Great Doctor Who Fan Myth #3
Way back in 1963 the actress Carol Ann Ford fluffed her lines in the recording of An Unearthly Child, the first ever episode of Doctor Who. Her character Susan tells her two school teachers that she had made up the name TARDIS from the initials of the words “Time And Relative Dimension In Space” when it should have been “Time And Relative Dimensions In Space”. So because back in the early 1960’s stopping the tape and going back to do a take was almost impossible the fluffed line was preserved for all eternity. I don’t really suppose that anyone noticed the slip-up at the time, and even if they had, and were able to stop and rewind, it is doubtful that they would have as this recording was a remounting of a previous disastrous recording and the crew simply did not have the time to do so.
So the fluffed line became the Great Doctor Who Fan Myth #3. Ever since thousands of annoying Fanboys have cringed every time they heard the correct full name of the TARDIS. It became like a Wikipedia entry where some idiot insists on restoring a commonly held misconception every time the real facts are put in place. Lets look at things logically, what in the name of reason is a Relative Dimension anyway? The use of “Relative” suggests a relationship between a number of things, so therefore there must be at least two dimensions involved. Also lets not forget that in the episode itself Susan complains that doing a calculation that involves just three dimensions is silly, so the dimensions of the TARDIS must be relative to the five she was banging on about.
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