The tumblr Cobettes and Sporks calls this “conclusive evidence that Doctor Who visited Crouch End in the 1960s”:
(Crouch End is a North London neighborhood that is somewhat swanky now — I’m not sure if that was the case in the 1960s.)
I know police boxes were a real thing at one time, but this kinda gives me little chills anyway.
Via Mark Pack.
(If you stumble across a cool Doctor Who thing, feel free to email me with a link.)
In the 1960s it was student bedsit land.
Someone must write an episode of Doctor Who where they go to the 1960’s, park the TARDIS and then forget where they parked it. So much comedy can be mined from the Doctor and assistent(s) running around London looking for the TARDIS amongst all these ordinary Police Boxes.
I can just hear Peter Capaldi going on a massive verbal attack during the search for the TARDIS!
They had a little fun with that in “The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe”. :)
As a non-brit who liked Dr. Who, I always thought that when Police Boxes still existed and were used, that must have added to the ‘magic’ of the show…the use of something so fundamental to be a literal door to an adventure. In a way, now that things have changed so much, I’ve been thinking that the Doctor should reach a point where it is necessary that the Chamelion Circuit get fixed.
The role in the show was a double one, though — yes, it was an every-day object, but it was also a convenient and recognisable way of signifying safety in an alien setting. (Which latter of course continues.)
I’m not sure there’s anything else that would work the same way — have a door, be small, and offer some concealment. A classic British phone box doesn’t conceal; a soft-drink machine doesn’t have a human-sized door. Perhaps a taxi shelter (do an image search, the small green buildings), but that’s big and cumbersome to shift around on set.
For the people on the show, and for the people watching the show at that minute; but, for the kid walking down the street to school, daydreaming, it also had an role outside the show.
Sorry, I’m not putting things clearly. The roles I’m thinking of are (a) an everyday object/portal to adventure (which is now gone); (b) a signifier of safety (which continues). Restoring the chamæleon capability would remove both of those. I was thinking of updating it to a more familiar structure.
Ah. Yeah. A ratty VW micro bus?
Cough.
A DeLorean?
The doors would get stuck if too close to the Pit’s walls.
[clears throat]
Port-O-Let.
They *are* blue already, aren’t they?
A more modern equivalent of the wardrobe from the Narnia books…