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Thursday, April 20, 2017

What things are the size of a phone booth?

I've had Doctor Who on the mind more than a bit of late.  It got me thinking, what else would really work for a Tardis?  I don't just mean, "Well we could stick it in without giving too much thought," which is something they tended to do in the show when they wanted to show someone else's Tardis.  That results in questions like, "How easy is it to get inside of a grandfather clock, really?"

The police box worked because it had doors you could use to easily enter or exit, it was big enough that someone coming out of it didn't raise eyebrows, and it was small enough that it could fit in a lot of places without getting too much in the way.  Anything smaller and it's hard to get in and out of, anything bigger and it's cumbersome to place.

A phone booth works, and is something people are more familiar with than a police box* (even if they are extremely rare these days.)

If we were looking for something that would fit in most anywhere, and we weren't limiting ourselves by factors such as taste, a porta-potty is the logical choice.  From there it's a small step to add "outhouse" to the list, though that would be a good deal more conspicuous in an urban setting.

A full sized freezer is just about the right size, but a little bit small.  You could certainly use one, but an individual of average height would have to duck to get in and out of the door.

Bare bones showers fit the bill to the point that people have actually converted phone booths to showers.

Wardrobes are known to have entire pocket dimensions with talking animals inside of them, and they can fit the size requirements.

And at that point I think I'm out of ideas.

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It has been noted that a much simpler thing to do than having your Tardis be a free standing object would be to have it be a doorway, then all you need is a wall and doesn't stand out too much unless the architectural style is extremely divergent.  That's not what I'm asking about here, though.

More of, how many things are there --and what are they-- that are large enough for people to come out of, but not much larger than that, which have doors or equivalent reasonable entrance/exits?

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* There are people who think that there's never been such a thing as a police box and Doctor Who just made it up.  This is true to the point that in court the police lost to the BBC over who had the rights to a police box because the judge said (more or less) that basically no one thinks of the police or police boxes when they see one, they think only of the fictional representation of a fake police box in Doctor Who.

11 comments:

  1. In the show at least, objects don't need a "door" if one can just step behind them; see for example the Master's Corinthian-column TARDIS in Logopolis.

    I think one could do something with a vending machine, compromising a bit on the door.

    Photo booth.

    Those cylindrical public notice boards one sees in France.

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    1. The front of a vending machine does open, so I could totally see it working.

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  2. I stopped reading at porta-potty because I need that movie/show now.

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    1. That movie/show is two separate porn parodies and also the Big Finish story "The One Doctor".

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    2. Will an RPG do? GURPS IOU is a setting with a pretty blatant Dr. Who expy who hides his TARDIS analog in a porta-potty.

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  3. What about a car, tho? Or a van could work better, maybe...

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  4. Server rack comes to mind. Big green transformer box maybe. Probably quite a lot of industrial equipment could fit the bill.

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  5. How about a bookcase or display cabinet? It'd be pretty much limited to indoors tho.

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    1. Even better, from a conspicuousness pov, would be one of those usually gray cabinets used to hold supplies in offices.

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    2. Little Libraries are all the rage in my neighbourhood. If you make a taller-than-average one it could fit the need and not stand out.

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  6. I do construction work with my brother (another avid Whovian, since the Tom Baker days). Whenever we're on a jobsite with a portapotty, and i need to go, i will announce that "I'm going to visit the brown/green/stinky (if it's blue) TARDIS"

    It's a funny little euphemism, but so awesome if it were real...

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