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Regina sci-fi fan builds backyard tribute to Doctor Who

A self-described geek has paid homage to Doctor Who by building a TARDIS in his backyard in Harbour Landing in Regina. 

TARDIS is a time-travelling police box from iconic BBC sci-fi series

Joelle Seal · CBC News ·
Passersby have been sharing photos of Brendon Ralfe's TARDIS on Harbour Landing social media pages. (Tyler Pidlubny/CBC)

A self-described geek has paid homage to Doctor Who by building a TARDIS — the Doctor's mode of transportation — in his backyard in Harbour Landing in Regina. 

Brendon Ralfe moved to Canada from England 20 years ago. When it came time to build a shed for his backyard, he decided to use the iconic symbol from his home country as inspiration.

The police box was built to look like the time machine from his favourite science fiction TV series. 

"It's one of the longest running TV shows in the world. It's science fiction, it's very humorous. What's not to like?" said Ralfe. 

Ralfe said he took four weeks to build the so-called TARDIS, which is made of 270 kilograms of wood.

Brendon Ralfe took four weeks to put up the TARDIS in his backyard in Harbour Landing in Regina. (Tyler Pidlubny/CBC)

On Doctor Who, TARDIS stands for "Time and Relative Dimensions in Space." 

"The big thing about the TARDIS is it's bigger on the inside," said Ralfe. 

In the TV series, the Doctor uses the TARDIS to travel through time and space all over the universe to help humanity.

Ralfe said he downloaded a plan to build his TARDIS from the internet, but he added his own touches to make it light up at night. 

It was important to Ralfe that details like this sign match the original TARDIS on the sci-fi TV show. (Tyler Pidlubny/CBC)

"I tried to get it as close as possible to the original," said Ralfe.

Ralfe ordered a gold Yale lock from England to match the original lock on the TARDIS and tested out many shades of blue paint to find a match.

"Finding the right tone of paint was a real pain to me. It took a good week just to play around with different colour swatches and to get the tone right," said Ralfe.

"I think it was on my fourth painting before I got it just right."

Police boxes were originally used in the U.K. in the 20th century as a public telephone kiosk and a remote police station for officers. 

The TARDIS illuminated at dusk in Harbour Landing in Regina. (Submitted by Brendon Ralfe)

For now, the TARDIS stores Ralfe's lawnmower and gardening tools. Neighbours walking by have noticed the TARDIS lighting up the night sky and have been sharing photos of it on social media.

"I'm really happy that people recognize it. I'm really proud that people know what it is and want to talk about it, want to take pictures."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joelle Seal

Joelle Seal is an Associate Producer in Current Affairs for CBC Saskatchewan. Get in touch with her by emailing joelle.seal@cbc.ca or on Twitter @joelleseal.

    With files from CBC Radio's Morning Edition

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