VIDEO: ‘Doctor Who’ superfan displays a TARDIS in Saskatoon yard

Driving down a quiet residential street in Saskatoon, the last thing you’d expect to see is a time machine.

But that’s exactly what you’ll find on Quance Avenue in Greystone Heights, where a life-size TARDIS — a fictional hybrid of a time machine and spacecraft that appears in the British science fiction television series ‘Doctor Who’ — sits proudly on Benjamin Reeves’ front lawn.

Although four years have passed since Reeves first built the TARDIS, it still garners a fair amount of attention from passersby.

“People come by and take pictures. Sometimes they sit across the street and just take pictures, which is kind of weird,” he said in an interview with 650 CKOM. “Other people just ask me if it’s a porta potty.”

The first episode of ‘Doctor Who’ aired in 1963, and more than 800 episodes have aired in the years since.

The TARDIS, which looks like a British police box from the outside, is the Doctor’s method of travel through both time and space in the series.

Since the show’s inception, the character of the Doctor has been portrayed by fourteen lead actors.

Reeves said he’s been a proud fan of the show for as long as he can remember.

READ MORE:

• Giant snow dragon makes winter return to Saskatoon
• VIDEO: Blooming tulip patch draws thousands of Saskatoon visitors
• TikTok sensation Farideh takes comedic music on the road

“I grew up in England,” he said. “I grew up with Tom Baker’s Doctor, and when we came to Canada it was on PBS, so I kept watching it.”

He first came up with the idea of building a life-size TARDIS decades ago, but made his dream a reality in 2020.

“The pandemic came around and I had time… I had money… and there it is,” he said.

Reeves, who worked an electrician for 25 years, put the free time he had during lockdowns in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic to good use. The company he worked for had a large, empty warehouse where he set to work building his very own time machine.

Reeves found plans online that he used as inspiration for his TARDIS, which is modeled after the TARDIS of Matt Smith, who played The Doctor from 2010 to 2014.

Content hosted by iono.fm

While the majority of the materials were easy to come by, Reeves said he had to get creative when it came to recreating certain parts of the iconic blue box.

“The signage for the actual police box I had to get made, which was probably the most expensive part of it. The front placard I had to order from the UK. Apparently stores don’t carry them here,” he said.

All of the extra effort he put in to make the TARDIS as authentic as possible felt worth it for Reeves the first time he stepped back and took a look at his completed creation.

“Once it was painted and finished… having the light shining through the door… it kind of came to life,” he recalled. “It was a couple days of just ‘Wow, I’ve created this!’ and then I just had to think ‘How the hell am I going to move it?’”

Reeves contacted a friend who owns a moving company and began the backbreaking task of relocating the TARDIS, which stands nearly nine feet tall.

He initially planned to place the structure in his backyard, but encountered a big problem while attempting to move it into position — its immense size.

“It doesn’t move through gates or doorways,” Reeves said. “I didn’t really put that much thought into what I was going to do with it.”

Due to a lack of other options, the bright blue TARDIS found its home on Reeves’ front lawn.

“I’m surprised I don’t get more complaints from the neighbours,” he said. “Some neighbours are jealous and wish they could have it.”

Reeves has debated adding other recognizable fixture from the series to his yard, such as an alien Dalek or a demonic Weeping Angel.

“I was looking into building other things from ‘Doctor Who,’ but I’m not sure I want to be that guy in the neighbourhood,” Reeves said with a smile.