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A TARDIS control console (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Armageddon Factor) — often simply known as "the console" or the TARDIS console — controlled most of the operations of the TARDIS. It was the namesake of the room of the TARDIS in which it was found — a room alternately known as the "control room" or "console room".
Functionality
A TARDIS console had a wide range of functions. Chiefly, it was the device used to control a TARDIS' flight. But it also contained a variety of other devices and buttons. It could be used to open the exterior doors, (TV: An Unearthly Child, et al.) control the chameleon circuit, (TV: Logopolis) access the TARDIS information system (TV: Castrovalva) and a vocal archive, (PROSE: The Nameless City) dispense condiments, (TV: Vincent and the Doctor) make the TARDIS invisible, (TV: The Invasion) and provide power to devices outside the TARDIS and activate loudspeakers on the exterior of the TARDIS. (TV: Utopia)
In addition, the console could even travel in space and time by itself, independently of the rest of the TARDIS, though it lacked the power generation and supply facilities to manage more than one or two jumps before needing to be recharged. (TV: Inferno, The Doctor's Wife)
Eleventh Doctor's first console
The various systems of the Eleventh Doctor's initial console were fairly well-understood. According to one account, each of the six panels controlled discrete functions. The mechanical panel contained the engine release lever, door release lever, gyroscopic stabiliser, locking down mechanism (described as a physical handbrake) and the TARDIS display dials. The helm panel contained the eyepiece (an alternative to visual scanners), the time rotor handbrake and the space-time throttle. The navigation panel contained a time and space forward/back control, directional pointer, atom accelerator and the spatial location input (a computer keyboard). The diagnostic panel contained the inertial dampers, the cooling systems (gauges), a bunsen burner and a microphone/water dispenser. The communications panel contained an analogue telephone, digital com, voice recorder (so the Doctor could leave himself memos), analogue radio waves detector/monitor/changer and a scanner/typewriter. The fabrication panel contained the materialise/dematerialise function, harmonic generator, time altimeter, a fabrication dispenser (which was described as being able to produce sonic screwdrivers and other technology) which eventually housed the laser screwdriver, and a Heisenberg focusing device which was used to break Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. (GAME: TARDIS) It also had an appilly-named "wibbly lever", which helped the Doctor and companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams escape after the exterior shell of the TARDIS had materialised inside it's interior shell (TV: Time)
Design history
First, Second and Third Doctor
This console was removed by the Third Doctor during his exile on Earth for use in his laboratory, hoping that he would be able to bypass the limitations that the Time Lords had placed on his ability to control the TARDIS by removing the console from the TARDIS itself. However, not only did he require a significant amount of power to make the TARDIS move more than a few seconds in time and a few hundred metres in space, he also removed so many security protocols that he travelled sideways in time into a parallel universe, where he was nearly killed before he managed to convince the alternate versions of his friends to help him return home. (TV: Inferno)
Third Doctor
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Fourth and Fifth Doctor
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Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctor
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Seventh Doctor
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Seventh and Eight Doctor
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War, Ninth and Tenth Doctor
This console featured a monitor that displayed Gallifreyan writing with sticky notes left on it by the Doctor. It could also show television channels. (TV: Rose onwards) When Mickey Smith asked Rose Tyler how it worked, Rose said, "It sort of tunes itself." (TV: The Christmas Invasion) It also contained a working telephone, used once by the Doctor. (TV: World War Three)
Eleventh Doctor
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Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor
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