33.11: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS

[Lenny]

The TARDIS has crashed, Clara is lost inside, and the Doctor has 30 minutes before his ship explodes!

---

The synopsis sounds awful, but the trailer looks like it could be fun.

The interior of the TARDIS has mentioned a number of times, but aside from a couple of corridors and the tenth Doctor's control room, we've never actually seen it (at least not in New Who). I've been really looking forward to this episode since the title was first announced, in part because we have the promise of seeing something, and because the potential for what the TARDIS could contain is massive.

Apparently Saturday nights on the Beeb aren't as sacred as they once were, as the broadcast time has changed again - 18:30.

 

[ctg]

 

[Daggers]

Anyone else currently watching just see the "Eye of Harmony" on the console screen when the Doctor checked the engine status?

 

[Lenny]

That was beyond awful...

What makes it worse is that Clara's character development and the furthering of her relationship with the Doctor were totally reset without a care.

I don't even feel like commenting on seeing the rooms.

 

[Harpo]

A great episode until the reset.

 

[ctg]

I agree. This was absolutely wonderful episode even if they had to reset the timeline. And there was nothing wrong with the rooms. So I don't know what Lenny is so grumpy about because the journey could not have been any different.

Well, it could have but then it would just had been a walk through the corridors and there would not have been anything exiting. Not even weird time-monsters. Also Daggers wasn't the only one seeing the Eye of Harmony.

I have theories about that since I wrote my own time-travel stories and those theories has nothing to do with the show.

 

[PTeppic]

Reset was a bit too convenient but I'll think better tomorrow morning after a second viewing. Was intrigued the History of the Time War mentions the Doctor by actual name. So it can't be THAT secret...

 

[Lenny]

An episode in a television show cannot get by on just story. Don't get me wrong, I thought the story was alright - the past and future bleeding through was interesting (although the past bleeding through seemed thrown in there to give the explanation of the monsters some sense), and I liked the idea of people flying through space salvaging debris floating about.

Unfortunately, the rest of the episode was not up to scratch. Apart from Clara, the acting was terrible at best (shouting everything does not make it more dramatic), the effects were pathetic (how should we make being chased scary? I know, let's put the camera at an angle, slap vaseline all over the lens, and shake it!), and the pacing was so all over the place I was feeling seasick by the end.

Then we get to the incidental characters - the three brothers. From the off, they were totally flat characters with nothing to them, yet towards the end we were thrown a tale of family love and expected to feel sympathy for some kid who got into an accident, and then brotherly sacrifice. I can still remember that last week's characters were called Alec and Emma, but three hours on and I can't give you the first name of a single one of the brothers, nor can I remember their family name.

Having sat through forty minutes of tripe, which admittedly set up some decent character development and made the fate of the TARDIS completely uncertain, it was all topped off by yet another Doctor Who deus ex machina that wiped everything out.

So we got to see some of the rooms in the TARDIS that have been mentioned before. So we got to hear snippets of lines from previous Doctors and companions. So we got to see the Eye of Harmony. So we got to see a weird purple liquid in a bottle doing weird things. So what? It turned out to be nothing more than spectacle. I would much rather have spent the entire episode watching the stupid little Dobby Doctor from the toclafane episode dancing Gangnam Style.

I'm considering stripping Fear Her of its "Worst Episode Ever" title and giving it to this episode, it was that bad.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

I think I saw a chink of improvement.

It came with the credits.

Did anybody else notice the superb graphics to the name tags. The spacing between character and actor's name was slightly less than normal (or so it appeared) which I thought added to the action and storyline perfectly.

So, we are going for the Clara is the tardis storyline again are we. Where due to some horrendous twist poor old attractive Clara gets turned into a glutinous zombie crisp thing. However due to the 'mysterious' effects of living in close proximity to a 'yellow' black hole (and we can all see the problems that would induce) she is able to everywhere and nowhere at all times (almost god like then).

Massive hole (ho ho) in the plot with the sun being at the centre of the 'infinite inner tardis space'. Seemed to take no time at all to pop there and back.

What Rose would think of all this is yet to be discovered. I think she'll be a bit put out.

As for the rooms - that was OK, it's been established before.

The 'brothers' (really ?) I thought they did quite well with the material they were given. The joke was OK if a little mean, but the characterisation and nicking the glow globe was a bit nonsensical.

The running around and the this room back to this room is getting a bit thin. It seems to raise it's head quite often in Who plots. the trouble is there is no consistency in either the sets or the fact it happens outside the tardis.

So in conclusion, another opportunity lost and big budget wasted.

A bit further into the Clara issue and no further forward in getting back to classic Who.

No need to mention the 'ray/gun/torch/welding/rod/black hole positioner' so I wont.

Surely the BBC could afford to come up with a different shape for a crack in the space time continuum!

 

[Foxbat]

Did I miss something concerning time travel? That time not only leaks but brings your dead self back to life? I can accept the characters meeting themselves through time leakage but they were so badly burned, they'd be dead and not animated monsters. Why didn't they just find their own corpses lying around? And why leakage of the future and not the past? Why not leakage of every single creature that's ever been in the Tardis (including the previous Doctors). Could have been a perfect setting for a 50th anniversary meeting.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Indeed, Foxbat.

I liked certain elements of this, but again, it's a deus ex machina, as written above.

If the brothers died, fair enough. But why become some sort of crispy fried salvage hunter monster?

The only reason is to add some sort of extra menace. But I don't think we needed a monster. If the writing were a bit different we could easily have had the TARDIS malfunction slightly which would have created lots of great opportunities. Corridors could lead into different times or themselves be time-reversed (so you get younger if you walk one way) and ghosts of old companions or even Doctors could've been seen.

And deus ex machina is rubbish. The only acceptable form may be if the Doctor had reversed the polarity of the neutron flow.

 

[ctg]

I'm considering stripping Fear Her of its "Worst Episode Ever" title and giving it to this episode, it was that bad.

Worst Episode Ever

Right, if that is so I will stop commenting completely.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

Oh I forgot, that Grapple thing. (which I admit was quite nice CGI)

It reaches out, gets hold of a thing with a black hole at its centre and drags it on-board.

So much for the technology of the time lords. I want one of those please.

 

[Ursa major]

Oh I forgot, that Grapple thing. (which I admit was quite nice CGI)

It reaches out, gets hold of a thing with a black hole at its centre and drags it on-board.

So much for the technology of the time lords. I want one of those please.

Perhaps this (and other things mentioned above) is the result of an effect not yet discovered by physicists: in the presence of a black hole, scriptwriters get denser....

 

[PTeppic]

In fairness, the Doctor had just dropped all defences at that point. To use modern vernacular, he'd rebooted in safe mode. Showing off for the skirt... again.

My bigger gripe is leaving a book prominently available, in one of the most awesome libraries in the universe, which opens at a page which gives away your biggest secret.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Okay I enjoyed it. It was not perfect but it entertained me for forty five minutes. Not the best episode ever, but certainly not the worst.

I suppose the child deep inside of me that always wondered at the TARDIS and what could be inside it just loved seeing some of it.

However I did read a preview that said the end would have the internet forums up in arms again, and it seems they are right. The reset was a cheap move hiding all the revelations, putting them back in the box as it were.

However, how much in the back in the box were they?

With time rest the salvagers seem different, even speaking lines from the now erased past. It seems as though not all of the time was gone, and if it is like that for them, could there be any more 'echoes' say in Clara's mind?

 

[tangaloomababe]

I don't mind this weeks episode, it was nice to see the much mentioned pool and I want that library.

I didn't think much of the creatures and when explained who they were was even less impressed.


I did like Foxbat's idea though, it would have made it a better episode if we have seen snippets of previous doctors, an opportunity wasted!


I am wondering if there is a connection between River and Clara, both have a tendency to call the Doctor "clever boy". Guess we will find out soon enough.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Well, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting from Lenny's heartfelt comments

I didn't actually mind the reset, liked that it at least linked into the plot and wasn't something completely made up at the last moment. Very much liked seeing all insides, especially the engine room.

It is a shame about having the forward movement of Clara erased, but as said, the brothers (or at least one) managed to retain something from the adventure, maybe more survived. And if the Doctor is named in that book, why doesn't every library goer know it? (I'm thus guessing it's the only copy in the Universe but who wrote it? Did it say? I may have looked away for a moment at that point)

What I especially like about Clara, going from before where I like that she gets scared -- she's also not the type that is all "No, I want to come tooooo!" in every dangerous situation. Like gladly shutting the door when the Doctor went into the Eye

Next week's looks good! I think the period piece ones tend to be better. And woot for Madame Vastra and Jenny again!

 

[Daggers]

I don't mind this weeks episode, it was nice to see the much mentioned pool and I want that library.

I didn't think much of the creatures and when explained who they were was even less impressed.


I did like Foxbat's idea though, it would have made it a better episode if we have seen snippets of previous doctors, an opportunity wasted!


I am wondering if there is a connection between River and Clara, both have a tendency to call the Doctor "clever boy". Guess we will find out soon enough.

I really hope not. I want to see the series tie in more with much older plotlines rather than those that are fresh in our minds.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I liked this one better than a couple of recent ones -- I actually wanted to see it the second time, which I haven't bothered with for the last two (although I did watch last week's again before this one).

I don't like the corridors in the TARDIS -- I've never pictured them looking like the inside of something in Star Trek. Klingon ship, maybe, since so much of the corridors seemed to be green. The TARDIS is full of rooms, so it should have hallways, not those weird bulkhead things.

I watched twice and still missed the pool -- when was that shown?

Was that a set of Encyclopedia Galactica ... in liquid form? Or am I hallucinating?

Perhaps the book is safe in the library because the TARDIS doesn't allow just anybody to get into the library -- which would beg the question of why it allowed Clara in, given its general dislike of her, but maybe it knew she wouldn't be allowed to remember anyway.

The bassinet with the hangy things was back, along with (I assume) Amy's TARDIS toy.