Doctor Who
WARNING : hold in MILD SPOILERS for Doctor Who - " Wild Blue Yonder " .
Summary
The TARDIS run away inDoctor Who ’s second sixtieth anniversary special , " Wild Blue Yonder " , thanks to the reactivation of the Hostile Action Displacement System , or HADS for brusque . After a catastrophic java spill , the TARDIS takes the Fourteenth Doctor ( David Tennant ) and Donna Noble ( Catherine Tate ) to the furthest compass of the galaxy , before abandoning them in the middle of hostile legal action . The Hostile Action Displacement System is a slightly blemished surety measure , yield that it invariably strands the Doctor and their associate in hostile spot . It ’s rare that they kick in while the Doctor is inside the TARDIS , but as the Fourteenth Doctor wryly states , there would be noDoctor Whoadventures if they did .
ForDoctor Whowriters , the Hostile Action Displacement System is a tool that they can use to quickly dispatch the TARDIS and inject some peril . " Wild Blue Yonder " is n’t the only fourth dimension that this TARDIS feature has been used inDoctor Who ’s 60 - year history . As the Doctor says to Donna , the HADS have always been a feature film ofDoctor Who ’s TARDIS- until they switched them off . Now that the HADS are back on , it ’s deserving explaining how the Hostile Action Displacement System solve inDoctor Who .
Doctor Who ’s first 60th anniversary peculiar divulge the new TARDIS design , and this groundbreaking refit finally justifies " full-grown on the interior . "
What Is The Hostile Action Displacement System?
The Hostile Action Displacement System is a TARDIS defence mechanism that dematerializes the ship should the out shield come under terror . It was first introduced during Patrick Troughton’sDoctor Whoera , in " The Krotons " , the debut serial publication by legendary Whoniverse author Robert Holmes . In the seventies , Robert Holmes would establish much of the Time Lord mythology that still definesDoctor Whoto this day , and the HADS was his first donation to TARDIS traditional knowledge . Interestingly , the novelisation of " The Krotons " bring out that the Hostile Action Displacement System had to be manually jell by the TARDIS owner .
" The Krotons " was novelized by another key designer ofDoctor Whomythology , 1970s script editor program Terrance Dicks . It ’s telling that Dicks included this additional piece of entropy about the HADS , know that with a functioning Hostile Action Displacement System there would be noDoctor Who . peter ' assertion that the HADS must be manually set lines up with whatDavid Tennant ’s Fourteenth Doctorsays in " Wild Blue Yonder " , in the sensory faculty that the Doctor has to remember to plow them off , rather than on , to maximise escapade .
Past Doctor Who Stories Featuring The HADS
First introduced in the Patrick Troughton serial " The Krotons " in 1968 , the HADS were triggered by an attack by the nominal crystalline aliens . The HADS were largely forgotten about untilDoctor Who ’s 21st century foot race . In Mark Gatiss ' level " Cold War " , the Eleventh Doctor ( Matt Smith ) and Clara Oswald ( Jenna Coleman ) are strand inside a Soviet Italian sandwich when the HADS are actuate . The mien of an Ice Warrior and the tensions of the nuclear age were clearly enough to make the TARDIS run away toward the South Pole . Clara later references the HADS in the Twelfth Doctor ( Peter Capaldi ) news report " shoot down the Moon " when the TARDIS falls into a ravine .
The HADS were also deploy inDoctor Who ’s season 9 opener , " The Magician ’s Apprentice"/“The Witch ’s Familiar " , whenDalek creator Davrosordered the destruction of the TARDIS . In that story , author Steven Moffat revealed that HADS could also stand for Hostile Action Dispersal System , when the TARDIS dispersed itself to present the illusion that it had been destroyed by the Daleks . The HADS were later featured in the Fourteenth Doctor comic bookLiberation of the Daleks , when he surmised that they were responsible for removing him from the collapsing Earth 66 simulation .
What Kind Of Circumstances Trigger The TARDIS' HADS?
If the Hostile Action Displacement System is enable on the TARDIS , then a change of circumstances can activate it . more often than not , it ’s activate when the TARDIS is under strong-arm attack , be it from the Krotons ' diffusion K or the Daleks ' cannon . To avoid death , the TARDIS removes itself from the hostile situation . When it ’s change on , it ’s a somewhat handy social occasion . For model , in " The Five Doctors " , the TARDIS came under flack from Cybermen and had to be ethereally airt to Rassilon ’s grave to avoid devastation . However , there are many other occasions where the TARDIS withstand a serious flak without running away , so it ’s unclear exactly how bad things necessitate to be for the HADS to recoil in .
The TARDIS is extremely advanced engineering , so it does make gumption for it to have a failsafe that removes it from a dangerous position to avoid capture . Of all theclassicDoctor Whovillainsto set off the TARDIS ' HADS , only the Daleks , Ice warrior , and Krotons have apparently put enough of a scourge . However , asDoctor Who ’s 2nd sixtieth day of remembrance particular , " Wild Blue Yonder " proves , the HADS is probably more hassle than it ’s worth , give that it often leaves the Doctor and their fellow traveller in mortal peril .
Doctor Who ’s 60th anniversary special continue Saturdays on Disney+ and BBC1 .
