# What was the point of a TARDIS? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 16, 2015, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296 "2015-07-16T04:24:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/21 "2015-07-16T16:40:56Z")
Also, _of course_ The Master claimed his TARDIS was superior. He could be riding a tricycle with two flat tires, and he’d still declaim at length about how much better his ride was than the Doctors. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/22 "2015-07-16T17:59:10Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Also, _of course_ The Master claimed his TARDIS was superior. He could be riding a tricycle with two flat tires, and he’d still declaim at length about how much better his ride was than the Doctors. So clearly another “point” of a TARDIS is for Time Lords to measure their two dicks. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/23 "2015-07-16T18:03:14Z")
Mine’s bigger on the inside. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/24 "2015-07-16T18:03:39Z")
You think that with their advanced technology the Time Lord’s would build a vehicle where you can sit down and drive. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/25 "2015-07-16T18:03:52Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Sure, but did the Rani’s TARDIS have a swimming pool? That’s what I meant when I said we don’t really know what other TARDIS are like. We’ve had tons of little throw away comments about stuff in the Doctor’s TARDIS, and even a few episodes where they go to parts of the TARDIS that aren’t the control room. We don’t have those details for any of the other TARDISes that have shown up in the series. We don’t know how many of those details are standard to all such ships, and which are specific to the Doctor’s. I suspect with their technology, the inside of a TARDIS is highly customizable. Like they could make it whatever they want. Almost like an infinite Star Trek holodeck. In fact, I’ve always wondered why Federation starships weren’t all holodeck to make them super-customizable. I mean aside from the fact that it would appear to be the third most accident-prone Trek technology besides the transporter and the anti-mater containment field. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/26 "2015-07-16T18:15:46Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I suspect with their technology, the inside of a TARDIS is highly customizable. Like they could make it whatever they want. Almost like an infinite Star Trek holodeck. > > In fact, I’ve always wondered why Federation starships weren’t all holodeck to make them super-customizable. I mean aside from the fact that it would appear to be the third most accident-prone Trek technology besides the transporter and the anti-mater containment field. What about the warp core? How many times are the words “warp core” said on Star Trek without the next words being “breach imminent”? ---
**Author:** ![dzeiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@dzeiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzeiger)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/27 "2015-07-16T19:24:00Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > You think that with their advanced technology the Time Lord’s would build a vehicle where you can sit down and drive. My local PBS station has been playing the old Pertwee episodes, I recently saw one in which the Doctor convinced the people in an English town that he was a magician because he had a remote control for his car and was able to move it when not in it. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/28 "2015-07-16T19:55:32Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I suspect with their technology, the inside of a TARDIS is highly customizable. Like they could make it whatever they want. Almost like an infinite Star Trek holodeck. In the short film [Time Crash](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I76p1cZbq4), where Ten meets Five in Ten’s Tardis, Five says “You’ve changed the desktop theme. What’s this one? Coral? It’s worse than the leopardskin!” ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/29 "2015-07-16T21:20:58Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I suspect with their technology, the inside of a TARDIS is highly customizable. Like they could make it whatever they want. Almost like an infinite Star Trek holodeck. My view is similar although I would say that with infinite size the TARDIS contains every conceivable thing in the universe, its just a question of which parts are configured to be easily accessible at a given time. > [@dzeiger](#): > > My local PBS station has been playing the old Pertwee episodes, I recently saw one in which the Doctor convinced the people in an English town that he was a magician because he had a remote control for his car and was able to move it when not in it. Which brings up my question, as to why he couldn’t configure the TARDIS to run by remote control. At least half of the sticky situations he gets into could be easily solved if he could just summon the TARDIS to his current location. But then of course then the show wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/30 "2015-07-16T21:24:28Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Which brings up my question, as to why he couldn’t configure the TARDIS to run by remote control. At least half of the sticky situations he gets into could be easily solved if he could just summon the TARDIS to his current location. But then of course then the show wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. 😃 Some eps did. As a very minor plot point, tho. 2 & 5 and maybe 6. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/31 "2015-07-16T21:25:27Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Which brings up my question, as to why he couldn’t configure the TARDIS to run by remote control. At least half of the sticky situations he gets into could be easily solved if he could just summon the TARDIS to his current location. But then of course then the show wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. Same reason Kirk _et al._ couldn’t work the transporter by remote control! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![shantih](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@shantih](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shantih)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/32 "2015-07-16T22:49:21Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Mine’s bigger on the inside. Huh. Here I was thinking it was smaller on the outside. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Bragg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@Stealth\_Bragg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Bragg)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2015, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/33 "2015-07-17T11:39:12Z")
In the late 70s there used to be a weekly Doctor Who comic available in the UK (which later on changes into a monthly magazine). It periodically had comic stories featuring the Time Lords and sometimes their TARDISes were shown (eg. Four-D War). In the non-chameleon state they were featureless white boxes with fancy door mechanisms that opened a whole side of the TARDIS at once. Point is they were shown as featureless and functional rather than fancy and police-boxey. I reckon The Doctor just did odd things as flights of fancy, and being so big inside he just plain forgot what he did - or where he left it. ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2015, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/34 "2015-07-17T13:12:01Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Same reason Kirk _et al._ couldn’t work the transporter by remote control! 🆒 Yes. “This Side of Paradise” would have been a non-event if it were possible to flip open the communicator and say “Computer, one person to beam up, these coordinates”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2015, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/35 "2015-07-17T13:20:29Z")
They still don’t know what the round things are for, though. ---
**Author:** ![lalaith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@lalaith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalaith)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2015, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/36 "2015-07-17T13:53:00Z")
> [@grude](#): > > As best I can figure out it basically serves as a home base for undercover anthropological study. > > Some of it is absurdly over-engineered for purpose if it is just a time machine, cars generally don’t have swimming pools and bedrooms etc. What was the point in the USS Enterprise 1701-D having a holodeck? The TARDIS is a vessel of exploration. Quite obviously it’s designed to be lived in for long periods of time. Why wouldn’t it have amenities? Especially as volume & mass aren’t an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2015, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/37 "2015-07-17T14:13:57Z")
> [@grude](#): > > As best I can figure out it basically serves as a home base for undercover anthropological study. > > Some of it is absurdly over-engineered for purpose if it is just a time machine, cars generally don’t have swimming pools and bedrooms etc. You generally don’t use a care as a base for scientific study. Think of a TARDIS more of a mobile home type vehicle, or an extended-trip boat. It’s not just a vehicle, it’s a place you live for awhile. > [@](#): > > Making them “alive” and sentient seems awfully cruel, especially if you’re going to put decommissioned ones in museums. Not sure what this adds to the function either. It may be necessary to have some sort of AI to handle the time travel. Or they just find it handy to have an intelligent vehicle, just as we find it convenient to have such unnecessary items in our cars as a GPS or tire pressure sensors. > [@JRDelirious](#): > > And as for the cruelty factor, it seems from the gathered evidence that the Time Lord establishment are never above a dick move. ^ This. The Time Lords as a whole are not particularly nice people. In fact, they were quite capable of atrocities of all sorts. The Doctor associating with humans had a lot to do with his current ethics and morality, such as they are (a bit shaky in spots), which is pretty alarming considering what dicks humans can be. We’re _nice_ compared to Gallifreyans. > [@](#): > > The fact they were mass grown, and each time lord or lady had their own suggests against the scientific study option. They may have been mass grown, but I don’t recall it being implied that every Time Lord had his or her own. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > I’m betting that his is a very old model that was never meant to be in use as long as it has been, and that it has evolved in ways that the original designers could never have forseen. In “Journey to the Center of the TARDIS” we find out there is a “bespoke engineering” facility on board that can basically build you whatever you want. I’m guessing this accounts for a lot of the customization we see in the Doctor’s TARDIS. Which might be another reason for the AI – the Time Lord says “build this thing that does that” and the TARDIS has to figure out how to do it. > [@AncientHumanoid](#): > > Didn’t some classic eps hint that Time Lords were kind of like guardians for the other races in the space/time continuum? Hinted? In “Underworld” it was explicitly stated they had. But remember, Time Lord history encompasses a billion years (more or less – I’m assuming they used a round number). It would be weird if they didn’t act in different ways at different times, cultures don’t remain static, not even the one on Gallifrey. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2015, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/38 "2015-07-17T14:53:40Z")
Of course, the basic answer to the OP is “The needs of the plot … outweigh … the needs of the few. Or the one (episode).” What is pretty cool, tho, is how entertaining the series continues to be. Sure, sometimes it all gets a little top heavy,or already established canon gets ignored, or things get said or done once and never revisted, but it all sticks together rather well. TARDIS - Accept no substitute. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2015, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/39 "2015-07-17T17:13:08Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > We really don’t know what a “regular” TARDIS would look like. In the first minute is an un-chameleonized TARDIS. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296/40 "2015-07-17T17:37:06Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > In the first minute is an un-chameleonized TARDIS. Where? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-a-tardis/725296.md?page=3)