Monday 2 May 2011

The Doctor's Faithful Time Machine



The TARDIS! TARDIS is an acronym, it stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space.  The picture above is of the current BBC version, which resembles very much the William Hartnell original with it's white window frames and St. John ambulance sign on the right door, not shown!

The Doctor's Time & Space Machine apart from the Doctor himself is the only other constant throughout the series history!

It first appeared way back in the very first episode of the show, An Unearthly Child, where it was first disguised as a Police Box.  And it stayed a Police Box right through the series, until Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor seemingly repaired the Chameleon Circuit in Season Twenty Two's Attack of the Cybermen!  But by the close of that adventure the TARDIS had reverted back to the familiar shape we all know and love!  The Sixth Doctor showed his approval of the return of the Police Box by lovingly patting the ship's exterior!



The picture above is the William Hartnell original from a still from the very first Doctor Who story.
As a concept the idea of a Time Machine is a fascinating one.  In the context of Doctor Who the TARDIS provides endless opportunities for adventure.  Many would argue that it's the enduring appeal of the Doctor himself and his ability to regenerate which has given the programme it's enduring success.  This is not strictly true!  The TARDIS itself plays a significant factor in Doctor Who's success, it is the instrument of adventure.  It is the TARDIS which provides the Doctor with a means of journeying to anywhere in the cosmos and to land him right in the middle of an adventure, just like the 1996 Doctor Who TV Movie below!



Without the TARDIS we would never have landed on the dead world of Skaro and met the creatures destined to become the Doctor's deadliest enemies.  The TARDIS is the Doctor's most faithful time machine, and the one the Doctor possesses is a Type 40 TT Capsule.  This particular model was long since decommissioned on Gallifrey many centuries ago.  Gallifrey the Doctor's home planet, long since destroyed during the Time War is home to many different types of TARDIS.  Alas it is not known if there was any survivors of the Time War who escaped Gallifrey's destruction in their TARDIS's!  Perhaps we will find this out in the New Series currently airing on BBC1!

Article by @Via_The_Void

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