Doctor Who resets the TARDIS in Eve of the Daleks - here’s how the new design is different. The New Year’s Eve special from the long-running British space-opera is one of three specials that will conclude the story arc of the thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and introduce viewers to the immortal Time-Lord’s fourteenth incarnation. Whittaker will be departing the iconic role after over four years, and the identity of the new Doctor is still unknown.
The new Doctor Who special, Eve of the Daleks, continues Doctor Who's FLUX storyline from the 13th season, which sees the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) struggling to contain a mysterious time-based sickness that has infected the TARDIS, the Doctor’s iconic time machine. The beloved police box is brought to the brink of death by the anti-matter force. To save the TARDIS, the Doctor initiates a full system reset, which does fix the TARDIS but forces the heroes outside to wait defenseless, trapped in an infinite time-loop with some very angry Daleks. Luckily, all is made right by the end, and the Doctor and crew successfully return to the restored TARDIS.
At the beginning of Doctor Who’s episode, viewers see that the damage from the FLUX force has changed Doctor Who's TARDIS into something extraordinary - and not in a good way. The crystal pillars around the console normally shine with a warm orange light. However, they've become emaciated and pale, leaking black discharge and growing fungus. The ship's hexagonal wall-panels regularly glow blue and pink. Now they're sick with green and purple. The TARDIS definitely looks like it's on its last legs. When the reset begins, the outside of the blue police box splits with lots of fiery cracks, barely containing the massive energy surge required to reboot the system.
However, that's actually about it. As bad as the TARDIS looks in Eve of the Daleks, all of the changes are surface-level. What's more, when the reset is complete, the TARDIS returns to looking exactly the same as it did before it was damaged. None of the changes in Eve of the Daleks are permanent, and when it is damaged, nothing about the TARDIS seems to have been structurally altered. In the end, what's different about Doctor Who's new TARDIS isn't much - it's more or less the same TARDIS as before, with only some cosmetic differences.
The Doctor and the TARDIS have been together since day one, when Doctor Who first debuted in November of 1963. Even though the interior changes every now and then, the iconic police box is always there. At this point, the TARDIS is more of a cultural mainstay than even the titular Time-Lord. There have been thirteen faces of the Doctor, but there has only ever been one TARDIS - regardless of any surface-level changes the structure has seen over the decades.