TARDIS on:
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In the
File:Doctor Who Experience (13080761155).jpg, The original 1963 set (2014 reproduction)
File:Doctor Who Experience (25307755549).jpg, The console room set used from 1977 to 1983
File:Console (23963541552).jpg, The updated console room set used from 1983 to 1989
File:Tardis (6502023691).jpg, The redesigned set from 2005 to 2010
File:BBC Tardis Set (6868569950).jpg, The redesigned set from 2010 to 2012
File:Peter Capaldi's TARDIS Set (25074781711).jpg, The 2014 to 2017 set design
A number of legacy police boxes are still standing on streets around the United Kingdom. Although now no longer used for their original function, many have been repurposed as coffee kiosks, and are often affectionately referred to as TARDISes. A police box in the Somerton area of Newport in South Wales is known as the Somerton TARDIS.
Cultural references to the TARDIS are many and varied.
In music, The KLF (performing as "The Timelords") released a novelty pop single in 1988 entitled " Doctorin' the Tardis". The record reached number one in the
TARDIS sound effect from the current series
( MP3)
"The History of the TARDIS Prop"
"Everything You Need to Know About the TARDIS"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tardis Fictional elements introduced in 1963 Bioships Doctor Who devices Telephony in popular culture Time travel devices Fictional spacecraft
The TARDIS (;
(BBC), despite the fact that the design was originally created by the Metropolitan Police Service.
acronym
An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...
for "Time And Relative Dimension In Space") is a fictional hybrid of the time machine and spacecraft
A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, ...
that appears in the British science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
television series ''Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...
'' and its various spin-offs. Its exterior appearance mimics a police box, an obsolete type of telephone kiosk that was once commonly seen on streets in Britain. Paradoxically, its interior is shown as being much larger than its exterior, commonly described as being "bigger on the inside".
Due to the significance of ''Doctor Who'' in popular British culture, the shape of the police box is now more strongly associated with the TARDIS than its real-world inspiration. The name and design of the TARDIS is a registered trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from ot ...
of the British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...Name
TARDIS is an acronym of "Time And Relative Dimension(s) in Space". The word "Dimension" is alternatively rendered in the plural. The acronym was explained in the first episode of the show, '' An Unearthly Child'' (1963), in which the Doctor's granddaughter claims to have made it up herself. Generally, "TARDIS" is written in alluppercase letters
Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...
, but may also be written in title case as "Tardis". The word "Tardis" first appeared in print in the Christmas 1963 edition of '' Radio Times'', which refers to "the space-time ship ''Tardis''", and this publication has often italicised it to connote a ship's name.
Description
In the fictional universe
A fictional universe, or fictional world, is a self-consistent setting with events, and often other elements, that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed, or fictional realm (or world). Fictional universes ma ...
of the ''Doctor Who'' television show, TARDISes are space and time-travel vehicles of the Time Lord
The Time Lords are a fictional ancient race of extraterrestrial people in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', of which the series' main protagonist, the Doctor, is a member. Time Lords are so named for their command ...
s, beings from the planet Gallifrey
Gallifrey () is a fictional planet in the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It is the original home world of the Time Lords, the civilisation to which the protagonist, the Doctor belongs. It is located in a ...
. Although many TARDISes exist and are sometimes seen on-screen, the television show mainly features a single TARDIS used by the show's protagonist
A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...
, a Time Lord who goes by the name of the Doctor.
TARDISes are built with a "chameleon circuit", a type of camouflage
Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...
technology that changes the exterior form of the ship to blend into the environment of whatever time or place it lands in. The Doctor's TARDIS always resembles a 1960s London police box, an object that was very common in Britain at the time of the show's first broadcast. Owing to a malfunction in the chameleon circuit after the events of the first episode of the show, '' An Unearthly Child'', the Doctor's TARDIS is stuck in the same disguise for a long period. The Doctor has attempted to repair the chameleon circuit, unsuccessfully in '' Logopolis'' (1981) and with only temporary success in ''Attack of the Cybermen
''Attack of the Cybermen'' is the first serial of the 22nd season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in two weekly parts on 5 and 12 January 1985. It was credited to the pseudonymous autho ...
'' (1985). In the 2005 television story "Boom Town
A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although ...
", the Doctor reveals that he has stopped trying to repair the circuit as he has become fond of its appearance. The other TARDISes that appear in the series have chameleon circuits that are fully functional.
While the exterior is of limited size, the TARDIS is famously "bigger on the inside". Behind the police box doors lies a large control room, at the centre of which is a hexagonal console for operating the TARDIS. In the middle of the console is a moving tubular device called a time rotor. The presence of a physically larger space contained within the police box is explained as "dimensionally transcendental", with the interior being a whole separate dimension containing an infinite number of rooms, corridors and storage spaces, all of which can change their appearance and configuration.
The TARDIS also allows the Doctor and others to communicate with people who speak languages other than their own. The “translation circuit” (occasionally called the “translation matrix”) was first explored in "The Masque of Mandragora" (1976), as the Doctor explained to his companion, Sarah, "Well, I’ve taken you to some strange places before and you’ve never asked how you understood the local language. It’s a Time Lord’s gift I allow you to share. But tonight when you asked me how you understood Italian, I realized your mind had been taken over.” The translation circuit has also been explored in comparison with real-world machine translation, with researchers Mark Halley and Lynne Bowker concluding that "when it comes to the science of translation technology, ''Doctor Who'' gets it wrong more often than it gets it right. However, perhaps we can forgive the artistic license if we recognize that, as in other science fiction works, the presentation of some type of ubiquitous translation tool is necessary to explain to the audience how people from other countries, time periods, and even other worlds, can understand each other and indeed appear to speak (mostly) flawless English."
Conceptual history
Exterior design
When ''Doctor Who'' was being developed in 1963 the production staff discussed what the Doctor's time machine would look like. To keep the design within budget it was decided to make the outside resemble apolice telephone box
A police box is a public telephone kiosk or callbox for the use of members of the police, or for members of the public to contact the police. It was used in the United Kingdom throughout the 20th century from the early 1920s. Unlike an ordin ...
, a common piece of street furniture that had originally been designed in the 1920s by the Scottish architect Gilbert Mackenzie Trench. The idea for the police-box disguise came from a BBC staff writer, Anthony Coburn, who rewrote the programme's first episode from a draft by C. E. Webber
Cecil Edwin Webber (sometimes known by the nickname "Bunny"; 9 April 1909June 1969) was a British television writer and playwright. He is best remembered for his contribution to the creation of the science-fiction series ''Doctor Who'' while wo ...
. While there is no known precedent for this notion, a November 1960 episode of the popular radio comedy show Beyond our Ken included a sketch featuring a time machine described as "a long police box".
The concept of a cloaking mechanism (later referred to as the "chameleon circuit") was devised to explain this. In the first episode, " An Unearthly Child" (1963), the TARDIS is first seen hidden in a London scrapyard in 1963, and after travelling back in time ("The Cave of Skulls
''An Unearthly Child'' (sometimes referred to as ''100,000 BC'') is the first serial of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It was first broadcast on BBC TV in four weekly parts from 23 November to 14 December 1963. ...
") to the Paleolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...
Era, the police box exterior persists. In a subsequent story, "The Time Meddler
''The Time Meddler'' is the ninth and final serial of the second season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Written by Dennis Spooner and directed by Douglas Camfield, the serial was broadcast on BBC1 in four week ...
" (1965), the First Doctor
The First Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He was portrayed by actor William Hartnell.
Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien Time ...
explains that the TARDIS should automatically adopt a disguise, such as a howdah (a carrier on the back of an Indian elephant in the Indian Mutiny
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the for ...
) or a rock on a beach.
Accounts differ as to the origin of the police box prop. While the BBC asserts that it was constructed specially for ''Doctor Who'', it has been claimed that the box was a reused prop from the BBC television police dramas ''Z-Cars
''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it deb ...
'' or '' Dixon of Dock Green'' (a claim later repeated by ''Doctor Who'' producer Steven Moffat).
The dimensions and colour of the TARDIS police box props used in the series have changed many times, as a result of damage and the requirements of the show, and none of the BBC props has been a faithful replica of the original MacKenzie Trench model. Numerous details have been altered over time, including the shape of the roof, the signage, the shade of blue paint, the presence of a St John Ambulance emblem and the overall height of the box. The original prop remained in use for around 13 years until it collapsed — reportedly on Elisabeth Sladen's head. A new prop was introduced for '' The Masque of Mandragora'' in 1976, and there have been at least six versions in total. The evolution of the prop design was referenced on-screen in the episode "Blink
Blinking is a bodily function; it is a semi-autonomic rapid closing of the eyelid. A single blink is determined by the forceful closing of the eyelid or inactivation of the levator palpebrae superioris and the activation of the palpebral portio ...
" (2007), when the character Detective Inspector
Inspector, also police inspector or inspector of police, is a police rank. The rank or position varies in seniority depending on the organization that uses it.
Australia
In Australian police forces, the rank of inspector is generally the ne ...
Shipton says the TARDIS "isn't a real olice box The phone's just a dummy, and the windows are the wrong size."
Interior design
The TARDIS console room was designed for the first episode byset design
Scenic design (also known as scenography, stage design, or set design) is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly trai ...
er Peter Brachacki and was unusually large for a BBC production of this time. It was noted for its innovative, gleaming white "futuristic" appearance.
Like the police box prop, the set design of the TARDIS interior has evolved over the years. From the inception of the show in 1963 up until the end of the " classic series" in 1989, the design of the TARDIS console room remained largely unchanged from Brachacki's original set, a brightly lit white chamber, lined with a pattern of roundels on the walls and with a central hexagonal console which contained a cylindrical "time rotor" that moved when the TARDIS was in transit. Numerous alterations were made to the central console and to the layout, but the overall concept remained constant. In Season 14 (1976-77), a dark wood-panelled "Control Room Number 2" was briefly used for a few episodes, but the white console room set was reinstated in Season 15, due to damage to the set. After the cancellation of the television show, a radically redesigned TARDIS set was used in the 1996 TV movie, heralding a move to a more steampunk
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian ...
-inspired set design, which later influenced the set design in the revived series from 2005 onwards.
Depiction of time travel
The production team conceived of the TARDIS travelling by dematerialising at one point and rematerialising elsewhere, although sometimes in the series it is shown also to be capable of conventional space travel. In the 2006 Christmas special, " The Runaway Bride", the Doctor remarks that for a spaceship, the TARDIS does remarkably little flying. The ability to travel simply by fading into and out of different locations became one of the trademarks of the show, allowing for a great deal of versatility in setting and storytelling without a large expense in special effects. The distinctive accompanying sound effect — a cyclic wheezing, groaning noise — was originally created in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop by sound technician Brian Hodgson by recording on tape the sound of his mother's house key scraping up and down the strings of an old piano. Hodgson then re-recorded the sound by changing the tape speed up and down and splicing the altered sounds together. When employed in the series, the sound is usually synchronised with the flashing light on top of the police box, or the fade-in and fade-out effects of a TARDIS (see "Controls" below). Writer Patrick Ness has described the ship's distinctive dematerialisation noise as "a kind of haunted grinding sound", while the ''Doctor Who Magazine
''Doctor Who Magazine'' (abbreviated as ''DWM'') is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who''. Launched in 1979 as ''Doctor Who Weekly'', the magazine became a monthly publication the follo ...
'' comic strips traditionally use the onomatopoeic
Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...
phrase "vworp vworp vworp".
Other appearances
Television spin-offs
The sound of the Doctor's TARDIS featured in the final scene of the '' Torchwood'' episode " End of Days" (2007). As Torchwood Three's hub is situated at a rift of temporal energy, the Doctor often appears on Roald Dahl Plass directly above it in order to recharge the TARDIS. In the episode, Jack Harkness hears the tell-tale sound of the engines, smiles and afterwards is nowhere to be found; the scene picks up in thecold open
A cold open (also called a teaser sequence) is a narrative technique used in television and films. It is the practice of jumping directly into a story at the beginning of the show before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. In Amer ...
of the ''Doctor Who'' episode "Utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island soc ...
" (2007) in which Jack runs to and holds onto the TARDIS just before it disappears.
Former companion Sarah Jane Smith
Sarah Jane Smith is a fictional character played by Elisabeth Sladen in the long-running BBC Television science fiction on television, science fiction series ''Doctor Who'' and two of Doctor Who spin-offs, its spin-offs. Sarah Jane is a dogged in ...
has a diagram of the TARDIS in her attic, as shown in '' The Sarah Jane Adventures'' episode " Invasion of the Bane" (2007). In the two-part serial ''The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith
''The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith'' is the fifth serial of the second series of the British science fiction television series ''The Sarah Jane Adventures''. It first aired in two weekly parts on CBBC on 17 and 24 November 2008.
In the stor ...
'' (2008), Sarah Jane becomes trapped in 1951 and briefly mistakes an actual police public call box for the Doctor's TARDIS (the moment is even heralded by the Doctor's musical cue, frequently used in the revived series). It makes a full appearance in ''The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith
''The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith'' is the third serial of the third series the British science fiction television series ''The Sarah Jane Adventures''. The two-part story was first broadcast on BBC One on 29 and 30 October 2009. It guest stars ...
'' (2009), in which the Doctor briefly welcomes Sarah Jane's three adolescent companions into the control room. It then serves as a backdrop for the farewell scene between Sarah Jane and the Tenth Doctor, which echoed nearly word-for-word her final exchange with the Fourth Doctor aboard the TARDIS in 1976. It reappears in '' Death of the Doctor'' (2010), where it is stolen by the Shansheeth who try to use it as an immortality machine, and transports Sarah Jane, Jo Grant and their adolescent companions ( Rani Chandra, Clyde Langer and Santiago Jones).
Theatrical films
The TARDIS appears in the two film productions, '' Dr. Who and the Daleks'' (1965) and '' Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.'' (1966). In both films the Doctor, played by Peter Cushing, is an eccentric scientist who invented the TARDIS himself.Cultural impact
Merchandising
As one of the most recognisable images connected with ''Doctor Who'', the TARDIS has appeared on numerous items of merchandise associated with the programme. TARDIS scale models of various sizes have been manufactured to accompany other ''Doctor Who'' dolls and action figures, some with sound effects included. Fan-built full-size models of the police box are also common. There have been TARDIS-shaped video games, play tents for children, toy boxes, cookie jars, book ends, key chains, and even a police-box-shaped bottle for a TARDIS bubble bath. The 1993 VHS release of '' The Trial of a Time Lord'' was contained in a special-edition tin shaped like the TARDIS. With the 2005 series revival, a variety of TARDIS-shaped merchandise has been produced, including a TARDIS coin box, TARDIS figure toy set, a TARDIS that detects the ring signal from a mobile phone and flashes when an incoming call is detected, TARDIS-shaped wardrobes and DVD cabinets, and a USB hub in the shape of the TARDIS. The complete 2005 season DVD box set, released in November 2005, was issued in packaging that resembled the TARDIS. One of the original-model TARDISes used in the television series' production in the 1970s was sold at auction in December 2005 for £10,800.BBC trademark
In 1996 the BBC applied to theUK Intellectual Property Office
The Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom (often referred to as the UK IPO) is, since 2 April 2007, the operating name of The Patent Office. It is the official government body responsible for intellectual property rights in the UK ...
to register the TARDIS as a trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from ot ...
. This was challenged by the Metropolitan Police
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...
, who felt that they owned the rights
Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory ...
to the police box image. However, the Patent Office found that there was no evidence that the Metropolitan Police – or any other police force – had ever registered the image as a trademark. In addition, the BBC had been selling merchandise
Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative way that entices customers to purchase more ...
based on the image for over three decades without complaint by the police. The Patent Office issued a ruling in favour of the BBC in 2002.
The word TARDIS is listed in the ''Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...
''.
Legacy police boxes
A number of legacy police boxes are still standing on streets around the United Kingdom. Although now no longer used for their original function, many have been repurposed as coffee kiosks, and are often affectionately referred to as TARDISes. A police box in the Somerton area of Newport in South Wales is known as the Somerton TARDIS.
In science and computing
An asteroid discovered in 1984 by astronomer Brian A. Skiff was named 3325 TARDIS on account of itscuboid
In geometry, a cuboid is a hexahedron, a six-faced solid. Its faces are quadrilaterals. Cuboid means "like a cube", in the sense that by adjusting the length of the edges or the angles between edges and faces a cuboid can be transformed into a c ...
appearance. A number of geological features on Charon
In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon (; grc, Χάρων) is a psychopomp, the ferryman of Hades, the Greek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the ...
, the largest moon of the dwarf planet Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...
, have been named after mythological or fictional vessels, and one is named the Tardis Chasma.
A data storage manufacturer called tarDISK markets a flash memory
Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both use ...
drive for Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancest ...
MacBook which it claims is "bigger on the inside". They also claim native integration with Apple's Time Machine backup software.
In popular culture
Cultural references to the TARDIS are many and varied.
In music, The KLF (performing as "The Timelords") released a novelty pop single in 1988 entitled " Doctorin' the Tardis". The record reached number one in the UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
and had chart success worldwide. It was a reworking of several songs (principally Gary Glitter
Paul Francis Gadd (born 8 May 1944), best known by his stage name Gary Glitter, is an English former singer, songwriter, and record producer. He achieved success during the glam rock era of the 1970s and 1980s, and his career ended after he ...
's "Rock and Roll Part 2
"Rock and Roll" is the debut single by English glam rock singer Gary Glitter that was released in 1972, from his debut studio album ''Glitter''. Co-written by Glitter and Mike Leander, the song is in two parts: Part 1 is a vocal track reflecting ...
", The Sweet
The Sweet (often shortened to just Sweet), are a British glam rock band that rose to prominence in the 1970s. Their best known line-up consisted of lead vocalist Brian Connolly, bass player Steve Priest, guitarist Andy Scott, and drummer M ...
's " Block Buster!" and the ''Doctor Who'' theme music) with lyrics referencing ''Doctor Who'', specifically the TARDIS. In 2007, the British rock band Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass ...
included the song "Up on the Ladder" on their album '' In Rainbows'' which begins with the line "I'm stuck in the TARDIS".
In 2001, Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award). ...
-winning artist Mark Wallinger created a piece or artwork entitled ''Time and Relative Dimensions in Space'' that is structurally a police box shape faced with mirrors. The BBC website describes it as "recent proof of he TARDIS'
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
enduring legacy".
In July 2014, the Monty Python
Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over fou ...
comedy troupe opened their reunion show, '' Monty Python Live (Mostly)'', with a trademark animation featuring the Tardis – dubbed the "retardis" – flying through space before the Pythons came on stage.
In film, the TARDIS makes a cameo appearance
A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...
in a number of productions, including '' Iron Sky'' (2012) and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019). The TARDIS has also featured within the gameplay of a number of popular video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...
s, including Lego Dimensions
''Lego Dimensions'' is a Lego-themed action-adventure platform crossover video game developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Wii U, Xbox One and Xbox 360. I ...
and '' Fortnite: Battle Royale''.
Other references to the TARDIS have included a $2 silver commemorative coin
Commemorative coins are coins issued to commemorate some particular event or issue with a distinct design with reference to the occasion on which they were issued. Many coins of this category serve as collectors items only, although some countries ...
depicting the TARDIS, issued on Niue Island
Niue (, ; niu, Niuē) is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Zealand. Niue's land area is about and its population, predominantly Polynesian, was about 1,600 in 2016. Niue is located in a triangle between Tonga ...
in the South Pacific Ocean by the Perth Mint
The Perth Mint is Australia's official bullion mint and wholly owned by the Government of Western Australia. Established on 20 June 1899, two years before Australia's Federation in 1901, the Perth Mint was the last of three Australian coloni ...
to mark the 50th anniversary of the ''Doctor Who'' television show; and Tardis Environmental, a British sewage company, in reference to the similarity of their portable toilet
A portable or mobile toilet (colloquial terms: thunderbox, portaloo, porta-john or porta-potty) is any type of toilet that can be moved around, some by one person, some by mechanical equipment such as a truck and crane. Most types do not require ...
s to a police box.
See also
* Time travel in fiction * Creative geography *Portable hole
In various works of fiction, a portable hole is a two-dimensional device that can be used to contravene the laws of physics by creating a passage through a solid surface, through which characters can move.
Notable uses
The 1955 '' Looney Tunes'' ...
* Pocket universe
A pocket universe or bubble universe, also colloquially called pocket dimension is a concept in inflationary theory, proposed by Alan Guth.
Description
It defines a realm like the one that contains the observable universe as only one of many inf ...
Footnotes
;NotesReferences
* * * * * * * *External links
TARDIS sound effect from the current series
( MP3)
"The History of the TARDIS Prop"
"Everything You Need to Know About the TARDIS"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tardis Fictional elements introduced in 1963 Bioships Doctor Who devices Telephony in popular culture Time travel devices Fictional spacecraft