T.A.R.D.I.S.
Time And Relative Dimension In
Space.
If you have not seen Doctor Who
before, the picture I have presented you with makes about zero sense with the
description before it. The T.A.R.D.I.S.
is the time traveling space ship from another world that the Doctor uses to
travel through many worlds and times. That description, though does not nearly
encompass the entirety of the T.A.R.D.I.S. which could be talked about for
years. First, I’ll discuss the peculiar form the T.A.R.D.I.S. comes on to give
an explanation to why an alien space ship would look like a British Police Box.
Now, I said previously that the Doctor was part of an alien race, by the name
of the Gallifreyan’s. They are immensely further ahead in society than we will ever
dream of seeing in a lifetime. Over time they developed a cloaking device for
their lovely time travelling ships. The Doctor explains this device called a
‘chameleon circuit.’ This is basically some device created that allowed the
T.A.R.D.I.S. to analyze its surrounding areas and camouflage itself to
something inconspicuous for the area. If you look below you can see how it is
supposed to work.
*Note this is a parody, and not in any way what really happens. The T.A.R.D.I.S. is known to be very cheeky throughout the show. It is supposed to camouflage to the area its in.
Now you must be asking yourself
at this point if it camouflages to the area, why is it permanently stuck in one
area? The 11th Doctor, pictured below with his T.A.R.D.I.S. 11th
Doctor is the one who explains why it is stuck, claiming that he had done it to
prevent humanity from going back years of intelligence. He went back into the
1960’s breaking the circuit, so that the T.A.R.D.I.S. would always be a symbol
of how far humanity had come in innovations at that time. He used that symbol
to always remind civilization of how far they came and will continue to go.
Symbols like this are important to remember that we should always strive for
better and never be content. If we stop questioning the world we live in, it
will never get better. I think the T.A.R.D.I.S. should be held as a beacon of
our society and civilization and not just a symbol of the Whovian fandom.
The next thing I’d like to try
and explain is the infinity that is the T.A.R.D.I.S. On the right is the
T.A.R.D.I.S. from the outside and on the left is the T.A.R.D.I.S. on the
inside.
A bit confusing, if you cannot tell. The T.A.R.D.I.S. has an immense amount of alien technology that we will most likely never come into contact with and this is just one more example of this technology. The T.A.R.D.I.S. is a completely infinite ship, never ending and never being fully explored. The Doctor has spent countless years upon years in this ship, his one true companion through time and space, and still does not know the extent to which the T.A.R.D.I.S. continues. Below is a link to some lovely maps that a fan created from one episode that explores a decent amount of what lies within. Also below that link is a photo of my favorite floor or area from the T.A.R.D.I.S. I have included a video of a couple characters boarding the T.A.R.D.I.S.
The Doctor spends years inside
this incredible ship that spans miles and miles in all directions, yet still is
not sure what may lie behind one door or the next. I feel that while we should always
ask questions to seek more than what we are, we should not live our whole life
searching for this. If the Doctor devoted his life to exploring the
T.A.R.D.I.S. he would spend a restless millennium searching for the end of
something that will never be found. The Doctor is instead content with knowing
what it all is that he must know, while spending the rest of his time devoting
his life to doing something better. I think it is important to have this
balance in our own lives and in our futures.
One thing the T.A.R.D.I.S.
becomes in the series is a paradox machine. As a time travelling space ship, it
usually cancels anything that may cause a paradox to happen and prevents it
from occurring. This is because, as all time travelers must know, a paradox
would cause major damage to the future and potentially cause disaster. Most of
the time, time travel is itself a paradox and, therefore, considered
impossible. Daniel Lewis explores a way that time travel can be possible:
because why not?
Daniel Lewis proposes that there
are two types of time at which one can exist: external time and internal time.
So, let’s look at this in the world of Doctor Who. Inside the T.A.R.D.I.S., we
obviously have internal time and on the outside we have external time. Now when
I mention a paradox within time, I mean a classic example of going back before
you were born. There is a law of noncontradiction that basically states that
two statements that go directly against each other cannot be true at the same
time. Which means that you cannot be alive and not have been born at the same
time, and you can agree that it does not make much sense. Anybody knows though
that we can always make our biggest hopes and dreams possible: it just takes a
little work.
The concept of external and
internal time in the T.A.R.D.I.S. allows for all of your time travelling and
Whovian dreams come true. By this, Lewis proposes that while you may be
travelling backwards or forwards in the concept of external time, the timeline
which the world outside of the T.A.R.D.I.S., your internal time is constantly
going forward. Your personal time will always be going forward, even though you
yourself may be going backwards.
So, the problem with this arises
when we consider history and its events that occur when you change one single thing:
the butterfly effect. I have talked about the butterfly effect before in my
essays and it is something I am fascinated with. What happens when someone does
something in external time that could possibly affect their internal time? Let’s
consider this in a world where destiny or fate does not exist- I’m not saying
it does or does not, simply for the situation. For Lewis’s theory to be right,
then there must be some law that prevents this from happening. The paradox
appears and appears again, no matter the steps, so we must have something in
place to stop it. But what could that be?
This presents a problem with
Lewis’s beginning theory that seemed to make so much sense. The problem really
is can we present our own theories on time? Time is something that is so
concrete, yet so abstract in our time. Is it something that we can just build
upon? Or is Lewis simply making up things that sound good to satisfy the wants
of himself and so many others who want this to be a possibility in the future?
So many philosophers in time and their followers have done whatever it takes to
simply satisfy what they think, believe, or want. Is this just another example
of ad hoc at work? Can we change
perspective on something that has been there since the beginning of ‘time’?
I think the answer to that lies
somewhere within our infinite T.A.R.D.I.S., and her
knowledge of that will be taken
with her throughout all of time and space.
Word
Count for 2nd Installment: 1215
Final
Word Count:2516
Links to
my 2 comments:
Who's Philosophy?
Source
Used: Doctor Who and Philosophy
Hard to top that "wibbly wobbly" quote, but here's another good one from Season 2:
ReplyDelete“Doctor Who: You want weapons? We're in a library. Books are the best weapon in the world. This room's the greatest arsenal we could have. Arm yourself!"
One more, eerily prophetic of our time: “Fourth Doctor: You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common: they don't alter their views to fit the facts; they alter the facts to fit their views.”