Tardis vs Police Box: an appreciation of the differences 

To all who have watched this video - whether you liked it, hated it, or were indifferent - I thank you.

The original police box actually looks quite a bit like the 2010 TARDIS design! I get the feeling they always reference the original box when making a new design

Very good video; It actually is referenced in the show relatively often that the TARDIS is not a completely accurate representation of a 1960's police box.

5:30 "somewhat different" xD love the subtle humour

2:10 “It is immediately apparent the TARDIS is smaller.” Only on the outside!

The TARDIS has at least one laboratory. The Doctor just can't remember where it is.

I remember an episode (Logopolis) where the doctor tried to fix the Tardis and make the chameleon circuit work properly. He landed by a real police box to get accurate measurements with the intentions of making the Tardis exterior accurate, thus fixing the chameleon circuit.

One point overlooked here is that the real Police box was made of concrete! I know this to be true as I saw a film once of the example outside Wimbledon Chase station being "demolished".

With the door the tardis outright says to the doctor that the door should open outwards and not inwards in the episode “the doctor’s wife”

IIRC, the original DW police box prop was made smaller because the one made for "Dixon of Dock Green" couldn't fit into the elevator at Lime Grove studio D. So right from the start they couldn't be too accurate about it.

I read somewhere that when the 1st doctor who came out. The designs of the 1st call Box were trademarked and thus couldn't be replicated and used for entertainment. So, they got as close as they could, while still looking different enough. Not sure how true it is or not. However, once once they fill out of use. The trademark lapsthe trademark lapsten they were able to almost replicate the call boxes entirely in later interations of the show.

There is a joke in The Doctor's Wife that the TARDIS's doors have a sign that clearly reads "pull to open" yet the Doctor pushes to open.

This and the other police box video was very informative. I had know idea that the first police box was an American invention. Looking forward to your video showing the differences between the Doctor's TARDIS through the years.

Good video sir! I’m surprised this doesn’t have more views, but I’m glad to be here

To me, the original police box seems to have more resemblance to the Tardis used in the two Peter Cushing films.

Yes but he did what he did because he wanted to be near Rory and wife. After all in Tom Baker’s time we did see the interior some of it including the fact that there is a huge swimming pool so yeah he could’ve probably done it somewhere around there he chose not to because he’s not good alone and he miscalculates when he is alone.

Interesting the flashing red light colour. I know in later stories they used a rotating blue lamp and recent stories have it flashing blue. The days of monochrome television dictated the need to have the white light, but something I’ve learnt there today. I know there was a plan for Matt Smith to have a screen accurate prop but they repainted the one used by David Tennant complete with St John Ambulance badge. 😁

Thanks for the video and looking at the subtle differences between a real police box and the Tardis used in the TV series.

I don't understand why you didn't compare it to the still existing police boxes in Glasgow.

Good video - but it still suggests a uniformity of the original Mark II Police Box that in real life was missing - yes there was a common concrete mould for the basic shape - but after that, different people often finished the police boxes slightly inconsistently (from the photographic evidence left, and people who were around in the 40s/50s & 60s and remember them. They didn't ALWAYS have a red light bulb, they didn't always have the blue glass - possibly because of wear&tear and maintenance, they didn't always have the same base (depending on where they needed to be stood), or the same metal-ware handles on the door/telephone box. I think we often gaze at the original plans, and the authorial intent of the design and forget that the construction of these boxes was not a full factory process, but involved many different labourers/carpenters/electricians etc to make do with what materials they had. In that sense, some of the TARDIS prop "errors" are not really wrong, just reasonable variations for a dilapidated Police Box that had seen much use. The basic shape mistakes, however - are totally valid criticisms - and it says something about the power of the show that many fans prefer some of the more inaccurate shape details of the prop compared to the original design. Still you made all the basic points really well, thank-you!

See, the thing is, the TARDIS can be infinite, but only makes rooms as needed. She obviously decided that the Doctor would only briefly need a lab, and decided their kitchen would work fine. 😄

one fun fact is that the Tardis' doors were meant to open outwards, it's just that the doctor never dies so and prefers to push open instead

Fantastic! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I love the Tardis. He/she/it is my favourite character in the whole 60 year history of Doctor Who. I even prefer the Tardis to any of the incarnations of the Doctor. Has anyone produced a history (book) on the actual police box? I would love to acquire a copy.

have watched since 63 and and stood outside 'one' in glasgow 77 - iish. This was a fdamn informarmative vid, Cheers.

The BBC have now copyrighted the image, but I have a police box pencil case from the late seventies, before that happened, so it's actually a real police box image, although shaped as a pencil case with no sticking out roof features and of course completely different in colour, from any TARDIS items I have, even the flat topped ones like a lunch bag. You can't get any police box souvenir items anymore, unless they are Dr Who TARDIS s.

I would love to see a tardis exterior directly designed after a real box. That would be so cool

I really loved this video . Fantastic absolutely fantastic . Make no mistake the tardis interior is actually infinite but due to dudgetery restraints the BBC can only ever show us a tiny portion of the interior at any given time . 😉

I am guessing the Doctor really just want to hang out with them instead of being by himself.

You can't really expect the first to be the closest, primarily because of budgetary considerations and the fact that it had to be light enough to move around the studio and to location shooting, including places of limited height restriction.

Wouldn't that be cool if the TARDIS light flashed red when she took off? Do any of these differences have anything to do with the British Police taking the BBC to court over the unauthorized use at that time of using a likeness of a British Police Call Box as a prop?. I know the BBC won but maybe they weren't allowed to make TARDIS to scale after that?

The true police boxes were also made of concrete rather than the wood effect that the TARDIS has...

This is oddly.. relaxing.

The Eleventh Doctor : I always read the instructions! Idris : There's a sign on my front door. You have been walking past it for seven hundred years. What does it say? The Eleventh Doctor : That's not instructions. Idris : There's an instruction at the bottom. What does it say? The Eleventh Doctor : "Pull to open." Idris : Yes, and what do you do? The Eleventh Doctor : I push! Idris : Every single time. Seven hundred years, police box doors open *out* the way.

I find it interesting how the police box can look like anything, be any color, and it doesn't even have to _say_ police box on it, but the Tardis always takes the same appearance just with a slightly different silhouette. Always blue, always six panels on each window, always an ordinary Yale lock, always a lantern on the top, always "Police Public Call Box" and "Police Telephone; Free For Use Of Public; Advice & Assistance Obtainable Immediately; Officers & Cars Respond To All Calls; Pull To Open." I supposed if the show ever used a different police box model, it would be less recognizable as the Tardis.

Creator making a serious comparison: "It is immediately apparent that the TARDIS is smaller." Me: "Only on the outside."

Love doctor who and this video is great! Super calming and informative!! Keep up the great work mate! (also fun fact but in one of my fave episodes "The Doctor's Wife" its actually brought up how for well over thousands of years the doctor has been opening the doors wrong haha!)

I think that the Tardis is still a bit different of the originals Police Box to make sure that the Doctor would not take the wrong Box.

Could the difference in light color have originally had a legal reason? Since police boxes were still in use when the original prop was made, they could very well have been restricted by statute had they needed to put the prop on a real street for an episode. Might be worth investigating.

TARDIS didn’t replicate identically. She had a glitch back then.

The series said that the doors can open in any direction. Both for myself and for myself.

I’m “Blink” DI Shipley said “The phone is a dummy and the windows are too small”.

i know im not old enough to remember police boxes, but i think they may have forgotten to remove one at the shops by where i grew up, as i think i remember one there, though peter davis was time hopping when i was young

"It's immediately apparent that the TARDIS is smaller." But it's bigger on the inside.

The TARDIS opens both ways, the Doctor just has a habit of opening them inwards, in a episode where the TARDIS is in a body she siad "there's a sighn on my door you've been walking past it for 700 years what does it say" Doctor : That's not instructions TARDIS : There's an instruction at the bottom what does it say? Doctor.: pull to open TARDIS : Yes and what do you do? Doctor : I push

The TARDIS did have a workshop, but it was probably jettisoned at some point 😊 Adric: It's just like the TARDIS Doctor: I hope not, that could cause some dangerous dimensional instabilities, no it's just an ordinary police box

Never mind one laboratory-there were multiple indoor swimming pools.

They still did a good job. I'd be surprised if anyone watching the first episode of An Unearthly Child immediately hollered "That's not factual!" Some of the changes are of course necessary to the story (to the canon version at least). Opaque windows because you obviously don't want just anyone looking inside. Doors logically opening inwards because internally they in another dimension. Double doors because it's the only entrance and there's sometimes some big stuff/beings going in and out of there.

It''s true the 11th doctor (Matt Smiths doctor) said the Tardis is infinite but he probably use Amy and Rory's kitchen because as we've seen like in the episode "journey to the center of the tardis" he could easily get lost and probably doesn't know where everything is. after all when Amy asked about a Swimming pool in a Library he said "It probably got off to somewhere, I'll find it later" though we the viewers usually don't see any farther than the main console room few episodes have traveled deeper and shown that the tardis keeps a copy of every console room it's ever generated and has quite a few bedrooms and closets and quite possibly so much more we've never seen.

Gracias por compartir tan interesante información.

Don't want to nit-pick, but the models used are missing some details, particularly on the corner posts. I'd suggest checking out the plans on TARDISBuilders.

Would love a future Time Lord have a sexy red colored police box.

1 difference is that one can time travel, and 1 cant

But how does the Police Box, outside Earl's Court Station compare?

The Police Box from the Peter Cushing Dr. Who films is actually rather close to the real thing, that one is far taller than the prop from the TV series.

Well for starters police box doors open outwards. Tardis doors dont And also the doctor probably used amy and rorys kitchen as a lab because he lost the actual lab. Its not rare for rooms in a tardis to move or vanish or he just switched it off ( you can do that) And the tardis can generate an infinate number of corridors and rooms. So it is infinate

Well, her chameleon circuit was slightly malfunctioning so she didn't get an exact copying of the police box.. Think she continues to try over the years.

You forgot the biggest difference.... The original police box could not travel trough time.

Don't forget, the TARDIS chameleon circuit are permanently on the fritze.

... and, of course, the number one difference is that the Tardis is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

The TARDIS may be smaller on the outside than the actual London Metropolitan Police box, but it’s bigger on the inside. LOL 😂

Thank you for this video. I can assume that the differences are caused by a faulty chamelion circuit? :)

Didn't the Fifth Doctor have to "burn" something like 25% of the interior volume in an emergency move to generate power? Incidentally taking out the Zero Room he needed to settle his regeneration?

thank you

Original hartnell box didnt have handles, too

Wait, didn't the TARDIS mention that her doors also open outwards in The doctor's wife and that the doctor has been doing it wrong for over 700 years?

A radiator? They were heated?

The TARDIS is only smaller than a police box on the outside.

Infinite? Nah, rather large though, somewhat the size of the original two World Trade Center towers in NYC combined, though she's jettisoned some rooms over the years.

time and relative dimension in space

Doc #4 did explain how different the Tardis was from a police box inside than outside simply. You could do same.. pity

Awesome 🤩👍⭐️I always loved the classic boxes there more original and I really like it 👏👏👏👏💙🪄

I would love to see a video comparing all of the tardis props! would be very interesting :)

Burg the pushing of the door off the TARDIS was explained in the drs wife when the TARDIS was made flesh and she told him he Nevers reads what on the door when it says pull and she says what do you do you allways push

Accidental(?) TARDIS ASMR

peter cushing's tardis prop actually had see through panes dispite what you say

Closest is the movie bix and the tyj 80s

Doctor who is still airing yk

lol, the interior size is a little different.

I always fort the police boxwas a sorta site o vffice on a building/road works, fancy shed, keep the rain off, maybe a heating stove, or something, keep warm, like on the there protol land area, not where going back to police station for a break not really practicable use of time?

Well it small because it’s bigger on the inside.

the latest tardis has a 3 tier roof. So you saying no tardis has this isn't entirely accurate is it?

who owns the rights to the police box or does the uk police metropolitan lend it surely if selling them in the shops as toys the they should get a cut of if selling millions

The TARDIS is only smallerr on the outside.

@We Travel by Night the REAL classic Metropolitan police box Design was never used in Doctor Who ? HA HA ! Wrong ! i believe it was used twice ! the American 1st Doctor - Peter Cushing ! in the 2 American Doctor Who movies ! i believe his Movie Tardis police box is more like the the REAL classic Metropolitan police box Design thus the only Tardis that is more like the original Police Box as appose to the TV versions ! well 12th and 13th doctors came closer to the original though oh and also just a minor nit pick @We Travel by Night your 2 Police boxes original and Tardis are missing the st john ambulance logo on the doors ! which also leads to the question why was there a st john ambulance logo on the Police box and Tardis ? well i could understand the Tardis having it as a jab at the Doctor coming outta the police box as a sort of inside joke but it turns out the real police Boxes had it too ! the st john ambulance logo ! so was there phone calls from Police boxes to not only call police but Doctors too ? just asking ?

Mackenzie Tench

A video about the Tardis without any actual photos of the Tardis from the show for comparison. What a waste of time.

Here’s something, as much as I have watched Dr. Who, from Jon Pertwee on, it’s a bloody “SHOW”. This is trying to turn something into reality. Just like Trekkies trying to turn a “SHOW” into reality. Just means y’all need to step back into the real world.

It really would have been a good video. But that he talks to us like we're five-year-old children. Doesn't bode well with me.

Whut

You are obviously not a Yank so why say "Lab-Rat-Ory" instead of "Lab Ora Tory" like a normal person?

A brilliant video RUINED by a narrator whose patronizingly slow speech even toddlers would find offensive

Can you talk any slower

How the hell did you make this so boring. I got two minutes in and had to stop

I find this video very informing , but feel your models could do with some work , id love to get in contact and help in anyway , if your'e interested , i work in freelance rendering accurate realistic POLICE BOX's TARDIS or otherwise and have alot of info on the later modern TARDIS boxes history and changes from 2005 to present do you have instagram or twitter or discord? would love to chat more about this