Daily Archives: September 10, 2013

TARDIS Wonder

Posted by mydoctor1962

The TARDIS is a magnificent idea.

Originally, they thought about making The Doctor Time travel vehicle invisible because then they wouldn’t need a prop. But the budgetary restraints of having your eponymous hero and companions appear from nowhere proved to be too much so they went about casting for a new idea and hit upon the Metropolitan Police Box.

A police box is a British telephone kiosk or callbox located in a public place for the use of members of the police, or for members of the public to contact the police. Unlike an ordinary callbox, its telephone is located behind a hinged door so it can be used from the outside, and the interior of the box is, in effect, a miniature police station for use by police officers.

Police boxes predate the era of mobile telecommunications.

The first public police telephones in Britain were introduced in Glasgow in 1891. These tall, hexagonal, cast-iron boxes were painted red and had large gas lanterns fixed to the roof, as well as a mechanism which enabled the central police station to light the lanterns as signals to police officers in the vicinity to call the station for instructions.

Rectangular, wooden police boxes were introduced in Sunderland in 1923, and Newcastle in 1925. The Metropolitan Police (Met) introduced police boxes throughout London between 1928 and 1937. Also known as “The Mackenzie Trench” after it’s most famous designer Gilbert Mackensie Trench who designed the iconic 1929 Metropolitan Police Call Box (though his plan say they were to be made of concrete).

By 1953 there were 685 police boxes on the streets of London.

A very ordinary thing, that can do the extraordinary.

Perfect.

A Magic box to show off to his companions and for them and the audience to be amazed by.

As Google recently revealed there is an official Police Box standing outside the east entrance to the Earl’s Court Underground Station today.

Which bums me out.

When I went to the Doctor Who Experience in 2011 I got off the Tube at Earl’s Court. But I went out the west exit as it was

closer to the direction I needed to go to get to The Experience. 😦

Check out: http://www.policeboxes.co.uk/

and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/etas/sets/72157620027131072/

But like a good tale, the magician get’s to show off his tricks to the public. So every companion has that “amazement” moment at some point.

But they really play it up in the re-launched era.

Rose, running in and running out.

Martha going in and going back out.

Then they started playing on that expectation.

Donna was different because she started on the inside in The Runaway Bride.

Donna parked her packed car in the alleyway where the TARDIS was.

Amy was child who could believe in the fairy tale box but was still awed by it when she was older.

We all like to believe in fairy tales and magic.

It’s where the magic begins. And The Doctor is the conjurer of our imaginations. He is the hero.

And the TARDIS is most certainly a magic box.

But it’s also a Star in it’s own right.

The TARDIS is as integral to the success of the shown as the actors are.

The popularity of Neil Gaiman’s tour de force about the TARDIS and The Doctor in “The Doctor’s Wife” shows that The Doctor and The TARDIS are symbiotic and must always be together and must always be.

The TARDIS Is the heart of the adventure in that you set off in the TARDIS into the unknown and then you land, have an adventure, then you return to do it all over again.

It’s your home from which you venture out into the wild and dangerous world. Or in this case, the universe.

All of Time and Space.

Marvelous.

The Doctor’s Wife, The Journey to the heart of TARDIS, The Invasion of Time (where the swimming pool joje started because of the budget restraints of the show using a disused mental hospital that had…a swimming pool!) all explored the TARDIS itself more than others but is it really necessary?

I think not. Oh, occasionally is fine but I think the TARDIS works best as figment of our imaginings past that console room. But the occasional is good just to re-wet the appetite.

We make the TARDIS special. We the audience. So we want to know all it’s secrets. But really, we shouldn’t. I*t’s much more fun to imagine.

That’s why we have books like, “The Science of Doctor Who” that tries to explain things like the TARDIS in scientific terms. It’s an intellectual exercise. And it’s good fun too.

I was amused and fascinated by this scene when I first saw it,

That’s why the TARDIS is the magic box that shows up in fairy tales. It’s awesomely powerful. It can change your life forever just by it’s mere presence.

Tell me,really, one Doctor Who Fan who would not go inside it if it were real.

Seriously. 🙂

The sound of adventure: