Quintessential British Time Machine?

[Robert Morris]

> I guess I haven't been paying enough attention to others working
> in my field.  I assumed that the TARDIS was the quintessential
> British time machine design; can anyone explain how it works, and
> why I am wrong about this?

It's a common mistake, Doc.  You must realize that the TARDIS is, in
fact, a piece of advanced alien technology; the foremost example just
happens to belong to a Gallifreyan who likes the British isles.

The TARDIS is powered by a captive quantum black hole which is called
the "Eye of Harmony."  The powerful gravitational forces available 
from this device allow the folding of spacetime; this is why a TARDIS
is larger on the inside than the outside.  The TARDIS can achieve
attenuation, like Dr. Wells' machine does, and can travel in time
and space at rates beyond the limits of conventional relativity
theory.

In fact, Dr. Wells' machine is much more the standard British design.
I am blessed to have received a partial copy of his blueprints and
notes, covering the crystalline temporal field controller.  I have 
not yet been able to discover the means by which he provided the 
continuous 450 to 475 megawatts the device seems to require, but I
have created a working unit powered by a capacitor device of my own 
design.

I have reviewed the design drawings of your Flux Capacitor unit which
you so kindly sent me, and I see many parallels with the Wells design.
The instantaneous transition which your device provides has a lower
total energy consumption for trips of over about 9.5 years than the
Wells Temporal Field unit; but for shorter trips his device is 
superior in this area.

More important in my opinion is the attenuation field effect provided
by Wells' machine.  In effect, the vehicle and contents become 
invisible and intangible; this effect is related somehow to Banzai's
Oscillation Overthruster but so far he has not had time to discuss
it with me.

Now I see that I have wandered off topic, into what might be called
the History of Time Travel (if that's not inherently a paradox).
So, what the heck.  I think perhaps the most interesting story has
to be that of Guido van Rossum.  His time machine uses a core element
very similar to your Flux Capacitor, powered on its' initial trip
by a capacitor device similar to mine.  On that first trip he 
evidently visited the future to retrieve a more powerful energy 
source, nature unrevealed.  He also brought back advanced android
technology, which he used to engineer his "bot" lieutenants.  I am
personally afraid that he has become paranoid (trusting machines
over humans).  I have also heard rumors that some of his followers
formed a secretive organization, the PSU, to fight some dangerous 
alien force.  

Sounds like science fiction to me.