How Do The TARDIS Doors Work?

With the anticipated return of Dr Who and David Tennant on Saturday we thought we would take a look how one of the most iconic TARDIS doors actually work. Its a lot bigger on the inside!

the famous automatic TARDIS doors of Dr Who

The TARDIS’s interior Micro-Universe can be accessed through the Main Doors, which serve as the primary entrance and exit. These doors can be voice activated and deactivated by simply saying “Doors” when they are set up correctly. Additionally, there is a mechanical lever on the console, officially known as Number 4 Switch, that can be used to open them.

With the right coding, a remote energy impulse can effortlessly unlock the doors, even when triggered from within the control room. To ensure safety, these doors can be programmed to shut automatically if there’s no one present in the Control Room.

In case of a complete power failure, fear not! The Emergency Door Control, located to the left of the doors, comes to the rescue with its mighty hand crank..

The Main Doors of the TARDIS can be opened safely in Space by programming the force field accordingly. Nevertheless, one cannot exit through these doors unless the protective force fields are deactivated first. As a security measure, if it has access to a person’s biodata, it can create an exclusion field that will automatically block that individual from entering the TARDIS.

Throughout their numerous adventures, the Doctor always carried a TARDIS key, utilizing it for a multitude of purposes. Its primary function was to unlock the TARDIS doors, but it served many other functions as well. On occasion, the Doctor even had a spare key in their possession. As the Tenth Doctor explained, this key held a special connection to the TARDIS, allowing them to locate the time machine within a span of a hundred years.

Surprisingly, a key wasn’t always necessary to unlock the magnificent TARDIS. In a memorable encounter with River Song, she astounded the Doctor by mentioning that she had witnessed his future self effortlessly open the TARDIS doors with a simple snap of his fingers.

Initially skeptical, the Tenth Doctor eventually mastered this technique himself, proving its reliability. Even after his transformation into the eleventh incarnation, the Doctor continued to unlock the TARDIS with a snap of his fingers, showcasing his proficiency with this method.

Nevertheless, he still relied on his trusty key to access the TARDIS doors on a regular basis. (see the image on the some of the keys that featured)

However, when the Doctor accidentally lost his keys in a pool of scorching lava, he resorted to a different approach. He simply confided in the TARDIS, explaining the unfortunate incident, and to his amazement, she autonomously opened up for him.

Even though they have been destroyed by lava. Many of the Doctors kept multiple keys at a time, with the Twelfth having seven of them. The TARDIS key was an undeniably handy tool, right up there with Doctor Who’s Sonic Screwdriver.

We have to admit we are not Whovians and I am sure there are many more features of the TARDIS doors that we have missed. If you know of any, let us know in the comments on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages.

If you are reading this Dr Who our engineers are on hand for service and repairs with our own sonic screwdrivers!