If "Ruth" is pre-Hartnell how did she have a Police Box? The TARDIS became a Police Box when he first landed in 60s London (as established in an Unearthly Child). A muck up on the writers part or part of something yet to come?
More like a "we couldn't give a damn what was established pre-2005, so we're going to make shit up" thing.
Or it could serve as an explanation on why Hartnell’s TARDIS got stuck as a police box in the first place. because it used to be a police box all the time before. When the Time Lords wiped his memory, they reset the TARDIs to default. Then the Doctor ran away (Clara splinter making sure he stole the same TARDIS again) and it went right back to a police box first chance it got. There was never an explanation why it got stuck. Basically the TARDIS got her favorite T-Shirt back and refused to take it off for the next few hundred years.
Good theory, but. "There was never an explanation why it got stuck" Yes there was, the chameleon circuit worked when it landed in the 60s Junk yard but got stuck. Or maybe that's just what he was led to believe.
Purely for real-world reasons, to get the visual recognition and make the audience go 'ooh'. Yeah, it'd have been nice if they hadn in-story reason too, but unless it's going to turn out in the 60th that she was simply from a parallel universe, or isa future Doctor after all...
From a certain perspective the TARDIS being a police box is the show’s first plot hole. If the chameleon circuit was working when the TARDIS landed in the junk yard, why did it turn into something that, as Ian points out in the very first episode, is conspicuously out of place in a junk yard? (“What on earth's it doing here? These things are usually on the street.”)
I'll get back to this one... Only if it stayed on 1960s Earth. Hartnell's was the first time the camouflage/chameleon circuit failed. Which would make it a blank tube again, with no log of places it'd been to blend into. That half of Capaldi's era I keep trying to forget about. Series 10 was so much better. "An Unearthly Child" told more than enough of a viable reason, backed up by "Logopolis" indirectly. Electronic components break down. Attempts to fix it usually led to less satisfactory dialogue and reasoning to revert it (lazy scripting /thatsimple ). The ship was best when it was a constructed object, not something grown in a cabbage patch that gets sexually excited over its occupants, which it also kidnapped (which takes "creepy and psycho" to a whole new level.) I'll try to reflect how obtuse and sophomoric NuWHO has been even stronger next time. In other words, "Not that anthropomorphic toddler garbage from 'The Doctor's Wife'."
The TARDIS has means (scanners, database repositories) to scan local areas and deduce a reasonable artifact. This in of itself may not be perfect, like your phone's spellcheck and predictive word analyzer. So it can some times circle the intended topic but not hit the proverbial bullseye. Also, these things are a bit more complex than a pencil and paper. Even a fault-locator or debugger can only show so much; underlying causes aren't always what the computer says they are. Something in the process of malfunctioning may not trigger the debugger. The Doctor and Susan were none the wiser since the 20th century was new to them. Maybe less so for Susan, but she clearly wasn't spending much time playing around in the city's numerous junk yards for cheap thrills. Longtime resident Ian prattled to Barbara about it being somewhat odd there, but didn't make much of a fuss given how many bigger issues were going on after stepping inside the ship. We also have to take Ian's word for it since even a junkyard could have a cash register that a thief stole cash from and could be put into said box for holding until the officer arrived... who's to say Ian wasn't the parochial one? He's human. And like Barbara and Susan, didn't get much of a thrill in understanding any operations of junk yards and there are differences for some more than others too. Not bad for 1963... or left open-ended, but it's not like 1963 technology was lacking diagnostic equipment, meters, and other things. Even a fuel gauge, since cars had those back then, can show an inaccurate reading. "Oh look Martha we still have a one-eighth tank capacity of gas so, duh, why did we stop?" "Well that's because the float inside the tank is old and density changed over they ears due to constant chemical reaction with blah blah blah or the bolt is rusty and won't go down any farther or other issues. Next time, note your full tank capacity and so some math that even third graders should be able to pass and stop relying on what's not necessary because you've compared miles driven to gallons purchased during fill-ups before, no?" Or the TARDIS never went to Earth before and no database existed, there's a first time for everything.
One can certainly construct whatever rationalization, but the point is that the episode is more interested in having the TARDIS be eerie from the moment it first appears than in explaining the plot logic, much as the Martin Doctor’s TARDIS is in the shape of a phone box for reasons of the dramatic moment rather than for narrative consistency.
I've seen a theory that the Master actually brought everyone into an alternate universe as part of some long and complicated plan and Ruth is the Doctor native to the alternate universe. I don't know if there's anything to actually back that up, but it would be a good way to retcon things like the destruction of Gallifrey.
First time that we were aware of, since we weren't aware (for sure) of previous incarnations. She "exists across all time and space". How can her memory really be wiped, unless this specific TARDIS has evolved beyond what the Time Lords originally intended? Too late, I went there I always felt that TDW filled in a lot of blanks that were only hinted at in earlier times along with Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS.
Even though I hate the whole Timeless Child thing with a passion, I'll take a crack at this one. If Ruth Doctor is indeed pre-Hartnell, then the Doctor has been to 1960s London more than once, and in those instances, the TARDIS always took the form a Police Box until the Doctor eventually departed. During the Doctor's return visit to 1960s London in "An Unearthly Child," however, that was when the chameleon circuit finally broke. For Ruth Doctor, the chameleon circuit was already on its last legs after her last time in 1960s London...
We don't know how long "Ruth" had been on Earth. She could have landed in the late 1960's to early 1970's and her TARDIS chose a Police Box for its disguise. "Ruth" 's TARDIS might not be the same TARDIS. Not really. There were about 680 or so of them, most of which were of the Gilbert MacKenzie Trench design, at the time. It simply picked something it saw a large number of. I think the basic idea is that it's suppose to pick something that there's an abundant amount of for its disguise. Hartnell Doc's TARDIS sticking out like a sore thumb was more of an accident than it malfunctioning. It just happened to land in the one spot where a Police Box would look out of place.
You're saying there's a TARDIS conspiracy? They all meet in some sub-space realm and plot to appear as Police Boxes?
I've said before, and I still think it would have been better, that Ruth's Tardis should have been the lighthouse itself. Instead of 13 walking to the top of the lighthouse, looking out and seeing the grave, then leaving the lighthouse and digging up Ruth's Tardis from beneath the grave... the lighthouse should have been Ruth's Tardis all along. Ruth did call the lighthouse "home". It is where her Time Lord consciousness was stored. It has lots of room inside it, lots of stairs and layers. It has a flashing light on the top, used for keeping travellers safe. 13 should have gone to the top of the lighthouse and looked out over the landscape. Meanwhile down below, Ruth smashes the glass... and 13 should have seen the lighthouse vworp vworp around her, reformatting itself into the familiar Tardis set, and Ruth is standing there saying "I'm the Doctor". I think that would have been just as much a shock as finding a police box buried in the ground, and without causing all these "plot hole" complaints. When it rematerialises in the Judoon ship, it could have been anything they like. A crate, a pillar, whatever. Like in the finale when 13 stood next to a random tree and said "that's a Tardis." Plus, it would have been another case of the Doctor walking into somebody's house in the middle of nowhere that she doesn't realise is really a Tardis in disguise, after the Master's outback hut, thus making it a motif of the season. .
She set it as the chamelion's default setting. The later factory reset didn't quite take and when it was set / reset itself back to a police box it hung and got stuck ?
As much as I defend most of Ruth and her situation (what little that we actually know), I agree that this is how it should've happened. Unfortunately, that's not what happened and I can live with that.
"So much so that we're going to go out of our way to square the Morbius faces and the Cartmel Masterplan with what we've learned since." I'd say that was more of a suggestion that something wasn't quite right about the Police Box, a bit like the Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy character choosing the name "Ford Prefect"; the disguise is almost there, but there's something a little off about it.
Yes, I agree. It could have been similar to the revelation of the Monk's TARDIS in "The Time Meddler", and far less derivative of the Ashes to Ashes finale.