Talk:TARDIS

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[edit] Possible tweaks

I was just wondering if the following tweaks to the article would be usefull or welcome, or whether they would be judged unnecessary or irrelevant - I think sometimes its better to check in discussion before making the changes in the article itself. Any comments on the points below? If the response is generally positive, I'll try to introduce the points into the main article, harmoniously and not taking up to much space of course :-)

1. Other appearances, merchandising. The article states that 'Fan-built full-size models of the police box are also common'. Are they really that common? It might be better to say that 'a number of fans have built full-size models', but I don't think it is correct to say they are common. Also, is it worth adding that the BBC generally frowns on such fan reproductions and that the only officially licensed full-size replica of the TARDIS is made by ThisPlanetEarth?

2. External doors. In the TV series, the police box doors have always opened inwards. In contrast, the doors of Peter Cushing's police box in the Dalek movies open outwards. Interestingly, in some of the publcicity stills for the 9th Doctor series, the police box doors are shown opened fully outwards, while in the TV series itself they always open inwards.

3. Doors. Occasionally, the external doors close by themselves suggesting they are physically connected to the electronicaly operated internal doors. For example, in the second episode of Unearthly Child, there is a very satisfying moment when we see an internal shot of the console room with the inner doors closing slowly, followed by a cut to the outside showing the external doors slamming shut right on cue (wonderful direction!) while everyone is some distance from the TARDIS. On many other occasions, however, we see the Doctor pulling the right hand external door closed, suggesting the two entrances are not linked, or at least that they can be unlinked. This refers to the original series only, of course.

4. TARDIS destroyed. The destructability/indestructability of the TARDIS has been discussed, but there has been at least one instance I can think of (Mind Robber) where the TARDIS was actually destroyed and shown to explode in space with all the panels going off in different directions, leaving the Doctor and companions clinging to the control console. Should this be mentioned?

5. Popular culture. Another appearance for the TARDIS is in a song on the album Six by Manusn, which also features a speaking part by Tom Baker. At the end of the song, the dematerializaton sound can be clearly heard in the fade out. Also, Robbie Williams 'Fashion Tardis down at Quo Vadis' - is that a relevant one?

--82.14.68.109 08:46, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

Just my own views:
1. This refers to fan-built models but not for commercial use, which the BBC seem to have no problem with, though. There are lots of websites out there where people have built TARDISes out of garden sheds, etc., so it seems pretty common.
2. This seems a little too trivial for me: any particular significance to be attached to it?
3. "For most of the series' run, the exterior doors of the police box operated separately from the heavier interior doors, although sometimes the two sets could open simultaneously to allow the ship's passengers to look directly outside and vice versa." Does this cover it? Or a variation on this?
4. It may be worth noting, but it seems that the destruction of the TARDIS in that instance was more of an illusion. A better example might be Frontios.
5. The Six reference seems all right, but not sure about the Robbie Williams one. How significant is the reference to the song? --khaosworks (talk • contribs) 09:26, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Khaosworks :-) 1. This was me thinking aloud really, so I've no strong feelings about the original version of the text, I was just interested to see what everyone else thinks. It may be worth mentioning that the TPE replica is the only officially licensed one though and include the link. On the same point, this is actually marketed as a movie TARDIS. TPE do not have a licence to produce a TV TARDIS but I was told when I bought mine that the two were so similar that they didn't think it was worth the expense to apply for a second licence. Most purchasers adapt them to suit their own preferences, e.g. I have modified mine to look more like a Tom Baker era TV prop. 2. I'd like to hear other opinions, I thought it was an interesting titbit of information. 3. That sounds good to me 4. Ditto 5. OK, I'll mention Six. Does anyone else have an opinion about Robbie Williams? (keep it clean!). I don't really understand the significance of the line myself. I'll wait to see if there is any other feedback before doing the mods. --82.14.68.109 11:55, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] TARDIS radar system

TARDIS apparently is the name of a radar system (In real life.) "TARDIS" Go takes me here instead of to a disambiguation page which I expected. I'd give a reference website but I have to dash to work. Sorry. 208.199.16.170 11:36, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] In the 2005 series, the keys are also remotely linked to the TARDIS,

It should be pointed out that this process takes some time to occur.

Not signalling its arrival; the summoning, perhaps, but that was a particularly special circumstance. --khaosworks (talk • contribs) 14:29, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] this article is getting flagged as very long

Editing the page and Wikipedia will now tell you that it's over 50K characters long, and that people using Google toolbar might encounter problems editing this article. Sounds like time to split some sections off to sister articles? I have absolutely no knowledge nor interest in this TV series so I can't be of help in the actual splitting, sorry. 24.19.184.243 11:25, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

The section "The Doctor's TARDIS" is 17 kilobytes long, the longest top-level division in the article. Might be a good candidate for splitting off. Bryan 23:43, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Personally, the Other appearances in pop culture needs to secede from this article... Either that, or shortened. This could grow inconveniently bigger with other not-so-useful references as anything that happens to be bigger on the inside than out..
For instance, having seen episode 42 of Star Trek: Enterprise, have the people involved with creating it ever say that it was intended to be a homage unto Doctor Who's time-machine? DrWho42 23:00, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
Agreed. I strongly believe we should remove connections between the TARDIS and anything with a weak similarity (such as the Spice Girls bus, or anything that just seems to be based on the TARDIS. Furthermore other things named TARDIS should go on a disambiguation page, even if they are named after the Doctor's timeship —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Kransky (talk • contribs) 13:15, 14 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] one other minor cultural reference

There have been for years a range of toolboxes and chests with intricate folding drawers in the UK which go under the brand name 'TARDIS'.Wolfe 18:20, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox

Any objection to the article having an infobox? thanks/Fenton, Matthew Lexic Dark 52278 Alpha 771 20:04, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

I don't object to having an infobox per se, but I'm not sure that the one currently on the page adds much of value to the article. Most of the fields are empty (appropriately so, since they're inapplicable), and the accuracy of the "force field" one is debatable. If you're thinking of The Parting of the Ways, that was just a temporary lash-up using the tribophysical waveform extrapolator (the surfboard), not part of the TARDIS's standard equipment; Rose even says, "The TARDIS doesn't have any defences!" There have been other defence systems mentioned in the classic series (the Hostile Action Displacement System, or HADS, comes to mind, but it was only mentioned once), but by and large the series hasn't dwelt on the TARDIS's technical specs, which seems to be what that infobox is looking for. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 23:37, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
I echo Josiah's comments. It's very difficult to have a useful infobox about a spaceship that has never really had consistent capabilities aside from time travel and a malfunctioning camouflage circuit. --khaosworks (talk • contribs) 02:15, 20 October 2006 (UTC)
Yea, true. I've removed the infobox anyway (-: thanks/Fenton, Matthew Lexic Dark 52278 Alpha 771 08:38, 20 October 2006 (UTC)
No problem. It was a reasonable idea. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 02:39, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bioship?

I'm not sure whether the TARDIS really belongs in Category:Bioships. Although it is alive in some sense, and the Doctor says that TARDISes were "grown, not made", it's not really portrayed as having organic or biological components in the usual sense of the term. The bioship article mentions Axos, but not the TARDIS. It's certainly a less clear-cut example than, say, Moya from Farscape. Thoughts? —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 18:56, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

It would be really pushing it to call the TARDIS a bio-ship, to my knowledge it does not possess any biological components. MatthewFenton (talk • contribs) 19:06, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
The doctor certainly spoke of the ship dying in the new series. If it's established to be alive, then it's bio, no? Whether it's "organic" is a different issue, I'd think. └ OzLawyer / talk ┐ 19:13, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, but why is the one reference in "Impossible Planet" considered of overriding canonicity as opposed to the multiple references to the ship being built in the old series? --Mong the Senseless —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.138.2.87 (talk • contribs) 20:30, November 27, 2006 (UTC)

What are these "multiple references" of which you speak? I can't recall any references to the TARDIS being built — although that may just be a hole in my memory. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 18:39, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
The end of Warriors' Gate makes references to K-9 having a set of TARDIS blueprints in his memory, implying there's a building process involved. That's the only real reference during the classic series, though, and the novels have them "birthed". --khaosworks (talk • contribs) 22:39, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
If something is biomechanical, the distinction between "blueprints" and "anatomy" is pretty fuzzy. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 23:08, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image

I actually believe a new image would be a good thing.. the one we have at present is pretty crappy.. I'm sure a decent view of the TARDIS could be found. thanks/Fenton, Matthew Lexic Dark 52278 Alpha 771 11:32, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

I agree. It might be good to have a screencap from the new series for the top of the article, and one from the Hartnell days showing the St. John's Ambulance badge to accompany the "Exterior" section. Since both aspects are discussed in the article, the fair use justification should be solid. If we get a better image, it could also be added at Police box#Police boxes and Doctor Who, since the point of that section of that article is that the police box image is now associated with Doctor Who more than with the police. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 06:45, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

I've moved the new CG image provided by Smomo to the "Exterior" section, since I think it illustrates that very nicely. I still think it would be nice to replace the Pertwee image with a screencap from the new series — perhaps the TARDIS in the snow from The Unquiet Dead? I'd do it myself, but I actually don't know how. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 06:38, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 'Weight' of the TARDIS?

In 'The Doctor's TARDIS/Interior', it is claimed that the 'weight' of the TARDIS in the 'Earth-like gravity of Alzarius' is some value in kilograms. Since kilograms are a measure of mass, not weight, and are therefore constant no matter what the gravity is, we should probably consider revising this, even if it is a direct quote, simply because it's nonsensical. 80.189.118.50 18:08, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Please see Talk:TARDIS/Archive_1#Mass or Weight?. --khaosworks (talk • contribs) 18:17, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Translation of languages

I encountered a debate on one of the talk pages regarding the TARDIS's translation of Galifreyan writing which I intended to contribute to once I had checked some references, but cannot remember where it was, now. I am sure the original questioner, if still interested, will probably find this comment. So: 'is Gallifreyan writing 'translated' for Rose?' I would say the Tardis (and the Doctor) keeps this private for Time Lords (i.e. is not included in 'the Time Lord gift'). References: Canon: In 'Fear Her', when the Tardis is analysing the scribble creature, Rose has to ask what the Gallifreyan writing says. Not-so-canon examples: the novel 'Only Human' p 15, refers to (from Rose's POV) 'A maze of graphics, in the incomprehensible alien script the Doctor always worked in.' The book suggests (p16) that Captain Jack can understand some of it, although in 'Deviant Strain', p9 (Jack's POV) 'Not a lot of it made sense but he nodded knowingly.'

Incidentally, Jack seems able to understand much of the TARDIS technology (as did others in the classic series, including Nyssa). Where did they learn to do so? Is the technology not exclusive to the Time Lords? Gwinva 14:59, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] how is the Tardis bigger on the inside.

is it explained how the Tardis is bigger on the inside. it's explained how the tardis can (in the doctor's tardis's case was able to) camoflague ( by a chameloeon circuit) so what tachnolgy makes the Tardis bigger on the inside. plz notify me on my user talkpage when u answer thx.--I.W 21:06, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

The TARDIS' dimensional transcendentality is made possible by a state-of-the-art neutron flow polarity reverser (just kidding). In fact, Clarke's Third Law seems to be the fundamental principle behind the TARDIS' unusual dimensions. -Steve —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 207.6.224.49 (talk) 14:09, 11 February 2007 (UTC).
Steve is, of course, right. That said, the series has given a few hand-waves towards an explanation. The most common is the phrase "dimensionally transcendental". In Colony in Space, the Doctor "explained" to Jo Grant that the TARDIS was bigger on the inside because it was dimensionally transcendental. When she asked, "What does that mean?", he said, "It means that it's bigger on the inside than the outside." He also gave less-than-helpful explanations in "An Unearthly Child" (comparing it to a building on a small TV screen) and The Robots of Death (comparing it to the way that something farther away looks smaller than something up close). The general assumption is that the interior exists in a different dimension from the exterior, which would jibe with what happens to the TARDIS in Father's Day (the interior gets separated from the exterior, leaving the police box shell). Hope that helps. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 20:30, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fluorescent walls?

An anon recently added the following:

In an episode from the First Doctor's era, one of his companions, Barbara asks "What I don't understand is where's the light's coming from?". he replies "It must be some kind of fluorescent substance in the walls."

This sounds vaguely familiar to me, but since TARDIS is a featured article we should include information like this only if we can provide a specific episode citation. Anyone remember where, specifically, this is from? —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 07:29, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

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