What does TARDIS stand for?

Temporal Array for Rapid Distance

Why is it stuck in that shape?

Its chameleon circuit is broken

How was the TARDIS materialisation sound first made?

Scraping a key along piano strings

TARDIS Quiz: Doctor Who's Blue Police Box and Its Interiors

This TARDIS quiz steps through the blue doors of the Doctor's time machine. Play 10 interactive questions on what TARDIS stands for, the broken chameleon circuit that left it a 1960s police box, the famous wheezing sound made with a key on piano strings, changing console rooms, the TARDIS as a living mind, the 1963 first episode and the line bigger on the inside.

Start TARDIS Quiz

🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Show
Which show features the TARDIS?
Start
When did Doctor Who first air?
Name
What does TARDIS stand for?
Shape
What does the TARDIS look like on the outside?
Stuck
Why is it stuck in that shape?
Line
What do new companions often say on stepping inside?
Sound
How was the TARDIS materialisation sound first made?
Room
What is the main control room called?
Alive
In The Doctor's Wife, what does the TARDIS do?
Walls
What circular wall decorations appear in many console rooms?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Which show features the TARDIS?
Answer: Doctor Who
It began on the BBC.
Q2: When did Doctor Who first air?
Answer: 1963
The first episode is An Unearthly Child.
Q3: What does TARDIS stand for?
Answer: Time And Relative Dimension In Space
Susan says she made up the name.
Q4: What does the TARDIS look like on the outside?
Answer: A blue police box
Police boxes were common in Britain then.
Q5: Why is it stuck in that shape?
Answer: Its chameleon circuit is broken
It should blend in anywhere.
Q6: What do new companions often say on stepping inside?
Answer: It's bigger on the inside
Its interior is vast.
Q7: How was the TARDIS materialisation sound first made?
Answer: Scraping a key along piano strings
Brian Hodgson created it.
Q8: What is the main control room called?
Answer: The console room
Its design changes over the years.
Q9: In The Doctor's Wife, what does the TARDIS do?
Answer: Speaks through a woman's body
Neil Gaiman wrote the episode.
Q10: What circular wall decorations appear in many console rooms?
Answer: Roundels
They began in the 1960s.

A Police Box Bigger on the Inside

The TARDIS is the time machine of the Doctor in Doctor Who, which first aired on the BBC in 1963. The name stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space, which the Doctor's granddaughter Susan says she made up. Inside, it is vastly bigger than the box that holds it.

A TARDIS should change its outside to blend in, but the Doctor's chameleon circuit broke while it looked like a blue British police box from the 1960s. Its wheezing, groaning sound was first created by Brian Hodgson of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, who scraped a key along the strings of an old piano.

The console room has been redesigned many times, from white walls with circular roundels to coral-like and steampunk styles. The TARDIS is also alive. In the 2011 episode The Doctor's Wife, written by Neil Gaiman, its mind is placed in a woman's body, and it calls the Doctor its thief.

What This Quiz Teaches

Sci-fi fans will enjoy these questions.

What TARDIS means
Why it is a police box
How its sound was made
How its rooms changed
Why it is alive

Did You Know?

The doors open inward.
A swimming pool is said to be inside.
The Doctor flies it badly.
Its lamp flashes on landing.
The Doctor stole it from Gallifrey.