Fabula
Object
Object

TARDIS (blue police telephone box)

A compact, blue enamelled police box with rounded corners and a glazed front panel, standing amid Chronotis' cluttered study like an intrusive relic. Its black telephone receiver hangs crookedly from the exterior, the dial darkened by dust. Parsons stares at it with unsettled fascination, sensing the wrongness of its presence without grasping that the polished wood and glass conceal a doorway to another time. Its sheer size—barely big enough for one person—contrasts with the immensity of what it contains.
4 appearances

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

4 moments
S17E21 · Shada Part 1
Parsons borrows books from an eccentric don

The police telephone box stands paradoxically within the cluttered academic room, silently signifying its alien purpose as a time vessel amid scholarly decay.

Before: Present and innocuous.
After: Unchanged.
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S17E21 · Shada Part 1
Parsons questions Chronotis about the alien book

The police telephone box is a jarring, alien intrusion into the cluttered academic study. Its presence disrupts the room’s mundanity and signals cosmic portals or temporal technology lurking in plain sight. Though not directly used here, it casts a long shadow over the proceedings.

Before: Silent and out-of-place among bookshelves and clutter.
After: Remains in situ, its presence unchallenged and unremarked—until the moment demands it.
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S17E21 · Shada Part 1
Parsons frantically recruits Clare to witness the book

The police telephone box serves as Parsons’ makeshift communication hub, its confined space heightening the intensity of the call. The obsolete device, alien in origin, contrasts with the terrestrial scientific discovery it conveys, symbolizing a bridge between ordinary academia and cosmic anomaly within a structure of institutional neutrality.

Before: Silent and inert in Professor Chronotis’ cluttered rooms, a functional curiosity in an academic environment
After: Still dormant in the same location, its role as a communication portal dormant until Parsons’ next use
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S17E26 · Shada Part 6
Time box vanishes under authority noses

The blue police telephone box known as the TARDIS is spotted by the Constable, triggering the event’s climax. The Doctor’s casual admission of ownership, followed by its instant dematerialization, transforms the object from a scrutinized anomaly into a vanishing enigma. Its physical departure forces the Constable to confront impossible evidence.

Before: A stationary blue police box parked in the corner of Chronotis’ cluttered rooms, appearing as an anachronistic intrusion.
After: Dematerialized and removed from local space-time, leaving only the question of its origin and nature.
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