The TARDIS
She's been there since the start of the show, and yet if most of us were invited into the TARDIS, we wouldn't know where exactly to hang our coat (the stand will turn up, apparently). How much do you know about the TARDIS? Don't feel bad if it's not much: the Doctor doesn't even open the doors correctly. 80. The TARDIS interior actually includes parts from aeroplane cockpits. These parts are hired, as it's too expensive to buy them outright. 79. It's unsure whether the Time Rotor - the big up and downy thing in the middle - is actually the Time Rotor. William Hartnell made a reference to it early in the series, but he wasn't talking about the TARDIS's central column. 78. Police boxes of the 1960s were usually made from concrete, and not wood. 77. The current TARDIS interior has a rib-like chassis to suggest that it's alive, and the lights around the outside are designed to evoke the Daleks. It's also the first 360 degree interior: it's filmable from any angle. 76. Neil Gaiman originally wanted to use a Classic Series TARDIS interior for the scene in 'The Doctor's Wife' where Amy and Rory find themselves in the Nine/Ten console room. Budget dictated that he used an existing set; additionally, a scene where Rory was trapped in the Zero Room didn't make the final cut, along with a scene of Amy in the swimming pool, due to Karen Gillan's inability to swim. 75. The typeface used to spell "Police Box" above the TARDIS doors is Gill Sans. This is the same font used by indie band Bloc Party, for their logo.
74. The creators of the show intended for the TARDIS for change with every new location. Again, budget played a part in the iconic design of the Police Box. 73. Various Doctor Who writers have exploited the fact that the exterior is a police box: Billy in 'Blink', a policeman himself, recognised the TARDIS as a fake police box, and Dodo Chaplet entered the TARDIS assuming it was a police box, whilst trying to make an emergency call in 'The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve'. 72. Despite the First Doctor noticing that the TARDIS hadn't changed its guise upon arriving in the distant past, the term "chameleon circuit" wasn't used until Logopolis, Tom Baker's last story as the Fourth Doctor. 71. Asteroid 3325, a small main belt asteroid discovered in 1984, is named Tardis. Tardis really does fly through space.