For some time now the TARDIS has been working well enough that it goes pretty much where/when ever the Doctor tells it to go - pretty big shift from the original concept.

How would you react if he fixed the chameleon circuit too? No more police telephone box? Is it fundamental to the show? Or does it not matter?

The Blue Box is far too iconic to change.
But, I wouldn't mind if they fixed it so that it could change shape now and again for story purposes, with the Phone Box as its default form.

I'd probably react with confusion, as I wouldn't know what I was looking at from one week to the next. I'd argue that it's pretty fundamental - as a central piece of iconography, it's the one (almost) constant in all the show's versions.

I also like the fact that it's an outdated and archaic shape, as opposed to the utterly ordinary object it started out as. The capper, for me, is that no matter what else changes in the series - faces, companions, screwdrivers - the one thing that changes the least is one thing that should be able to. I love that it's utterly incongruous in almost all situations, just like the Doctor himself.

Now the Doctor can leave the TARDIS in orbit and beam down to the planet below (or to another spaceship) the chameleon circuit is somewhat redundant. Sadly.

Did I miss an episode?

The Police Box is as much a part of Doctor Who as The Doctor. Look what happened when they tried to change it in the past. !

It was the opening scenes of 'The Time of the Doctor' when he beams on-board the Dalek ship and beams back to the TARDIS again. Unless it was a hologram. Or a one-off.

Probably safe to say it was a one-off by now

We'll blame Handles. The Doctor did.

Yes - a temporary side effect of having Cyber technology plumbed into the console. or something.

I think it would be cool if it was an ability that the Doctor used occasionally if he really needed it but chose not to in general. I wouldn't want to lose the icon permanently.

Of course, the Doctor can make the TARDIS invisible if he wants so the chameleon circuit is pretty redundant anyway!

Yeah, according to the Doctor, it was Handles that was teleporting him, not the TARDIS or any other technology that hasn't since died.

If you get rid of the Blue Box you might as well just get rid of the doctor as well,the whole point is that it's a bit of an old heap that doesn't quite work properly and should have been retired years ago,that's why it fits the eccentric rebel Time Lord..
It also ties him to Earth the emotional link that the other Time Lords just don't get.

Wont happen. (Now that's tempting fate!)

I know JNT drummed up the idea of a change as a publicity stunt and it led to some not unamusing scenes in 'Attack of the Cybermen' (weeell, I liked the organ bit anyway) and a few spurious tabloid stories...but it just wouldn't feel right. Liked the idea of the Master's TARDIS as a Grandfather clock, a Statue, a Fireplace, an Iron Maiden, an unconvincing bit of shrubbery, etc though so there's a chance we'll see Ms Gomez emerging from an unlikely place some time? As long as it's not a boring Ionic whatchamacallit again a la Time-Flight.

It wouldn't be as big a thing as some people think. After all, the interior of the Tardis would remain the same.

However I don't think they should do it. As in Colin Baker's era, an episode or two with it semi-working would be cool.

The interior of the Tardis has already changed several times in the current version of the programme, and presumably will continue to do so. Bring back the Round Things!

However, I agree with you that a couple of episodes with the Chameleon Circuit misbehaving could be fun. I particularly like the idea of the Tardis materialising somewhere in the form of a police box, and changing the appearance of everything around it to that of a police box in order to conceal itself.

Wow!

People seem far less attached to the blue police box (something that's not significantly changed in over fifty years, and which, for my money, is far more iconic for the show) than they are to a male Doctor. Granted, a big majority don't like the idea, but it seems very few would give up watching the show because of it.

Fascinating.

Whenever the circuit has been fixed in the past it hasn't really added to the show, and even takes away from the feel of the show.

The Tardis is a character on the show.

Did anyone else notice the Doctor calling the older lady in LC "sexy" ?. Usually it is his secret nickname for the tardis. Hope she was flattered by the remark. Woke up at home turns out she was a grandmother and in a wheelchair. Still can be sexy if she wants. Beauty in the eye of the beholder after all.

It was established as early as the second episode of the programme (The Cave of Skulls, 1963) that the Tardis should change appearance to blend in with its surroundings, but, because of a fault, doesn't. The idea that the Doctor could be (*gasp*) female is, as far as I know, something that was first floated as an attention-grabber for the press by JNT, some 20 years after the programme started. I don't know when the notion that Timelords could change sex while regenerating was first introduced into the actual programme (The Doctor's Wife, with its references to the Corsair, perhaps?), but it is obviously a mushroom of recent growth, going against decades of tacit assumptions, and, as such, is inevitably going to encounter greater resistance.
It would be easier to compare the responses to this poll with the responses to your "female Doctor" poll, if the proffered choices were the same in both polls.

I think the Police Box itself is a beautifully designed object. I have a full size replica in my garden and it blends in beautifully (ironic when you think about it).

I particularly like the versions we have seen since 2005 - bigger, boxier and lit on the inside. The 'new Who' Police Box seems more solid. The doors 'clunk' closed properly and it feels much more like the entrance to the console room. It would be a shame to lose it, especially after the BBC won the copyright licence from the police.

I'd like to see it as a one episode thing, like it is fixed and keeps changing for one episode but then it back to normal by the end. I think they had an episode or two like that in classic who, but it would be nice to have one now to see how they could play around with the idea.

To have it fixed permanently though would be a big mistake. The police box is as iconic as the daleks or cybermen. HIs friends within the show and the audience watching see the box and know instantly the doctor has arrived.

In the 50th there was a line about the blue box brings hope wherever it goes. It is a constant symbol of a man who is more recognisable by his vehicle than his face if you haven't seen him for a while.

The thing about The Tardis is they can hear The Doctor arriving before he is seen, The Doctor's calling card, like The Milk Tray man without chocolates.

To be honest I can't say I'd care but I would get bored very quickly of people moaning and bitching about it. So I'd have to say no. Simply because of that.

If like to see the Tardis as it is supposed to look with everything working as it should. But just for one episode.

It's an interesting pattern in Who of so much of the lore being 'tacit assumption' until one writer or another decides to leverage the grey area in service of a story, and thereby casting some element of other in stone for future fans to be pedantic over.

Time lords, regeneration limits, the Doctor's age, his two hearts, his relationship with the Master, the start of the Time War, the end of the Time War.....

I'd like the idea as others have mentioned if it occasionally working. Possibly the Doctor banging the console to think he has got it working again only to find that by doing this, this has meant the Tardis itself has gone off course ( and vice versa).

This might also reduce his returns to 21st century London, which he seems to now visit an awful lot!