The TARDIS

TARDIS

Time And Relative Dimension In Space

Type: An unreliable Type 40 TT capsule.
Functioning: Unreliable - The Doctor is constantly attempting to fix the TARDIS, it often appears in the wrong time and place, and it always takes the form of a blue police box.
Age: Uncertain. It used to belong to another Time Lord called Marnal before the Doctor. The TARDIS has been shown as having to wait around for the Doctor sometimes for decades, and even centuries, while he is off on his adventures. The Doctor himself has claimed that he has had 900 years of travel in time and space.
Acquired: Stolen from the shipyards of Gallifrey, by The Doctor, where it had been stripped for spare parts.

Characteristics

• 'It's bigger on the inside!'
• The TARDIS has in fact been noted as having several bedrooms, a wardrobe, a bathroom, a large attic, a kitchen, the console room, a second control room, the zero room, a library, and a swimming pool, as well as endless amounts of corridors.
• It is alive.
• TARDIS' are grown, not made.
• The TARDIS shows a psychic ability. It can translate languages into a chosen persons head, has a telepathic ability, and has been noted as acting funny when it is in danger.
• Their power is known as the 'Heart of the TARDIS' and it is drawn from a combination of the Eye of Harmony (now destroyed an Gallifrey), the universe itself, and can be charged by the Doctor's own life force if necessary.
• Before a TARDIS is fully functional, a Time Lord must operate it for the first time so it can be primed with their biological imprint.
• It travels by 'disappearing here and reappearing there'. It doesn't tend to cope well with actual flight (shown in The Runaway Bride)
• A key is required to open the TARDIS doors. Both the key and the lock have been changed several times.
• Once the doors are shut, nothing can get in.
• Messages and visual images of The Doctor can be shown on a screen or projected from different points inside.
• The TARDIS has shown itself to be practically indestructible. It can withstand gunshots, lazes, explosions, black holes, falling from great heights, and temperatures up to 3000 degrees.

Parts of the TARDIS

• The heart of the TARDIS/Time Vortex - the power source behind it.
• The Zero Room - A chamber that was shielded from the rest of the universe and provided a restful environment.
• Chameleon Circuit - used so the TARDIS blends into what ever surroundings it appears in. The Doctor's chameleon circuit is broken, hence the TARDIS' form of the police box no matter where it ends up.
• Chameleon Arch - used to rewrite a Time Lords biology to change him into something else (most noticeably a human)
• Briode nebuliser - where the Time Lords imprint is stored so that he, and others, can safely travel through time and space.
• A Cloister Bell - Used to warn of on-coming danger.
• A perception Filter - so people will not notice it.
• Gravitic Anomaliser.
• Helmic Regulator.
• The Vector Tracker.
• The Vortex Loop Control.
• Dimensional stabilizer.
• The Time Rotor/column - the column in the centre of the controls.
• The Hand-brake - 'otherwise it might drift off into the middle ages'
• The Tribophysical Waveform Macro Kinetic Extrapolator - originally an intergalactic 'surf board' taken from the Slitheen, and installed and used to rig up a force field against the Daleks.
  
  

Trivia

• The Doctor always refers to his TARDIS as a she.
• Because of the TARDIS' poor performance, The Doctor is often seen as hitting the console with a nearby hammer whilst telling it to 'behave!'
• In the episode Sound of the Drums, the TARDIS was transformed by The Master into a Paradox Machine in order to bring about the end of Earth.
• According to Time Lord law, unauthorised use of a TARDIS carries 'only one penalty', implied to be death.