Doctor Who: Why the TV movie has the best TARDIS

The TARDIS set from the Doctor Who movie isn’t just a great set in its own right. It’s probably one of the best takes on the TARDIS we’ve ever had.

There’s a lot to be thankful for regarding the Doctor Who TV movie. It features a great performance by Paul McGann, who thanks to the audios is my favorite Doctor. It’s got some truly brilliant moments, such as the Eighth Doctor’s “birth” and the brilliant speech that ends with the words, “These shoes!”

But one thing that I really love about the film – and unlike Paul McGann, sadly never got to see again after the movie – is the absolutely gorgeous TARDIS set it features. In my opinion, it’s the greatest set that we’ve ever seen for the Doctor’s iconic ship.

One thing that probably helps is how it’s one of the best examples of the old phrase “bigger on the inside”. It’s absolutely huge. You can tell that, unsurprisingly, the American budget was way higher than what the Classic Series had, at least.

The fact that you get to see beyond the console room helps, too. It’s not that we didn’t see other rooms of the TARDIS before. In fact, we had seen the Cloister Room show up in Tom Baker’s final story Logopolis, which became a key feature in the movie.

But it’s also rare. Even in the New Series, there have only been a few instances of going beyond the main console room. We briefly saw the wardrobe in The Christmas Invasion, and we went considerably deep inside the TARDIS in both The Doctor’s Wife (which was amazing) and Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (which wasn’t so much). So it’s fantastic that the TV movie was able to give us such a strong impression of the TARDIS’s size with this new design’s first (and sadly last) on-screen story.

A sense of home

But it’s not just for that reason alone that makes the TV movie TARDIS set so impressive. There’s also the gorgeous style of it all. It’s very Victorian steampunk, and it looks gorgeous.

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Another favorite set of mine is the wood-paneled set featured in Season Fourteen. While the movie’s version is very different, both have that distinctive, more classical sci-fi feel. It all made a big impression on me when I was a kid, and it still makes a huge impression on me now.

Lastly, the movie’s TARDIS just feels very…homely. You get the impression that someone actually lives here. What really helps is that the huge console room features a huge library, complete with a comfy armchair.

It’s just nice to think that, after an incredibly dangerous adventure, the Doctor and his companion can actually relax while they’re heading to the next stop. (That plus frankly, who wouldn’t want a library as gorgeous as that set features?)

There might be many things to dislike about the TV movie, but the TARDIS set definitely isn’t one of them. In fact, it just might be the greatest TARDIS set in the entire history of Doctor Who.

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Do you agree? What’s your favorite TARDIS set? What do you like or dislike about the movie’s console room? Let us know in the comments below.

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