The TARDIS Trivia Quiz

Answer: Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space

In the first episode "An Unearthly Child" (1963), the Doctor's granddaughter Susan (Carole Anne Ford) explains to teachers Ian (William Russell) and Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) that she made up the name TARDIS from the initials of the words in the phrase "Time And Relative Dimensions In Space". The widespread use of the term by the Time Lords casts some doubt on her claim. It is both a time-travelling machine and a spaceship since it moves both through time and space, sometimes like a conventional spaceship. It can also travel to parallel realities.

The 'Dimension(s)' part of the acronym has gone back and forth between singular and plural in both the classic and new series. The word 'Tardis' now appears in dictionaries, typically meaning having a larger capacity than its outward appearance suggests.

Answer: Hexagonal

The shape is down to the number of operators that the console is designed for, namely six Time Lords. The Doctor usually works the console by himself so this perhaps contributes to why he does not always go where he intended. An occasion on which all six stations are occupied comes in the finale of the fourth season, "Journey's End" (2008).

Answer: Budgetary constraints

With a limited budget, the decision was to make use of the 1929 Gilbert Mackenzie Trench-designed police box, which was a common piece of street furniture. One story is that it was a prop previously used in BBC police drama. Part of the thinking was that the TARDIS needed to fit into its local surroundings, which was London when the series started.

Its unchanging external appearance regardless of location has in time made it a pop culture icon. In the storyline this is explained as due to a broken 'chameleon circuit', a form of cloaking device which the Doctor has occasionally tried to fix (e.g. in "Logopolis" (1981) and "Attack of the Cybermen" (1985)) By "Boom Town" (2005) he has stopped trying as he has become fond of the police box appearance. The police box is not a faithful replica of the original design and has changed over the years.

Answer: Claimed ownership of the design

In 1996, the BBC decided to register the TARDIS design with the Patent Office. The Metropolitan Police objected. The Patent Office, however, found in favour of the BBC in 2002, noting that there was no evidence of the police having registered the design in the past and that the BBC had been selling TARDIS merchandise for over 30 years without police objection.

Answer: The TARDIS decides where to go

It turns out that the TARDIS is alive and sentient. During "The Doctor's Wife" (2011), a sentient asteroid removes the TARDIS matrix and installs it and its personality into the body of a woman called Idris (Suranne Jones). The Doctor (the eleventh, Matt Smith) learns from Idris that the navigational issues he experiences are actually the TARDIS placing him where he is needed which is not always the same as where he is trying to go.

Answer: Trans-dimensional engineering

During the fifth serial of season 14, the Doctor's companion Leela (Louise Jameson) asks for an explanation. The Doctor (the fourth, Tom Baker) uses two boxes to demonstrate. Next to each other, one is clearly larger. However, when the larger one placed on the console and with the Doctor now standing next to Leela, the physically smaller one visually appears to be the larger.

He mentions that the insides and the outside are in different dimensions and trans-dimensional engineering, a key Time Lord discovery, is used to bring them together with the result that there is a lot more space inside than seems possible.

Answer: The Doctor stole the TARDIS

There are various 'origin' stories including that the Doctor built the TARDIS, however most accounts indicate that it was acquisition by theft (as acknowledged in over half a dozen episodes such as "The War Games"(1969) and "Logopolis" (1981)), although with the consent of the TARDIS (per "The Doctor's Wife"(2011)) who wanted to go travelling. By the time the Doctor acquired the TARDIS, it had been replaced by more advanced models. A Type 40, it was faulty and back on the home world of Gallifrey for repairs.

Answer: Vworp vworp vworp

The sound effect started off as a recording of a house key being scraped up and down the strings of an old piano. This recording was remixed to produce the sound effect sometimes described a wheezy, groaning noise. As well as appearing in the "Doctor Who Magazine", it has been adopted as the name of a 'Doctor Who' fanzine "Vworp! Vworp!" The signature sound effect did not appear until the second series and has evolved over time.

Answer: A key is required

A key is normally required. The Doctor sometimes has a spare or two lying around, occasionally passing a key to companions so that they can gain access. If it is stolen, a metabolism detector behind the lock may prevent entry (see "Spearhead from Space"(1970)).

There is also the occasion when the Doctor loses the key when in freefall to the Earth's surface ("The Woman Who Fell to Earth"(2018)), however, when she explains the circumstances, the TARDIS lets her in ("The Ghost Monument" (2018).

Answer: Torchwood

The episode "End of Days" (2007) from the BBC sci-fi series "Torchwood" is an occasion where the "vworp vworp" sound is heard. This is while the TARDIS is refuelling at the Cardiff Rift. The tie-in episode in the "Doctor Who" series is "Utopia" (2007).

There are also TARDIS appearances in the BBC sci-fi series "The Sarah Jane Smith Adventures", such as in "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith" episode (2009) with the farewell scene in the TARDIS echoing the one in a 1976 "Doctor Who" episode.