Why couldn't the Doctor return at the exact time he left Amy, rather than 5 minutes later if he can travel to any moment in time?

I know the TARDIS seems broken but generally in the series, why can't the Doctor arrive at a precise point/minute?

Because it's fiction and it wouldn't fit in with the story.

Intelligent answers/explanations?

You're welcome.

Because it's fiction and it wouldn't fit in with the story.

Because the TARDIS had only just repaired itself and he even said a few times that he was just "running it in".

There's obviously an adjustment period.

By The Doctor's own admission, he is sometimes a little bit 'off' with his piloting skills.... and after all, he is five Time Lords short on pilots for the TARDIS.

D

And it was a month late getting to Churchill after the phone call, so either it's still running in or there's something else going on.

Someone could answer your question, but it might be a spolier!

Because something is wrong? Perhaps with the TARDIS, Amy, the Universe, or everything?

The Doctor has frequently been shown not to be particularly proficient at piloting the TARDIS. Its an obsolete model with a lot wrong with it which he initially stole when he left Gallifrey and seems to have had little training in flying. During the Tom Baker era, Romana would frequently point out functions of the ship or flight procedures which the Doctor didn't know about after several hundred years of living in it.

Because it's a TARDIS Line 40 (or something to that affect). That's what he told Churchill when asked why he was a month late.

Type 40, a model withdrawn from production several hundred years ago.

I would say that it is a handy plot device/storytelling tool for the writers.

Take the latest episode, Churchill rings the Doctor a month ago because he's not sure about the Daleks. If the Doctor had turned up immediately he would have had plety of time to stop their plan (perhaps they wouldn't have been built yet, perhaps they wouldn't have been in the same room as the Prime Minister or perhaps they wouldn't be ready for him). But instead he turns up and it all kicks off immediately. Much more exciting.

Similarly if he had popped back for little Amy after five minutes then his new compaion would't have had such an interesting back story.

So the inability to micro jump, just like the faulty chameleon circuit, the regenerations and so on are all tools for the writers to tell more interesting stories.

The writers don't write it into the story because the TARDIS is faulty, the TARDIS is faulty because the writers write it into the story. Whatever explanation they come up with (old model, needs 7 pilots, mid of it's own) is just a means to an end.

Line 40? I must have been thinking of SAGE

Mmmm Didn't The Doctor very precisely pilot the Tardis to the Dalek ship and back again without any problems ?

You're getting time and space confused again Andy

Is it that old plotting chestnut of being locked into events within the timeline? Helps them get out of all sorts of scrapes in terms of plotting.

I'm sure I remember reading some where years ago that when the Doctor originally 'borrowed' the TARDIS when fleeing from Gallifrey it was in the process of being repaired so it was never fully functional to start with.

If you watch old Hartnell and Troughton stories (those that still exist) you'll find that the Doctor had no idea at all how to steer the Tardis and it materialised "wherever it materialised". This was why Ian and Barbara ultimately had to return to their time and place in a "more precise" borrowed Dalek time machine, rather than in the Doctor's Tardis.

Of course, the Time Lords exiled the Third Doctor to Earth and ensured that the Tardis was completely non-functional. At the end of the Three Doctors, the Time Lords rewarded the Doctor by making the Tardis functional again (although for some reason they didn't fix the Chamelion circuit) and giving the Doctor the ability to pilot it properly. Since then the Doctor has been able to pilot the Tardis to the precise point in time and space that he wants to go to, but he still occasionally does manage to get it wrong.

Why the Eleventh Doctor seems to be "late" so often is likely to be explained at the end of Series 5.

Cracks in time and space.

Well whilst he's always had issues with travelling in time (9 returning Rose to London, off by 12 months, 10 landing in Scotland 100 years too early etc) the increased ones this time could be to do with 11 having only recently regenerated and not stopped since. Moffat said it's been non-stop since the regeneration and he's had no time to rest, throw that in with a new TARDIS and bang, difficulties piloting it.

Not quite. Firstly the Doctor fitted the Tardis with a randomiser at the end of the Key To Time so that the Black Guardian could not track him.

However, the Doctors piloting even since the Third Doctor has always been eratic. The attempts by the 5th Doctor to get Teegan to Heathrow often resulted in him missing the target.

If you look I think you will see that piloting the Tardis for short jumps in time or space then the Doctor can be fairly accurate but for longer journeys either in time or space (or both) then he will miss the target, usually timewise.