Doctor Who Mid-Week Review: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS

Doctor Who Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS Movie Poster

So here we are mid week(ish) and we have a Doctor Who review for the actual week is was aired in! This week’s episode, journey to the Centre of the TARDIS is quite a bit more what I was expecting of this season. The story, setting, acting and everything came together to make for a really great episode. If every episode of this sequence had been of this caliber, I doubt the ratings would be slipping as has been reported. Anyway on with the mostly spoiler free part.

The whole episode is kicked off with The Doctor trying to build a relationship between Clara and the TARDIS and decides to give her a “flying lesson”. In doing so he sets the TARDIS to “basic” which leaves them just vulnerable enough for the Van Baalen Bros salvage to pick them up using illegal tech. Clara is trapped inside the severely damaged TARDIS, and appears to be not alone. The Doctor recruits the salvage team to go into the TARDIS and help find/save this impossible girl.

The Monster

The episode does a great job of building suspense, but also wonder at the TARDIS. We see several rooms (much different than the rooms we saw during the classic run, but the hallways are similar to what we saw in “The Doctor’s Wife”) including the more recently mentioned pool and library. There is a dynamic going on with the crew of the salvage ship that I though I had figured out, but was a little off on the reveal. The dynamic between Clara and the Doctor, while strained by the situation, is back on track again. Then there is the mystery of the monsters on the TARDIS. What are they? Why are they there? The only real weak point of the episode is in a plot resolution that is not only timey whimey, but I can’t for the life of me figure out why it works.

So That’s how she does it

We also get some story arc connectivity in this episode. Not enough to really give away what is to come, but it plants ideas. We also get some resolution on does Clara really want to be on this journey or not. Up to this point, it seemed unclear to me, so it is nice to get an answer one way or the other. So I have run out of thing I can think to talk about without diving into any spoilers that aren’t determinable from the promo. If you have suggestions on things you think would make a good addition to the non-spoiler sections, please let me know in the comments. As always please leave comments on your thoughts about the episode, using the spoiler tags when relevant. one other thing, if you dive into the spoiler section, I have been assuming that you already watched the episode and therefore don”t need a plot synopsis. If anyone is looking for a plot synopsis in the spoilers, let me know and I will work to

Where are we?

include that in future reviews (and maybe some of the past if I can get it together). For those of you who don’t want to dive deeper into the episode, it is time to say farewell because here come the SPOILERS SWEETIE!

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The History of the Time War

There is so much going on in this episode, it is hard to tell where to start. I guess we start with the confrontation, thereveal that is wiped from time…or is it? The Doctor, either being slow or truly believing this is the end confronts Clara about his obsession with what/who she is. In two separate rants he reveals “she” has died before and that he has no idea who, why or what she is and pleads with her to reveal it. Clara seems genuinely to not have the foggiest idea of what he is talking about. Of course she is also harboring the fact at this point that she knows his name, which she doesn’t reveal until the last second. So in the end we still don’t know much.

The History of the Time War…a giant tome sitting on the library on display. Presumably written by the Doctor himself, I mean who else could have, it is sitting out there for

She KNOWS!

anyone who walks in to find. The question them becomes though, why was it not written in Gallifreyan? I presume that someday the Doctor knows he will die, and that knowledge must be preserved, and since there aren’t a lot of folks left that can read the language of the Time Lords, he wrote it in a more common language instead. So Clara looks in and after a couple pages manages to find the secret that all ask, but few really want to know (in the real world), the name of the Doctor. Now unless the name is something we would all recognize, what’s in a name. the name itself is meaningless, but since he doesn’t use it, it represents a life left behind. An identity abandoned. He can’t be Rassalon (sp?). We know he was revered and hated by the Time Lords, but they generally gave him a wide berth. What does this mean? No Clue. Will they really reveal the Doctor’s name at the end of the season…I doubt it. Unless they REALLY want to stop the show. Either than or we will find out his name is Bob and he just wanted something more intriguing as he roamed the universe. But in the end, there is a difference between what his name is and who he was.

The TARDIS is dead

Tied to this, he said that he has been piloting the TARDIS (presumably he means this one) for over 900 years. At this point I beleive he is @ 1100 years old, meaning he fled Time Lord socioty at around 200 years old and lived in his original form for about 600 of those. It is also implied that the TARDIS spent a great deal of time stationary prior to the very first episode. What does this mean. Nothing as far as I can tell except helping to assemble a timeline.

Why was the star that powers the TARDIS in the upper left at first and then the lower right later?

What is the significance of the Encyclopedia Gallifrey spilling onto Clara.  I guess it never properly spilled on her, but still, how does liquid knowledge work?

Encyclopedia Gallifrey

The Key in the TARDIS labeled SMITHS. No idea what it means. Was it a previous version of the TARDIS key? Is it just an easter egg? Is it the key Matt wanted the TARDIS to have? I dunno.

Gripe: why does the magna-grab remote reset time? I mean I get that it could stop the magna-grab and allow them to escape, but it actually resets time to before the grab was made. Not only that but things changed that go back before the incident. The Van Ballen family picture still has Tricky in it. Gregor has “a shred of decency” which is what the Doctor told him and then told him never to forget. Clara seems to have reset, but she didn’t want to forget the Doctor’s reveal of his name. The Doctor seems to know, or is at least aware of the prior timeline. So he seems to be ready to treat her as a proper companion, and not a science experiment, lets see where this goes for the remainder of the season

I am sure there is stuff I forgot…I’ll add spoiler comments and they come to me.
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