Day 13: The Brink Of Disaster

It's in this episode that we finally get to know the fifth, and arguably most important, member of the crew, being the TARDIS. It's not like other ships like the Millennium Falcon or the starship Enterprise, because it has soul, literally. It senses that something is wrong and actively tries to let it's occupants know that something has gone awry but it can't do that in a straight forward way. When normal machines have problems, they tend to have a straight forward warning light to let you know exactly what's wrong, but the TARDIS has to go for a full on rebus puzzle, because it feels that that is the best way to let it's occupants know that bad things are happening. It's the imperfections that make it likable, from the fact that 'Fast Return Switch' is clearly written in felt tip pen, to the concept that the best way to inform the occupants that they were going back in time at an alarming rate was to melt the clock face, as opposed to, say, a ticker tape message with something akin to "have you considered looking at the fast return switch?".