Summary
- The TARDIS is an acronym for Time And Relative Dimension In Space, though its true origin remains unknown.
- The TARDIS was involved in a patent war with the Metropolitan Police, but the BBC won the legal battle.
- The TARDIS contains various rooms and features, including a swimming pool, art galleries, gardens, and bedrooms for the Doctor and companions.
The TARDIS has a special meaning to fans of Doctor Who, and the loveable ship is one of the most recognizable images in sci-fi history. The Doctor is the nameless guardian of Earth, the savior of worlds, and a member of an alien race, the Time Lords of the planet Gallifrey. They have become the masters of time and space through the utilization of something truly spectacular: the TARDIS, a ship that is The Doctor’s key to the universe. It has been the chariot of The Doctor for eons, weaving throughout time and space to bring the Time Lord where he needs to be at almost exactly the right time.
This iconic piece of equipment is arguably a greater companion to the Doctor than even his longest-running companions. Moreover, The TARDIS is a more consistent character than the Doctor himself, who has the ability to alter and regenerate his body 12 (now 13) times instead of dying. Since the '60s, the TARDIS has retained its image to be that of a blue police box, occasionally getting somewhat noticeable face-lifts along the way.
20 TARDIS Acronym Meaning
The name of the TARDIS is actually an acronym that stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. On some occasions, it is referred to as a TT Capsule, but is known as a TARDIS an overwhelming majority of the time. It’s generally believed that the acronym was first created by the Doctor’s original companion, Susan Foreman. Susan claimed she thought of it the first time she traveled on such a ship. Despite this, there is no decisive explanation for the origin of the term, TARDIS.
In the early years of the show, there were some Time Lord colleagues of the Doctor who referred to the time machine as the TARDIS, while having no prior notion of the term from Susan. Even of the Sisterhood of the Karn, a more radical group within Time Lord society, were familiar with the term without any prompting from Susan. It would seem that despite Susan ‘creating’ the term TARDIS, the true origins of the word appear to be lost in time. Perhaps it is the result of a ‘Bootstrap Paradox’, a paradox that delves into the concept of how time travel influences original thought.
19 There Was A Patent War For The TARDIS
The TARDIS is a blue police box that travels the whole of space and time. It was also designed after the blue police boxes that once lined the streets in London. However, as technology progressed, the police box became obsolete and fell into the abyss of uselessness. This initiated a phase where the blue police box became more synonymous with Doctor Who than the Metropolitan Police, who first introduced the concept of the box back in 1928.
In 1996, BBC applied for a trademark on the blue police box to take advantage of a merchandising void that had existed for quite some time. Naturally, the Metro Police objected to this trademark. Given the sheer volume and wide array of TARDIS merchandise that has flooded both the UK and US markets, it is obvious who won the legal battle. In 2002, the Patent Office ruled in favor of the BBC (via The Guardian), giving it exclusive rights to the blue police box design, and giving the people the freedom to every type of TARDIS product imaginable.
18 The TARDIS Is Bigger On The Inside
This is the phrase spoken by all mere mortals who first step foot in the TARDIS, and a phrase the Doctor very much looks forward to hearing. The TARDIS, disguised as a little, blue police box on the outside, is quite literally another world on the inside. Dimensionally transcendental are the words used to describe how and why the TARDIS’ interior is larger than its exterior, and this is made possible through transdimensional engineering.
In The Robots of Death, the fourth Doctor explained to his companion, Leela, the principle behind dimensional transcendentalism by using the analogy of how a larger cube will appear to fit within a smaller cube if placed at a distance. The ability to capture both 'cubes' in the same space was a monumental discovery for the Time Lords. Rory puts it more simply by describing the inside of the TARDIS as ‘another dimension’, and that’s exactly what it is. Existing in its own little world, the TARDIS is essentially infinite, and can delete and create rooms in an instant.
17 The TARDIS Has A Swimming Pool (And Many Other Rooms)
While a bulk of the Doctor Who stories and episodes only show the control room of the TARDIS, the Doctor's ship actually contains much more. The TARDIS has many rooms throughout its theoretically limitless interior, and it is really only limited by the Doctor's imaginations and desires. First seen in The Invasion of Time, the TARDIS contains at least one swimming pool at all times depending on the occupants' desires. Besides that, the TARDIS has also been show to have art galleries, gardens, and a slew of bedrooms to accommodate the Doctor and his companions.
16 The TARDIS' Sound Is A Great Accident
The wheezing and whirring, groaning and moaning sound that is heard when the Doctor is ‘flying’ the TARDIS has become synonymous with that of a trumpet heralding the arrival of the Time Lord wherever he may go. His enemies fear the sound and flee, and his allies rejoice when they hear it. Those who do not know the sound and mean to do harm to others will learn to dread it. That sound did not always exist, however.
During the First Doctor's season 1 serials, the TARDIS was completely silent. As with many aspects of the show, the TARDIS' signature sound was updated to make things more compelling. Sound designer Brian Hodgson ‘struck a chord’ when he took an old house key and ran it along a cluster of broken piano strings (via Wales Online). It wasn’t until the second season that the TARDIS made the earliest version of the famous wheeze. There were many consequent evolutions, and in the 10th Anniversary Special, The Three Doctors, fans heard the finalized version of the sound.
15 There Are Many Types of TARDIS
The first TARDISes ever made were dangerous vehicles, as they were prone to malfunctions due to poor design. Some of the early generations of the TARDISes became aware of themselves and their capacity and had a tendency to ‘run away’ to explore the universe. The Doctor's TARDIS is technically a Type-40 TARDIS, and it was already very outdated from the time he borrowed ‘her’. A Type-70 could break through the temporal distortion grid, the boundary between dimensions, and the Doctor once claimed that his Type-40, could not handle such an arduous journey. The fact that the Doctor's TARDIS is something of a relic makes her all the more lovable.
14 The TARDIS Isn’t The Doctor’s Only Vehicle
Because of the actions of his previous forms, the Third Doctor was exiled on Earth by his fellow Time Lords, and the TARDIS was largely useless to him. As such, he needed additional transportation and found an appropriately zany old car that he affectionately named Bessie. With her open-topped design and bright yellow paint job, Bessie matched the quirky personality of the Third Doctor, and he drove her all around the English countryside. She was specifically tuned to the Doctor's needs, and Bessie even drove herself on a handful of occasions.
13 The TARDIS Is A Fortress
Having the ability to dematerialize and rematerialize at any point in time and space throughout the universe makes the TARDIS one of the most valuable items in the universe. Even the TARDIS’ core power systems are powerful enough to destroy the universe, should something happen to it. Given this, the TARDIS is jam-packed with all the most advanced and sophisticated security systems Time Lords could conjure.
To start, it is neigh impregnable when undamaged. The TARDIS is equipped with a force field, rendering most weapons in the universe obsolete against its exterior. The TARDIS is also very sensitive to danger and will transport itself to safety if it feels that it is at risk. One of its most interesting defense mechanisms is its ability to actively mold and shape itself into a living labyrinth, trapping any individuals of ill-intent who came aboard in an infinite maze of despair.
12 The TARDIS Exists In Our Solar System
On May 3, 1984, Brian Skiff discovered this asteroid within the asteroid belt of the solar system, and named it after the most famous time machine in space, the TARDIS (via Universe Guide). Naming 3325 TARDIS on behalf of the ship was actually rather fitting, given the Doctor Who mythos surrounding asteroids. For starters, in Image of the Fendahl, it is said that our very own asteroid belt was once orbiting Planet 5, and the Time Lords moved it to Earth's solar system 12 million years ago. Once it was moved to the solar system, it served as a jumping-off point for space pioneers and trailblazers.
11 The TARDIS Doesn’t Have to Look Like A Police Box
As TARDISes were designed for Time Lords to explore the universe in order to further their understanding of it, it makes sense that they would wish to remain neutral and hidden throughout their journeys. So the Time Lords developed chameleon circuits that were built into the TARDIS’ systems, allowing it to instantly blend into its surroundings the moment the ship materialized in a time and place. For instance, if a TARDIS were to land in ancient Rome, it would take the form of a statue or column. This feature is comprehensive and effective, but it does not work for the Doctor’s TARDIS.
The chameleon circuit on the TARDIS has been broken since the Doctor visited 1963 London, and the TARDIS took the form of a blue police box. It has remained in that same cherished blue box form ever since though there have been changes to the TARDIS' exterior since the show began. There was a moment when the Doctor was able to temporarily fix the chameleon circuit in his TARDIS, but, upon materialization, the TARDIS would take on inappropriate disguises, causing it to stand out like an even greater sore thumb.
