One of the more interesting aspects of Doctor Who is the TARDIS itself. After all, without the Docotr’s trusty spaceship, he would not be able to go on these various adventures through time and space. As important as the Doctor is to Doctor Who, the TARDIS may be of equal importance.
Yet, for all the time that the Doctor has spent aboard the TARDIS, his ability to navigate his spaceship is questionable at best. How many times over the course of Doctor Who’s history has the Doctor had no idea where the TARDIS landed, or even how he got there? While it can be amusing, depending on the episode, it is still somewhat curious.
This ability to navigate the TARDIS also seemed to depend on the Doctor as well or the whims of the ship as well. The First Doctor seemingly had no idea where he was going at any given point in time, as he was unable to bring Ian and Barbara back to their world and time for years. The Second Doctor, likewise, had little ability to control the craft. Then, we would have moments like when the Ninth Doctor brought the TARDIS to the exact moment when the Earth was going to end, overtaken by the Sun during a supernova.
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There were times when this inability to know where the TARDIS was heading was intentional. He had applied a randomizer to the control panel, allowing him to throw off possible pursuit from the Dark Guardian. The logic certainly made sense – if the Doctor had no idea where he would be at any given point in time, how could the Dark Guardian?
Then there were the times when the TARDIS decided where the Doctor would land. Even though the Doctor would plan on heading to a specific destination, the TARDIS would bring him elsewhere. As Idris, when taken over by the TARDIS, said, it always brought the Doctor where he needed to be.
While it would be expected that, at this point, the Doctor would have learned how to control the TARDIS to go wherever he wants, Doctor Who just would not be the same. The idea that the Doctor and his spaceship have an agreement, where he travels to where he wants, unless the TARDIS knows he is needed elsewhere, seems to be best.
Even if the Doctor has improved his command of the TARDIS, the ship still knows where it needs to be. After all, isn’t part of the fun of Doctor Who enjoying when the Doctor makes his appearance at just the right moment?