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Why did The Doctor change the TARDIS interior before the 2005 series?
Matt_1979
Posts: 226 Forum Member
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I have often wondered what the on-screen reasons were for the radical change in the TARDIS's appearance at the start of the 2005 series. I don't think I ever remember The Doctor explaining the change. I just thought it looked so much more weirder and even more "alien" than the interior designs in the classic series.
The 1996 TV Movie TARDIS interior seemed bizarre - where did all those rooms suddenly come from? Especially the one that looked like the living room of a large mansion - never seen since.
The 1996 TV Movie TARDIS interior seemed bizarre - where did all those rooms suddenly come from? Especially the one that looked like the living room of a large mansion - never seen since.
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The changes were probably results of The Time War. He probably jettisoned the extra Victorianesque rooms sometime during The Time War in order to make The TARDIS sleeker, simpler and more functional as a war machine.
After The Time War, the interior may have been changed to the funky form which we saw with Eccleston as part of his post-genocide emo phase.
Good points. For some reason I didn't think of the Time War.
I agree. I hadn't taken the Time War into consideration, I don't think it was ever said why the TARDIS had such a radically different appearance in the TV Movie, though.
1. It was a secondary console room just like Tom Baker's wooden one.
2. The Doctor built it himself rather than the TARDIS constructing it.
3. It was created when the Doctor's TARDIS fused with a section of his families home estate.
The 3rd version has been used in book, audio and comic, so I guess that's the most canonical of the 3.
if i had to think of a reason, i think that the Tardis got slowly dilapidated (walls with roundels damaged or removed to reveal the coral structure) and the Doctor just didn't have time to fix it, being last of the time lords trying single handedly to maintain the equilibrium of the universe took all his time.
I just put it down to the fact that after Amy and Rory were taken back to the 1930s by the Weeping Angels, the Doctor couldn't bare to look at the Orangey console room anymore. He would always be sad, as the Orangey console room would remind him of his days with the Ponds, every time he was in there.
So he radically changed it, to look more Timelordish, as it did in the days of Doctor's 1-7.
For the TV movie, well we've seen libraries and been told of swimming pools etc in the TARDIS, perhaps at that time he felt like living more around the centre of the TARDIS instead of off in a living room somewhere. No reason to believe he doesn't have a living room somewhere.
Pat Troughton had a 'Power Room' just off from the control room in The Mind Robber.
Suppose they just adapted it to what the writers put in the script!!
Well, that's it exactly!
Terry Nation seemed to delight in writing stuff in his scripts that would require a remodeling of the TARDIS. Planet Of The Daleks sees the aforementioned MFI cupboards and pull out bed, (but also we have the totally bizarre notion that if the outside of the TARDIS is blocked up then all the air runs out. And the Doctor has one small air cylinder with which to refill the whole TARDIS with air... What, exactly, does the TARDIS do in Space? How come it doesn't run out of air there...? )
In Death To The Daleks the power drain means that the doors need to be opened by a previously unknown about crank handle.
And in The Android Invasion there's a new capability that makes the TARDIS move on all by itself to it's programmed destination if you just put the key in the lock. A bafflingly stupid idea, but then this is a Terry Nation script...
This is fascinating - I had no idea there were all these rooms in the early series, although I haven't seen many Hartnell episodes.
Oh yes Matt! LOADS of areas in the old days! As time went on - the Tardis Control Room shrunk (probably BBC budget! ;-)) and by the time Tom Baker and Peter Davison took over, it was just a BIG ROOM with a side door! (which lead to 'anywhere!')
Even the scanner was closed to save CSO usage!!! (FACT!)
Modern day Tardis is quite good - I love that modern retro-look from the 70's! - got the (almost) original console back and a few computers thrown around!:p
It is awesome to think about, but sadly the on screen realisation of all that space inside the TARDIS in Invasion Of Time was pretty poor. It was rather sad that no effort was made to disguise the fact that a disused Hospital was used as the TARDIS interior, and no effort was made to match the studio sets to the location work.
There was a transition period during the Time War.
I love that console room.
I've just set that picture as my wallpaper and it looks brilliant!
Source? Where'd you get that from? Or is it a fan theory? Everything stated in the programme particularly JTTCOTT would seem to suggest it's the main console room.
I agree about the modern day appearance. As I have seen more Tom Baker stories from the original series compared to any other Doctor, I only really know the "big room".
It's possible Eccleston's Doctor didn't share Tennant's or Smith's Doctor's love of the round things. He might have rejigged the room more to his tastes, then when the Tenth Doctor came along he simply didn't get the opportunity nor the inspiration to put them back up.
That cracked me up when I first saw it. This is one of the most powerful and advanced machines in history, and its backup system is crank-based? Like really?
It always comes down to good old cranks
It doesn't matter how many backup plans you have, they could all fail. What if every bit of advanced technology that operated the door failed? You'd be locked inside forever if you didn't have a crank-based last resort.