Doctor Who Series 10: 7 Big Questions After 'Thin Ice'

7. Exactly How Much Of A Bad Girl Is The TARDIS?

The Doctor is a great pilot – after all he manages to operate a console built for six. But when it comes to negotiating with the TARDIS he rarely gets his way. “She’s a bad girl, this one,” he moans, “always looking for trouble.” Yet again, the TARDIS has wilfully thrown the Doctor into danger, saving the warning about the Thames until after he and Bill had stepped out.

The Doctor has never been completely in control of his TARDIS, not unless the writer needs him to get to a certain place on time. Various explanations have been offered in-universe as to why she can be so unpredictable, and they don’t always add up.

In The Day of the Doctor, the Doctor suggested that her navigation system has always been a bit messed up. But this doesn’t square with the Fourth Doctor deliberately fitting her with a randomiser to stop the Black Guardian from tracing him. Has he been disconnecting and reconnecting it ever since?

Neil Gaiman explored the TARDIS’s sentient nature (The Doctor’s Wife), giving her a body in the form of Idris. She explains to the Doctor that she takes him to where he needs to be rather than where he wants to be.

The Twelfth Doctor adds his own twist to this explanation when he tells Bill that their destination is a still point between the two (Smile). It sound like he’s clutching at straws there. In reality she’s the boss.