Favourite TARDIS Scene!

[Si Hunt]

My favourite TARDIS scene of all time is the one in "Death to the Daleks". Isn't it great? The brilliant opening shot of the Doctor twirling a coloured umbrella, the classy direction as the camera zooms towards the flashing red 'fault' light on the console while Pertwee witters away about the "air like a magic potion" in the background, and all the glorious attempts to get power back - "hooray for old fashioned oil"! Best of all is that the console room looks lovely and sedately lit, with gorgeous deep roundels. Hard to believe this is just a year after the brightly lit flat-pack ensemble console room of "Planet of the Daleks".

What's yours? And why?

Si.

[Antony Cox]

I think the very first one might just be the very best!

[shada pavlova]

I like the bit in The Visitation when Nyssa blows up the android.

[Andrew Curnow]

I looooove TARDIS scenes. When the videos started coming out (videos are what we used to have in the old days, before DVDs, young Shada) my brother & I would always hope there'd be TARDIS scenes aplenty in them. Poor Revenge of the Cybermen, it's surprising we love it so much!

Anyway, I digress - other than the obvious answer, which is "The whole of Castrovalva part 1" I have a couple of particular favourites:

From The Visitation (again) it's the opening scenes, first the rather touching scene between Nyssa & Tegan - OK, it's sort of giving a 'story so far' update, but it's played so nicely by the two regulars. Not to mention Tegan looks just gorgeous in her buttoned up uniform. Mm...

And then, the following console room scene, which I just love. I particularly like the casual, matter-of-fact way that Adric says they're a couple of hundred years early.


Then there's the very first new series scene, with Rose & the Doctor. Without getting too pompous (well, maybe not) it always reminds me a bit of Mr Darcy in Pride & Prejudice. In the book he's a pain in the arse, until we meet him on his homeground, where he's at ease and suddenly warm & likeable. The same with the Ninth Doctor - he's been prickly & unpredictable in the episode so far, but then we see him in his natural habitat of the console room, and he's commandingly at ease, comfortable even. "It's called the TARDIS..."


And finally, there's those scenes in Logopolis with the police box - specifically the measuring scenes. "Intone the calculations? Why?" "Yes, I've wondered that myself. Never quite had the nerve to ask..."

Brilliant!

[shada pavlova]

videos are what we used to have in the old days, before DVDs, young Shada

Really? What are these strange, archaic objects you refer to as "videos"?

[Si Hunt]

You laugh, but I bet you don't remember the Age Of Betamax.

It was a weird world of smaller tapes, videos popping out the top of the machine and a Rewind function that began sluggishly, slowly gathered speed and then eventually hit the beginning of the tape at a speed of about ninety miles an hour ten minutes later. Good times.

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

For all its cheapness (recycled clips and stock footage on the scanner), I love the Second Doctor attempting to escape from the Time Lords at the end of 'The War Games'. There was something really exciting there, scrabbling around the console in an attempt to make a "quick transference jump"...

[SiHart]

K9 is control of the TARDIS and toe course is set and holding...32 minutes, flight path clear... best TARDIS spinning through space shot and then suddenly the whole screen explodes with quantel effects- zomming in and out as the TARDIS falls into the CVE. The Doctor and Romana don't know what's happened... and K9 has lost control of the TARDIS.

That's my favourite TARDIS scene ever! Nothing very special perhaps, but the one that's stayed with me since I first saw it in 1980.

Si xx

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I quite like the opening scene in the TV Movie in the Tardis. I think there was something so exciting about seeing the revamped Tardis, which has inspired the new series, and somehow Sylvester McCoy worked as never before in his brief cameo.

[Simon R]

which has inspired the new series, and somehow Sylvester McCoy worked as never before in his brief cameo.

Really? I think he's horribly wooden in that scene!

[Si Hunt]

Sylv in the TV Movie was like willing your maingy old mutt on at Crufts, even though you knew he was doomed to get showed up. So at the time we all pretended he'd done good, even though we had to watch the operating table scene through our fingers. But in the cold light of day, it's fair to say he was bloody terrible! Bless him.

Si.

[Jonno]

Given that Pyramids was the first "old" story I bought on video back in 1987, I love the early TARDIS interiors with Tom and Lis - it manages to combine looking backwards (mention of Victoria and the Brigadier/UNIT), reminds us of his alien nature ahead of his reaction to Scarman's death in particular, and points us away from the trappings of the UNIT era too. Then there's Sarah's sight of the image of Sutekh in the TARDIS - something that's not supposed to happen, the TARDIS being "invaded".

Which leads me to another of my faves - the Doctor and Tegan being frogmarched into the TARDIS by Cybermen towards the end of Earthshock, their fightback against the Cybes courtesy of Adric's badge, and their ever more frantic efforts to save Adric, all in vain. Not just is the TARDIS not a safe haven, but the Doctor can't always save his companions...

[Pip Madeley]

Sylv's "Oh no" as the TARDIS entered temporal orbit (WTF?) was a great bit of acting.

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

I like all the TARDIS scenes at the start of Warriors of the Deep - it's quire dramatic and shows off the new console rather well.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I still this that first view of a new-style Tardis was important. A kind of retro "steam punk" tech, which is all the rage now, but was a bit daring back then.

As for Sylvs performance. I think my memory of his era is kind of scared by that first Bonnie Langford season, where he was playing too much for the feeble jokey Doctor, which just got on my nerves - so playing it straight was a blessed relief.

Mind you I've only watched it once - because Eric Robers turn as the Master is just so damn awful to watch. Really he should be doing pantomime.

Wait a minute ... oh no he shouldn't ...

[Larry]

when the 5th Doctor is about to regenerate and we get a good look at peri...

[Stuart Wallis]

Tim will just have to pick another one now!

Mine are also from Death To The Daleks, namely the scenes where the power drains from the ship, and the Doctor and Sarah realise that they're not safe in there any more, particularly when the Exxilon gets in. Very moody.

[Rob McCow]

The best TARDIS scene is the first one - I don't want to imply that it's all downhill from there, but that opening 15 minutes where they and the viewer are totally gobsmacked by the TARDIS are wonderful.

I'm also fond of the mucking about with the food machine in The Daleks - it's nice to imagine everyone from Dodo to Donna complaining about the saltiness of the bacon!

The Hartnell era TARDIS is generally the best. It's an exciting and mysterious place in it's own right, rather than a room they stand in between adventures (which it sometimes became).

[Mr BHT]

I adore TARDIS scenes! When I was little it was the TARDIS that drew me into Doctor Who - not the Daleks, not the pretty assistants (although my five year old self knew I liked Adric in a different way to the girls!!), not the adventures but the TARDIS. I always wanted one of my own - I'd have never left it! I was lucky growing up in the early eighties because they featured a lot. There was only Kinda I hated with a passion!!

I love the sequence at the end of The Caves of Androzani - I think there's something striking about a TARDIS scene at the end of the story, especially when there hasn't been one in the story to that point. And it was never more effective than with Androzani, because usually they signify the story is over, but in Androzani the most important part was still to come.

The War Games pulls the same trick. It constantly wrong foots the viewer in it's epic way. One moment you think it's a historical war story, the next there's a crack in time, the next it's all a big game, the next the Doctor's race is involved, and then all of a sudden just when it's all over the Doctor himself is in real trouble and even the one place he's safe is under threat.

The end of Dragonfire is quite touching when Mel decides to leave. I think Sylv had a real natural approach to operating the TARDIS console, he'd just glide around it, compared to Colin Baker, who always acted like he was playing the organ!! The sequence where Mel leaves is very well done, and foreshadows McCoy's 'dark Doctor' brilliantly. Why does she choose to leave there and then? It doesn't seem to make any sense in the story, but is effective for that.

The opening scene of The Five Doctors is pretty cool too, but I agree with Ian Lethbridge-Stewart that the opening scenes of Warriors of the Deep really showcase the new control room better. Special mentions for the 'I have lost control of the TARDIS,' scene from Full Circle, the measuring scenes (ooh-er!) from Logopolis, Nyssa's reaction to losing her home in Logopolis, the final moments of Earthshock, the 'typewriter to a tree full of monkeys' scene in Mawdryn Undead, the 'we can't stay in the TARDIS forever,' scene in Mawdryn Undead, and the exercise bike scene in Trial of a Timelord - well it was pretty crap, but I'd gone nine weeks without a TARDIS scene and was pretty annoyed by that stage!!

[SiHart]

What a wonderful post! Having grown up at much the same time, I think we were rather spoiled with TARDIS scenes and all those fascinating glimpses of the interior. I think that's why I love Castrovalva so much!

Si xx

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I think the whole "getting lost in the Tardis" whilst trying to find the workshop had a big impression on me as a kid during the Invasion of Time - I remember that well, but completely forgot the whole thing of the Vardans.

[Dirk Gently]

Tim will just have to pick another one now!

When Turlough carries Peri in & dumps her on the bed, all wet.

[Mr BHT]

Speedos in the TARDIS - sadly a one time only occurance.

[Dirk Gently]

I'm not sure what make Peri's outfit was.

[Mr BHT]

Nor am I. I never noticed it.