Nobody here disputes that the TARDIS in real life is just a bunch of physical and computer generated models and life-sized sets.
The OP here wants to discuss the tech-aspect of Doctor Who and the TARDIS as if it were real. For doing so on Star Trek, there is an entire subforum on this board. Since such does not exist for Doctor Who, such discussions need to take place in this forum.
You are absolutely welcome to not be interested in this aspect of the show, but please allow those, that are, the courtesy to do so in peace.
Wow!

You are sooooo right!
You guys are sooo awesome!
Also to add a bit of contradiction to the Castrovalva episode..
if the Tardis were just rooms that are created by the tardis, and then deleted.. and the only thing that controls that is the console, and the tardis is not an actual space ship..
then I provide proof that the ship is an
actual ship.. which can make new rooms, and delete them, but is also a
solid spaceship structure..
My proof..
the roundels in the episode the Attack of the cybermen!
Colin Baker's ultra cool doctor (who despite the awful outfit he was made to wear) had some awesome adventures in the Tardis!
at exactly 2:15 seconds into the show, we see actual circuitry within the roundels (a return to the original idea from the Hartnell days IMHO) and the Chameleon circuit itself..
what we learn in this episode, is that there are 3 service access panels which are the Chameleon Circuit Relays, and the actual Circuit itself is the little box Colin Baker takes with him from the Chameleon Circuit calibration machine, to plug into a cavity on the Tardis Console..
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xa7rnl_attack-of-the-cybermen-part1_shortfilms
Now why would there be specific systems which are dedicated to Tardis function if it was just a construct of rooms? There follows that the Tardis has engines, specific circuitry which governs
specific vital Tardis Functions.. so if this is the case, then those specific vital core rooms and structures, and engines must be in place so that the ship can operate, and that rooms can be added and removed
but the overall basic structure must remain, otherwise it could
not function.. if the ship were just dimensions, and rooms added and destroyed, then how could it possibly traverse time and space, what if you jettisoned the engines, and where do they come from? the console just whips them up out of thin air? then why couldn't it just add more engines to make itself escape bad places?
No.. I believe that the Core Structure of the Tardis is an actual ship, which creates a vortex, and can add rooms, and convert the interiors via a matter restructuring system, but that overall system is linked to specific "Fixed" structures..
examples:
Chameleon Circuit Relay 1:
Chameleon Circuit Relay 2:
Chameleon Circuit Relay 3:
Chameleon Circuit itself:
(
the lit up little cartridge in front of Colin Baker, seen still attached to it's calibration machine, which is then taken and plugged into a cavity on the Tardis console, and activated the Chameleon Circuit)...each relay probably also carried images of the ship's various forms to the Tardis chameleon room. Each Relay probably also controlled the plasmid form, which is the outer shell of the ship..
By the way..
These examples are references for the tech drawings that will be in my Tardis Manual, coming soon..
