later stated that her unreliability to go where the Doctor wanted was due to her always going to where he was needed. (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)

These accounts notwithstanding, the most direct commentary on the Doctor's acquisition of the TARDIS came from the Doctor and the TARDIS itself. When the Doctor was summoned to be the defence counsellor to the Valeyard in his trial, he exclaimed to Inquisitor Darkel that he confessed to stealing a TARDIS and running away from Gallifrey. (AUDIO: Trial of the Valeyard [+]Alan Barnes and Mike Maddox, The Sixth Doctor Adventures (Big Finish Productions, 2013).) At a later point in the Doctor's life, when House transferred the soul of the TARDIS into Idris, the TARDIS gave its side of the story. She confirmed she had been out of commission, a "museum piece", when the First Doctor met her. She also confirmed that the Doctor had stolen her, denying the Eleventh Doctor's attempt to characterise the action as "borrowing". However, she also considered that she had stolen him, and had no intention of ever giving him back. She was unlocked, and deliberately let the Doctor in, because she wanted to explore the universe, and sensed he would be an ideal match.

The Eleventh Doctor recalled that upon first touching the console, the First Doctor said "[she was] the most beautiful thing [he'd] ever known". The TARDIS was shown to be very fond of him, admitting as Idris that she had always wanted to say a proper hello to him, but was unable to, as she was "not constructed that way". (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)

First flight[]

By one account, after leaving Gallifrey, the TARDIS landed on Iwa where the Doctor and Susan first encountered the human race. (PROSE: Frayed [+]Tara Samms, Telos Doctor Who novellas (Telos Publishing, 2003).)

In another, Stoyn shut down the engines with the Doctor managing to make an emergency landing on the moon of planet Earth, 450 million years prior to the human era. When Stoyn confronted the Doctor and Susan, the former destroyed Stoyn's homing device to prevent the Time Lords from finding them and removed the ship's dematerialisation circuit so that Stoyn could not maroon them. Exploring, the three met the Archaeons who removed the TARDIS' temporal stasis capacitor while the power was still on, breaching the stasis field and freezing everyone in the immediate area for 450 million years until the moon was colonised by humanity. In the interim, the TARDIS had recharged itself, Stoyn bargaining its power to the Archaeons when they came under attack from Earth. When Stoyn stepped outside to speak to the First Propagator, the Doctor and Susan returned to the ship, inserting the dematerialisation circuit and fleeing. The Doctor, after having seen a first contact video about humanity had hoped to visit Earth itself only for the ship to wind up on an alien planet. Reflecting on these events, Susan noted that the TARDIS wouldn't land on Earth for quite some time afterwards. (AUDIO: The Beginning [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

In their travels, the Doctor and Susan came to regard the TARDIS as their home. (AUDIO: Tick-Tock World [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

Arrival on Earth[]

The TARDIS eventually landed in London in the 1960s, coming to rest in I.M. Foreman's junkyard. (TV: An Unearthly Child [+]Anthony Coburn, adapted from The Pilot Episode (Anthony Coburn), Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963).) By one account, the Blessing Star had allowed the Doctor to properly pilot the ship to the destination, at the cost of burning out its navigation system. (PROSE: The Rag & Bone Man's Story) By another, the TARDIS had been placed there by the Father of Time, telling the Doctor and Susan that they would find "a new life" there. (COMIC: The Test of Time) In a third account, the Doctor had piloted the ship there himself, considering it a fine place to hide the TARDIS for a time. (COMIC: Untitled)

11 in 1's TARDIS - 2

The Eleventh Doctor sabotages the chameleon circuit. (COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (2013).)

The ship's chameleon circuit disguised the ship as a police box fitting for 1960s London. However, when the TARDIS rematerialised roughly 100,000 years earlier, the ship's disguise failed to update and match the new surroundings, with the circuit apparently being broken. (TV: An Unearthly Child [+]Anthony Coburn, adapted from The Pilot Episode (Anthony Coburn), Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963).) The Eighth Doctor once claimed the circuit had been removed and repurposed to disguise the container of the Hand of Omega (AUDIO: The Shoreditch Intervention); according to another account, the Eleventh Doctor deliberately destroyed the circuit to make the ship retain the police box exterior, which would in turn ensure the ship's appearance became a part of humanity's race memory. (COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (2013).) In any case, the ship's distinctive appearance was remembered across time: it was memorialised as part of the family of Lobus Caecilius' family gods, (TV: The Fires of Pompeii [+]James Moran, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).) and became the subject of conspiracy theorists including LINDA, (TV: Love & Monsters [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006)., Lua error in Module:Cite_source at line 420: attempt to index a nil value., (PROSE: Alabama's Blue Box [+]Into the Unknown.) and The Blue Box Files. (AUDIO: SOS) The Doctor theorised the shape of the TARDIS had even paradoxically influenced the design of the London police boxes in the first place. (COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (2013).)

Travels with the Doctor[]

For hundreds of years, the Doctor travelled through time and space in the TARDIS, along with numerous companions whom the ship regarded as "strays". (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)

Doctor and Susan TARDIS takeoff AUC

The First Doctor pilots the TARDIS away from 1963, kidnapping Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. (TV: An Unearthly Child [+]Anthony Coburn, adapted from The Pilot Episode (Anthony Coburn), Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963).)

While living on Earth, Susan had enrolled herself at Coal Hill School. The various gaps in her knowledge worried two of her teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright who followed her home on November 23rd 1963 and forced their way into the TARDIS when they heard her voice from inside it. Unwilling to allow humans to have knowledge of his ship, the Doctor dematerialised the ship with them aboard, arriving in Earth's caveman era. There the four united against the Tribe of Gum, making it back to the ship just before the tribe could deal a killing blow. (TV: An Unearthly Child [+]Anthony Coburn, adapted from The Pilot Episode (Anthony Coburn), Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963).) Though the Doctor attempted to return to London in 1963, the TARDIS instead brought the group to the planet Skaro, (PROSE: What the TARDIS thought of "Time Lord Victorious" [+]James Goss, Time Lord Victorious (2020).) knowing how important encountering the Daleks would be to the Doctor's character. (TV: Into the Dalek [+]Phil Ford and Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) After the Thal-Dalek battle, the Doctor attempted to use the fast return switch to return Ian and Barbara home only for the switch to become stuck and take the TARDIS to the beginning of a star system, the gravity fields nearly destroying it before the Doctor repaired the switch. (TV: The Edge of Destruction [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1964).)

When the Doctor crossed paths with the Master on Destination, the Master claimed the Doctor's TARDIS as a substitute for his own. Having taken Ian and Barbara as hostages, the Master found himself overpowered, the humans managing to use the fast return switch to guide the ship back to Destination. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars)

On July the 20th 1966, the TARDIS was stolen by Edward Waterfield on the orders of the Dalek Emperor. Brought to Skaro, the TARDIS was held in the Dalek Emperor's chamber who threatened to destroy it unless the Second Doctor helped the Daleks isolate the Human factor. After discovering the factor and letting it loose in Dalek society, the Doctor and Jamie McCrimmon managed to return to the TARDIS, taking on Victoria Waterfield as a new companion. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1967).)

Daleks Invade Zaos 3

The TARDIS while it was damaged on Zaos (PROSE: Daleks Invade Zaos [+]1967.)

Following Victoria's departure and Zoe Heriot joining, the TARDIS was caught in the eruption of a volcano on Dulkis, the heat causing malfunctions in the fluid links. Unable to conventionally take off, the Doctor employed an emergency unit that sent the ship into the White Void. Once the repairs were complete, the Doctor tried to return to N-Space only for the ship to collapse and the three winding up in the Land of Fiction. Once they had defeated the Master Brain, the three returned to reality, the TARDIS reassembling around them. (TV: The Mind Robber [+]Peter Ling, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1968).) The TARDIS was heavily damaged during an encounter between the Doctor and a force of Asymmetrical Daleks on Zaos, but the Zaons and the Sky Ray Space Raiders helped him repair the time capsule, with Commander Clay contacting the Earth for new parts to use in the repair effort. (PROSE: Daleks Invade Zaos [+]1967.)

The TARDIS later landed in what the Doctor initially thought was World War I but discovered was a planet owned by the War Lords who sought to use brainwashed humans as an army. Though able to halt the plan, the Doctor was forced to call on the Time Lords to return the displaced humans to their own times. The Doctor tried to fly away from the planet before the Time Lords arrived only for the ship to be remotely operated from and brought back to Gallifrey. In his trial for the violation of the non-interference policy, the Doctor was exiled to 20th century Earth and the TARDIS was grounded. (TV: The War Games [+]Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1969).) The interference of the Celestial Intervention Agency led to a brief delay in this being enforced, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) with the Doctor working for them. On a mission one account claimed occurred during this time, (PROSE: World Game [+]Terrance Dicks, BBC Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2005).) the TARDIS was equipped with a Stattenheim remote control. (TV: The Two Doctors [+]Robert Holmes, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).)

Interior-master

The Third Doctor and the Master repair the grounded TARDIS. (TV: The Claws of Axos [+]Bob Baker and Dave Martin, Doctor Who season 8 (BBC1, 1971).)

After the Doctor's full sentence was enforced, the dying Second Doctor was placed in the TARDIS, (COMIC: The Night Walkers) which delivered him, freshly-regenerated into the Third Doctor, to Earth for his exile. Afterwards the ship was rendered unable to leave Earth. (TV: Spearhead from Space [+]Robert Holmes, Doctor Who season 7 (BBC1, 1970).) The Doctor made efforts to repair the ship, even removing the console from the control room, (TV: The Ambassadors of Death [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 7 (BBC1, 1970)., Inferno [+]Don Houghton, Doctor Who season 7 (BBC1, 1970)., Terror of the Autons [+]Robert Holmes, Doctor Who season 8 (BBC1, 1971).) but discovered the Time Lords had pre-programmed the TARDIS to return to Earth even if he did get her to move. (TV: The Claws of Axos [+]Bob Baker and Dave Martin, Doctor Who season 8 (BBC1, 1971).) The Time Lords did direct the ship away from Earth on occasion to deliver the Doctor to missions on their behalf. (TV: Colony in Space [+]Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 8 (BBC1, 1971)., The Curse of Peladon [+]Brian Hayles, Doctor Who season 9 (BBC1, 1972)., The Mutants [+]Bob Baker and Dave Martin, Doctor Who season 9 (BBC1, 1972).) Following the First Omega Crisis, the Time Lords restored the Doctor's freedom, sending him a new dematerialisation circuit for the TARDIS. (TV: The Three Doctors [+]Bob Baker and Dave Martin, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1972-1973).)

At one time, the Third Doctor undertook a series of adventures in which the TARDIS had disguised herself as a red telephone box, (TV: The Future Is At Your Fingertips [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) but she later returned to the blue colour. (TV: Planet of the Spiders [+]Robert Sloman, Doctor Who season 11 (BBC1, 1974)., et. al) The TARDIS was infected by Scratchman during his scheme to manipulate the Fourth Doctor into letting him into the universe, after being invaded by a scarecrow pursuing Sarah Jane Smith. This caused the interior to become dark and vines to grow from the walls and around the exterior via the windows. Whilst the ship was in this state the Doctor piloted it to Scratchman's universe through a tiny rift to rescue his companions. When the Doctor returned to the ship after defeating Scratchman he found the TARDIS still recovering, with the console currently being made of wicker. (PROSE: Scratchman)

At some point the Time Lords secretly installed a device to remotely pilot the TARDIS. (AUDIO: No Place Like Home [+]Iain McLaughlin, Big Finish DWM originals (Big Finish Productions, 2003).) On numerous occasions, they directed the TARDIS so the Doctor would perform a task on their behalf, (COMIC: The Dalek Revenge, Virus, Treasure Trail, TV: The Brain of Morbius [+]Robin Bland, Doctor Who season 13 (BBC1, 1976)., AUDIO: Genetics of the Daleks) so that the CIA could retain plausible deniability. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).)

After briefly landing in its domain, the TARDIS was exploited by the Mandragora Helix to enable its energy to reach Earth in the 15th century. Despite the Doctor defeating the helix energy, (TV: The Masque of Mandragora [+]Louis Marks, Doctor Who season 14 (BBC1, 1976).) the Mandragora retained a connection to the TARDIS. (COMIC: Distractions [+]Dan Abnett, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1990).)

During the Sontaran invasion of Gallifrey, the Fourth Doctor retreated into the TARDIS interior, along with Leela, Andred, Borusa, Rodan and K9 Mark I, pursued by Sontarans. (TV: The Invasion of Time [+]David Agnew, Doctor Who season 15 (BBC1, 1978).)

The Fourth Doctor attempted to use the TARDIS to stop the Skishtari elevating the village of Hexford, however they overpowered the TARDIS by using a wormhole to pull the village away from Earth. (AUDIO: The Hexford Invasion)

The TARDIS inadvertently materialised on Calufrax at the precise same time as the pirate planet Zanak, briefly preventing both vessels landing until Romana altered the ship's course slightly. The Doctor performed this manoeuvre again deliberately to stop Zanak materialising around Earth, buying time for the Mentiads to sabotage Zanak's engines, at considerable risk to the TARDIS. (TV: The Pirate Planet [+]Douglas Adams, Doctor Who season 16 (BBC1, 1978).)

The TARDIS accidentally flew into E-Space after encountering a Charged Vacuum Emboitement. (TV: Full Circle [+]Andrew Smith, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1980).) The Doctor was eventually able to pilot the ship back to the main universe via the Gateway. (TV: Warriors' Gate [+]Steve Gallagher, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1981).)

The Doctor attempted to have the Logopolitans repair the TARDIS' Chameleon Circuit, however the Tremas Master sabotaged their Block Transfer Computation causing the TARDIS exterior to shrink instead, leaving the Doctor trapped inside until he corrected the maths to return the TARDIS to normal. (TV: Logopolis [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1981).)

Castrovalva part1

The newly regenerated Fifth Doctor with Adric in the TARDIS. (TV: Castrovalva [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).)

The Master exploited Adric's gift of mathematics to use block transfer to force the TARDIS on a course for Event One. The Fifth Doctor was able to to avert disaster by jettisoning a third of the ship's interior, altering the TARDIS' course though he had sacrificed the ship's Zero Room, which he had been using to aid his recovery from his recent regeneration, in doing so. (TV: Castrovalva [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).)

The ship was stolen from the Fifth Doctor by Thomas Brewster. (AUDIO: The Haunting of Thomas Brewster) With the aid of Adric, the Doctor was able to reclaim his ship. (AUDIO: The Boy That Time Forgot) Much to his anger, he found Brewster had sold off many key components during his brief travels in the TARDIS. (AUDIO: Time Reef [+]Marc Platt, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2008).)

Nyssa effected repairs to the chameleon circuit, which the Doctor decided to test by landing the TARDIS in an ocean. The TARDIS assumed the form of a whale however became convinced it actually was a whale, expelling the Doctor and Nyssa. The Doctor swam next to the whale and used his Time Lord heartbeat to make it remember its true nature and regain access to the ship to undo the repairs, returning the TARDIS to normal. (AUDIO: The Deep)

Whilst on Frontios beyond the frontier in time, the TARDIS was broken apart by a meteor storm caused by the Gravis. The Fifth Doctor tricked the Gravis into using its gravitational powers to put the ship back together. (TV: Frontios [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 21 (BBC1, 1984).)

The Sixth Doctor attempted to repair the chameleon circuit. Though his repairs initially appeared successful, the ship eventually reverted back to a police box. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).)

By the time of the Seventh Doctor and Ace's travels, the Mandragora Helix energy aboard the TARDIS had grown strong enough to influence the TARDIS' flight, keeping it near Earth. (COMIC: Distractions [+]Dan Abnett, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1990).) The Mandragora began using the ship as a bridge between 1990s Earth, where it was spreading via the drug Mandrake, and the Vortex. At the moment of the Mandragora manifesting fully on Earth however the TARDIS was able to jolt into gear, breaking the link with the Helix and foiling its plan, and materialised properly on Earth a few days later, happily surprising the Doctor as he'd feared the ship had been destroyed. (COMIC: The Mark of Mandragora)

Whilst in 1854 Crimea, the TARDIS was struck by a cannon ball which triggered the Hostile Action Displacement System and displaced the outer shell, resulting in the TARDIS retreating to the Time Vortex to grow a new shell whilst debris of its old one was left behind and used as firewood by soldiers. Having grown a new police box shell, which was white instead of the usual blue, the TARDIS subsequently honed in on the Doctor via his double heartbeat. (AUDIO: The Angel of Scutari)

Whilst in 1990s Perivale, the TARDIS was invaded by the Process. As it broke in, the TARDIS dematerialised and collided with a Time Scaphe, forcing the TARDIS to use the Banshee Circuits to survive becoming the SARDIT. After defeating the Process, the Doctor restored the TARDIS to normal however the ship had sustained a great deal of damage. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible [+]Marc Platt, adapted from Cat's Cradle, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1992).) The Doctor was forced to use protoplasm from Tír na n-Óg to repair the ship's link to the Eye of Harmony, however an impurity contaminated the organic material. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark [+]Andrew Hunt, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1992).) The impurity infected the ship and was able to prevent the Doctor taking action against it by exploiting his symbiotic link with the TARDIS. Eventually he linked the teritary console room with the Zero Room to isolate himself, enabling him to cleanse the TARDIS with the aid of Ace, who was able to help as she'd just spent some years away from the infected ship. (PROSE: Deceit [+]Peter Darvill-Evans, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1993).)

The Seventh Doctor became separated from the TARDIS after it sunk in a tar pit on an alternate Earth in an unstable mini-universe. He recovered its alternate counterpart instead, using a time ram against his original TARDIS to destroy the mini-universe due to its impact on the lifespan of the main universe. (PROSE: Blood Heat [+]Jim Mortimore, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1993).) Unknown to him the TARDIS survived thanks to a Fortean Flicker and they were reunited at Bernice Summerfield's wedding. (PROSE: Happy Endings [+]Paul Cornell, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996).)

To rescue Sarah Jane Smith, Peri Brown and Ace from the Lobri, the Doctor piloted the TARDIS into humanity's collective unconscious, causing significant damage to the console room. (COMIC: Ground Zero)

8thDoctor relaxing end of TVM

The Eighth Doctor relaxes in the TARDIS. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Matthew Jacobs, Doctor Who Television Movie (Fox Broadcasting Company, 1996).)

Following the Master's trial, the Seventh Doctor was tasked with transporting his remains back to Gallifrey. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Matthew Jacobs, Doctor Who Television Movie (Fox Broadcasting Company, 1996).) Managing to survive thanks to a Deathworm Morphant, (AUDIO: Mastermind) the Master damaged the TARDIS console, causing a critical timing malfunction, and forced it to make an emergency landing in San Francisco. The Master subsequently attempted to exploit the TARDIS' Eye of Harmony to steal the newly-regenerated Eighth Doctor's regenerations, at the cost of Earth, which was averted by Grace Holloway putting the ship into a temporal orbit. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Matthew Jacobs, Doctor Who Television Movie (Fox Broadcasting Company, 1996).) This incident left a temporal cicatrix in San Francisco where the TARDIS had landed. (PROSE: Unnatural History [+]Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1999).) During the incident the Master fell into the Eye, (TV: Doctor Who [+]Matthew Jacobs, Doctor Who Television Movie (Fox Broadcasting Company, 1996).) so the ship tried to break him down into pure energy, however he managed to reconstitute himself in a room deep within the interior. The TARDIS subsequently jettisoned the room with him still inside, leaving it adrift in the Time Vortex. (AUDIO: The Lifeboat and the Deathboat) An "echo" of the Master remained imprisoned in the singularity of the TARDIS' Eye of Harmony, (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Lance Parkin, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2005).) with River Song believing she heard an American screaming from within the walls whilst exploring the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS. (GAME: The Eternity Clock [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

Following his resurrection into a new body, the Master found he had a symbiotic link to the TARDIS. The link enabled him to trail the Doctor for sometime without suspicion and to influence the TARDIS' flight, which he used to send the craft to times and places that would weaken the Doctor's self-belief and confidence ahead of what he believed would be their battle for the Glory. After Kroton won the true battle for the Glory, he cleansed the TARDIS of the Master's influence. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead)

After the temporal scar left in San Francisco began drawing creatures from other dimensions to the city, the Doctor materialised the TARDIS around it as a desperate measure to contain it. The Doctor and Sam Jones managed to seal the scar before the TARDIS was destroyed in the effort. (PROSE: Unnatural History [+]Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1999).)

After the Eighth Doctor was infected with Faction Paradox's biodata virus, (PROSE: Interference [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) the TARDIS took it into herself and worked to resolve the paradox now surrounding his third incarnation's regeneration. Whilst doing this, (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell [+]Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2000).) the ship was catastrophically caught in a rift between Earth and Avalon, which the Doctor believed destroyed the TARDIS. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon [+]Paul Cornell, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2000).) In a desperate bid to survive, the TARDIS latched onto energy leaking from a bottle universe that President Romana had placed above Gallifrey, warping itself into the Edifice and escalating tensions with the Enemy who had been drawing on the same energy. As the War in Heaven loomed, the Time Lords sent the Doctor aboard the Edifice and he deduced its true nature, using its new weaponry to destroy Gallifrey as Faction Paradox exploited the Enemy's opening attack to overrun the planet. The Edifice collapsed in doing so, resolving the paradox at its heart and leaving it once again in the form of a police box, now the size of a matchbox. It was retrieved by Compassion who left it with the Doctor on Earth in the 19th century. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell [+]Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2000).) The ship took a century to fully recover, after which the Doctor resumed his travels in the TARDIS. (PROSE: Escape Velocity [+]Colin Brake, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2001).)

The Eighth Doctor used the TARDIS to contain the explosion of an overloading cold fusion reactor, scorching the interior and cracking the Eye of Harmony slightly open. The Doctor subsequently repaired the Eye. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Lance Parkin, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2005).)

The TARDIS was pulled into the universe of the Neverpeople after the Time Lords used the ship to turn Charlotte Pollard into a gateway to the universe, having underestimated the gateway's pull. The TARDIS honed in on the sole fixed planet and was later retrieved by the Doctor, who used the ship to follow the Time Station corrupted by anti-time that the Neverpeople planned to detonate on Gallifrey. He reconfigured the TARDIS so he could materialise around the station, containing the explosion. (AUDIO: Neverland) In doing so he and the TARDIS were both infected with anti-time, both developing a split personality of their usual self and a Zagreus persona. The TARDIS' Zagreus personality, appearing in an avatar based on Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart was approached by Rassilon to make the Doctor embrace his Zagreus side to destroy the Divergence, and agreed to help him after using projections to view the history of the Divergence alongside Charley. To break the Doctor, the Zagreus TARDIS expelled Charley from the interior and had the police bos exterior melted down in front of him. Charley and three projections created by the loyal TARDIS persona overpowered the Zagreus avatar, pushing him into the cauldron with the smelted exterior. This reunited the TARDIS' personalities and enabled the ship to use the Brigadier avatar to help Charley stabilise the Doctor. (AUDIO: Zagreus [+]Alan Barnes and Gary Russell, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2003).)

Upon entering his self-imposed exile in the Divergent Universe, the Eighth Doctor became separated from the TARDIS. (AUDIO: Scherzo) He found the ship at Caerdroia and subsequently used it to explore the Divergent Universe, (AUDIO: Caerdroia) until he found a way to pilot her back to the main universe. (AUDIO: The Next Life)

Following them transporting the Doctor to Orbis after he fell off a cliff fighting Morbius, the Sisterhood of Karn kept the Doctor's TARDIS until the ship was retrieved by the Headhunter, who used it to pick up Lucie Miller and reunite her with the Doctor. After the destruction of Orbis, the Doctor resumed his travels in the TARDIS. (AUDIO: Orbis)

On Parrak the TARDIS was attacked by the Ravenous, critically draining the ship's energies. (AUDIO: Planet of Dust) The Ravenous subsequently transported the TARDIS with them to the Crucible of Souls as a trophy. The Doctor, Liv Chenka and Helen Sinclair recovered the TARDIS and flew it on what the Doctor believed may be its final flight. (AUDIO: Day of the Master) They crashlanded in London 2020, however the damage prevented time crystallising around the TARDIS as usual, fracturing the timelines. (AUDIO: Crossed Lines) The interior collapsed, with the Doctor, Liv and Helen escaping just in time, (AUDIO: Lost Property) and the TARDIS reverted to a normal police box until a nearby paradox caused by the Rarkelians killing the Doctor, which the ship latched onto to begin restoring itself and resurrect the Doctor. (AUDIO: Divine Intervention) Whilst initially only able to move in time, (AUDIO: Dead Time, UNIT Dating, Baker Street Irregulars) the TARDIS eventually regained the ability to travel in both time and space. (AUDIO: Patience)

During the Kotturuh crisis, the Dalek Time Squad intercepted the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS and attached it to the engines of their saucer, allowing them to travel back to the Dark Times. (AUDIO: The Enemy of My Enemy) After the Defence of Gallifrey, the Doctor managed to reclaim his ship and return to his time. (AUDIO: Mutually Assured Destruction)

Last Great Time War[]

Initially refusing to fight in the Last Great Time War, the Eighth Doctor used his ship to rescue innocents who were caught in the crossfire. With knowledge of Time Lords becoming more commonplace in the universe, the TARDIS came to be seen as an omen of evil. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).)

After being caught in the destruction of the Theseus, (AUDIO: The Starship of Theseus) the TARDIS fell on a planet devastated by temporal warfare, causing the ship's interior to retreat to protect itself from the distortion. A group of refugees led by Bliss found the empty police box shell, and their amnesiac Dalek guide insisted they bring it them to a safe zone on the planet. There the Doctor reunited with the group and his ship, but they were captured by Time Lord forces led by Cardinal Ollistra. (AUDIO: Echoes of War) She had the TARDIS brought with them to the base on the Moon of Tenacity but opted not to expediate its recovery from exposure to temporal distortions, as the Doctor had been conscripted so was unlikely to need it. (AUDIO: The Conscript)

As a result the ship had barely started to recover when the Daleks invaded, only being able to transport the Doctor, along with the refugees and Ollistra, in space. The Doctor managed to fly the ailing ship away from Tenacity and through a quantum wall of Dalek saucers, however crash-landed on Jedris as a result. The ship and the Doctor were lost in the shifting landscape when the Time Lord forces coming to Ollistra's rescue accelerated time as they battled Daleks, however both were saved by Quarren Maguire who used his powers to alter reality to retrieve them and leave Bliss onboard. (AUDIO: One Life) By being in the TARDIS, Bliss was protected from subsequent rewriting of Derilobia's timeline that should have erased her from history. (AUDIO: The Lords of Terror)

The TARDIS later arrived on Gallifrey piloted by the Doctor Ogron. Confirming that the Doctor's DNA and memory engrams existed in the hybrid, the Time Lords put the Ogron in the Twelve's custody who brought him to the Eighth Doctor. When the Ogron convinced the Doctor to travel to the Planet, the TARDIS was cloaked only to be recalled when it was discovered that the Doctor Ogron's existence was a bootstrap paradox, being used to send the younger version to Gallifrey to complete the loop. (AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons) The Doctor subsequently retrieved the ship from Gallifrey. (AUDIO: State of Bliss)

Following the Daleks being wiped from N-Space, the Doctor left his TARDIS on a Gallifreyan outpost when needing to break through the time lock around Grahv, instead taking, and crashing, Tamasan's TARDIS which was capable of the task. (AUDIO: The War Valeyard) He later retrieved his ship after helping the Time Lords identify their forgotten enemy, (AUDIO: Dreadshade) then escaping in it with Bliss and a copy of his grandson Alex Campbell after the Daleks were restored to the universe. (AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks)

After swapping his and the Doctor's bodies, the War Master stole the TARDIS. (AUDIO: The Castle of Kurnos 5) He had several "diabolical" adventures, before setting up camp on Nastrum. There the Doctor caught up with him and reclaimed his body and TARDIS. (AUDIO: The Cognition Shift)

War Doctor in TARDIS

The War Doctor stands in his one constant companion, the TARDIS (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).)

During the Fifth Segment of the conflict, (PROSE: The Stranger) the Doctor failed to rescue Cass Fermazzi, crashing on the planet Karn where the Sisterhood convinced him to join the conflict. Accepting their reasoning, the Doctor regenerated into his ninth incarnation. (TV: The Night of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Specials minisode (BBC One, 2013).) Though openly identifying as a warrior, the new Doctor refused to allow weapons to be installed on his TARDIS, insisting that it be left as it was. (AUDIO: Light the Flame) Over the course of the conflict, the War Doctor modified the TARDIS to respond to his screwdriver's signal. (AUDIO: The Thousand Worlds, The Heart of the Battle) Whilst working with Veklin, the Doctor was forced to use a Battle TARDIS instead of his own, however he destroyed this ship in an effort to stop a Dalek harvester. (AUDIO: Saviour)

In a desperate attempt to save Lacuna from a raid of Berserker Daleks, the Doctor used the TARDIS to create a time loop of the final day before the planet was wiped out. Over hundreds of loops he tried and failed to find a way to save the people until he was persuaded to break the loop and leave by Ignis Abel. (AUDIO: Rewind)

During the Barber-Surgeon's campaign, the TARDIS was attacked by one of the Barber-Surgeon's creations whilst transporting the Doctor to prehistoric Earth. Upon landing, the ship was left dead. (AUDIO: The Abyss) After the Barber-Surgeon was erased from existence the TARDIS was restored and was subsequently reunited with the Doctor by the General. (AUDIO: The Horror)

When the Doctor protested President Rassilon's plan to stop the Eternity Circle, he was exiled once again, the TARDIS being sent to die in the under croft with its clearance codes revoked. When the Doctor and Cinder reclaimed the ship, the Castellan allowed the ship to take off, the two stopping Partheus from deploying the Tear of Isha on the Tantalus Eye before they travelled to the Death Zone. There, the Doctor collected Borusa, since rewired into a possibility engine, and brought him to the Tantalus Spiral, the former President of the High Council being able to use his powers to remove Dalek influence from the sector. Despite the victory, the Doctor was left appalled at the lengths that the High Council had been prepared to go and swore to end the war. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).)

On the last day of the War, the War Doctor walked from away the ship as he planned to detonate the Moment, which the sentient superweapon suspected was because he didn't want her to see him perform such a deed. The Moment summoned the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors to show the War Doctor what such a choice would turn him into. Though the War Doctor was initially convinced to double down on his initial idea, Clara Oswald convinced the Doctors to "be a doctor" and find an alternative. Inspired by their recent adventure with stasis cubes, the Doctors decided to shunt Gallifrey into a parallel pocket universe. Summoning "all thirteen" of themselves, the Doctors flew their versions of the TARDIS into Gallifrey's lower atmosphere and saved their homeworld from the Dalek Fleet. Countless more versions of the TARDIS from across its timeline were also summoned to Gallifrey, all helping to teleport the world away and save the planet from the fallout of this. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013)., PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).)

In another account of the end of the Time War, after the Eighth Doctor used the Moment to destroy Gallifrey Original, the TARDIS was responsible for retrieving him as the Time War time lock containing the Time War timeline solidified, saving him from tumbling out of existence. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Time War)

Post Time-War[]

As a result of the timelines being out of sync, the Doctor was unable to retain the knowledge of the Time War's true conclusion, (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) believing that he had destroyed Gallifrey (TV: Dalek [+]Robert Shearman, adapted from Jubilee (Robert Shearman), Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) and coming to consider his TARDIS to be the last of her kind. (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)

After Rose Tyler caused a paradox by changing history by saving her father from a fatal car accident in view of her recent past self, the TARDIS retreated from the wound, becoming a police box. The Ninth Doctor attempted to reconnect with the interior by energising the key with a phone battery, but was interrupted by Reapers. When Rose's father corrected the timeline, the TARDIS returned to normal. (TV: Father's Day [+]Paul Cornell, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).)

Boom town main

The TARDIS opens the Cardiff Rift. (TV: Boom Town [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).)

After landing in Cardiff to use the rift to refuel the TARDIS, the Ninth Doctor captured Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen and confiscated her tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator. As Jack Harkness worked in the TARDIS, the extrapolator identified it as an alien power source and, as Blon had programmed, locked on and used it to open the rift, Blon's ultimate intention being to destroy the planet whilst she used the extrapolator to escape. However, the stress caused the heart of the TARDIS to be exposed, regressing Blon to an egg and so giving her a second chance at life. (TV: Boom Town [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) Jack would later indicate that the TARDIS' presence resulted in the invisible lift used by Torchwood Cardiff. (TV: Everything Changes [+]Russell T Davies, Torchwood series 1 (BBC Three, 2006).)

After visits to Raxacoricofallapatorius and Kyoto in 1336, the TARDIS was penetrated by a transmat, dispersing the Doctor, Rose and Jack across the Game Station whilst the TARDIS itself was stored in Archive Six. As the Doctor learnt, this was done by the Controller acting in defiance of her masters, the Daleks. With Rose held aboard the Dalek Flagship (TV: Bad Wolf [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) the Doctor and Jack used the TARDIS to retrieve her, with the new power of the extrapolator protecting it from the firepower of both the Daleks and their ship.

Back aboard the Game Station, the Doctor deceived Rose into entering the TARDIS before sending it away to return her home; leaving a message for Rose, the Doctor anticipated his death and instructed Rose to leave the TARDIS to die rather than fall into enemy hands. Refusing to leave the Doctor to his fate, Rose enlisted Mickey and Jackie's assistance to open the heart of the TARDIS. This resulted in Rose absorbing the energy of the vortex, transforming her into the Bad Wolf, granting her the power to resurrect the slain Jack whilst wiping out the Dalek Fleet. To save Rose's life, the Doctor absorbed the energy into himself before returning it to the TARDIS before departing, leaving Jack aboard the Game Station.

As a result, the Doctor regenerated into the Tenth Doctor who, (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) in his delirium, caused the TARDIS to crash land as he attempted to take Rose home for Christmas. (TV: Children in Need Special [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) Later, the now unconscious Doctor was taken to the TARDIS which was teleported to the invading Sycorax ship, the Sycorax identifying it as a "clever blue box". It was here that the Doctor awoke, which he attributed to spilt tea, leading him to his confrontation with the Sycorax leader. (TV: The Christmas Invasion [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas special (BBC One, 2005).)

After falling through a crack in the Time Vortex, the TARDIS crash landed on a parallel Earth and lost all power due to being in an alien universe. The Tenth Doctor gave up a decade of his lifespan to recharge the last active power cell, (TV: Rise of the Cybermen [+]Tom MacRae, adapted from Spare Parts (Marc Platt), Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).) which after 24 hours enabled the TARDIS to return to its proper universe. (TV: The Age of Steel [+]Tom MacRae, adapted from Spare Parts (Marc Platt), Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).)

The Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones were separated from the TARDIS at Wester Drumlins in the 2000s[nb 1] by four Weeping Angels, who wanted to feed on the energies within the ship. With the Doctor's guidance via recordings and messages, Sally Sparrow and Larry Nightingale reached the ship and inserted a DVD designed by the Doctor into the console causing the ship to dematerialise around them, en route to 1969 where the Doctor and Martha were trapped, in doing so trapping the four Angels in each other's gaze as they'd surrounded the TARDIS prior to its departure. (TV: Blink [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from What I Did on My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow (Steven Moffat), Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).)

TARDIS Paradox Machine

The TARDIS converted into a paradox machine. (TV: The Sound of Drums [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).)

Ending up at the end of the universe after it attempted to shake off the fixed point in time of Jack Harkness, the ship was stolen by the Saxon Master. (TV: Utopia [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).) He used it to make contact with the Toclafane, accompanied by Lucy Saxon, and converted it into a paradox machine to enable the Toclafane to enslave their ancestors on Earth in 2008. After sustaining the paradoxical invasion for a year, the paradox machine was destroyed by Jack, returning time to normal. The Doctor subsequently reclaimed and repaired the TARDIS, (TV: Last of the Time Lords [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).) though in doing so left its shields down resulting in it colliding with its own younger self piloted by the Fifth Doctor and then the Titanic. (TV: Time Crash [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Children in Need Special 2007 (BBC One, 2007).)

During the Sontaran invasion of Earth, the Sontarans captured the TARDIS, unaware that Donna Noble was still aboard. Donna was able to infiltrate their ship and work with the Doctor to rig the teleport to return the ship to Earth. (TV: The Poison Sky [+]Helen Raynor, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)

Whilst the ship was parked in 2009 Chiswick, the Collectors found and stole the TARDIS, kidnapping Donna as well as her friend Nat due to believing her to be the pilot. (AUDIO: Out of this World) The Collectors subsequently studied the ship and forced Donna to pilot it by threatening Nat. She managed to fly it to Valdacki, (AUDIO: Spinvasion) though the Doctor later theorised this flight was actually due to the Collectors triggering Hostile Action Displacement System. (AUDIO: The Chiswick Cuckoos) Whilst Donna tried to pilot the TARDIS back to Chiswick, the TARDIS located a book of piloting hints the Doctor had lost in the Middle Ages and took them there, initiating Emergency Program Twelve. Following the Emergency Program, the TARDIS used a hologram to help Nat, taking the form of her husband Garrison. After retrieving the book, Donna and Nat managed to fly the TARDIS towards Chiswick, (AUDIO: The Sorcerer of Albion) with some psychic guidance from the Doctor. Afterwards the Doctor set about repairing the damage the Collectors and Donna's escapades had done to the TARDIS. (AUDIO: The Chiswick Cuckoos)

TARDIS fully manned

The TARDIS fully manned by the Children of Time. (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)

The New Dalek Empire attempted to destroy the TARDIS with Donna aboard by throwing it into the core of the Crucible, having taken its defences down with a chronon loop. The ship was saved when a meta-crisis between Donna and the Tenth Doctor's severed hand, infused with regeneration energy, created a new Doctor who piloted the ship to safety. After the Dalek Empire had been destroyed, the Doctor used the TARDIS to return Earth to its proper point in space, using energy from the Cardiff Space-Time Rift lopped around the ship by Mr Smith as a "tow rope", and had the ship fully manned for the first time by his assembled companions, the Children of Time. (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)

The TARDIS was blocked from materialising by the Trickster when the Doctor attempted to intervene in his scheme to entrap Sarah Jane Smith. The Doctor finally managed to land the ship in time to interrupt her wedding, but was separated from her when the Trickster trapped the wedding into separate seconds. Using artron energy to combat the Trickster, the TARDIS managed to hone in on the Doctor but was unable to stay long enough to retrieve the rest of Sarah's gang. (TV: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith [+]Gareth Roberts, The Sarah Jane Adventures series 3 (BBC One, 2009).)

The Doctor and the Reindeer 5

The TARDIS is pulled by reindeer by the Doctor. (TV: The Doctor and the Reindeer [+]Russell T Davies, BBC Christmas idents (BBC One, 2009).)

Spending time in a snowy mountain, the Doctor returned to the TARDIS to find it buried in snow. The Doctor strapped some nearby reindeer to the TARDIS, turning it into an impromptu sleigh as he rode the TARDIS through the sky. (TV: The Doctor and the Reindeer [+]Russell T Davies, BBC Christmas idents (BBC One, 2009).)

The TARDIS sensed Majenta Pryce's connection to the Crimson Hand and so resisted the Doctor's efforts to take her to Panacea to restore her memories of her past. When it appeared he might actually take Majenta there, the TARDIS let Intersol capture them. When she faked killing the Doctor for the Hand, Majenta sent him and the TARDIS into their own pocket dimension and later retrieved them when the Morass began consuming reality. (COMIC: The Crimson Hand)

On Mars in 2059, the Tenth Doctor used Gadget to pilot the TARDIS to Bowie Base One to rescue the surviving crew, changing history. (TV: The Waters of Mars [+]Russell T Davies and Phil Ford, Doctor Who Autumn Special 2009 (BBC One, 2009).) The TARDIS subsequently observed the Time Fracture his meddling had created and made preparations for the journey the ship knew the Doctor was about to undertake to the Dark Times, giving Brian, an Ood who had fallen into the Time Vortex, a nudge there in belief he might be useful to the Doctor. (PROSE: What the TARDIS thought of "Time Lord Victorious" [+]James Goss, Time Lord Victorious (2020).) Whilst travelling in the Dark Times on the last ship of the Victis Fleet, the Doctor connected the TARDIS to supply power due to the ship having taken damage in the Battle of Mordeela. (AUDIO: The Minds of Magnox, PROSE: All Flesh is Grass)

The Doctor's regeneration into the Eleventh Doctor caused considerable damage to the TARDIS control room, (TV: The End of Time [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2009 and New Year Special 2010 (BBC One, 2009-2010).) leading it to fly erratically through the skies of London before crashing in Leadworth in 1996, where the Doctor met Amy Pond. In an attempt to stablise the TARDIS, the Doctor made what was intended to be a five minute jump but ended up travelling forward twelve years. Afterwards, the TARDIS underwent a regeneration of its own to repair the damage. After facing Prisoner Zero and the Atraxi, the Doctor returned to the TARDIS, which had changed its exterior and console room. After a brief trip in the "new TARDIS", the Doctor caught up with Amy, finding that he had went forward two more years. Ultimately, Amy joined the Doctor in the TARDIS. (TV: The Eleventh Hour [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).)

With Amy trapped onboard, the TARDIS became stuck in a materialisation loop when trying to land in Colchester due to the nearby malfunctioning time machine. The TARDIS was finally able to materialise when the Doctor and Craig Owens shut down the malfunctioning ship. (TV: The Lodger [+]Gareth Roberts, adapted from The Lodger (Gareth Roberts), Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).)

The pandorica opens-van gogh

The Pandorica Opens by Vincent van Gogh, depicting the TARDIS' explosion triggering total event collapse. (TV: The Pandorica Opens [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).)

Within a Silurian city, the Doctor found a crack in time through which he caught a piece of the TARDIS shell whilst the TARDIS at present was intact, much to his shock. (TV: Cold Blood [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).) It later became apparent that the TARDIS would explode, as depicted in Vincent van Gogh's The Pandorica Opens, resulting in the destruction of the universe. Believing the Doctor to be responsible, an Alliance of numerous species assembled to stop him by imprisoning him in the Pandorica, only for an unknown force to take control of the TARDIS, which exploded with River Song aboard. This caused a total event collapse (TV: The Pandorica Opens [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).) which threatened to destroy the universe whilst the Earth persisted as the eye of the storm; though its sun was now gone, the perpetual explosion of the TARDIS took its place. The TARDIS' emergency protocols sealed off the control room and putting it in a time loop, allowing for River to be retrieved by the Doctor who used the Pandorica to reboot the universe in what he called Big Bang Two. (TV: The Big Bang [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).) The Doctor later learnt that the Kovarian Chapter of the Silence were responsible for the explosion of the TARDIS, having travelled back in an attempt to prevent the Doctor's arrival at Trenzalore, only to create the crack in the universe which would lead to Gallifrey, forming a destiny trap. (TV: The Time of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013).)

After the Doctor left Amy and Rory on their honeymoon, the TARDIS was stolen by a rogue faction of Shansheeth who sought to use it in a crusade to avert death. They attempted to use the memories of Sarah Jane Smith and Jo Jones to create a key to access the ship with a memory weave however the pair overloaded the machine, after which the Doctor reclaimed the TARDIS. (TV: Death of the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, The Sarah Jane Adventures series 4 (CBBC, 2010).)

The Doctor and Idris

The TARDIS, in the body of Idris, talks to her thief face-to-face. (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)

After being lured to a bubble universe by House, the TARDIS' soul was removed from the ship and placed in the body of a human, Idris. House possessed the ship, departing for the main universe and abandoning the TARDIS and the Eleventh Doctor. Working together, during which they talked properly for the first time, the TARDIS and the Doctor made a make-shift TARDIS console and pursued House, tricking him into moving them to the control room. There Idris' body failed, releasing the TARDIS matrix who was able to reclaim her body from House. Afterwards she briefly communicated with the Doctor again in Idris' form, saying a tearful "hello", before returning to normal. (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)

By one account that showed the Time Lords as having been destroyed at the conclusion of the Time War, the Matrix had become sentient when all of Gallifrey died and uploaded itself to the Doctor's TARDIS to survive the planet's destruction. Resurfacing in the Eleventh Doctor's lifetime, the Matrix attempted to take control of the TARDIS, its conflict with the ship's own consciousness creating a miniature world within the ship itself before the Doctor and Clara Oswald trapped the artificial intelligence in a never ending wormhole. (COMIC: Sky Jacks [+]Andy Diggle and Eddie Robson, Doctor Who (2012) (IDW Publishing, 2013).

To try and help Clara bond with the TARDIS, the Doctor opted to teach her how to pilot it, setting it to basic mode. Unfortunately this coincided with the Van Baalen salvage ship extending its magno-grab. The Doctor attempted to break free, succeeding when a future version of himself from an alternate timeline tossed him the magno-grab remote, shutting it down. (TV: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS [+]Steve Thompson, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).)

When the Siege of Trenzalore broke out, the Doctor tricked Clara Oswald back home, though he intended for the TARDIS to return to him. Discovering the ruse in time, Clara grabbed the TARDIS as it was taking off, delaying it by three centuries as it extended its force field to protect her. After the Siege had devolved into an open war, the Doctor managed to send Clara home, though this time bringing the TARDIS back to Trenzalore where it sat for six centuries. The TARDIS was then used by Tasha Lem to collect Clara so she could comfort the Doctor, now out of regenerations and finally dying. Clara however managed to convince the Time Lords to grant the Doctor more lives, him using the excess regeneration energy as a final weapon to defeat the New Dalek Paradigm. With the Siege over, the Doctor and Clara returned to the TARDIS and resumed their travels, the Doctor regenerating into the Twelfth Doctor. (TV: The Time of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013).)

In his delirium, the Twelfth Doctor forgot how to pilot the TARDIS, leading to it falling into the mouth of a Tyrannosaurus rex which was displaced to Victorian London, where it regurgitated the TARDIS. In the Glasgow of her time, Clara received a call on the TARDIS phone from the Eleventh Doctor who, just prior to his regeneration, convinced her to stay with his future self. (TV: Deep Breath [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).)

Twelfth Doctor in the shrunken TARDIS

The Twelfth Doctor trapped inside the shrunken TARDIS. (TV: Flatline [+]Jamie Mathieson, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).)

When the Boneless invaded N-Space, they leeched energy from the TARDIS, most notably shrinking its exterior dimensions. Clara was eventually able to trick the Boneless into firing dimensional energy through a wall and into the TARDIS, allowing the Doctor to fire a pulse from the ship that sent the invaders back to their own realm. (TV: Flatline [+]Jamie Mathieson, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).)

Shortly after Clara Oswald's death, the Doctor was teleported into his confession dial. Left in Rigsy's care, the TARDIS was painted with a memorial for Clara. (TV: Face the Raven [+]Sarah Dollard, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).) Emerging from the dial on Gallifrey, the Doctor made use of Extraction chamber 7 to save Clara, stealing a new TARDIS to escape the planet. When a neural block erased the Doctor's memories of Clara, she claimed the second TARDIS as her own, reuniting the Doctor with his ship in Utah. (TV: Hell Bent [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).)

When the Twelfth Doctor spent seventy years as a professor at St Luke's University, the TARDIS was parked in his office. (TV: The Pilot [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).)

When the Twelfth Doctor regenerated into the Thirteenth Doctor, the TARDIS was left severely damaged by the regeneration energy. (TV: Twice Upon a Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2017 (BBC One, 2017).) Damaged and pilotless, the TARDIS crashed on Desolation. Stuck in a looping materialisation, the TARDIS became known as "the ghost monument" in the planet's culture before it was recovered by the Thirteenth Doctor, having repaired itself from the damage. (TV: The Ghost Monument [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 11 (BBC One, 2018).)

After crossing paths with Ashad in 1816, the Doctor and Team TARDIS followed him to the far future, leaving the TARDIS far from the battle that was to come. (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).) At its conclusion, the Doctor stole another TARDIS to bring her back to her own. Before she could take off, the Judoon teleported in and arrested the Doctor, teleporting her to a Judoon prison. (TV: The Timeless Children [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).) Twenty years later, the Doctor was broken out by Jack Harkness, the two teleporting back to the TARDIS using Jack's vortex manipulator. (TV: Revolution of the Daleks [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who New Year Special 2021 (BBC One, 2021).)

The Swarm Approaches the TARDIS

The Flux closes in on the TARDIS. (TV: The Halloween Apocalypse [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 13 (BBC One and BBC America, 2021).)

When the Flux ravaged the universe, the Thirteenth Doctor threw the TARDIS in its path. (TV: The Halloween Apocalypse [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 13 (BBC One and BBC America, 2021).) Though this caused several system malfunctions in the TARDIS, (TV: War of the Sontarans [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 13 (BBC One and BBC America, 2021).) it did prevent the Flux from consuming the universe. (TV: Survivors of the Flux [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 13 (BBC One and BBC America, 2021).) A week after this, the Doctor, for the first time ever, engaged a "self-reset", repairing the damage that the Flux had done. This caused a time loop which enabled the Doctor and her companions to escape death at the hands of Dalek Executioners. (TV: Eve of the Daleks [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who New Year Special 2022 (BBC One, 2022).)

After the Spy Master took possession of the Doctor's body via forced regeneration, he took the TARDIS for himself. The ship appeared to resist him, shocking him when he touched the console, however he threatened to throw her on the scrapyard if she didn't comply. Yaz forced him out of the TARDIS and piloted the ship herself until she restored the Doctor. When the Doctor saw that she was about to regenerate, she and Yaz shared some ice cream atop the TARDIS before the Doctor deposited Yaz back on Earth. (TV: The Power of the Doctor [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who Centenary Special 2022 (BBC One, 2022).)

OFF WE GO! WBY

The malfunctioning TARDIS expels fire after landing on a spaceship. (TV: Wild Blue Yonder [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).)

Following the Thirteenth Doctor's regeneration, the TARDIS changed the interior greatly, apparently on its own, before the Fourteenth Doctor returned with Donna Noble. However, Donna accidentally spilled coffee on the console, sending the TARDIS flying out of control. (TV: The Star Beast [+]Russell T Davies, adapted from Doctor Who and the Star Beast (Pat Mills and John Wagner), Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).) The TARDIS flew out of control to a variety of times and places, (COMIC: Untitled [+]Alan Barnes, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2023).) including briefly crashing in Isaac Newton's tree in 1666. (TV: Wild Blue Yonder [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).) Eventually the Doctor decided they had to abandon the damaged ship, (COMIC: Untitled [+]Alan Barnes, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2023).) which they did after the TARDIS materialised on a spaceship at the edge of the universe. The ship played "Wild Blue Yonder" during the landing, apparently in an attempt to warn the Doctor and Donna of the danger there. Using a regular screwdriver and the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor triggered the TARDIS's own regeneration to repair her, however this also reset the HADS which caused the TARDIS to dematerialise due to the danger of the Not-Things.

WBY Return

The TARDIS triumphantly returns. (TV: Wild Blue Yonder [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).)

When the spaceship was seconds from self-destructing, the TARDIS returned, as the risk of the Not-Things escaping had now passed, and rescued the Doctor who mistakenly took the Not-Thing Donna with him. He quickly realised his mistake and returned the TARDIS to the spaceship in time to save the real Donna, throwing the Not-Thing out. (TV: Wild Blue Yonder [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).)

Split[]

15giggle

The Fifteenth Doctor in the TARDIS. (TV: The Giggle [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).)

Following the defeat of the Toymaker and the Fourteenth Doctor's bi-generation, the Fifteenth Doctor used the prize that he had won from beating the Toymaker in a game to duplicate the TARDIS, with the only difference being a jukebox appearing in the console room of the Fifteenth Doctor's one. While the Fifteenth Doctor used one TARDIS to continues his travels throughout time and space, the other remained in the Fourteenth Doctor's possession as he retired on Earth. The Fourteenth Doctor parked his TARDIS in the backyard of his new house and occasionally used the ship to take his adopted family on short trips. (TV: The Giggle [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).)

Starting during the TARDIS' time at the edge of the universe, the TARDIS began making strange groaning noises which the Fourteenth Doctor believed was due to Donna breaking it. (TV: Wild Blue Yonder [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).) It carried on making similar groans on occasion under the Fifteenth Doctor's ownership. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Doctor Who (BBC One and Disney+, 2024)., Rogue [+]Kate Herron and Briony Redman, Doctor Who series 14 (BBC One and Disney+, 2024).) In 2024, UNIT's time window revealed that the TARDIS had been possessed at some point by Sutekh, the God of Death, who manifested himself from the TARDIS as a giant beast. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 14 (BBC One and Disney+, 2024).)

Taking control of the TARDIS and piloting it to Christmas Eve, 2004, (TV: Empire of Death [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 14 (BBC One and Disney+, 2024).) Sutekh revealed that he had latched onto the ship after the Fourth Doctor had cast him into the time vortex in 1911 (TV: Pyramids of Mars [+]Stephen Harris, Doctor Who season 13 (BBC1, 1975).) and had followed the Doctor everywhere ever since then to prepare to spread death throughout time and space, using the TARDIS' perception filter to create versions of Susan Triad wherever the Doctor landed. With Sutekh in control of the real TARDIS, the Doctor escaped with Ruby and Melanie Bush in a Memory TARDIS created out of bits of every TARDIS there ever was and held together by hopes, wishes and luck. The Doctor was eventually able to regain control of the TARDIS using a whistle, vaporising the Harbinger and blasting Sutekh off of it with a blast of energy from the Heart of the TARDIS. Attaching Sutekh to the console with intelligent rope, the Doctor and Ruby dragged the god through the time vortex, restoring life to all of time and space. The Doctor then cut Sutekh free of the TARDIS, leaving him to burn up in the time vortex, permanently ending Sutekh's threat to all life. (TV: Empire of Death [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 14 (BBC One and Disney+, 2024).)

Post-retirement[]

Even after retiring from their time-travelling adventures and becoming the Curator, the Doctor continued using the TARDIS for meddling in past affairs and preserving timelines. According to Robin Bright-Thompson, his TARDIS control room was far subtler in design than the Eighth Doctor's.

In his Sixth Doctor aspect, the Curator rescued Robin in his TARDIS after he was abandoned by the Eighth Doctor at the end of humanity for his actions. (AUDIO: The Keys of Baker Street)

Model and type[]

The precise model number of the Doctor's TARDIS was a matter of some confusion, particularly when it was compared to those of other Time Lords. The dematerialisation circuit of the Master's TARDIS was a Mark II, compared to the Doctor's Mark I. (TV: Terror of the Autons [+]Robert Holmes, Doctor Who season 8 (BBC1, 1971).) When the Teselecta scanned the Doctor's TARDIS, its records stated the timeship was a TT Type 40, Mark 3. The record also stated it had been reported stolen. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) The Scrolls of Gallifrey indicated that the Doctor's TARDIS was a Mark 1. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey)

During a visit by the Fourth Doctor to Gallifrey, the Doctor's TARDIS was unambiguously called a "Type 40". At that time, it was made clear that all other Type 40s had long since been officially decommissioned and replaced by newer models. The fact that the Doctor's TARDIS was a Type 40 was not common knowledge, even to the Castellan. (TV: The Deadly Assassin [+]Robert Holmes, Doctor Who season 14 (BBC1, 1976).) This designation was used with greater frequency afterwards. It was even used by the Eleventh Doctor as an excuse to Winston Churchill for his tardy response to Churchill's summons. (TV: Victory of the Daleks [+]Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).) When the TARDIS had the opportunity to speak to the Eleventh Doctor in the body of Idris, it called itself a "Type 40" without any qualification. (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) River Song defined it a "Type 40 Mark". (COMIC: Pond Life)

The Eleventh Doctor appeared to know the date of her creation, as one chronicle indicated that he celebrated "her birthday". (PROSE: Dark Horizons [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

Exterior[]

The doctor's TARDIS leaves for the first time

The Doctor's TARDIS leaves Gallifrey. (COMIC: Time & Time Again [+]Paul Cornell, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1993).)

Almost all TARDISes were designed to blend into their surroundings by means of a mechanism usually called the "chameleon circuit", but occasionally the "camouflage unit". Some later models seemed to let the pilot choose a desired exterior, overriding what would have been "natural" for the surroundings. (TV: Time-Flight [+]Peter Grimwade, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982)., Time and the Rani [+]Pip & Jane Baker, Doctor Who season 24 (BBC1, 1987).)

The Doctor's TARDIS would have had both abilities, were the chameleon circuit operational. Shortly after the Doctor first left Gallifrey, the TARDIS materialised on the Moon, taking the shape of a boulder. On its second trip, it landed on another planet in the shape of a giant mushroom. (AUDIO: The Beginning [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) Later still, the First Doctor had landed on Iwa, where the TARDIS had posed as a boulder once again, in that planet's desert. (PROSE: Frayed [+]Tara Samms, Telos Doctor Who novellas (Telos Publishing, 2003).) While on Quinnis, the First Doctor was unhappy when the TARDIS landed in a bazaar and chose to turn into a market stall, complete with a striped awning. (AUDIO: Quinnis) The Fourth Doctor showed Adric how the TARDIS could be changed to the shape of an Egyptian pyramid, implying he could override the chameleon circuit's "automatic" functionality. (TV: Logopolis [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1981).) Susan mentioned the TARDIS also had previously appeared as a sedan chair and an Ionic column. (TV: An Unearthly Child [+]Anthony Coburn, adapted from The Pilot Episode (Anthony Coburn), Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963).)

In any case, the defining characteristic of the Doctor's TARDIS was that its chameleon circuit had broken after assuming the shape of a police box in 1963 London. (TV: "The Cave of Skulls" [+]Part of An Unearthly Child, Anthony Coburn, adapted from The Pilot Episode (Anthony Coburn), Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963). et al.) It had also created Constable Bernard Whittam as part of the disguise. (AUDIO: The Last Day at Work) The Eleventh Doctor sabotaged the chameleon circuit before the TARDIS left 1963 London as part of a plot to foil the Prometheans so that the blue box shape was imprinted into the race memory of humanity. (COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (2013).) Not knowing this, the First Doctor and Susan expressed surprise that it had not changed form when they arrived at a new destination. (TV: An Unearthly Child [+]Anthony Coburn, adapted from The Pilot Episode (Anthony Coburn), Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963).)

On at least one instance, it was implied that the chameleon circuit was working or at least, the Doctor was able to fix it, but that they were fond of the police box shape so the TARDIS remained in that form. (TV: Boom Town [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).)

By their eleventh incarnation, the Doctor was telling their companions that the chameleon circuit was working, but due to a fault, invariably assumed its customary police box shape:

It's camouflaged. It's disguised as a police telephone box from 1963. Every time the TARDIS materialises in a new location, within the first nanosecond of landing, it analyses its surroundings, calculates a twelve-dimensional data map of everything within a thousand-mile radius and then determines which outer shell would blend in best with the environment.... and then it disguises itself as a police telephone box from 1963.Eleventh Doctor [src]

Despite being stuck as a police box, the shade of colour for the box varied from light blue, (TV: An Unearthly Child [+]Anthony Coburn, adapted from The Pilot Episode (Anthony Coburn), Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963).-Doctor Who [+]Matthew Jacobs, Doctor Who Television Movie (Fox Broadcasting Company, 1996).) dark blue (TV: Rose [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).-The End of Time [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2009 and New Year Special 2010 (BBC One, 2009-2010)., The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) bright blue (TV: The Eleventh Hour [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).-Twice Upon a Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2017 (BBC One, 2017).) and blue with a green tint. (TV: The Ghost Monument [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 11 (BBC One, 2018).-present) The windows also varied, being black, (TV: An Unearthly Child [+]Anthony Coburn, adapted from The Pilot Episode (Anthony Coburn), Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963).-Doctor Who [+]Matthew Jacobs, Doctor Who Television Movie (Fox Broadcasting Company, 1996).) dirty yellow, (TV: Rose [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).-The End of Time [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2009 and New Year Special 2010 (BBC One, 2009-2010).) bright white (TV: The Eleventh Hour [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).-Twice Upon a Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2017 (BBC One, 2017).) or pale yellow. (TV: The Ghost Monument [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 11 (BBC One, 2018).-present)

On the Planet Vortis

The TARDIS lands on Vortis. (COMIC: On the Planet Vortis)

Friends and enemies could identify the TARDIS by its unvarying shape. The Daleks even used miniature copies of the TARDIS for target practice. (TV: Death to the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 11 (BBC1, 1974).) The Cybermen recognised it, (TV: Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).) as did the Black Guardian's operative known as the Shadow. (TV: The Armageddon Factor [+]Bob Baker and Dave Martin, Doctor Who season 16 (BBC1, 1979).) Sarah Jane also recognised it, which led to her reunion with the Tenth Doctor. (TV: School Reunion [+]Toby Whithouse, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One|BBC One]], 2006).) Donna Noble was also on the look-out for the TARDIS. (TV: Partners in Crime [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).') Captain Jack Harkness was on the look-out for "a version of" the police box throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries to avoid meeting the Doctor before their initial meeting. (TV: Utopia [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).) Members of LINDA also knew of the outer shape of the Doctor's TARDIS, as did the Abzorbaloff. (TV: Love & Monsters [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).) The TARDIS was seen so much throughout history that, as Sarah Jane explained, you could Google "Doctor, blue box" and get results. (TV: Death of the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, The Sarah Jane Adventures series 4 (CBBC, 2010).) The blog Lua error in Module:Cite_source at line 420: attempt to index a nil value. ran an article chronicling sightings of the mysterious blue box throughout history, though were unaware of its true nature. (PROSE: Alabama's Blue Box)

On one occasion, an actual police box — namely, the last of its kind, which was situated on the Barnet by-pass — scared a group of invading aliens away from Earth when they mistook it for the Doctor's ship. (PROSE: Useless Things) Rosemary Kizlet's team faced "an embarrassment" when they thought the police box in Earl's Court was the Doctor's space-time vehicle. (TV: The Bells of Saint John [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).) Madge Arwell confused a normal police box for the TARDIS while helping the Eleventh Doctor find the TARDIS. (TV: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe) After accidentally aiding the Trickster by preventing her parents' deaths, Sarah Jane sought out the TARDIS to get the Doctor's help; however, as she time-travelled to the 1950s, Sarah Jane mistook a regular police box for the TARDIS since they were "everywhere" at the time. (TV: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith)

Because the police box shape was relatively easily recognised, the Doctor made several attempts to change the exterior of the TARDIS. None were particularly successful. In the end, they forewent changing how the TARDIS' outer shell looked by their ninth incarnation, deciding that they actually liked it. When Mickey Smith questioned the wisdom of leaving the TARDIS parked in the middle of Cardiff, thinking the appearance of a police box would draw unwanted attention, the Doctor reasoned that it was not a concern - people would see a blue box in the middle of the city and walk past it, taking no further notice (TV: Boom Town [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) due to the TARDIS's perception filter. (TV: The Sound of Drums [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007)., Everything Changes [+]Russell T Davies, Torchwood series 1 (BBC Three, 2006).)

These attempts are chronicled at chameleon circuit.

The exterior of the TARDIS changed shape when it entered siege mode. In this form, it took the shape of a cube etched with Gallifreyan writing with no way of getting in or out, (TV: Flatline [+]Jamie Mathieson, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) making it look similar to the Pandorica. (TV: The Pandorica Opens [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).) If the TARDIS had insufficient power, this mode could not be turned off, leaving life support to fail. (TV: Flatline [+]Jamie Mathieson, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).)

By the Twelfth Doctor's time, the TARDIS exterior was bigger than it was when used by the First Doctor, especially the windows. The Twelfth Doctor commented to his predecessor, "it's all those years of bigger on the inside; you try sucking your tummy in that long." (TV: Twice Upon a Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2017 (BBC One, 2017).)

The integrity of the TARDIS' exterior had brought into question by the Doctor's companions occasionally, in reference to its wooden aesthetic; (TV: Rose [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005)., The Bells of Saint John [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013)., The Pilot [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).) nevertheless, it had proven to be dense enough to emerge unscathed from the full impact of a car and survive numerous buildings and explosives landing on top of it, (AUDIO: Blood of the Daleks, The Innocent) and even "the assembled hordes of Genghis Khan". (TV: Rose [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) However, a temporal loop could render the TARDIS defenceless, as the Tenth Doctor put it, in situations like that, "that wooden door is just wood." (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)

Door[]

BadWolfTardisDoor

The Tardis sign door with the text replaced to repeat Bad Wolf. (TV: Turn Left [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)

Generally, the TARDIS had two doors along one of the craft's four sides. They could open inward and outward. (TV: Time-Flight [+]Peter Grimwade, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982)., The Ice Warriors, The Eleventh Hour [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010)., GAME: The Doctor and the Dalek [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) According to one account, there was only one door, which opened outward from the left. (COMIC: TV Terrors [+]TV Terrors comic stories (Polystyle Publications, Ltd., 1965).) By the time of the Eleventh Doctor, the doors could be opened by the snap of the fingers. To the Tenth Doctor's surprise, this worked for him, too. (TV: Forest of the Dead [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008)., The Eleventh Hour [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010)., Day of the Moon [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) The Eleventh Doctor's companion Clara Oswald also made use of this ability. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013)., The Caretaker [+]Gareth Roberts and Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).)

The right-hand door usually had a lock, (TV: The Sensorites, Spearhead from Space [+]Robert Holmes, Doctor Who season 7 (BBC1, 1970). et al.) although the lock was sometimes on the left-hand door, even though normal entry was still through the right. (TV: most serials prior to The War Machines)

HahahaTardisDoor

The Tardis sign door with the text replaced to repeat Hahaha. (TV: The Power of the Doctor [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who Centenary Special 2022 (BBC One, 2022).)

On the left-hand door was a panel in which was a replica of a telephone used in real police boxes to summon the police. (TV: The Empty Child [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005)., The Bells of Saint John [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013)., The Time of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013).) While the Second Doctor inhabited the TARDIS the emergency phone was sometimes on the right-hand panel, but by the time of his adventure on Dulkis, it had returned to the left-hand door. (TV: The Dominators) The TARDIS once communicated with Timothy Dean using its phone. (PROSE: Human Nature [+]Paul Cornell, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1995).) Although during the Doctor's ninth incarnation, this phone was (usually) non-functional, (TV: The Empty Child [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) by their eleventh incarnation, the phone could be used to send and receive calls, and this continued into their twelfth. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013)., The Time of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013)., Time Heist [+]Steve Thompson, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) The phone could also be routed through the TARDIS control console, (TV: The Time of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013).) which it usually was during the Eleventh Doctor's lifetime. (TV: Victory of the Daleks [+]Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010)., et al.) A sign on this small door offered instructions on use of the phone. (TV: Logopolis [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1981).)

TARDISat60Fathoms

The Second Doctor enters the TARDIS via the roof. (COMIC: Peril at 60 Fathoms)

The Second Doctor once entered through the top of the TARDIS, by lifting a panel on which the roof lamp rested. (COMIC: Peril at 60 Fathoms) Peri Brown also exited the TARDIS from the door on the roof. (COMIC: Enlightenment) The Doctor also tried to enter through the back panels, the occasional cat flaps and once through the central beacon. It was indicated that these would usually work, but did not in this case. (PROSE: Heart of TARDIS [+]Dave Stone, BBC Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2000).)

During the Flux event, affecting Time, the exterior doors of the TARDIS were prone to disappearing, and new doors kept spawning in the TARDIS interior, each time the Thirteenth Doctor and her companions entered from the outside. These doors could show up at odd angles, including on the control room floor. (TV: The Halloween Apocalypse [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 13 (BBC One and BBC America, 2021)., War of the Sontarans [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 13 (BBC One and BBC America, 2021)., et al.) A week after stopping the Flux, the Doctor repaired this by performing a self-reset of the TARDIS which cleared out the Flux debris and got rid of all of the extra doors. (TV: Eve of the Daleks [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who New Year Special 2022 (BBC One, 2022).)

On most occasions, the left-hand door was set to a fixed position. Likewise, the windows on the door were most often seen in a closed position, though the First Doctor sometimes opened them. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)

The left-hand door was sometimes used for egress and the right-hand one stayed in a fixed position. (TV: The Aztecs)

Sometimes both doors could be pushed (TV: Rose [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005)., Father's Day [+]Paul Cornell, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) or pulled open, (TV: The Runaway Bride [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2006 (BBC One, 2006)., The Beast Below [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010)., The Christmas Invasion [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas special (BBC One, 2005).) but according to the TARDIS herself, the doors should not open inwards and this was the Doctor opening them wrong - she claimed that they "open out the way". (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)

The windows on the doors and around the exterior could be opened, at least during the First Doctor's tenure. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Rescue, The Web Planet)

During the Doctor's first incarnation, a faded St John Ambulance logo could be seen on the door, even though it was sometimes barely visible under a layer of paint. Beginning during their second incarnation, it was not present. (TV: The Dominators [+]Norman Ashby, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1968). onwards) When the TARDIS regenerated itself at the start of their eleventh incarnation, a new St John sticker appeared on the door. (TV: The Eleventh Hour [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).) The sticker was completely removed after the TARDIS regenerated itself again and "did [herself] up" after the Twelfth Doctor's regeneration. (TV: The Ghost Monument [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 11 (BBC One, 2018).)

The exact wording on the sign on the telephone door varied slightly over time — once it, and the writing otherwise on the front of the TARDIS, was changed to read BAD WOLF. (TV: Turn Left [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).) When the TARDIS regenerated consequent to the Tenth Doctor's regeneration, this sign became backlit. (TV: The Eleventh Hour [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010). - Twice Upon a Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2017 (BBC One, 2017).) After the Twelfth Doctor's regeneration, the sign turned into a black plaque with white letters. (TV: The Ghost Monument [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 11 (BBC One, 2018).)

By the time he was going to have the chameleon circuit repaired by the Logopolitans, the Fourth Doctor had installed a handle on the telephone panel on the left-hand door. This remained a subtle, if functional, part of the design. (TV: The Empty Child [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).)

At some point prior to arriving to his unexpected death in San Francisco, the Seventh Doctor affixed a small handle to the right-hand door. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Matthew Jacobs, Doctor Who Television Movie (Fox Broadcasting Company, 1996).) This handle persisted after the regeneration of the TARDIS consequent to the arrival of the Eleventh Doctor. (TV: The Eleventh Hour [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010). onwards)

The Eleventh Doctor somehow fixed the TARDIS doors to accommodate his robotic T-Rex companion Kevin, although it was never explained how. (COMIC: When Worlds Collide [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) Later, the Twelfth Doctor travelled for a time with Jata, a member of a race that resembled Terran horses, and who likewise was able to enter and exit through the TARDIS doors. (COMIC: From the Horse's Mouth [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

If the TARDIS entered siege mode, the door disappeared entirely. (TV: Flatline [+]Jamie Mathieson, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).)

Lock and key[]

Main article: TARDIS key

Operation[]

Entry to the Doctor's TARDIS was usually effected by inserting a key into a lock, just as would be expected with a real police box. However, the lock did not respond to police-issued keys. (TV: Black Orchid, Blink [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from What I Did on My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow (Steven Moffat), Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).)

Susan suggested that the key forced the user to insert it precisely or the lock would self-destruct. (TV: "The Survivors") Later, the lock had a metabolism detector, preventing Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart from using the key. (TV: Spearhead from Space [+]Robert Holmes, Doctor Who season 7 (BBC1, 1970).) The Doctor had designed this function himself. (AUDIO: The Founding Fathers)

It could be opened with the standard Gallifreyan key for its outdated model. (TV: The Invasion of Time [+]David Agnew, Doctor Who season 15 (BBC1, 1978).)

Rare individuals managed to break open without a key. Among those, the companion Adric through lock-picking (TV: Logopolis [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1981).) and the gastropod Mestor through its psychic power. (TV: The Twin Dilemma)

According to Clara Oswald, the Doctor kept seven separate TARDIS keys hidden throughout the TARDIS. (TV: Dark Water [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).)

Design and features[]

HendersonKey

Dr. Henderson holding the "Yale lock" TARDIS key. (TV: Spearhead from Space [+]Robert Holmes, Doctor Who season 7 (BBC1, 1970).)

The external design of the key changed over time. It usually appeared to be an ordinary Yale lock key. (TV: Spearhead from Space [+]Robert Holmes, Doctor Who season 7 (BBC1, 1970)., Rose [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005)., and others) However, it occasionally appeared to have a more ornate, Gallifreyan motif. (TV: Planet of the Spiders [+]Robert Sloman, Doctor Who season 11 (BBC1, 1974)., Ghost Light, Doctor Who [+]Matthew Jacobs, Doctor Who Television Movie (Fox Broadcasting Company, 1996).)

The key could be modified by the Doctor to track and locate the TARDIS, allowing them to find the TARDIS if it was within a hundred years of their position. (COMIC: The Forgotten) The key was known to express a link to the TARDIS by glowing or becoming hot to the touch. (TV: Father's Day [+]Paul Cornell, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005)., The Eleventh Hour [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).)

At one point, the Tenth Doctor installed a system that let him lock the TARDIS remotely using a fob (as a joke, the TARDIS roof light flashed and an alarm chirp was heard, similar to that used on vehicles on Earth). He could open the door remotely. (TV: The End of Time [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2009 and New Year Special 2010 (BBC One, 2009-2010).) He also discovered, with the help of River Song after their adventure in the Library, that the door would open when he snapped his fingers, (TV: Forest of the Dead [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008)., Day of the Moon [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) although this function was not used consistently until his eleventh incarnation. (TV: The Eleventh Hour [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010)., Day of the Moon [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011)., The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) Clara Oswald also displayed this ability twice, (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013)., The Caretaker [+]Gareth Roberts and Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) the second time to shut the doors after the Twelfth Doctor did the same to open them. (TV: The Caretaker [+]Gareth Roberts and Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) When the Eleventh Doctor taught Clara this ability, he expected that it would take her time to master; he was surprised that she even managed to do this with gloves on. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).)

The Doctor has also shown the ability to summon the TARDIS with the key in their eleventh and twelfth incarnations: the Eleventh Doctor used the key to materialise the TARDIS around himself and Clara Oswald to save them from the Weeping Angels, (TV: The Time of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013).) while the Twelfth Doctor used the key to summon the TARDIS to save him from a free-fall, skydiving through the doors once it appeared nearby. (TV: Death in Heaven [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) In one case, the Thirteenth Doctor no longer had a key due to losing everything in her pockets after falling out of the TARDIS in midair. In this case, the TARDIS opened the door for her on its own after she told it she had no key. (TV: The Ghost Monument [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 11 (BBC One, 2018).)

If modified properly, the TARDIS keys exhibited the perception filter properties of the TARDIS. (TV: The Sound of Drums [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).)

Interior configuration and appearance[]

Overview[]

Tardis rooms

The TARDIS had many, many rooms. (COMIC: Changes [+]Grant Morrison, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1986).)

The TARDIS interior went through occasional metamorphoses, sometimes by choice, sometimes for other reasons, such as the Doctor's own regeneration. (PROSE: Invasion of the Cat-People, TV: The Eleventh Hour [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).) The halls also changed, sometimes appearing as sterile halls with roundels, (TV: The Masque of Mandragora [+]Louis Marks, Doctor Who season 14 (BBC1, 1976).) a series of doors with rooms that are bigger on the inside, (COMIC: Changes [+]Grant Morrison, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1986).) pathways similar to caves, with lights in the walls, (COMIC: Laundro-Room of Doom [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW., Cindy, Cleo and the Magic Sketchbook) octagonal hallways with roundels serving as lights, (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) or futuristic hallways with octagonal doorways. (TV: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS [+]Steve Thompson, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013)., The Name of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).)

Some of these changes were physical in nature (involving secondary control rooms, etc.), but it was also possible to re-arrange the interior design of the TARDIS with ease, using the architectural configuration system. (TV: Logopolis [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1981)., Castrovalva [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982)., AUDIO: Relative Dimensions [+]Marc Platt, Eighth Doctor Adventures (Big Finish Productions, 2010).) The Fifth Doctor called this changing "the desktop theme". (TV: Time Crash [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Children in Need Special 2007 (BBC One, 2007).) When the "desktop theme" was changed, the control room would flash with light and the newly selected version would take its place. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) The Doctor was known to favour and dislike desktop themes due to their incarnation's preferences. (TV: The Three Doctors [+]Bob Baker and Dave Martin, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1972-1973)., Time Crash [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Children in Need Special 2007 (BBC One, 2007)., The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013)., Twice Upon a Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2017 (BBC One, 2017)., The Ghost Monument [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 11 (BBC One, 2018).) The TARDIS archived disused (and yet-to-be-used) control room configurations. (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) The TARDIS could also create and modify rooms on its own accord; for example, to prevent part of the architectural reconfiguration system from being stolen by shifting rooms and corridors to create a labyrinth, and to preserve passengers from threats by creating copies of the control room to house them in. (TV: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS [+]Steve Thompson, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).) The Doctor wasn't sure if the constant shifting of rooms was supposed to happen, but accepted it nonetheless. (PROSE: Scratchman)

The TARDIS could also modify the interior to be accomodating to its passengers; when wheelchair user Hebe Harrison came aboard she found numerous ramps in the interior which the Sixth Doctor believed were new as the ship had adapted for her. (AUDIO: The Tides of the Moon) At one point aftet Sarah Jane had to climb down a spiral staircase to reach Workshop 2, the TARDIS replaced the stairs with an escalator for her return journey. (PROSE: Scratchman)

There were at least seven decks inside the TARDIS. Not knowing what some of the buttons did on the console, the Twelfth Doctor accidentally caused the waste tanks on Deck 7 to release their contents when piloting the TARDIS. Once River Song pointed this out, the Doctor winced "better avoid Deck 7 then." (TV: The Husbands of River Song [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2015 (BBC One, 2015).)

Roundels[]

Hey, look! The round things! [...] What are the round things? Eleventh Doctor [src]

Affectionately known to the Doctor as "the round things", (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013)., et. al) the TARDIS interior walls generally consisted of roundels — circular or hexagonal indentations that lined the TARDIS console room's interior walls and sometimes the walls deeper in the ship's interior. Some roundels concealed TARDIS circuitry, devices, or lights. (TV: The Wheel in Space [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1968)., Death to the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 11 (BBC1, 1974)., Logopolis [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1981)., Castrovalva [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982)., Arc of Infinity [+]Johnny Byrne, Doctor Who season 20 (BBC1, 1983)., Terminus [+]Steve Gallagher, Doctor Who season 20 (BBC1, 1983)., Enlightenment,Vengeance on Varos [+]Philip Martin, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985)., COMIC: Kane's Story) At least one large roundel functioned as a scanner. (TV: The Claws of Axos [+]Bob Baker and Dave Martin, Doctor Who season 8 (BBC1, 1971)., The Beast Below [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).)

11 in 1's TARDIS

The TARDIS wall was originally covered in roundels. (COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (2013).)

The First Doctor kept some brandy in a roundel, (TV: Twice Upon a Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2017 (BBC One, 2017).) which was later found by River Song (TV: The Husbands of River Song [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2015 (BBC One, 2015).) and used one last time by the Twelfth Doctor. (TV: Twice Upon a Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2017 (BBC One, 2017).) One roundel could display the time safe when this feature was activated, but otherwise this roundel was apparently normal. (PROSE: Imperial Moon) On the whole, though, the Doctor had little clue as to their purpose, though later incarnations admitted to loving and missing them from the desktops of their respective TARDISes. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013)., Deep Breath [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) On one occasion, the Second Doctor removed a roundel, which allowed him to remove one of the outer windows to see outside the TARDIS. (PROSE: The Nameless City)

By their tenth incarnation, the Doctor had forgotten the purpose of the roundels, yet nonetheless enjoyed their design. The Eleventh Doctor, too, had no idea what purpose the roundels actually served. During a Multi-Doctor Event, the two incarnations happily gushed about the roundels while in the TARDIS as it existed during the War Doctor's life. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013)., et. al) The Twelfth Doctor would later state he was not happy with his redecoration of the TARDIS because it did not have enough "round things", as he stated he had somehow misplaced most of them. (TV: Deep Breath [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) Later, he would indeed add more roundels to the TARDIS control room. (TV: Under the Lake)

The Fourteenth Doctor's TARDIS had a number of roundels as well, something that the Fourteenth Doctor liked. (TV: The Star Beast [+]Russell T Davies, adapted from Doctor Who and the Star Beast (Pat Mills and John Wagner), Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023)., Wild Blue Yonder [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).) The Fifteenth Doctor kept the roundels, but changed the color to orange before setting out on his adventures. (TV: The Giggle [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).)

Mass[]

Clara holds the TARDIS

The TARDIS, thanks to its adjusted mass, is held by Clara. (TV: Flatline [+]Jamie Mathieson, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).)

The TARDIS' exterior was always lighter than the "true weight" of its interior. According to the Twelfth Doctor, "If the TARDIS were to land with its true weight, it would fracture the surface of the Earth." (TV: Flatline [+]Jamie Mathieson, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) The TARDIS was said by Romana II to weigh fifty thousand tonnes in Alzarius' gravity. (TV: Full Circle [+]Andrew Smith, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1980).) "[S]eventeen thousand tons of thrust" was jettisoned for the TARDIS to escape Event One. (TV: Castrovalva [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).) One time, when the TARDIS mapped its interior dimensions onto its exterior ones — making it the same size outside as inside — it was larger than Gallifrey. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell [+]Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2000).) It was once described by the Eleventh Doctor as being infinite, as new areas could be created and therefore add more weight. (TV: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS [+]Steve Thompson, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).) The Twelfth Doctor once adjusted the TARDIS' relative gravity so that Clara could pick it up. This decrease of weight allowed the TARDIS to be light enough that the Doctor was able to, literally, move it by hand. (TV: Flatline [+]Jamie Mathieson, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).)

Control room[]

Main article: TARDIS control room
ElevenAtTheConsole

One of the Eleventh Doctor's TARDIS consoles. (TV: The Snowmen [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2012 (BBC One, 2012).)

The control or console room of the Doctor's TARDIS was the space in which the operation of the craft was usually affected. It was dominated by a large, hexagonal console, typically in or near the middle of the room. The room held a scanner for viewing the outside and offered immediate access to the exterior through a set of doors. According to one source, the trip from the console room to the outside required the passenger to step through the real world interface at the heart of the outer plasmic shell. (TV: Logopolis [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1981).) Many other accounts demonstrated that the doors were just doors, though the TARDIS was cocooned in a breathable atmosphere. (TV: The Runaway Bride [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2006 (BBC One, 2006)., The Stolen Earth [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008)., The Beast Below [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010)., HOMEVID: Meanwhile in the TARDIS) On one occasion, when the TARDIS' exterior dimensions shrank, so did the door on the inside. (TV: Flatline [+]Jamie Mathieson, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) On another occasion, when the extrapolator shielding could easily be breached by the weaponry of the New Dalek Empire, who were "experts at fighting TARDISes", the Tenth Doctor described "that wooden door" at that point as being "just wood". (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).) Queen Elizabeth I once pointed out that while the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS was bigger on the inside, the door wasn't, and her head was nearly taken off when the Doctor rode out of the TARDIS with Elizabeth on a Zygon which took on the body-print of a horse. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).)

There were many variants of the Doctor's control room. Indeed, the Doctor's TARDIS had more than one control room, the TARDIS itself claiming it had over 30 different versions in storage; being a different kind of temporal being, it could "archive something that hasn't happened." Idris telepathically told Rory how to go to one of the old console rooms, which, in this case, was the Ninth Doctor's console room. (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)

Other rooms[]

Accommodations[]

Some of the companions shared accommodations. (TV: The Edge of Destruction [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1964)., The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) Many companions had their own bedrooms in the TARDIS, decorated to their tastes. (TV: Meglos, Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).) Some of the companions were given previously used rooms. (TV: Terminus [+]Steve Gallagher, Doctor Who season 20 (BBC1, 1983).)

According to one account, the Doctor provided a room for each companion, beginning with Susan, and stored them all in a holding ring once they had departed. Each of these rooms was preserved just as its occupant had left it. At some point, the Eighth Doctor deleted every room but one. (AUDIO: Relative Dimensions [+]Marc Platt, Eighth Doctor Adventures (Big Finish Productions, 2010).)

According to another account, Susan's bedroom was later occupied by a host of other companions. (PROSE: Scribbles in Chalk, House, TV: Terminus [+]Steve Gallagher, Doctor Who season 20 (BBC1, 1983)., PROSE: The Bodysnatchers) Romana's room was jettisoned after Romana II left, as the TARDIS would not dematerialise. (TV: Logopolis [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1981).) Adric's room was reused by Turlough, (TV: Terminus [+]Steve Gallagher, Doctor Who season 20 (BBC1, 1983).) and then remained saved, deep within the TARDIS, into the time of the Tenth Doctor. (COMIC: Tesseract [+]Tony Lee, Doctor Who (2009) (IDW Publishing, 2010).)

All remaining bedrooms were deleted by House when it possessed the Eleventh Doctor's TARDIS. (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) Amy and Rory's original quarters had a bunk bed, much to their consternation. It was here that the couple conceived River Song on the night of their wedding. Amy and Rory secured a proper bed after escaping from House when the Doctor reassigned them to a new bedroom. (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011)., A Good Man Goes to War) Clara also had a bedroom, which she used if she needed sleep before heading back home to resume her job as nanny to the Maitland children. (COMIC: Sky Jacks, HOMEVID: Lua error in Module:Cite_source at line 420: attempt to index a nil value.)

10DY2 1 The Doctor's Room

The Tenth Doctor turns the light off in his bedroom. (COMIC: A Rose by Any Other Name [+]Rachael Smith, Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor backup comic stories (Titan Comics, 2014-2016).)

The Doctor was asked once if he had a room but never answered. (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) The Doctor didn't sleep as much as humans, (COMIC: Four Doctors; TV: Good Night, Bad Night, Deep Breath [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) but preferred to sleep when alone. (TV: Sleep No More) One of the few companions to ever see a bedroom used by the Doctor was Rose-the-cat, who would often sleep near his feet. (COMIC: A Rose by Any Other Name [+]Rachael Smith, Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor backup comic stories (Titan Comics, 2014-2016).)

Library[]

Main article: TARDIS library
See also: the Doctor and books

There was a library in the TARDIS. (PROSE: War of the Daleks [+]John Peel, adapted from War of the Daleks, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1997)., All-Consuming Fire [+]Andy Lane, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1994)., The Dimension Riders, AUDIO: The Witch from the Well [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) Its books included Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, (PROSE: The Wheel of Ice) Jane's Spaceships, (PROSE: War of the Daleks [+]John Peel, adapted from War of the Daleks, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1997).) Every Gallifreyan Child's Pop-Up Book of Nasty Creatures From Other Dimensions, (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire [+]Andy Lane, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1994).) The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, (TV: Doctor Who [+]Matthew Jacobs, Doctor Who Television Movie (Fox Broadcasting Company, 1996).) Robinson Crusoe, (PROSE: Heart of TARDIS [+]Dave Stone, BBC Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2000).) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (signed first printing, with last page missing), War and Peace, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The I-Spy Book of British Birds, (AUDIO: Storm Warning) Can You Forgive Her?, the James Bond novel You Only Live Twice, (AUDIO: Zagreus [+]Alan Barnes and Gary Russell, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2003).) A History of the Varaxil Hegemony, (AUDIO: The Witch from the Well [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) the Encyclopedia Gallifreya, The History of the Time War, (TV: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS [+]Steve Thompson, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).) Wisden, A Brief History of Time, (PROSE: Fear of the Dark) Ludowig's Histories of the Dalek Imperium, and the only signed copy of The Quarry in the universe. (PROSE: Keeping up with the Joneses [+]Nick Harkaway, Time Trips (BBC Digital, 2014).) The Doctor also possessed a copy of Christie's Death in the Clouds published in the year 5 billion, which they kept in the C chest, (TV: The Unicorn and the Wasp, AUDIO: The Carrionite Curse) a complete set of all 11 Harry Potter novels (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Lance Parkin, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2005).) and a book entitled Advanced Quantum Mechanics that had an image of the TARDIS in its police-box camouflage on the dust jacket. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) The Doctor's library also had books by Capek and Capote. (PROSE: The Blood Cell) Unknown to the Doctor, the library also contained books documenting the Doctor's own adventures, which had been written by the TARDIS itself. (PROSE: The Library of Time)

The Doctor also kept their Five Hundred Year Diary in the library. (AUDIO: The Young Lions)

Sometimes, small items other than books were also stored in the library. For instance, the Eighth Doctor kept his secateurs there, filed under "B" for Capability Brown. (AUDIO: The Witch from the Well [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

During his travels with the Doctor, Adric had every book on mathematics in the TARDIS library. (AUDIO: Zaltys)

During the time of the Tenth Doctor, there was a specific desk that, no matter where it was moved, always got rained on by a cloud layer in the upper stacks. The Doctor placed a saucepan on the desk to catch the water and keep psychic paper from mouldering because it produced psychic mould that would eventually turn into psychic mushrooms. (PROSE: Keeping up with the Joneses [+]Nick Harkaway, Time Trips (BBC Digital, 2014).) By the time the Eleventh Doctor was recovering from regeneration after-effects, the pool fell into the library after a crash-landing but was later removed when the TARDIS had finished regenerating itself. (TV: The Eleventh Hour [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).) Clara Oswald also hid in the library when she was running from time zombies. (TV: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS [+]Steve Thompson, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).)

At one point the Fourth Doctor discovered a second library, which he described as looking like as "necromancer's study". (AUDIO: A Sting in the Tale) The console room had a library at the end of the Seventh Doctor's life and the start of the Eighth Doctor's. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Matthew Jacobs, Doctor Who Television Movie (Fox Broadcasting Company, 1996).) The Twelfth Doctor showed similar taste, refurbishing his console room with bookshelves. He often took out a book relevant to a situation. (TV: Deep Breath [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014)., Robot of Sherwood, Listen [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014)., et al.)

Wardrobe[]

Main article: TARDIS wardrobe
TARDIS wardrobe room

The wardrobe room used by the Tenth Doctor. (TV: The Christmas Invasion [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas special (BBC One, 2005).)

The Doctor kept clothing from their previous incarnations, as well as clothing for other people, in the TARDIS wardrobe. (TV: Pyramids of Mars, The Androids of Tara, The Twin Dilemma, Time and the Rani [+]Pip & Jane Baker, Doctor Who season 24 (BBC1, 1987)., The Unquiet Dead [+]Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005)., The Christmas Invasion [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas special (BBC One, 2005)., The Idiot's Lantern, Victory of the Daleks [+]Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010)., AUDIO: No Place Like Home [+]Iain McLaughlin, Big Finish DWM originals (Big Finish Productions, 2003)., COMIC: Laundro-Room of Doom [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) Its appearance changed over time, appearing as either a small closet, (TV: The Twin Dilemma) a storage room, (TV: Time and the Rani [+]Pip & Jane Baker, Doctor Who season 24 (BBC1, 1987).) or a proper walk-in closet. (TV: The Christmas Invasion [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas special (BBC One, 2005).) The War Doctor talked about "wardrobes", suggesting there could be more than one. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).)

Some of the clothing in the wardrobe was picked up during travels (TV: Spearhead from Space [+]Robert Holmes, Doctor Who season 7 (BBC1, 1970)., Doctor Who [+]Matthew Jacobs, Doctor Who Television Movie (Fox Broadcasting Company, 1996)., The Fires of Pompeii [+]James Moran, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008)., The Eleventh Hour [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010)., Deep Breath [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) or left by ex-companions. (TV: Pyramids of Mars, Army of Ghosts, Partners in Crime [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).', Space) It contained clothing from various times and environments, to suit where and when the TARDIS' occupant(s) found themselves. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The Mark of the Rani, Ghost Light, The Curse of Fenric, The Unquiet Dead [+]Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005)., Human Nature [+]Paul Cornell, adapted from Human Nature (Paul Cornell), Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007)., Planet of the Ood, The Unicorn and the Wasp, The Power of Three, The Great Detective, etc.) The Tenth Doctor explained to Gabby Gonzalez that the TARDIS shopped on her own by landing in stores after hours, collecting clothes to make copies of, and returning the originals to avoid theft. (COMIC: Laundro-Room of Doom [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) These proved useful on numerous occasions for the Doctor's companions, many of whom left on their travels without bringing many clothes of their own. (TV: The Twin Dilemma, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy [+]Stephen Wyatt, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1, 1988-1989)., Victory of the Daleks [+]Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).) The Doctor has often availed himself of its selection when attempting to define a style for himself, post-regeneration; (TV: Robot, The Twin Dilemma, Time and the Rani [+]Pip & Jane Baker, Doctor Who season 24 (BBC1, 1987)., The Christmas Invasion [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas special (BBC One, 2005).) and possibly Romana as well. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks) The Fifth Doctor, however, discovered his wardrobe in an unidentified anteroom. (TV: Castrovalva [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).)

At least some of the clothes had pockets that were bigger on the inside. (TV: The Runaway Bride [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2006 (BBC One, 2006).)

By the time of the Doctor's fifth incarnation, the TARDIS was equipped with replicator technology, which allowed it to copy clothing. (AUDIO: The Toy)

Jo Grant once spent approximately two hours going through the wardrobe trying on different outfits. She considered many of them "groovy". (AUDIO: Ghost in the Machine)

During Ace's time in the TARDIS, it was apparently right next to the control room. (TV: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy [+]Stephen Wyatt, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1, 1988-1989).) The War Doctor once, having forgotten where the wardrobe was located, ended up giving incorrect directions. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) When the Ninth Doctor was in Cardiff on 24 December 1869, he gave incredibly long directions to Rose Tyler to get to the wardrobe; her being able to remember them was nothing short of a miracle. (TV: The Unquiet Dead [+]Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).) When the Tenth Doctor was travelling with Gabby, the wardrobe was located next to the laundry room. While walking to the laundry room, Gabby asked if the boot cupboard was the wardrobe, to which the Doctor explained that the "wardrobe's next door along -- I think. Might've moved it." (COMIC: Laundro-Room of Doom [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) By the time of the Eleventh Doctor's date with River Song following the TARDIS' repair, it had changed location. The directions that he gave River were considerably shorter. (TV: The Eleventh Hour [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).; HOMEVID: First Night) The Twelfth Doctor, having landed in 1814 at the height of the last Frost Fair, gave directions similar to the ones his ninth incarnation gave to Rose, this time to his companion Bill Potts. (TV: Thin Ice [+]Sarah Dollard, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).)

The Tenth Doctor once noted that there was a very limited range of women's clothing in the wardrobe. (AUDIO: Time Reaver) This was further backed up by the Thirteenth Doctor, who noted that she had not had to buy women's clothes in "a while". (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 11 (BBC One, BBCA, Space and Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2018).)

In the Eleventh Doctor's second console room, he gained easy access to the wardrobe through a chest on the sub level. (TV: The Bells of Saint John [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).) The Doctor once changed out of his soaked outfit and into a fresh set of clothes incredibly fast, and when asked by Clara how he changed so quickly, he replied "wibbly-wobbly wardrobe". (PROSE: Shroud of Sorrow [+]Tommy Donbavand, BBC New Series Adventures (BBC Books, 2013).) By the time of the Twelfth Doctor, however, entry to the wardrobe required travelling further into the ship. (TV: Thin Ice [+]Sarah Dollard, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).)

According to the Thirteenth Doctor, there was a wardrobe hall in a lower substrata of the TARDIS, just off the control room. (TV: Spyfall [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).)

Cloister bell/room[]

Main article: Cloister Room
736px-Eyeofharmony

The Cloister Room. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Matthew Jacobs, Doctor Who Television Movie (Fox Broadcasting Company, 1996).)

The Cloister Room was related to the Cloister Bell, which sounded when disaster was imminent. The room appeared to be ancient with benches on the sides of the room and plants growing on the crumbling pillars. The Fourth Doctor visited this room with Adric shortly before his regeneration. (TV: Logopolis [+]Christopher H. Bidmead, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1981).)

The Fifth Doctor used to hide from Tegan Jovanka in the Cloister Room. (AUDIO: No Place Like Home [+]Iain McLaughlin, Big Finish DWM originals (Big Finish Productions, 2003).)

Constance Clarke compared the Cloister Room to "an ugly industrial cathedral". (AUDIO: Absolute Power [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

Ace attempted to relax in the Cloister Room, but gave up when the bell would not stop ringing. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark [+]Andrew Hunt, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1992).)

When the TARDIS interior went through a metamorphosis, the Cloister room became a grand and gothic room, similar to a place of worship, with an interface with the Eye of Harmony. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Matthew Jacobs, Doctor Who Television Movie (Fox Broadcasting Company, 1996).)

The Tenth Doctor later implied that the room had reverted back to a garden state. He explained to Gabby that the dirt molecules in their clothes would be deposited as fertiliser for "the cloisters" by the Laundro De-mat. (COMIC: Laundro-Room of Doom [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

Holding ring[]

Main article: TARDIS holding ring

The holding ring was a storage area of the TARDIS which let the Doctor preserve certain rooms. When Lucie, Susan and Alex investigated it, the ring contained the rooms of many of the Doctor's former companions, preserved as they had been the last time the companions were in the TARDIS. The rooms were saved in chronological order, suggesting that Susan was indeed the Doctor's first companion. Susan later teased her grandfather, calling his habit of saving rooms overly sentimental. He suggested that the ring was one of the few ways his time-travelling life allowed him to put down roots. After Susan, Alex and Lucie departed the TARDIS for new adventures on Earth, the Doctor reconsidered the wisdom of keeping so many rooms in stasis. Insisting to himself he needed to look towards the future, he deleted all the rooms on the holding ring — "except that one", implied to be Susan's. (AUDIO: Relative Dimensions [+]Marc Platt, Eighth Doctor Adventures (