WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Doctor Who, season 14, episode 8, “Empire of Death”.
Summary
The Memory TARDIS played a vital role in theDoctor Whoseason 14 finale, but what is it, and how does it work? With Sutekh’s gift of death having laid waste to past, present, and future, the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), and Melanie Bush (Bonnie Langford) escaped in a Memory TARDIS, liberated from UNIT’s Time Window. From inside the Memory TARDIS, the Doctor provides Ruby and Mel with anexplanation of season 14 villain Sutekh, and the past encounter between the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and the ancient Osiran.
First seen duringDoctor Who’s 60th anniversary miniseries,Tales of the TARDIS, the Memory TARDIS set was initially created for “Empire of Death”. WhenDoctor Whoshowrunner Russell T Davies was concerned that they needed something else to mark the 60th anniversary, they reused the set for the “remembered TARDIS” in which past Doctors and companions could reflect on their past adventures.The central concept of the Memory TARDIS hinges on the poetic idea that time is memory, and that reliving memories is basically time travel.
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What The Memory TARDIS Is In Doctor Who
“…bits and pieces of every Tardis that ever was, held together by hopes and wishes and luck.”
The Memory TARDIS is a remembered version of the Doctor’s time machine, which is why its console room is cobbled together from multiple props from acrossDoctor Whohistory.The remembered TARDIS is effectively given physical form by the memories of previous inhabitants. Or, as the Doctor puts it in “Empire of Death”, the Memory TARDIS is “held together by hopes and wishes and luck”. In theDoctor Whoseason 14 finale, the Memory TARDIS provides both a temporary safe haven from Sutekh, and a means of exploring what’s left of the galaxy.
…the Sixth Doctor’s multi-colored coat and the Seventh Doctor’s question mark pullover are effectively helping Mel to fuel the TARDIS' flight toward 2046 and the identity of Ruby’s mother.
As well as being a serviceable, if slightly reduced, version of the TARDIS capable of time and space travel, the Memory TARDIS can also revisit past adventures. During “Empire of Death”, the Doctor recounts the events of the classic Tom Baker serial “Pyramids of Mars”, as he seeks answers on how to defeat Sutekh for a second time.There’s a suggestion inTales of the TARDISthat these memories actually power the Memory TARDIS, which means that the Sixth Doctor’s multi-colored coat and the Seventh Doctor’s question mark pullover are effectively helping Mel to fuel the TARDIS' flight toward 2046 and the identity of Ruby’s mother.
Tales of the TARDIS
Tales of the Tardis is a live-action series that brings back past Doctors from the Classic Who years. Each episode pieces together the story from a classic Doctor Who episode with new footage of the original characters reminiscing about a past adventure. The episodes are available exclusively in the UK on BBC’s iPlayer.
How Tales Of The TARDIS Used The Memory TARDIS
The Memory TARDIS in the 60th anniversary miniseriesTales of the TARDISwas also seemingly capable of flight, as the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred), and the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) and Peri (Nicola Bryant) all used it to fly off on new adventures at the end of their episodes. However, more generally, the Memory TARDIS was described by the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) as reaching out for stories to fill it. These stories took the form of classic adventures for each of the first seven Doctors from “The Time Meddler” to “The Curse of Fenric”.
Steven and Vicki (First Doctor companions)
Jamie and Zoe (Second Doctor companions)
Jo Grant and Clyde (Third Doctor and SJA companion)
Fifth Doctor and Tegan
“Vengeance on Varos”
Sixth Doctor and Peri
“The Curse of Fenric”
Seventh Doctor and Ace
“Pyramids of Mars”
Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby
Rather than help the Doctor or their companions defeat an ancient evil like Sutekh, the stories told byDoctors and companions inTales of the TARDISwere more therapeutic. “Earthshock” allowed the Fifth Doctor and Tegan to resolve their Adric trauma, while “Vengeance on Varos” gave the Sixth Doctor and Peri the happy ending that they’d always been denied. More touching still was thatthe powers of the Memory TARDIS were enough to restore the memories of Jamie (Frazer Hines) and Zoe (Wendy Padbury)decades after they’d been wiped by the Time Lords at the end of “The War Games”.
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Why There’s A Memory TARDIS In Doctor Who Season 14
WithSutekh controlling the TARDIS, the Doctor, Ruby and Mel needed alternative transport to escape the dust of death inDoctor Who’s season 14 finale. The key to creating the Memory TARDIS in “Empire of Death” was the time window technology that UNIT had installed at their new headquarters. Rigged up to revisit the night that Ruby was left abandoned as a baby, the time window was inextricably linked to both Ruby’s memories, and the image of a TARDIS from the Doctor’s first visit to Christmas Eve 2004.
Because UNIT’s time window was connected to such a raw and powerful emotional memory, it convinced the Doctor that Ruby could effectively will a TARDIS into existence. By instructing Ruby to focus all her memories on the TARDIS, the echoed image from Christmas Day 2004 became solid. Interestingly, the interior of the Memory TARDIS wasn’t built from Ruby’s memories, but that of the TARDIS itself, which is why it was cobbled together from so many prior console rooms from the show’s history.
TARDIS console rooms referenced in the Memory TARDIS include the 80s time rotor in the ceiling, the miniature Jodie Whittaker TARDIS console room that acts like a campfire, and the first Matt Smith console which is installed behind the action.
What Happens To The Memory TARDIS After Doctor Who Season 14’s Finale
In theIn-Vision Commentary version of “Empire of Death”, Russell T Davies reveals that the Memory TARDIS was supposed to collapse after reaching 2046. However, to cut costs on the effects budget, this was never depicted on-screen. As a result, Davies claims thatthe Memory TARDIS created by Ruby inDoctor Who’s season 14 finale is the same one that appears inTales of the TARDIS. With its job complete, the Memory TARDIS travels through the time vortex giving “treats” and “rewards” to oldDoctor Whocompanions.
If time is memory then a time machine powered by the memories of everyDoctor Whocompanion and their respective Doctor could be the most powerful time machine of all.
This means that, appropriately for a TV show about time travel, the end ofDoctor Whoseason 14 in 2024 sets upTales of the TARDIS' premiere in 2023. It’s hoped that there will be aTales of the TARDISseason 2, which can continue the story of the Memory TARDIS for years to come. If time is memory then a time machine powered by the memories of everyDoctor Whocompanion and their respective Doctor could be the most powerful time machine of all.
Doctor Who
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Doctor Who: Released on August 05, 2025, this series follows the Doctor and their companion as they journey across time and space, encountering a range of extraordinary friends and adversaries, expanding the universe of the long-running British science fiction series.
