Vwoorpy The " vwoorpy " was the name given by Alice Obiefune to the distinctive grinding and whirring sound made by the TARDIS dematerialisation circuit . ( COMIC : " The Then and the Now " ) It was alternatively referred to by Cindy Wu as the " sexy elephant noise " and the " elephant - and - ancient - piano - dance sound " . ( COMIC : " Old Girl " ) Ace compared the noise to the sound of a key scraping a wire . ( PROSE : " Head Games " ) The Eleventh Doctor voiced that he loved the noise , describing it as " brilliant " . To his confusion , the sound , which he imitated by breathing heavily , was not heard when River Song piloted the TARDIS . River claimed that the TARDIS was not supposed to make that noise which was a result of the Doctor " leav [ ing ] the brake s on . " ( TV : " The Time of Angels " ) However , other TARDISes of newer design than the Doctor ' s Type 40 TARDIS , flown by other pilots such as the Master , ( TV : " Colony in Space " , " The King ' s Demons " ) the Rani ( TV : " Time and the Rani " ) and the Monk , ( TV : " The Daleks ' Master Plan " ) made the same sound in the course of their normal operation , as did the Doctor ' s when piloted by other Time Lord s . ( TV : " The Claws of Axos " , " The Pirate Planet " ) The Minyan s ' computer recognised the sound as associated with Time Lord ships . ( TV : " Underworld " ) However , by turning the engine s " on silent " , TARDIS pilots had the option of forgoing the sound , usually as a means of being discreet . The Doctor employed this function on rare occasions . ( TV : " The Impossible Astronaut " , " The Time of the Doctor " ) This sound was also made by other devices : SIDRAT s , a craft similar to TARDISes used by the War Lord s ; ( TV : " The War Games " ) a Time Lord who appeared to the Third Doctor ( without using any visible means of transport ) to warn him of the appearance of ; ( TV : " Terror of the Autons " ) when the Time Lords provided the Third Doctor with a new dematerialisation circuit , it appeared on a table making this sound ; ( TV : " The Three Doctors " ) and when the Fourth Doctor modified Skagra ' s invisible spaceship to travel like a TARDIS , again , this sound was heard . ( PROSE : " Shada " ) Having acquired a recording of the Doctor ' s TARDIS dematerialising , Victor Kennedy played it to LINDA , describing it as the " sound of the universe " . Elton Pope , who first heard the sound as a child when the Tenth Doctor came to his home , believed it to be the " most beautiful sound in the world . " ( TV : " Love & Monsters " ) Observing a reaction in the Tenth Doctor ' s hand , Captain Jack Harkness realised that the Doctor had returned to Cardiff as the TARDIS ' materialisation sounded , promptly leaving the Hub to intercept him . ( TV : " End of Days " , " Utopia " ) Materialising the TARDIS in the Oval Office , the Doctor turned the engines on silent to be discreet . ( TV : " The Impossible Astronaut " ) The consciousness of the Doctor ' s TARDIS , when briefly transposed into the body of the human oid Idris , performed a perfect vocal replication of the sound in order to identify herself to the Doctor . The noise was also heard when the TARDIS consciousness was transferred to and from Idris ' body . ( TV : " The Doctor ' s Wife " ) Taking the TARDIS to the source of the mysterious message beamed from Trenzalore , the Doctor turned the engines on silent in order to avoid " mak [ ing ] a fuss . " ( TV : " The Time of the Doctor " ) Osgood used the sound as her mobile phone ringtone . ( AUDIO : " United " )