Food Machine
Type:	Food dispenser
Appearances:	TV: The Daleks TV: The Edge of Destruction PROSE: Lucifer Rising PROSE: Legacy PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet PROSE: The Room With No Doors PROSE: Venusian Lullaby AUDIO: 1963 AUDIO: Pop-Up PROSE: War of the Daleks COMIC: The Glutonoid Menace AUDIO: Time Reef AUDIO: The Fourth Wall AUDIO: Beyond the Ultimate Adventure

The food machine was a device in TARDISes which produced bars of food. These were engineered to replicate meals in flavour and nutrition. The Doctor's TARDIS possessed one.

Features

The food machine had two large dials with selector needles on the front by which the codes for the various meals could be selected (one dial bore numbers, the other letters), and dispensed foil-wrapped blocks, served on paper plates, that looked like blocks of cheese or tofu, but when eaten tasted like whatever food had been programmed into the machine – such as eggs and bacon. (TV: "The Dead Planet")

A food machine also stored water and milk, served in plastic sachets, which had to be replenished when empty because they weren't created by the machine. (TV: The Edge of Destruction)

Food machines came with a booklet which had codes for the food they could create. The code for eggs and bacon was J62/L6 (TV: "The Dead Planet"), while the code for spaghetti bolognese was KD/NB. (PROSE: Venusian Lullaby)

The machines became obsolete, though, and were replaced by kitchens. (HOMEVID: Shada, WC: Shada)

In the Doctor's TARDIS

The food machine was generally kept in the TARDIS kitchen (PROSE: The Room With No Doors), though it was known to "wander" the corridors (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet).

The Seventh Doctor's companion Ace made the food machine produce actual food. (PROSE: Legacy)

Uses

• Vicki Pallister spent a long time programming the machine to produce a flavour like brown sauce. (AUDIO: 1963)

• The Second Doctor got a hay-flavoured nutrient bar from the food machine and fed it to a sheep that had entered the TARDIS. (PROSE: Loop the Loup)

• When Jo Grant brought a Micro Servo Robot into the TARDIS, it connected itself to the computer and began transmitting adverts. One of these adverts had the food machine produce toast with written adverts on it. (AUDIO: Pop-Up)

• Chris Parsons discovered a food machine, which he thought was a minibar, in the guest suite aboard the TARDIS. He set the dials to K12, but the food block he was served with tasted of steak and candy floss. (PROSE: Shada)

• After the TARDIS was stolen by Thomas Brewster, the food machine was one of the items which he removed from the TARDIS and sold to the crew of the Gamma who were marooned on the Time Reef. Although the Fifth Doctor was unable to recover the original food machine, he told Nyssa that he could easily build another. (AUDIO: Time Reef)

• The Fifth Doctor also used the machine to supply Erimem's cat Antranak with dead rat, much to his discomfort. (AUDIO: Nekromanteia)

• Frobisher found the food machine and nearly filled the console room with Mars Bars. (COMIC: Voyager)

• Flip Jackson used the food machine to make popcorn. (AUDIO: The Fourth Wall)

• The Seventh Doctor asked Hugh and Janet for a sample of their cooking so he could program it into the food machine. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark)

• The Eighth Doctor's companion Sam Jones tried to order French toast and orange juice from the food machine, though she thought it looked like a Mars Bar and carrot juice. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)

• Sam told the Doctor's other companion Fitz Kreiner that the TARDIS didn't have a kitchen, just a food machine. Fitz, who preferred making meals himself, found a kitchen, but wasn't sure whether Sam simply hadn't known about it, or if it had been created for him. (PROSE: Autumn Mist)

• The Tenth Doctor tried to fix the machine, which had not been used in years. He failed and it produced food with disgusting flavours. He later used these food blocks to kill the Glutonoid. (COMIC: The Glutonoid Menace)