Doctor Who: Why Is The TARDIS A Police Box?

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Doctor Who has been going on for so long at this point that elements of its ongoing narrative have become inescapably iconic. Everyone knows what the TARDIS looks like, even if they haven't seen a single episode of the show, but they might not know why it looks like that.

Ncuti Gatwa, the fourteenth actor to officially portray The Doctor will begin his tenure with the character in November 2022. The show will be heading into its sixtieth anniversary next year and celebrating that milestone with the first black actor in the leading role. It's a huge moment for the franchise for several reasons, so it's a good time to look back at its early days.

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The TARDIS is the vehicle that Time Lords like The Doctor use to travel through space and time. The name is an acronym that stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space. It's often written in all caps, but some print editions of the word used «Tardis». It's a time machine and a spaceship, though it commonly malfunctions. Most TARDIS vessels feature a «chameleon circuit», which allows them to innately blend in with the surrounding environment. The very few other TARDIS units depicted in the series take a form that suits the time and place they land in. Unfortunately, The Doctor's TARDIS suffered a malfunction in the very first episode that left it in the shape of a 60s phone box.

The first episode of Doctor Who was entitled «An Unearthly Child», and it aired in four parts throughout November and December 1963. The episode begins in 60s England, where police boxes were relatively common. As a result, the TARDIS looks right at home in its classic blue box disguise. As always, some innocent bystanders find themselves wandering in, and they're shocked by