Page "TARDIS" Paragraph 38

Cosmetically, the police box exterior of the TARDIS has remained virtually unchanged, although there have been slight modifications over the years.

For example, the sign on the door concealing the police telephone has been black letters on a white background (" An Unearthly Child "), white on blue (" The Seeds of Death ") and white on black (" The Curse of Peladon ").

Other modifications include different wordings on the phone panel ; for example, " Urgent Calls " (" An Unearthly Child ") as opposed to " All Calls " (" Castrovalva " publicity photos ).

The " POLICE BOX " sign was wider from Season 18 ( 1980 ) onwards and for the 2005 series, but not for the television movie.

From " An Unearthly Child " ( 1963 ) to " The War Machines " ( 1966 ), the TARDIS also had a St. John Ambulance badge on the main doors, as did real police boxes ; this has been reinstated and the window frame colour has returned to white for Matt Smith's first season as the Doctor, shown in 2010.

As the TARDIS does not have a second set of inner doors in the revived series, the interior side of the police box doors – complete with the police telephone mounted on the inside of the cupboard door – are seen from the control room.

" The Empty Child " revealed that the cupboard could be opened and the telephone accessed from the exterior, but that this device is non-functional because it is not connected to any telephone lines.

In the 1996 television movie, the Eighth Doctor revealed that he hid a secret key in a cubbyhole above the ' P ' in the ' POLICE BOX ' sign.