Looking at my replicas of the Tardis recently, I wondered if the outside of the police box changed very much in the new series. The inside of Tardis looks vastly different with its new technology, but to me the outside doesn’t look so much different than it did in 1963. Of course the Tardis is considered an icon of the series (both old and new) and the creators would want it be recognized as a police box. I was glad that the outside was kept virtually the same.  Sometimes I wonder if they might have changed the inside too much in the new series.  Why shouldn’t they have made it look simpler?

Has anyone mentioned here that there is still a police box outside Earls Court Underground Station in London? I've taken a couple of photos over the years as I've passed through that Station. For years i thought it was something to do with Doctor Who, a touristy thing. But it seems to be the last actual police box.

There's a reference to it in an episode where UNIT (I think) refer to a sighting of the Tardis and they say they don't want to repeat the embarrassment they had over the Earls Court one.

@coracle 

I always thought that the Tardis looks like something that belongs in a museum. There probably are Dr. Who museums in the UK just like telephone booths would be considered museum artifacts here in the U. S.  At least I would think people would want to save a few police boxes and telephone booths to show one’s children and grandchildren what life was like before there was modern technology. Superman used a telephone booth when he changed from Clark Kent, and like Dr. Who he was popular in his time, which was mainly in the 1950’s.  Although most people today would not use police boxes or telephone booths to make calls, they might want replicas of them for nostalgia reasons.  🙂

Here is an interesting article about Lucy Pevensie and the Tardis:

https://a-tardis-in-narnia.tumblr.com/ .

A Tardis in Narnia is supposed to be a Dr. Who/ Narnia crossover, and it is not considered canon for either Dr. Who or Narnia .

Posted by: @coracle

Has anyone mentioned here that there is still a police box outside Earls Court Underground Station in London? I've taken a couple of photos over the years as I've passed through that Station. For years i thought it was something to do with Doctor Who, a touristy thing. But it seems to be the last actual police box.

Gosh, I used to live near London and I didn't know about that! I've changed trains at Earls Court many times, but I don't think I've ever actually been above ground just there. If I knew, I'd have looked out for it and taken photos for my dad and my sister, who are big Doctor Who fans!

Posted by: @narnian78

I always thought that the Tardis looks like something that belongs in a museum. There probably are Dr. Who museums in the UK just like telephone booths would be considered museum artifacts here in the U. S.  At least I would think people would want to save a few police boxes and telephone booths to show one’s children and grandchildren what life was like before there was modern technology. Superman used a telephone booth when he changed from Clark Kent, and like Dr. Who he was popular in his time, which was mainly in the 1950’s.  Although most people today would not use police boxes or telephone booths to make calls, they might want replicas of them for nostalgia reasons.  

I don't know if there's a Doctor Who museum anywhere over here (if there isn't, there probably should be!), but there are definitely still red phone booths in London and some other urban areas, even though they're less and less often used for their original purpose! Some are derelict and have perhaps been vandalised, but as they're such a design classic (along with red pillar boxes and red London buses), I have a feeling at least some of them are heritage listed. Some of them do get repurposed — I've seen old phone booths housing a defibrillator for medical emergencies, for example. But my favourite new use for them is as a mini book exchange! I've seen several of those. The entire phone booth is filled with shelves of pre-loved books and you can take one by either making a donation (usually to a local charity) in the honesty box or bringing a book of your own to exchange. These usually aren't staffed, but there's obviously someone in charge who keeps the booth tidy, locks it up at night and collects the cash donations. It's a lovely idea.

Now I'm wondering if the last remaining police phone booth in London still has a working phone inside it (which these days would presumably just call the emergency number, 999), or does it house something different as well? (How can we be so sure it's not the actual Tardis?? )

It always was kind of interesting how the Tardis was created as the Dr. Who time and space ship. My guess is that the original creators of the show looked at a police call box back in 1963 and decided to use it as the Doctor’s method of travel. The police box was quite common in Britain at that time, but that may have been the first time anyone used it for a science fiction TV show. Suoerman used a telephone booth here in America, but I think a police box was more interesting.  Come to think of it, at that time many science fiction TV shows still used flying saucers as vehicles of travel, and the Tardis was something unique and different at the time. Would the show have been remembered as much with the Doctor traveling in a flying saucer?  Probably not. The Tardis was definitely a new idea. 🙂

@narnian78 From what I've heard, the BBC was on a tight budget even back then in 1963 (as they were over 25 years later when they decided to do the Narnia adaptations ) and they had a police box prop that had been used in other shows, so they decided to make that the Doctor's time machine and have the excuse (mentioned in the second-ever episode) that it was meant to change its appearance to blend in with whatever time and place it landed in, but its chameleon circuits have jammed and left it stuck in the guise it took on while in 1960s London, and the Doctor never got around to fixing it. (I think it was later stated somewhere that he likes it the way it is.) And so they didn't have to come up with a new appearance for the Tardis in every episode, which saved the production team a lot of money, as well as creating a British icon...  

@courtenay 

It does seem like the Tardis was a good idea since it has been around for so long. And most people like the dark blue color, which made its appearance much more attractive than an ordinary telephone booth.  It is a bit hard to explain to Earth dwellers how it could be bigger on the inside than on the outside, Perhaps that is more believable when it is understood that the police box came from the planet Gallifrey, an extraterrestrial civilization. 🙂

It would be nice if the Marco Polo serial were animated, although the audiobook is very good listening. The lost episodes work quite well on audio and one can understand what is happening in the story quite easily through the interesting linking narration by William Russell. It is extremely sad that the original video portion of this story was lost for so many years, but the audio is still very enjoyable. If you are a Dr. Who fan I would strongly recommend listening to the audiobooks of the lost Dr. Who stories. The comic book style of animation which has been done for some of the lost episodes makes them look like the 1960’s, when the programs were first broadcast. 🙂

I am currently listening to the audiobooks of the lost Dr. Who again, and it is very enjoyable. It is surprising that audio survives for all of the lost episodes. Although the quality of the sound varies, the recordings are still good enough to be quite listenable with the linking narration. And they have sometimes used the still photographs on the DVD’s that haven’t been animated. The animation is usually much more interesting to watch (especially for the longer stories) although it is a good thing that the photographs are still available. I wish that all of the episodes were available in something else besides the audio.  But considering that the number of lost episodes is at least about a hundred for each of the first two Doctors it may unfortunately be many years before they are all animated.  🙁

It’s interesting how much the Tardis has changed since 1963. I actually prefer it as it looked at that time even though it was rather primitive. The lack of technology back then does not make that much difference to me.   I can understand that it had to be updated in appearance for a modern audience, but the old Tardis from William Hartnell’s time had a certain wonderful nostalgic appeal. The ship, which has travelled through space and time, has changed much more on the inside (where it is bigger) than the outside. I think it was a good idea to keep the outside of the police box mostly the same so that people would always recognize it.

Here is a brief history of the Tardis:

https://www.doctorwho.tv/news-and-features/a-brief-history-of-the-doctors-tardis

Tonight I rewatched Fury from the Deep, which is a lost story from 1968 that was animated.  The artists did a fine job of recreating the serial. The animation looks something like the comic strips of the 1960’s, which works very well with the time period that the story was made.  Having another option besides listening to the audio gives the episodes a new perspective. It’s sad that the story was lost for so many years, but I am glad that now there is the opportunity to watch it again in a different form.  I hope that more stories will be animated for our enjoyment. 🙂

It was really interesting to rewatch The Tenth Planet, which was William Hartnell’s last story on Dr. Who.  The last episode of the story was missing the video portion, but it was animated and the original audio was added.  I really loved all four episodes of the story. William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton were both wonderful Doctors on Dr. Who, and this was a very intriguing story. The first time I saw the story was on DVD.  To my knowledge the early episodes of Dr. Who were never shown in my area at the time when I was a child.  The DVD’s have brought many episodes of classic Dr. Who into my living room for viewing which I had never seen before. 

I found this picture of a red police box, although I must say that l liked the dark blue color better:

https://pin.it/4WLmQ9I

I am glad that dark blue was chosen for the Tardis! 🙂

@narnian78 Good one! I love the comment "The chameleon circuit has gone wonky again."  

@courtenay 

I wondered what the chameleon circuit was and I looked it up:

https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Chameleon_circuit

I am now listening to the Dr. Who audiobook of Logopolis, where the chameleon circuit is mentioned several times. I am not sure if the Tardis would have become an icon if it were red, but it may be that I like it better in dark blue because that is one of my favorite colors.

I really like the audiobook of Logopolis because the author of the novelization, Christopher H. Bidmead, reads his own story (he also wrote the TV script), and his voice is very good. I think it is almost as good as the television story.  🙂