The Twelfth Doctor’s TARDIS - open door version

November 09, 2018

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The TARDIS Scale Model

Warlord Games are delighted to announce our latest TARDIS scale model, compatible with our entire Into The Time Vortex range of figures! We can’t promise you your miniatures will develop the ability to travel in all of space and time, however…

The TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) has been the Doctor’s one constant companion over the centuries, an outdated Type 40 model “borrowed” from the Time Lords (with a little guidance from Clara Oswald) when he fled Gallifrey to explore the universe with his granddaughter Susan.

Dimensionally transcendental, bigger on the inside than the outside, the TARDIS, like the Daleks, is a British cultural icon. Despite several subtle changes over the years, the TARDIS exterior remains instantly recognisable to this day.

The TARDIS features a great many number of rooms. The primary control room with the central console allows the Doctor to navigate all of space and time. In the classic series, the Doctor was rarely able to accurately pilot his ship, often ending up centuries from where he thought he was, and often on totally the wrong planet! Since the days of the Ninth Doctor, the Time Lord can usually plot a course far more successfully.

Why a Blue 1950s Police Box?

A TARDIS is supposed to adapt to its surroundings in every new time period it lands in. This was to allow the Time Lords to seek out and observe new planets without their crafts being noticed. So when the Doctor landed in contemporary Earth, its Chameleon Circuit chose a typical Police Public Call Box of the 1950s to blend in. However, from then on the circuit failed and it has been stuck in the same guise ever since.

“Oh, it's the TARDIS. It's my home. At least, it has been for a considerable number of years.” The Second Doctor, The Tomb of the Cybermen (1965)

Interior Changes

Throughout the classic series, the interior of the TARDIS would face many additions and minor alterations, but the key ‘desktop look’ would remain virtually the same. Then with the full-time return of the series in 2005, a ‘coral’ themed console room was introduced, which would remain unchanged until the Eleventh Doctor’s debut in 2010. 2013, the fiftieth anniversary year, would see a further change to the TARDIS interior, whereby platforms and different levels were introduced, alongside several bookcases, chalkboards, desk and guitar area for the Twelfth Doctor. At the end of Twice Upon a Time, the TARDIS is heavily damaged as a result of the Doctor’s regeneration, paving the way for an all-new TARDIS look in Series 11.

A Powerful Weapon

The capabilities of the TARDIS (being able to materialize into any point in space and time) make it a dangerous weapon if it were to fall into the wrong hands. The core power of the Doctor’s machine is capable of destroying the universe, so it’s packed with highly advanced security systems. The exterior is equipped with a force field so powerful, most weaponry of the universe is totally ineffective against it. The TARDIS can sense when it is under threat and will often transport itself to safety if needed.

Additional Information:

The First Doctor’s classic control room has been recreated several times in the Twelfth Doctor’s era, notably appearing as part of the TARDIS Clara and Ashildr fled in, and most recently in Twice Upon a Time, when the Doctors, Bill and the Captain make their escape in the original ship.

Marco Polo refers to the TARDIS as a ‘flying caravan’ that would greatly impress his master, Kublai Khan. The Doctor later loses his ship to the Khan over a game of Backgammon, but gets a piece of his paper currency as a consolation prize! (Marco Polo, 1964)

Several Doctors have regenerated inside the TARDIS. The First Doctor, exhausted from his encounter with the Cybermen, collapses on the floor of his ship and his very first renewal begins. The Fifth Doctor just manages to return to his TARDIS to regenerate after he is fatally injured saving the life of his companion, Peri, and when the Sixth Doctor’s time machine is breached by the Rani, the resultant shock triggers his regeneration.

Every Doctor post 2005 has regenerated inside their TARDIS, the resultant regeneration energy often destroying the console room, giving the opportunity for an interior redesign.

The TARDIS key also has also changed appearance several times, with the most common design being a standard Yale key.

It is often a right of passage for a new companion when the Doctor gives them their own key to the TARDIS. In the Fourth Doctor era, we are introduced to a secondary control room which the Doctor decides to use for a while, but soon reverts to the original.

Every TARDIS is designed to be operated by six Time Lords at once and in order for a TARDIS to function correctly, it must first be biologically linked to the captain. This is achieved by the ‘Rassilon Imprimatur’ which links the TARDIS to the symbiotic nuclei of a Time Lord’s cell structure. This establishes a psychic link between the TARDIS and its operator.

Other rooms in the TARDIS include a swimming pool, library, sleeping quarters and various rooms full of machinery and research equipment.

According to Professor River Song, the distinctive ‘take off’ and ‘landing’ noise the TARDIS makes is a result of the Doctor failing to take the brakes off!

Behind the Scenes Facts

Brian Hodgson created the distinctive materialization noise by running a common house key along a cluster of broken piano strings, then adjusting the speed and pitch.

In the autumn of 1963 the very first TARDIS console room was built by Shawcraft Models, a company who built special props on a regular basis for the series. The construction was based on designer Peter Brachacki’s vision.

The third story of the first series The Edge of Destruction (1963) was set entirely within the TARDIS. There was a shortfall in episodes which led to this two-parter being hastily written, and there was no budget to create any new sets. In this story, we learn for the first time that the TARDIS is alive – it is telepathic and capable of controlling some of its own functions.

“I’ve been renewed. It’s part of the TARDIS, without it I couldn’t survive.” The Second Doctor The Power of the Daleks (1966)

Warlord’s new TARDIS model is based on the design used throughout the Twelfth Doctor’s era.

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