TARDIS open house on the Earl's Court Road

August 14, 2013 4:49 AM

Walk into the TARDIS on Google Maps. Surprisingly, it gets only 4.3 stars.
posted by you must supply a verb (28 comments total)

I could give it 5 stars if it had a zero room, but without one, I'm afraid that's the best I can do. 4.3/5 would not regenerate again.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 4:53 AM on August 14, 2013 [6 favorites]

I still want to see the swimming pool.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 4:57 AM on August 14, 2013 [9 favorites]

I walked into the side passages and could never make it back to the main room. Pls send help.
posted by jaduncan at 5:01 AM on August 14, 2013 [8 favorites]

That score is, no doubt, bigger on the inside.
posted by Grangousier at 5:02 AM on August 14, 2013 [5 favorites]

I would like to see the Cupboard of Patrick's Love. Probably could get lost there, too.
posted by KMB at 5:03 AM on August 14, 2013 [2 favorites]

I think the Earls Court box is a replica of a mark 3 though, whereas the Type 40 mark 1 TARDIS is actually a mark 2?
posted by edd at 5:08 AM on August 14, 2013

More seriously (it may only be the case that the Type 40 mark 1 is a mark 2), here's an outline of the differences between various police boxes.
posted by edd at 5:15 AM on August 14, 2013 [3 favorites]

A. Pond
★ ★ ★   reviewed on NaN

Was promised double en-suite while here on holiday with my husband. Got bunk beds instead. Not cool.
posted by schmod at 5:43 AM on August 14, 2013 [16 favorites]

Okay, so we've got a time and locale for a Meetup. I might bring along some Chumblies.
posted by Smart Dalek at 6:06 AM on August 14, 2013 [2 favorites]

It must have been locked the day I stopped by.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:10 AM on August 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

I recommend the Kings Head for nearby refreshments.
posted by edd at 6:22 AM on August 14, 2013

Down the street a bit there's a nice little pizza place with a very friendly owner. I was frequenting it while I was staying in a nearby hostel. He'd ask customers coming in to suggest music he'd never heard of to play and look the artists up via youtube. I suspect he knows the Docter, too.
posted by ursus_comiter at 6:23 AM on August 14, 2013

Is Billy Elliot: The Musical truly the greatest British musical?
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 6:25 AM on August 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

Finally! A solution to London's horrendous property prices.
posted by MuffinMan at 6:49 AM on August 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

Finally! A solution to London's horrendous property prices.

At last, a property that actually is surprisingly spacious once you get in.
posted by jaduncan at 7:13 AM on August 14, 2013

Knowing that this doesn't work on the new Google Maps interface, I wonder how long it was sitting there waiting for someone to discover it.
posted by roll truck roll at 8:20 AM on August 14, 2013

This was very, very cool, but I liked the Russel T. Davis Tardis desktop better.
posted by MoxieProxy at 8:45 AM on August 14, 2013

The police box near Earl's Court is a replica installed in 1996 as a mounting point for surveillance cameras. The only remaining Mark II is actually elsewhere.
posted by honest knave at 9:19 AM on August 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

I love Doctor Who. I'm one of those late-comers, who discovered it with (9) Chris Eccleston, and then went back and watched some the other Doctors (all of 1, 2, 3, then spotty after that up to 7, and then watched the movie with 8).

I've always been curious about the fact that the Tardis is "broken," and stuck as a Police Box. Did we ever, through flashback or conversation, learn how it was broken? And was there ever a flashback that showed the Tardis cloaking mechanism working properly?

If anyone knows, someone here knows.
posted by MoxieProxy at 9:37 AM on August 14, 2013

It was broken when the Doctor stole it. I don't think we know anything about what happened to it before that. (Although if I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will be along shortly to correct me.)
posted by Rangeboy at 9:53 AM on August 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

MoxieProxy:

Did we ever, through flashback or conversation, learn how it was broken? And was there ever a flashback that showed the Tardis cloaking mechanism working properly?

We learned it was broken in the second serial, "The Daleks". As the Doctor and his companions get out of the TARDIS one of them (Ian, I think) remarks that it still looks like a police box. The Doctor notes that something must be wrong with the chameleon circuit and that he'll have to look into it sometime. It's not spoken of again.

I think that the sixth Doctor fixed it for a while during a Cyberman episode but it was still wonky (the TARDIS turned into odd things). You also get a glimpse of what it looked like normally before it was stolen during the initial Clara flashback in the last season finale.

Of course other TARDIS' have worked properly such as the Master's and the Monk's.
posted by charred husk at 10:15 AM on August 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

After exploring the Tardis, I started randomly zooming around the city and eventually struck gold:
A kitty emerging from a doggy door!
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:42 PM on August 14, 2013 [3 favorites]

The Doctor notes that something must be wrong with the chameleon circuit and that he'll have to look into it sometime. It's not spoken of again.

But it is shown in the finale of the last season, "The Name of the Doctor." In this scene, First Doctor steals a TARDIS and takes off in it, and it looks like a plain concrete-looking cylinder.
posted by jbickers at 3:56 PM on August 14, 2013

(Or, as I see now, what charred husk said.)
posted by jbickers at 3:56 PM on August 14, 2013

It's nice to be able to walk to into this virtually, because if the Doctor actually showed me in I suspect it'd be pretty embarrassing for me:

Shawn is lead inside the TARDIS. He looks around, silent for the moment. The Doctor stand to the side, smiling. Shawn looks like he is about to ask a question.

The Doctor: Oh, here it comes, I love this part!

Shawn: Can you get Wi-Fi in here?
posted by ShawnStruck at 4:15 PM on August 14, 2013 [6 favorites]

The Eleventh Doctor travelled back in time to 1963 and destroyed the TARDIS' chameleon circuit so that the TARDIS would always remain a police box, so that the mental image of the TARDIS would be etched into human culture and history. (COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone)

This is interesting (to me).
posted by MoxieProxy at 4:19 PM on August 14, 2013 [2 favorites]

How do I find the library?
posted by homunculus at 11:44 PM on August 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

Unbelievable Google Street View Captures a Space Shuttle Flyover
posted by homunculus at 3:38 PM on August 28, 2013