In Doctor Who, the TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. It's explained fairly early on that the time machine travels not only through history, but also through space. Which makes sense, because otherwise all of the Doctor's adventures could occur in different time periods, but always in the same surroundings. Kind of like how in Back To The Future travelling back in time in the DeLorean plops you in the exact same location, just at a different time. Which when you get into the science of it, doesn't make sense. Because the world doesn't stay still like that. The location of the Twin Pines/Lone Pine Mall in 1985 is technically the same as the field in 1955 Marty crashes into after hitting 88 miles per hour, but in terms of physics and stuff, it's not the same location at all. After all, the Earth rotates around the sun, the sun rotates around the galaxy and the galaxy moves in the universe, meaning that if the DeLorean truly existed in the same space when it was send back in time, there's more chance it would be on the other side of the world, or even floating off in space. The gravitational pull wouldn't affect an eighties sports car travelling through time, right? Maybe Zemeckis would've been better off with his original concept of a time travelling fridge...
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
