The Dr Who thread

Sir_LANs-a-lot · Post by **Sir_LANs-a-lot** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 6:15 pm 0

WiteWulf wrote:
Old_but_still_a_kid wrote:Well the way it's been written lately im guessing he will have a remote control he forgot about, goes "oh look my remote" *presses button* and tardis re-appears next to him
IIRC, Patrick Troughton used to have a little metal whistle that he could blow on and the TARDIS would materialise nearby.

Can one of the Who geeks confirm this?

I was wondering something very similar today too, in that seeing as the Doc is such a scientific genius and can alter Roses's mobile phone to work across Space and stuff, you'd think he'd have been clued up enough to have a "remote control" device for the TARDIS to save him having to walk back to it every time...

IronGiant · Post by **IronGiant** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 6:56 pm 0

Sir_LANs-a-lot wrote: I was wondering something very similar today too, in that seeing as the Doc is such a scientific genius and can alter Roses's mobile phone to work across Space and stuff, you'd think he'd have been clued up enough to have a "remote control" device for the TARDIS to save him having to walk back to it every time...

Couldn't agree more. I dunno, these smart-arse Time Lords really don't have a clue do they?

Peltazoid · Post by **Peltazoid** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:31 pm 0

moosedude wrote: Ten quid says the tardis is lost forever down the hole and just at the last minute a future version of the doctor who is just about to die travels back in time to give them the tardis

Na, the TARDIS had (or use to have) an automatic relocation circuit which when the TARDIS was in imment danger it would automatically dematerialise and materialise in a safer location within it's own time and space frame.

Well according to Troughton's (i think) doctor

HGFB · Post by **HGFB** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:34 pm 0

The beast will be using it as a DVD cupboard down his hole. He's been down there for all eternity so he's built up quite an Eastenders dvd collection.

IronGiant · Post by **IronGiant** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:38 pm 0

Peltazoid wrote:
moosedude wrote: Ten quid says the tardis is lost forever down the hole and just at the last minute a future version of the doctor who is just about to die travels back in time to give them the tardis
Na, the TARDIS had (or use to have) an automatic relocation circuit which when the TARDIS was in imment danger it would automatically dematerialise and materialise in a safer location within it's own time and space frame.

Well according to Troughton's (i think) doctor

Wasn't it once buried in lava with Troughton's doctor?

I'm also wondering how much the thing is supposed to weigh - for example, in The Robots of Death it materialises inside the scoop and is lifted out of there to another location. However, in Parting of the Ways we have the instance where Rose tries to yank the console open with a tow-truck and the Tardis doesn't bunch a millimetre. Or maybe the Tardis 'decides' if it's immobile or not?

Or is this getting a tad too anal?

Stuart B · Post by **Stuart B** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:41 pm 0

Ahh, but you're not differentiating between the outside and the inside of the TARDIS though.. I have a sneaking suspicion that the exterior shell is simply a gateway to a completely different (or at least slightly offset) set of dimensions that the TARDIS occupies.

IronGiant · Post by **IronGiant** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:41 pm 0

Hmm, could be .........

HGFB · Post by **HGFB** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:48 pm 0

Aww it's sweet. I'm watching the birth of a whole new set of fanboys

WiteWulf · Post by **WiteWulf** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:49 pm 0

Stuart B wrote:I have a sneaking suspicion that the exterior shell is simply a gateway to a completely different (or at least slightly offset) set of dimensions that the TARDIS occupies.

I believe the technical version of this is that the TARDIS is temporally, and spatially, transcendental.

I can't remember the TARDIS ever being moved by some external force.

But hey, it's all relative, innit?

IronGiant · Post by **IronGiant** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:50 pm 0

HGFB wrote:Aww it's sweet. I'm watching the birth of a whole new set of fanboys

Or in my case an intermittent fanboy.

IronGiant · Post by **IronGiant** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:51 pm 0

WiteWulf wrote:
Stuart B wrote:I have a sneaking suspicion that the exterior shell is simply a gateway to a completely different (or at least slightly offset) set of dimensions that the TARDIS occupies.
I believe the technical version of this is that the TARDIS is temporally, and spatially, transcendental.

I can't remember the TARDIS ever being moved by some external force.

But hey, it's all relative, innit?

You've never seen The Robots of Death then? Sacrilege!

Matrixxx · Post by **Matrixxx** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:52 pm 0

A definate case of "getting there"

Firefox · Post by **Firefox** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:57 pm 0

IronGiant wrote:
WiteWulf wrote:
Stuart B wrote:I have a sneaking suspicion that the exterior shell is simply a gateway to a completely different (or at least slightly offset) set of dimensions that the TARDIS occupies.
I believe the technical version of this is that the TARDIS is temporally, and spatially, transcendental.

I can't remember the TARDIS ever being moved by some external force.

But hey, it's all relative, innit?

You've never seen The Robots of Death then? Sacrilege!

And it was picked up and carried in Logopolis...

WiteWulf · Post by **WiteWulf** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:00 pm 0

Meh...I just have a shit memory, that's all.

KlaxonCow · Post by **KlaxonCow** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:44 pm 0

Stuart B wrote:Ahh, but you're not differentiating between the outside and the inside of the TARDIS though.. I have a sneaking suspicion that the exterior shell is simply a gateway to a completely different (or at least slightly offset) set of dimensions that the TARDIS occupies.

That's always the way I looked at it.

It is a spacetime manipulation device, after all, which is how it travels anywhere.

This also neatly explains all of the TARDIS' attributes.

It's bigger on the inside than the outside because the inside isn't really in the same spacetime as the outside. If you think of the TARDIS as a portal - as if walking through the door is like walking through a wormhole - then the inside of it resides in its own separate dimension.

It "travels" through spacetime by reconnecting the wormhole to different places (hence, the wormhole in the start credits).

It is effectively indestructible externally because, in a sense, it isn't really there - it's in its own dimension - so no physical force can actually reach it unless it allows it through the "wormhole".

It's able to change shape (though this is disabled on the Doctor's TARDIS) because, you know, it's not really an object. It's a "portal" that projects a superficial appareance of an object.

Weapons don't work inside the TARDIS because it "owns" its own spacetime and can control it totally.

Similarly, it isn't really there - it always resides in its own dimension - but can link the other end of the "wormhole" to a particular time and place. Therefore, you know, it is "behaving" as an object but it actually isn't really a true physical object at all.

This is why it can sometimes be immovable and sometimes moveable: Technically, it's immovable and indestructible because it isn't even really there. But it "mimics" a real physical object for the purposes of "disguise" and practicality - being able to walk into it normally and have a door to open and close it. This is just simply the easiest "interface" to employ for the portal to make it appear and behave no different to a physical object.

Mind you, I'm making all this up. This probably isn't the "official" explanation but I like the idea because, as I say, it does kind of explain everything neatly and the idea of wormholes is actually real physics. Plus, I mean, what is it that we're seeing in the start credits? Looks like a "wormhole" to me.

Plus, if you imagine that really the TARDIS is a "spacetime manipulation device" - creates wormholes and creates distortions of spacetime to create its "own universe" internally and alters the spacetime it lands in to create this appearance of a physical object (remembering that the police box is an arbitrary shape and though the Doctor now switched off the function, TARDISes in general are supposed to be able to change shape to "disguise" themselves: It manipulates spacetime to give the appearance of an object native to that time and place, as a simple "disguise" to protect it).

Well, I like the idea anyway. Though, I'm probably wrong by all the "official" explanations.