Talk:TARDIS

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the TARDIS article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1, 2, 3: 2 months

TARDIS is a former featured article. Please see the links under Article milestones below for its original nomination page (for older articles, check the nomination archive) and why it was removed.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on March 8, 2006.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
June 9, 2005	Peer review	Reviewed
September 28, 2005	Featured article candidate	Promoted
November 12, 2009	Featured article review	Demoted

Current status: Former featured article

This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Doctor Who Top‑importance

	Doctor Who portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Doctor Who, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to Doctor Who and its spin-offs on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this notice, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.Doctor WhoWikipedia:WikiProject Doctor WhoTemplate:WikiProject Doctor WhoDoctor Who articles
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

BBC Mid‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject BBC, an attempt to better organise information in articles related to the BBC. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page where you can join us as a member. You can also visit the BBC Portal.BBCWikipedia:WikiProject BBCTemplate:WikiProject BBCBBC articles

Mid

This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

This article is a selected article on the BBC Portal (view entry).

Tasks for WikiProject BBC:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : Improve BBC, BBC News (TV channel) and BBC News to Good Article status following previous reviews, create BBC Computer Literacy Project (in light of forthcoming 30th anniversary)
Cleanup : Chucklevision - references and general clean-up, Pebble Mill Studios - over-detailed and long, BBC World Service Television - unreferenced and confusing
Copyedit : BBC News, Broadcasting House
Expand : Top 20 start-class BBC articles with most importance: BBC Japan, BBC World Service Television, BBC Lifestyle, BBC Two Northern Ireland
NPOV : Criticism of the BBC (See comments)
Stubs : Stub-Class BBC articles
Other : *Restructure the category
- Add infoboxes to the BBC articles without infoboxes
- Add free-use images to biographical articles where possible
- Add references to Goa Mix (see assessment) and Coat of arms of the BBC
- Return Dad's Army to a Good article. (See comments)
- Reassess BBC following improvements to article.

Science Fiction Mid‑importance

	Speculative fiction portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Science Fiction, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of science fiction on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Science FictionWikipedia:WikiProject Science FictionTemplate:WikiProject Science Fictionscience fiction articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Archives

1, 2, 3

This page has archives. Sections older than 60 days may be automatically archived by when more than 2 sections are present.

Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style

I came to this page expecting to see a mention of this acronym - as per 'The Next Doctor'. Should I try to squeeze in a reference? If so where would be best? 1.43.41.96 (talk) 14:05, 8 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Conceptual history: Police box exterior origins

I haven't edited the article directly because I know there have been some past issues relating to a certain writer and the extent of their contribution to the early history of Doctor Who, but I'm not sure about the accuracy of the following sentence from Conceptual history section.

"The idea for the police-box disguise came from a BBC staff writer, Anthony Coburn, who rewrote the programme's first episode from a draft by C. E. Webber."

This sites two sources, one of them being Howe, David J.; Stephen James Walker (2003). The Television Companion: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who. I do not have access to this book. The second is a BBC News article where Jason Onion (a fan builder of a TARDIS replica) says that Anthony Coburn states that the police box design originated from Anthony Coburn. However, the above sentence was already in the TARDIS Wikipedia page before this article was written – is it not possible that Mr Onion's information comes from this page itself?

Furthermore, I have in front of me Hearn, M. (2013) Doctor Who: The Vault: Treasures from the First 50 Years. This states that, while Anthony Coburn invented the name TARDIS while writing an Unearthly Child, the idea for the police box appearance of the "ship" is already cited in a document from May 1963, which would have been before Anthony Coburn did his draft of the first episode (The Giants was originally the first story, until it was scrapped in June 1963, which is when Coburn's story was brought forward and his draft of An Unearthly Child written). A copy of the document can be found in the BBC archives as page 1, page 2 and page 3. This would mean that credit for the Police Box exterior should go to Wilson, Webber and Newman, unless Coburn came up with the idea independently as well? However, it seems more likely to me that accounts of Coburn coming up with the Police Box idea came from him or others claiming credit after the fact or, perhaps more likely, misremembering. The Professor (talk) 15:25, 1 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]