Dr Who may not have had a TARDIS

The BBC magazine is reporting on the news that the original Dr Who show may not have had the iconic shedlike TARDIS

The Doctor without his time-travelling police box is difficult to imagine, but its creators initially proposed he journey through space in an invisible machine covered in light-resistant paint.

When BBC producers were devising the show in the early 1960s, they thought viewers should see no machine at all, only “a shape of nothingness”.

The BBC’s head of drama Sydney Newman, who commissioned the first series, insisted an invisible machine would not work and the doctor’s vehicle should be a strong visual symbol.

Wisely, writers also said a transparent, plastic bubble would be “lowgrade”. But a seed of the Tardis idea is sown when they suggest using “some common object in the street” like a night-watchman’s shelter.

As you know we are great fans of the fans of Dr Who who(!) have built there own TARDIS sheds, as you can see here.

By Andrew Wilcox

I love sheds Founder & judge of Shed of the year - Wilco writes mainly about sheds. About the blog Enter your shed into #shedoftheyear