What does everyone think?

Both, plus it often has a motive of its own i.e. it takes The Doctor to places that would benefit from him being there.

It does have a motive of it's own, but does this therefore mean it isn't faulty? If it always gets him to where it wants him to go?

I'd say the TARDIS can be frequently faulty (the early scene with a Dalek Gun/'Handles' in Time of the Doctor is a fun example) and the Doctor is often a very bad pilot. Usually depends upon the necessities of the individual plot in a lot of stories over the decades! Maybe they both just have good and bad days...

The Doctor is certainly a better pilot than he used to be and seems to have quite a lot of control of where he goes these days. Also aren't TARDIS'S meant to be piloted by a crew of 5?

I think it can have a motive of its own and be faulty, the fact it has some free will and can think for itself and choose to steer away from where The Doctor wants to go and take him somewhere else could be seen as a fault, having a travelling machine that sometimes ignores what you want and takes you else where is not ideal, though obviously it works for The Doctor as he like the life that the Tardis gives him, who knows if other Tardis have that same disobedient will.

Plus while its alive and can influence it still also a machine (or part machine) so can have faults, parts that break down that can effect how it performs even if its the Tardis who's steering or if its The Doctor at that particular time.

I don't think the Tardis is always responsible for deciding where it turns up, sometimes The Doctor will control it to go where he wants to go, just like any travelling machine, its just the Tardis has the ability to override when it choses and take The Doctor somewhere else, which are often the stories we see as they are the eventful adventures, the Doctor and companions go else where off screen (to amazing worlds in un eventful just see the sites holiday type thing, nicely convenient that the straightforward no threat travelling happens in places that the production budget couldn't afford while the dangerous eventful adventures that we see happen in budget friendly places )

In name of the doctor the workers did say why would anyone steal a faulty tardis.

IIRC the only fault that was identified in the 20th century series that was there when the Doctor took the TARDIS was that the chameleon circuit didn't work.
That may have been revised somewhat in The Name of the Doctor of course.
Of course it depends purely on the necessities of the story as to how accurate the piloting of the TARDIS is. There have been many occasions where the Doctor has steered it with pinpoint accuracy, and many others where it ends up in some apparently random place and time for no apparent reason, until the Doctor finds that he's actually needed there!

I believe the two line exchange in from the doctor wife below pretty much answers this question:

Doctor: you didn't always take me when I wanted to go

TARDIS(in human form): But I always took you where you needed to be.

And that's basically it, as far as I can see. You have to remember the TARDIS is sentient rather than just being a machine. Sometimes it/she lets him go where he is intending, and other times she decides he needs to be elsewhere. You could even speculate that the reason he has more control now than the classic series could be to do with the fact that maybe the TARDIS was trying to encourage him to be the hero she saw in him before, but now intervenes less as she trusts him to make his own decisions more.




I think that's just meant to refer to the dodgy chameleon circuit.


At the end of Journeys end when all the companions are in the TARDIS together and are helping him fly it, the doctor says that it is better because it is meant to be flown by six pilots and that is why it is usually 'rattling about' when he flies it alone, meaning the usual erratic and noisy nature of it's flight is due to the fact that he is doing the job of six people so it isn't being flown as smoothly as it should be. It also explains why when flying it the doctor is often running around the console to get to different levers and buttons.

Navigation is dodgy as well.



Plus the Chameleon circuit was still working when the Doctor and Susan took the TARDIS, might have been on it's last legs but it worked for quite a few trips before finally conking out due to spending months disguised as the same thing.

I always took it as the TARDIS was in the repair shop to have the chameleon circuit because it was 'on the blink' so to speak which is why it worked for them at first but then soon failed completely.

Also, regarding the navigation being dodgy, I think that's just something assumed (even by Clara) because of the fact it dosen't always go where it's programmed to, when in fact that is something the TARDIS does intentionally when it/she sees fit.

The Clara Echo who says the above probably has no conscious memory of travelling in the TARDIS with the Doctor so would not know how the TARDIS behaves from experience.

It's possible the TARDIS used to do the same with other Time Lords before the Doctor which is why it's in the repair shop as it's pilots were reporting that the navigation system was knackered (as it didn't take them to where they wanted to go).

It can go anywhere in space and time, but it usually goes to London 2004, London 1965, London 1945, London 2000, London 1974, so its not really faulty, it just suffers from bad scriptwriters with no imagination.

Look at 11 and the Ponds. If 11 had never crashed into Amy's back garden he would never have met her.

Amy would never have gone traveling with him and become the mother of his future "killer" and wife River Song aka Melody Pond.

Funny how things work out. Wonder where "Sexy" is going to take 12 and Clara next!.

Throughout the whole of the First and Second Doctor series there was definitely the suggestion that the navigation had a big problem. When, in the very first episode, Ian/Barbara interfered with the controls during flight, the Doctor complained that they would get lost because he couldn't see where they were going and consequently wouldn't be able to find the way back (so he'd been doing the navigating). The chameleon circuit must have been working when the Tardis was stolen as it turned into the blue police telephone box when it made it to 1960s London. For Ian and Barbara, the consequences were that the Doctor couldn't find his way back to their time on Earth despite a few attempts and they eventually had to get home via Dalek technology.

Poor navigation later got turned into its own plot point as a means to ensure that the Time Lords couldn't find the Doctor (Time Lords not being invented until it was time for Troughton to go) ... and there is the 'randomiser'!

Then in the Five Doctors, Davison made sure that the navigation control was still taken out of operation so that he could run away from his duties as President and not be easily tracked (presumably via a Time Lord version of Google monitoring the Doctor's movements via Tardis Satnav). The Master always sneered at the Third Doctor's use of an outdated model, too (as did the Meddling Monk), so it all suggests that the Tardis was originally an old wreck for the scrapheap.

There's plenty of cases where the TARDIS fails to make its intended destination because of a particular part being faulty.
There's plenty of cases where the TARDIS fails to make its intended destination because of being redirected by an outside force.
There's plenty of cases where the TARDIS makes its intended destination successfully.
There's plenty of cases where the TARDIS doesn't end up where the Doctor expects to be, but he turns out to be needed there anyway.

So I think all of the above are correct. Even a partially-sentient, timeline-sensitive spaceship breaks sometimes, especially when poorly-maintained over centuries.

Maybe the Doctor is just a bad pilot, or likes to pilot in eccentric ways:

[TARDIS shakes violently]
River Song: Use the stabilizers!
The Doctor: It hasn't got stabilizers!
River Song: They're the blue ones.
The Doctor: The blue ones don't do any thing, they're just blue!
River Song: Sure, they're blue - they're blue stabilizers!
[pulls blue levers, the shaking stops]
The Doctor: Oh, well now it's just boring, isn't it? They're boring-ers, that's what they are, blue boring-ers!

River Song: OK. I've mapped the probability vectors, done a foldback on the temporal isometry, charted the ship to its destination and... parked us right alongside!
The Doctor: Parked us? We haven't landed!
River Song: Of course we've landed - I just landed her!
The Doctor: But... it didn't make the noise.
River Song: What noise?
The Doctor: You know, the...
[imitates TARDIS noise]
River Song: It's not supposed to make that noise - *you* leave the brakes on!
The Doctor: Yeah, well, it's a brilliant noise. I love that noise.

Leaving the brakes on and not using the blue boringers could affect the course!

I'm pretty sure that navigation was faulty for the first Doctor and second Doctor. It was impossible to direct the TARDIS anywhere with any success at all. I think it was only after the Time Lords altered the TARDIS to confine it to Earth during the third Doctor's time that it had any semblance of control (usually just to go where the Time Lords sent it, though).

I think when we saw the flashback of the first Doctor stealing the TARDIS with Clara directing him, there was some kind of line about a faulty navigation circuit.

It seems to me, that only after the Time Lords gave the third Doctor full control of the TARDIS again was he able to go anywhere near where he wanted and, even then, results were spotty. Eventually he got to the point where he could direct the TARDIS with pretty much pinpoint accuracy most of the time. Possibly his constant tinkering eventually fixed it!

As was mentioned in the Doctor's Wife, though, the TARDIS often did have a mind of its own and took him where she knew he'd be needed even when it wasn't where he had directed.

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I'm curious if the real story in todays great episode is: (spoiler tags in case you haven't watched it yet):

Well when the TARDIS was human for an episode she told us she does it simetimes on purpose but the doctor also said that TARDIS requires six piolts which is why it rattles everywhere plus it is possible the doctor just isint absolutely perfect with flying the tardis like in the time of the angels river had no problem flying it

You didn't pay attention to the on-screen captions it seems.

So what other 1000 year war did the Doctor end up in at the start of the episode then?

Are you saying that the

In a nutshell.