“Well then, here we go... the long way around.”

The TARDIS stands for ‘Time and Relative Dimension in Space’. A staple from the very beginning of the show’s history is the design of The Doctor’s fantastical Time Capsule, The TARDIS. A vehicle that’s bigger on the inside and capable of traveling through all of time, space and beyond!

A number of physical TARDIS props have been created for filming Doctor Who over the last 60 years, but the very first of these iconic Police Box props was designed by Production Designer, Peter Brachacki and the original Box he created lasted from Season 1 right up until Season 13, after which it was replaced by a new prop. 

This particular screen-used TARDIS prop is based on how the prop looked during the final First Doctor story, “The Tenth Planet”, which saw William Hartnell regenerate into Patrick Troughton after facing the evil Cybermen for the first time.

The 2017 Doctor Who Christmas Special would mark the final appearance and regeneration of Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor. To mark the occasion, the show’s writers chose to bring back the First Doctor, now played by David Bradley, and his TARDIS. 

Short on time and budget to build a truly faithful recreation of the show’s original 1960’s era TARDIS prop accurate to the First Doctor, the BBC turned to a team of longtime fans and renowned, exacting replica builders for help. 

Originally built by Simon Nash and Tony Farrell of This Planet Earth as a faithful representation of William Hartnell’s 1966 TARDIS, this particular prop was hired out by the BBC, where it was further modified by BBC prop makers, Alan Hardy and Matt Sanders before filming commenced on the twelfth of June 2017 for the Christmas Special, “Twice Upon A Time”.  The prop was also displayed at the London Science Museum for the premiere of “Twice Upon a Time” on December 13, 2017. 

In 2019 this full-scale prop was once again retained for use by the BBC for filming the Series Twelve episode, “Fugitive of the Judoon” where it would play the part of a TARDIS belonging to a previously unknown regeneration of The Doctor, played by Jo Martin. 

For filming as the Fugitive Doctor’s (as Jo Martin’s portrayal came to be known) TARDIS, additional modifications to the prop were once again made by the BBC, including the addition of built-in LED lighting in the four “Police Box” signs. 

All told, including Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor, this particular TARDIS prop shared the screen with four different incarnations of The Doctor. 

This TARDIS had one last official curtain-call from 2021-2022 when it was featured daily as part of the official BBC immersive stage experience, “Time Fracture” in London. At the end of each performance the prop would be revealed inside the UNIT Davies Street Black site as though The Doctor had landed and fans were treated to a unique photo opportunity. 

Screen-used, full-scale TARDIS props are extremely rare to encounter outside of The Doctor Who production archives and this is one of only three known to reside in North America and the first to be made available for public display.