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Post by senko on Jun 17, 2016 7:31:08 GMT
I've been lookin over the wiki at various old episode summaries and one thing that stands out is the Doctor seems to like upgrading, tinkering and generally modifying the TARDIS while its parked in the middle of deep space. I'm curious what other people think of this is the Doctor just generally unconcered with the possibility he could blow out the life support, get hit by a passing ship, the many, many, MANY other problems he ran into considering the manual says to shut down all systems except those that are necessary for the reapir or is this a necessary part of the process. That is a TARDIS has to be in a zero gravity, vacumn environment outside for some reason related to it circuit when carrying out repairs?
I know theoretically these repairs/maintenance should be in the Gallifreyan drydock but if you can't get there (say because your a renegade time lord) surely you'd want a reaosnably safe/survivable location should you need to shut down the shields or life support and I don't really consider space to meet that criteria.
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misterharry
Dominus Tempus
Dalek Caan's Lovechild
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Post by misterharry on Jun 17, 2016 8:58:23 GMT
Apart from the issue of life support, I'd have thought that deep space is actually a pretty safe place to park up and carry out work on the TARDIS. It's so mindboggingly vast that the chances of encountering anything out there - let alone being hit by another ship - are so remote as to be negligible. Even within a star system (but away from the orbit of any of the planets), it should still be fairly safe. The Doctor has just been very, very unlucky when something has happened while he's been in the middle of repairs in deep space.
As for the life support, I'd guess that there are plenty of failsafes to stop it accidentally being switched off.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
No longer living in a bad adaption of "A Journal of the Plague Year".
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Post by Catsmate on Jun 17, 2016 9:37:46 GMT
You could probably introduce some technobabble about free-fall aiding repairs. AFAIR the only actual in space collisions the TARDIS has had were in The Horns of Nimon and Voyage of the Damned. Only the former was down to the Doctor's "repairs".
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Post by senko on Jun 17, 2016 11:55:43 GMT
Hmm maybe its just me then. Still I think if I didn't have a valid reason to do it I'd prefer to carry out any repairs/modifications on a planet where I could survive if necessary.
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Post by Stormcrow on Jun 17, 2016 13:34:08 GMT
Only the exterior shell of the TARDIS is actually in a vacuum. The interior is still in a pocket dimension, same as always. I don't think the matter of life support changes by location.
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misterharry
Dominus Tempus
Dalek Caan's Lovechild
Posts: 3,236
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Traits: Empathic, Face in the Crowd, Insatiable Curiosity, Stubborn, Phobia (Heights), Unadventurous
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Post by misterharry on Jun 17, 2016 13:58:45 GMT
Only the exterior shell of the TARDIS is actually in a vacuum. The interior is still in a pocket dimension, same as always. I don't think the matter of life support changes by location. I largely agree, but there are a couple of exceptions I can think of. The first is in Planet of the Daleks, when the TARDIS is smothered by the liquid fungus spray and the oxygen inside the ship starts to run out, as though it needs to draw on the outside atmosphere. This one has always seemed odd to me and sounds more like something from the early Hartnell stories, when the production team hadn't yet decided on the TARDIS's abilities. If this were true, how does the TARDIS cope in the vacuum of space or in the Vortex? The other is in Amy's Choice, when the TARDIS appears to be drifting towards a cold star and the interior freezes over. Of course, this one could be down to the Dream Lord's deceptions, but I'd have thought that the Doctor would realise the flaw in the scenario. He actually thought it was a heating malfunction, as if the natural environment of the TARDIS interior was extremely cold.
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Post by Stormcrow on Jun 17, 2016 14:09:33 GMT
I wouldn't expect to find a solid answer across all of the show. It's not something they considered or would have cared about when they were writing it. Sometimes the Doctor says he has to park the TARDIS in space. Sometimes he says he has to let it repair itself on a planet. There's little point in trying to find an explanation for all of it.
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misterharry
Dominus Tempus
Dalek Caan's Lovechild
Posts: 3,236
Favourite Doctors: Second, Third, Fourth, Eleventh, Thirteenth
Traits: Empathic, Face in the Crowd, Insatiable Curiosity, Stubborn, Phobia (Heights), Unadventurous
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Post by misterharry on Jun 17, 2016 14:18:54 GMT
True - it's whatever best serves the interests of the story. Though gamers of course prefer to have more consistency.
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Post by Marnal on Jun 17, 2016 17:34:25 GMT
The TARDIS is very sensitive to magnetic fields and gravitational fields probably mess with it a bit too. If you are pulling apart the TARDIS its probably easier to do if you don't have to worry about that stuff [which is why deep space would be a good place to be]. As pointed out even a complete life-support failure isn't dangerous as long as the doors stay sealed [and, given that it takes a hand crank to create enough energy to activate them, they can't just fly open]. misterharry said ...the TARDIS is smothered by the liquid fungus spray and the oxygen inside the ship starts to run out, as though it needs to draw on the outside atmosphere. This one has always seemed odd to me and sounds more like something from the early Hartnell stories...Did you see the script writer for "Planet of the Daleks"? Terry Nation never really grasped that Dr Who had moved on from the 1960s [which is why he kept selling the same story to the BBC again and again]. @if this were true, how does the TARDIS cope in the vacuum of space or in the Vortex?The best explanation I've heard for the "Planet of the Daleks" issue is that the TARDIS life-support had already broken down before arrival, and it was relying on the back-up system of drawing air from outside. Still the interior of the TARDIS should have enough air for days or more which is not what is shown on screen. @the other is in Amy's Choice, when the TARDIS appears to be drifting towards a cold star and the interior freezes over. Of course, this one could be down to the Dream Lord's deceptions, but I'd have thought that the Doctor would realise the flaw in the scenario.
Possibility 1: Lots of stuff seem logical or plausible in a dream, but turn out not to be when you wake up. Possibility 2: Gravity, magnetism, artron/psychic energy, and radiation have all be shown to be able to penetrate the TARDIS doors even when they are closed [presumably the force-fields could stop this if it was switched on]. A Cold Star was described as being a legendary thing that the Doctor had never encountered before. Its certainly got no basis in real physics. Who knows what weird effects it could have on a TARDIS? Without understanding how it works we really can't use it to quantify anything about how the TARDIS works.
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Post by senko on Jun 17, 2016 17:45:38 GMT
Only the exterior shell of the TARDIS is actually in a vacuum. The interior is still in a pocket dimension, same as always. I don't think the matter of life support changes by location. I was actually thinking more along the lines of you (as the doctor has on a few occasions) shorting out something you shouldn't and turning a 40 minute patch job into a 3 month repair job. I'd imagine the interior air of a TARDIS even if the life support systems were completely offline would last awhile given the size of the interior (there's plenty of oxygen in all those corridors). However if something were to go horribly wrong being able to dart out the doors or live indefinately off the planet while you work on fixing what you broke sounds a lot better to me than being stuck inside with the problem till you die or fix it because leaving will also get you killed.
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Post by Marnal on Jun 17, 2016 18:01:24 GMT
It could well depend on the system in questions that is being repaired or modified. For some systems the Earth's magnetic [or gravitational field] might be a hindrance. For other systems being able to draw air from outside the TARDIS might be helpful.
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koloth
2nd Incarnation
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Post by koloth on Jun 19, 2016 11:10:51 GMT
I always wondered where the condensation in the Tardis came from in the story Marco Polo given the inside was in a pocket dimension.
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misterharry
Dominus Tempus
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Post by misterharry on Jun 19, 2016 13:36:54 GMT
I always wondered where the condensation in the Tardis came from in the story Marco Polo given the inside was in a pocket dimension. Maybe there's a setting in the TADIS life support controls that link the internal environment to the external. With the Doctor's understanding of the TARDIS being somewhat erratic, perhaps in Marco Polo and Planet of the Daleks he accidentally switched in on.
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Post by Marnal on Jun 19, 2016 16:52:48 GMT
Its worth noting that in "Marco Polo" the system that controlled the distribution of energy through out the ship was broken [and the controller physically removed]. So nothing in the TARDIS had any power for months.
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