Monthly Archives: October 2010

The TARDIS Revisited

When you see the reconstructed TARDIS for the first time in ‘The Eleventh Hour’, you hope for more. In the old days, we saw corridors, bedrooms, a reception, laboratory, garden… and the Cloister Room, of course. Now, the brevity of the episodes perhaps precludes the need to visit the rest of the TARDIS. I hoped that mention of the swimming pool and the library might lead us further into the TARDIS, especially with Moffat seeking to establish a new feel; but, alas, we saw nothing more than the top of the stairs.

I’d love to understand why we can’t see more. The rest of the TARDIS appears in written material, but that’s all we’ve seen. The Visual Dictionary pictures the Time Sceptre, a monumental construct of which the Control Room forms but a small part – and includes the miniature Eye of Harmony in the cloister room, Artron energy receptor, navigational databases, Core Service Modules and more. I love the fact that the Secondary Control Room in the current TARDIS occupies the same location as the Primary, but existing slightly out of phase. What a brilliant idea I’m almost certain we’ll never see explored!

I realise time we spend inside the TARDIS is time not spent outside, but the encounter with the Dream Lord showed you could have a story focussed inside the TARDIS. I also realise that more TARDIS means more money spent, but surely you can create something flexible and modular that might be used as more than one room throughout the course of a series (or two).

I think that a TARDIS might hold a great deal more potential in non-TV storytelling, though I haven’t come across any evidence of this myself. The comic strips and books could both have scenes within the TARDIS – and I would definitely look to use other areas in the course of a DWAITAS scenario. When budget isn’t a constraint it makes sense to do things that you could never justify on TV.