TARDIS

What follows is a look at the various representations and notable uses of the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space) throughout fan productions. For the TARDIS used in the BBC series, see the TARDIS index files page here.

Hand-Built Props[]

The As-Yet Unnamed Doctor Who Fan Club Of Newfoundland[]

A TARDIS with a fireplace, seen in Mastermind.

Bedlam Theatre Company[]

As seen in The Millennium Trap, this console also appeared in the stage play adaptation of The Web of Fear.

Millenniun trap console 1 — The Doctor standing at the console.

Millenniun trap console 2 — The Doctor and Colonel Harvey at the console.

The Beeble Brox Company[]

Shots from the 1980s film Theta-G, one of the only fan videos brave enough to resurrect the Vardans as well as having Adric as a companion. The police box was originally built for the local fan club, the North Carolina Friends of Doctor Who. The console was made from foam board.

The Federation[]

From the films The Reign of Turner, Reality Warp, Traumaturge, and Shadowcast. While not used in Shadowcast, it was used regularly by the Federation for years and even appeared in other fan video productions.

The Federation didn't use a TARDIS interior until 1985 (S-A-V-E-W-H-O), and didn't introduce the exterior prop until 1988 (The Reign of Turner). The exterior still appears nearly every year at the Chicago TARDIS event.

Federation1 — Console room (*The Reign of Turner*).

Federation2 — The Sixth Doctor at the console.

Federation3 — The Fifth Doctor at the console.

Federation4 — The Sixth Doctor (and Peri?) at the console.

Half A Dozen Lemmings[]

Seen in Time Rift. For the 2009 DVD release, the TARDIS was digitally re-tinted to more accurate colours.

Time rift TARDIS before — Original exterior shot.

Time rift TARDISCU before — Original colour.

Time rift TARDISCU after — After digital re-tint.

Time rift TARDIS after — DVD screenshot of the exterior.

Time rift tardis,jpg — Close-up of the original prop.

Homegrown Productions[]

Two different designs from this production group. The first one, seen in Access Denied, was improved upon for their next film Hidden Secrets.

Homegrown 1 — Original console room (*Access Denied*).

Homegrown 3 — Second console room (*Hidden Secrets*).

Eleventh Productions : The First Adventure

Macbeth Films[]

There's a certain charm to this bottom-of-the-barrel console room in Time Waits For No Man.

Macbeth tardis console — Console room, rocking the paper plate chic.

Mendicant Productions[]

From the film Time and Again.

The Projection Room[]

From the films The Crystal of Achillon, The Invisible Opiate, The Deadly Alliance, A Stitch in Time, Masterplan, Gene Genius, and The Schrödinger Effect.

Initially, due to budgetary limitations and shortage of convincing instrumentation, only three panels of the console were built. Consequently, the console-room scenes were shot from angles that disguised the fact that the other half of the prop was missing, by either using close-ups or setting the edge of the frame to coincide with where the halfway-point of the console was.

For the fourth production, A Stitch in Time, additional instrumentation acquired over the past couple of years meant that a full, six-panelled console could be constructed, although this was still mounted on a table as the budget wouldn't stretch to a pedestal being made! For the subsequent epic Masterplan, a pedestal was constructed but proved impractically large and cumbersome to use.

Finally, for The Schrödinger Effect, a full console-room set was constructed with a proper pedestal, a full cylindrical shield for the central column, roundelled scenery walls which could be back-lit, and a pair of interior doors.

In the next series of productions, the aim is to vary the console-room design slightly for each different Doctor as a way of defining the different regenerations and characters.

For their Police Box prop, the group initially used a two-sided 3-ply card construction but this had to be left in Nottingham (where The Crystal of Achillon was made) so a new, timber prop was built for The Invisible Opiate and The Deadly Alliance although the budget only stretched to one side being constructed which meant the TARDIS always materialised at the side of the frame. For A Stitch in Time, a full four-sided Police Box replica was built from 3-ply card, and for Gene Genius and The Schrödinger Effect the group finally progressed to using a full, four-sided timber Police Box built to the design of the TV Movie.

Projection1 — Exterior (*The Crystal of Achillon*).

Projection2 — Interior (*The Crystal of Achillon*).

Projection3 — Interior (*The Invisible Opiate*).

Projection4 — Interior (*The Deadly Alliance*).

Projection5 — Exterior (*A Stitch in Time*).

Projection6 — Interior (*A Stitch in Time*).

Projection8 — Exterior (*Gene Genius*, Seventh Doctor).

Projectionschro1 — Interior (*The Schrödinger Effect*).

Projectionsschro2 — Interior (*The Schrödinger Effect*).

Projectionschro3 — Exterior (*Gene Genius*, Third Doctor).

Seattle International Films[]

A visible progression of their TARDIS through the films The Wrath of Eukor, Visions of Utomu, and Broken Doors.

SeattleWrath1 — Exterior (*The Wrath of Eukor*), with oversized "Police Box" sign and a lack of windows.

SeattleWrath2 — Exterior (*The Wrath of Eukor*).

SeattleVisions3 — Interior (*Visions of Utomu*).

SeattleVisions4 — Exterior (*Visions of Utomu*), now with windows.

SeattleBroken6 — Exterior (*Broken Doors*), with more accurate "Police Box" signage.

SeattleBroken7 — Exterior (*Broken Doors*), close-up.

Stone Circle[]

From the team that would go on to become Westlake Films comes this little effort from the mid-1990's. Not only do these videos star a female Doctor, but the first TARDIS console room includes a radiator. The original is seen in the film Rutan, but when the group came together again to make The Alliance, they instead went with a blue-screen console. Some fan films would take this route in order to get around the complication of constructing the prop.

Stone Circle console 2 — Console room (*Rutan*).

Stone Circle chroma console — Console room (*The Alliance*).

The Tardis Viewscreen[]

For their first two films (Reassembly of the Daleks and Death to the Cybermen), the console consisted of a couple of Commodore 64 computers and what looks like an upside-down fruit bowl. This was dropped for the blue-screen effect in the final film, Retribution of the Daleks.

Viewscreen console1 — Original console room.

Viewscreen console2 — Original console room.

Viewscreen console3 chroma — Second console room (*Retribution of the Daleks*).

Terror on Drexil 3[]

An unknown production group created this truly...unique...TARDIS.

Timebase[]

The TARDIS console room only appeared in two of their productions (Phase Four and The Hidden Face), while the Police Box shell has been in all of their productions.

Timeline Productions[]

Shots from Trident, another well-made fan video with a creative twist to the storytelling compared to the much more simple stories in other fan videos. This fan video uses a certain London landmark that would be similarly used in Series 2 of the new Who starring David Tennant.

TS Entertainment[]

The highly-regarded set from The Masters of Luxor. They rented space to film the TARDIS interior scenes. It is believed the console room set was dismantled or destroyed because no one had the space to store it. The Police Box prop was borrowed from the Federation and repainted to a darker shade of blue (most likely to show up better in black and white), much to the Federation's displeasure as they never asked permission.

Luxor1 — Barbara, the Doctor, Ian, and Susan at the console.

Luxor2 — Barbara and the Doctor look over the controls.

VortX[]

From the film Plague of Lychwood, this Police Box prop was originally used for the stage adaptation of Fury from The Deep (the same adaptation that used the Millennium Trap console). It was not used in their following story, Flight of the Daleks, probably because it fell apart. It seemed a bit rickety in the video...

Wet Paint Productions[]

Another 1980s creation, plus a bonus K-9, from The Two Doctors and the Anti-Matter Menace.

DOCTOR WHO FAN SERIES[]

Swinging Lizard Productions[]

The TARDIS console belonging to the Unbound Tenth Doctor was a wooden, four sided console which harked back to the Tom Baker secondary console but a lot more cobbled together. It was destroyed in Night of the Daleks

UnboundtenthTARDIS — Appearance in 'Snowstorm'.

OCS Productions[]

The Unbound Eleventh Doctor's TARDIS console appears to be based upon the console used by the Fourth and Fifth Doctor's, including the two demat controls and red door lever. In it's original appearance in I Know That Voice the console room was bare but recent pictures have revealed the room to contain hexagonal roundels with a larger hexagon acting as a scanner. The console seems to have undergone several cosmetic changes.

UnboundEleventhTARDIS — Appearance in 'I Know That Voice'.

Animated or Computer-Generated Props[]

Aaron Productions[]

Warriors of Espia is not a very well-known story, but does have an early example of an animated TARDIS console room in a fan video.

Dial "D" For Dalek / The Hues Of Doom[]

A pair of cartoons made in 1984-85 that run for about four minutes each and are headlined by the Fourth and Sixth Doctors respectively. The Fifth Doctor makes a cameo in the opening of the latter, crunching on his celery like a certain famous rabbit...

Cartoon police box — Exterior (*The Hues of Doom*).

Cartoon console — Interior (*The Hues of Doom*).

Fan-Con[]

An amusing variation on the theme is seen in this claymation short starring the Fourth Doctor.

Claymation2 — Fascinated, or just scared?

MM Productions[]

An exterior CGI creation from the film The Cards of Rassilon. There was no attempt made at an interior.

Real Police Boxes[]

Planet Video[]

The 1980s film Spectre From The Past used a real standing Police Box on a station platform, hence why the door opens outward.

Planet Video Tardis 1 — The Doctor prepares to step inside.

The TARDIS as a Character[]

The inner workings of the TARDIS have long been a source of mystery and debate, with various revelations appearing through the decades. Some writers view it merely as a machine; others see it as something more organic, and even at times a living being with its (or her) own voice.

This is a chronological record of fan stories which in some way treat the TARDIS like a character.

The Net (2005, Dream Realm Enterprises)[]

The Eidolons describe the TARDIS as a higher lifeform, saying she has been harmed (suggesting feelings). They talk with her, and the Doctor speaks of his telepathic connection.

The Schrödinger Effect (2008, The Projection Room)[]

In a bid to prevent the Doctor fracturing the space-time continuum to a greater extent, the TARDIS first refuses to operate then travels of its own accord to a singularity event outside of space and time. In this abstract "safe-zone", the TARDIS uses the voice of the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) to warn of what will happen. Being outside of time and space, the TARDIS "speaks" of the past and future in the present tense.