djm@nmtvax.UUCP (07/13/84)
<munch> The seeming contradiction about the Tardis being isomorphic and others operating the beast can be explained if we hark back to a conversation between the Doctor and Sarah. Sarah was wondering how she could understand what the various odd creatures they ran into were saying. The Doctor replied that this was a Timelord gift that he was allowing her to use (sharing with her, was the phrasing, I believe). Allowing various select people to operate the Tardis would seem to be another application of this largesse. Dieter Muller (djm@nmtvax) I am not a man, I am a free number!
jdb@mordor.UUCP (John Bruner) (07/13/84)
The Doctor has been known to lie about entry to and use of the TARDIS in other instances. In *The Pirate Planet* he (Baker) tells the captain of the planet-eater that both he and Romana must be present in order to gain entry to the TARDIS. In the Pertwee serial *Claws of Axos*, in which the Doctor and the Master reassemble the Doctor's TARDIS console, the Doctor specifically removes a crucial part so that the Master can't steal the TARDIS when the repairs are complete. Besides, how could the Doctor have stolen the TARDIS if it was isomorphic to its owner while in for repairs? Perhaps the isomorphism circuit, like the chameleon circuit and so many other things, is on the blink. (Actually, the chameleon circuit isn't entirely broken: every few seasons the external police-box appearance changes slightly :-) -- John Bruner (S-1 Project, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) MILNET: jdb@mordor.ARPA [jdb@s1-c] (415) 422-0758 UUCP: ...!ucbvax!dual!mordor!jdb ...!decvax!decwrl!mordor!jdb
france@unc.UUCP (Robert France) (07/25/84)
The suggestion that the Doctor shares his isomorphic relationship with the Tardis with his companions in the same way that he shares his Time Lord's gift for languages is enticing, but it cannot be true. For one thing, in the Davison episode 'Time Flight', a pair of mere mortals who are used to piloting only such primitive craft as the Concorde liner manage to take the Tardis on a short hop of about a hundred meters (straight up). Now, you can make several quodlibets on this -- the doctor had the overides switched in; the Master had been fooling with the console innards -- but then you still have to explain how the Master can operate the Tardis, as he has several times, including that same episode. No, I think we must propose an alternate explanation. How about: -- the Tardis was isomorphic in the early Baker years, but changed. This is not all that bizarre: I can remember when the Doctor himself could hardly operate it, let alone anyone else. -- the simple controls (door handle, dematerialization circuit) can be handled by anyone, but the coordinate-setting controls are isomorphic to the Doctor. This explanation has the advantage of explaining why so many people can get the Tardis to `take off' but so few (including, often, the good Doctor himself) can get it to go where they want it to. Then you still have Adric to explain, since Adric could actually pilot the old beast, but Adric could do BLOCK TRANSFER COMPUTATIONS in his head, so he could have made himself isomorphic to the Doctor while he was communing with the Tardis. (This, by the way, is why I was not sad to see Adric go, although I, too, rather liked the little bugger. Block transfer computaitons can change the nature of reality, which made Adric too powerful a character to keep hanging around very long after Logopolis). -- the Doctor was lying to Sutek. "Oh, Doctor ... nine out of ten." Robert France france@unc