History Main / BiggerOnTheInside

* ''Fanfic/InvaderZimABadThingNeverEnds'': Facilities belonging to [[MegaCorp Coathanger Electronics]] are all truly massive on the inside, much more so than what the buildings should be capable of. The Announcer speculates that Coathanger has mastered dimensional manipulation technology.

* In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E7TheWheelInSpace "The Wheel in Space"]], the Doctor removes the component that allows the TARDIS to be dimensionally transcendental, so the inside reverts to a simple police box interior.
* The most thorough demonstration of just how big the TARDIS truly is dates back to the Fourth Doctor serial [[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E6TheInvasionOfTime "The Invasion of Time"]], in which the last [[DramaticHalfHour (half-hour) episode]] is spent almost entirely navigating the labyrinthine halls and corridors of the TARDIS. It's seen to contain indoor gardens, at least one swimming pool, an art gallery, and dozens of utility rooms and corridors.
* The interior of the TARDIS is a great deal bigger than a mall -- in the NA ''Blood Heat'', she actually materialises around an entire ''planet''! On TV, it has never been indicated how big she is; at times it's implied she is finite in size, but really immense, while other times it's been implied that her interior is infinite in size. The closest example we've seen was in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor "The Name of the Doctor"]], in which the Doctor reveals that the massive TARDIS-shaped monument [[spoiler:serving as his tomb is actually the corpse of the TARDIS. It turns out that dimensional leaking is common when [=TARDISes=] die, the outer shell expanding to reflect some of the enormous dimensions held within]].

* Also used to dramatic effect in the episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday Doomsday]]": The Daleks mention that the [[BlackBox Genesis Ark]] will establish their supremacy because of "Time Lord science". The Doctor wonders what that means, and near the climax, [[spoiler:it's revealed that the Daleks meant this aspect of Time Lord science-- the ark, though only about the size of a single Dalek, contains millions of them.]]

* In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink "Blink"]], Billy Shipton alludes to the improbability of the police box's design: "Well, it's a special kind of phone box for policemen. They used to have them all over. But this isn't a real one. The phone's just a dummy, and the windows are the wrong size. We can't even get in it. Ordinary Yale lock, but nothing fits."

* The Thirteenth Doctor's console room, first seen in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E2TheGhostMonument "The Ghost Monument"]], has a design feature where the police box shell serves as a "foyer", with the spot where the back wall would be opening into the rest of the console room. The first time a TARDIS was seen to do this was with Clara and Ashildr's diner-TARDIS in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]], where the diner section is perfectly normal-looking, and the rest of the ship accessed through the door that, in the original diner, led to the toilets.

** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]" Ten pre-empts this with Wilf, but Wilf (having never been in the TARDIS but still being used to weird stuff) just replies, "I was expecting it to be [[ShinyLookingSpaceships cleaner...]]"
*** This is a reference to Bernard Cribbins having appeared in the spinoff movie ''Film/DaleksInvasionEarth2150AD'' in 1966, and being considered for the role of the [[Characters/DoctorWhoFourthDoctor Fourth Doctor]] in 1974. Both the movie and the classic series, while having very different TARDIS interiors, were much neater and tider in appearance than the gloomy clapped-out organo-gothic look of the 10th Doctor's TARDIS.

'''The Doctor:''' My entire understanding of physical space has been transformed! Three-dimensional Euclidean geometry has been torn up, thrown in the air, and snogged to death! My grasp of the universal constants of physical reality has been changed... forever. ''[{{beat}}]'' Sorry. [[IAlwaysWantedToSayThat I've always wanted to see that done properly.]]

** As is the phone-booth time machine of ''JustForFun/InspectorSpacetime'', a ''Doctor Who'' parody.

* PlayedForDrama in [[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor "The Night of the Doctor"]]: Cass, the next person the Doctor tries to make his companion, knows what a TARDIS is, and when the Doctor tells Cass it's bigger on the inside, she realises he's a Time Lord-- and, having seen the Time War, recoils in horror and disgust, saying that the Time Lords are as bad as the Daleks, and stays on the crashing ship, locking the door so that the Doctor can't save her.

* In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E3MawdrynUndead Mawdryn Undead]]", the teleport capsule is bigger on the inside-- a first clue that Mawdryn's people have knowledge of Time Lord technology.

** The temple which the Crystal Gems live in is significantly bigger on the inside than the outside, despite already being huge on the outside. Rose's room alone is able to contain the entire town of Beach City that the Temple is located in, including a copy of the Temple (although it [[HolodeckMalfunction really shouldn't]]). Garnet explains in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E18BeachParty "Beach Party"]] that the temple has [[PocketDimension magical extra-dimensional doors]], and "Know Your Fusions" shows it can create new rooms, each in their own dimension.

* Reed Richards of the ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' has often set up rooms like this. When the team was living in Pier 4, this was [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] with a comment about borrowing technology from his [[Series/DoctorWho weird doctor friend]].

** In the TV-series, ''Anime/TenchiUniverse'', she gives the bathroom the same treatment. Apparently, they decided that the floating, bubbled, hot-springs ''island'' from the OVA[[note]]The OAV version of the hot-springs was never given an on-screen explanation, having appeared between episodes and before Washu's introduction. [[AllThereInTheManual It was actually]] ''[[AllThereInTheManual Ryoko]]'' [[AllThereInTheManual who made it.]] She is Washu's daughter, after all.[[/note]] was a tad too showy.

** One of the most memorable parts of the Haunted Mansion is the "Stretching Portraits Room" pre-show. In the California and Paris versions, it's actually an elevator that moves the guests to a hallway that leads under the railroad tracks that run behind the manor. The Portraits are painted onto the elevator guide path and ceiling of the lift is removed so one only sees the ceiling of the shaft... the room goes further as the shaft ceiling is itself a canvas fabric that can be seen through if lighted from behind... If one looks up during the lightning portions of that sequences, one can see what was the fate of the man who was the Ghost Host. (Florida and Tokyo just have the ceiling raised to simulate the same effect)
* Most of Disney's dark ride attractions are placed on the edge of the park's boundaries to accommodate large, hidden warehouses where most of actual ride takes place. Splash Mountain has very little of its ride track in the actual facade building. Most of the track around it is devoted to moving you from the facade to the ride station and back.
* The Florida version of Space Mountain has not one, not two, not three, but ''four'' ride tracks contained inside of the dome: two roller coaster tracks, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, the maintenance sheds for all three, and the Walt Disney World Railroad passing in between the dome and Tomorrowland. This is in addition to a very spacious arcade/gift store, enough of the ride line to accommodate an hours worth of riders at peak hours, and a very large post show. It probably makes the most use of this trope as it is only achievable via the dome and utilidors.
* The Florida Cinderella Castle is an inversion. It looks like an impossibly tall castle with spires that rival some of the tallest sky scrapers. In truth, it's only 180 feet tall, because Florida law says that all buildings over 200 feet must have a flashing red light on the roof for aviation safety. The tallest spire (which Tinkerbell leaves from every night at the start of the fireworks show) may look like it can fit a modest sized room, where in fact, it only fits enough space for the actor to fit until he (yes, Tinkerbell is usually played by a male) is given the signal to fly.
* Number 10 Downing Street (the official residence of the [[UsefulNotes/TheMenOfDowningStreet British Prime Minister]]). From the front it looks like an expensive but otherwise ordinary town house with maybe a dozen rooms total. It is actually three houses joined together (one of which was a substantial mansion in its own right) and has about 60 rooms. Andrew Marr on his Sunday morning show called it "the brick [[Series/DoctorWho TARDIS]]".
* Similar to another London landmark, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_Road_Studios The Abbey Road Studios]]. From the front it doesn't look like it could possibly hold three fully equipped recording studios that often host sessions for orchestras. The original 19th century townhouse is the facade, and the additions are all in back.
* This is the entire concept behind "compressed folder" formats such as .zip, .rar, and .7z--taking a file or collection of files and jamming it into a single file that takes up a fraction of the space of the uncompressed files.

* Any regular theatregoer will tell you that most theatres play this very straight -- only a few doors for entry before being revealed to host a massive auditorium, orchestra pit, stage, and unseen backstage area.
* Creator/MeowWolf's House of Eternal Return is an interactive art/entertainment installation housed inside a former bowling alley. But the complecated and disorenting internal layout, and creative use of lighting, mirrors, and odd angles, makes it feel much, much larger. And means that someone could easily spend hours inside, and still not find entier rooms.
* Any interior space can be turned into an illusion of this trope by using objects to break up the space, in a way that limits vision. If you can't see what's on the other side of the shelf, you can't see how big the space is -- so the room feels potentially bigger, even if you know the dimensions of the building. Thick forests work the same way. Covering a wall with mirrors can also create an illusion of space, especially for a large room with repetitive contents (clothing racks, restaurant tables, gym machines, etc.).
* [[CoolCar Sports cars, especially supercars]], are essentially a [[AwesomeButImpractical real-life]] inversion of this trope; they're usually big both on the size, price and performance, and look awesome, but they offer little to no room for even an extra kid, a pet or an extra luggage. Most can only sit two adults, and a few can bring in two more ''kids, but not adults''. A cargo trunk full of items don't even work either.
** However, [[ImprobablyCoolCar McLaren F1]] plays this straight, as its driver seat is in the middle, with a passenger seat on either side. That's one more person you can carry in it when compared to other supercars. This was even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Creator/RowanAtkinson, who also owned one and crashed and repaired it ''twice'' before sold it.
* [[BoringButPractical Some microcars, especially Japan's kei cars (light cars)]], are straight examples of this trope. Due to stringent measurements, exterior dimensions can't exceed the imposed limits and the designers find a way to maximize their interior space without exceeding the limits as well, so they adopted the not-so-dynamic "tall boy" designs which maximize the space by heightening the height. Thus, kei cars have shorter nose and taller body to maximize the interior space as well. Microvans (kei-sized vans) played this even straighter.
* The [[BigFancyHouse palace of Versailles]] and its grounds are unquestionably huge, but look even bigger when you are in them. Clever use of Potemkin forests[[note]]thin strips of trees made to look like they are the edges of actual forests[[/note]] and an optical illusion where the grounds gently slope upward giving the perception that they stretch out to horizon gives the grounds the impression that one is at a sprawling country estate rather than in the middle of an urban setting.
* Downplayed by the Romanian Palace of Parliament, which is designed to look less ostentatious in photographs by clever use of multistory windows giving the impression that the structure is smaller. However, it's pretty clear how enormous it is when viewed in person or from angles that show adjacent buildings.
* Clothing made by the [[https://www.scottevest.com Scottevest company]] invoke the trope. What appears to be an ordinary vest or shirt can contain a dozen or more zippered pockets capable of carrying everything from a wallet to a medium sized tablet computer with little to indicate that the garment is almost a real life BagOfHolding.

* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'' gives us the Correspondence sphere. At level 4, plus Prime 2, you can create your own bigger-on-the-insideness. Make sure no sleepers walk in, though...

* According to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E10JourneyToTheCentreOfTheTardis Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS]]", [[Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1 the inside of a TARDIS is big, really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to the TARDIS.]] Whether or not the Doctor was exaggerating at the time is up for debate. We also see much more of the interior than the usual few hallways, and you really get the idea of just what it's like in there. You could spend days and never see the same thing twice, each room more wondrous than the last. But you wouldn't, 'cause it's an EldritchLocation that can be as scary as all hell, especially if you make the mistake of [[DoNotTauntCthulhu pissing off the TARDIS]], as the salvagers very quickly realise. Perhaps the most-accurate thing one can say about the TARDIS is that the main thing that limits her interior dimensions is the Doctor. Regardless of whether its size is truly infinite, at the very least it can safely encapsulate ''an entire star'', which it uses as a power source. The star that exists inside the TARDIS is frozen in time at the instant it becomes a black hole. This means it must be a MASSIVE star, far larger than our sun. The absolute minimum size a star must be to form a black hole is 3 times the size of our sun (but they are typically much larger than that). This also has the side effect of making the TARDIS a DysonSphere. That little police box is actually a Dyson Sphere on the inside. Puts a little bit of perspective into how powerful a TARDIS is doesn't it?

* Taken to more extremes in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E9Flatline Flatline]]". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KClVIBAoyFk The outside has shrunk to the size of a toy]], with the inside staying mostly the same. It fits comfortably in Clara's handbag later on in the episode. And the Doctor mentions that he needs to play tricks with gravity to prevent the TARDIS's weight from cracking the surface of the planet every time it lands. Lampshaded by the Doctor. Rigsy (seeing the now-tiny TARDIS for the first time, and the Doctor inside), exclaims "it's bigger on the inside!" The Doctor states "I don't think that statement has ever been truer."

* The page quote from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E1TheThreeDoctors The Three Doctors]]" is actually a lampshading of [[PhraseCatcher the phrase those who see the TARDIS for the first time usually exclaim]], which [[TropeNamers gives us our page title]]: "It's ''bigger'' on the ''inside!''" This was being [[RunningGag mocked]] as early as the Third Doctor, although Benton thought it was just too obvious to be worth pointing out.

** After first properly encountering the TARDIS in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E6TheVampiresOfVenice The Vampires of Venice]]", Rory immediately deduces the inside is in another dimension, disappointing Eleven: "I like the bit when someone says 'It's bigger on the inside!' I always look forward to that."

** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E2IntoTheDalek Into the Dalek]]", the Doctor materializes the TARDIS around a pilot, Journey Blue, whose ship is about to explode, causing her to appear right inside the ship, and thus she sees the inside first. When she sees that on the outside it's just a phone box, Journey remarks, just like Clara, that it's "smaller on the outside". The Doctor remarks it's more impressive when you see it the other way around like most do.

--->'''The Doctor:''' [[BigOMG Oh...my....GOD!]] It's bigger!\\

'''The Doctor:''' My entire understanding of physical space has been transformed! Three-dimensional Euclidean geometry has been torn up, thrown in the air and snogged to death! My grasp of the universal constants of physical reality has been changed... forever. ''[{{beat}}]'' Sorry. [[IAlwaysWantedToSayThat I've always wanted to see that done properly.]]
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E1ThePilot The Pilot]]": Bill takes much longer than usual to even notice the difference, and once she does, keeps trying to find mundane explanations.

* The Slitheen, introduced in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E4AliensOfLondon Aliens of London]]", are bigger than the humans they disguise themselves as, thanks to some form of compression technology. In ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'', they've upgraded to even skinnier models. This technology was seen twice before in the Classic Series, first in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]" when Scarlioni removes his human mask to reveal the alien Scaroth, whose head is bigger than Scarlioni's (since the Scaroth mask had to fit over Julian Glover's head), and again in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E1TheLeisureHive The Leisure Hive]]" when [[spoiler:Brock's human mask is removed to reveal he is really a Foamasi]], whose heads are ''ridiculously'' bigger than human heads! In both cases, characters were shocked to see the alien under the mask, but don't seem to notice that the heads are bigger than the masks, so they really FailedASpotCheck. There wasn't even an in-show {{handwave}}!

* It's revealed in "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]" that Gallifreyan artwork makes use of this trope. The painting "No More"/"Gallifrey Falls", which is a few metres across on the outside but big enough to contain the city of Arcadia ([[spoiler: actually ''the entirety of Gallifrey'']]) on the inside, is a key factor in the story. It works by taking a slice of time, of reality, and sealing it in a pocket universe.

* {{Subverted|Trope}} at first in ''[[Recap/NewSeriesAdventuresEnginesofWar Engines of War]]''. The TARDIS is on its side, and the Doctor ushers Cinder in, and he expects her to say this but instead she remarks everything is "The right way up" (despite being on its side), it takes a bit for her to get to the size issue.
* PlayedForDrama in [[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor "The Night of the Doctor"]]: Cass, the next person the Doctor tries to make his companion, knows what a TARDIS is, and when the Doctor tells Cass it's bigger on the inside, she realise he's a Time Lord, reacts in horror and disgust, as she claims the Time Lords are the same as the Daleks, and stays on the crashing ship, locking the door so that the Doctor can't save her.
* {{Subverted|Trope}} in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E4TheVisitation The Visitation]]": the Terileptil ship proves bigger than it looks from the outside -- because the crash impact caused it to partially bury itself in the ground.
* In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E3MawdrynUndead Mawdryn Undead]]", the teleport capsule is bigger on the inside -- a first clue that Mawdryn's people have knowledge of Time Lord technology.

* "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E8TheLieOfTheLand The Lie of the Land]]": The Vault the Doctor's been guarding all season, which is serving as a prison for [[spoiler:Missy]], is revealed to be this. After all, it ''is'' Time Lord technology.
* A circa 1984 fan comic, "The Time Lordz", which featured caricatures of five members of a DW fan club as the first five Doctors, satirizes this heavily. Their TARDIS is a humongous skyscraper. The interior is so cramped it's a wonder anyone can reach the control panel and press the right button.
* As the numerous allusions to this example in the article even before the examples began suggest, while not the first example of this trope the TARDIS is probably one of the most widely recognisable and iconic, to the point where describing something as being "like a TARDIS" has entered popular vernacular to mean "more spacious than expected" even among those who don't have any particular interest in the show itself. The word itself has made it into the Oxford English Dictionary with this very trope being one of the assigned definitions (the other, of course, is "time machine").

* Parodied in "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho027TheOneDoctor The One Doctor]]". Bamto Zame, who was masquerading as The Doctor for a massive con game, travelled with his companion, Sally Anne, in his [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct STARDIST]], which looked like a porta-potty. When The (genuine) Doctor and his (genuine) companion Mel, have to travel with Zame in the [=STARDIST=], the first thing they notice it that it is... actually just as big on the inside as it is on the outside. The four actors do quite a bit of grunting to convey two husky gentlemen, one zaftig lady and petite Mel Bush trying to cram themselves inside the confines of the device.

* Also used to dramatic effect in the episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday Doomsday]]": The Daleks mention that the [[BlackBox Genesis Ark]] will establish their supremacy because of "Time Lord science". The Doctor wonders what that means, and near the climax, [[spoiler:it's revealed that the Daleks meant this aspect of Time Lord science -- the ark, though tiny, contains millions of Daleks.]]

* The internal space of [[ADungeonIsYou Living Dungeons]] tends to be malleable, and ''Literature/NoNeedForACore'' is no exception, with the ability to warp their internal spae increasing as the dungeon grows.

* The most thorough demonstration of just how big the TARDIS truly is dates back to the Fourth Doctor serial [[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E6TheInvasionOfTime "The Invasion of Time"]], in which the last (half-hour) episode is spent almost entirely navigating the labyrinthine halls and corridors of the TARDIS. It's seen to contain indoor gardens, at least one swimming pool, an art gallery, and dozens of utility rooms and corridors.

* It's revealed in "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]" that Gallifreyan artwork makes use of this trope. The painting "No More"/"Gallifrey Falls", which is a few metres across on the outside but big enough to contain the city of Arcadia on the inside, is a key factor in the story.

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' has Hogwarts as this trope, with observations that most magical buildings end up like this after a while (with a side of EldritchLocation, and in some rare cases - like Hogwarts - GeniusLoci), to one extent or another.

* ''WesternAnimation/BluesClues'': The house looks like a tiny cartoon house on the outside, but is much bigger on the inside, with a living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by a visitor in one episode.