Bigger on the Inside

[sharplittlteeth]

Just finished watching the Doctor Who episode "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS".

This isn't really a review. It's just some thoughts, about environment and imagination. But be warned:

Comments

[redcountess]

Yeah, I agree that it would have been better if there had been some sort of motivation for the salvaging. I liked how Clara in the library set up the whole "doctor's name" thing to come.

[greylock]

It's a BIG SECRET! A NAME THAT SHOULD NEVER BE SPOKEN! but I'll just leave it here in this book anyone can read.

[sharplittlteeth]

I have trepidations about the whole Doctor's name thing. He's a Time Lord. He stole a time machine. He fights monsters and wanders time and space. He's plenty special enough without some Cartmel Masterplan-style backstory.

[greylock]

Hooray. It loads.
I mostly agree. Of course, the TARDIS has always had the capacity to be infinite, but why? Why make a ship so large?
Never made sense.
I was fully expecting this to be a corridor romp, and I got it. But I wanted more.
Roundels, mostly. Weird gravity.

And engines.... steampunk engines as they were described in The Edge of Destruction. All brass and wood, and alien.

But mostly I wanted roundels. I wanted a sense of space, like the wardrobe from The Christmas Invasion.

I was not a fan of this episode, but I didn't hate it. And I have watched it twice. I enjoyed it more the second time. But, again, the character moments and acting make up for the plot holes.

And the engine room.... why was it a quarry/cliff?

So many questions. Like why did the TARDIS explode in The Big Bang? I almost hoped this was going to lead into that.

And the time zombies? Lame. It would have been better if they were things - either from the rift - or more likely thing The Doctor kept away from the Universe in the centre of the TARDIS.

[sharplittlteeth]

My first thought was the zombies were like rats - things growing in the hidden corners of the TARDIS. Then I thought they were clones of Clara, grown by the Doctor from skin samples and fallen hairs as he tried to figure her out.

I assume the quarry was an in-joke.

The corridors - they were different than the ones in "the Doctor's Wife", weren't they? Did Gaiman get those sets built for nothing?

[damien_wise]

David, you've nailed it, and in some many places. you've basically picked-out every main gripe I had about this show

[sharplittlteeth]

The SFX review nails it:

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2013/04/27/doctor-who-7-10-journey-to-the-centre-of-the-tardis-review/

[sharplittlteeth]

Dissenting voices always welcome.

According to Wikipedia, this episode was directly inspired by The Invasion of Time.

[greylock]

They don't get lost in the TARDIS. They hide from the Sontarans. Back when the Sontarans were a Big Bad and not comedy relief. And that inside of the TARDIS was even more disappointing than this.

[strang_er]

"If you want something to feel vast and magical, hinting is more evocative than showing."

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be how they do things in Nu-Who. One glaring example was a couple of weeks ago, in the episode with the Ice Warrior. The hints of his true face, hidden in the shadows with just enough visible to imagine more, was a wonderful way to add something to an old (and fairly uninteresting) alien. Then they threw it all away to show his face Just Because They Can. No mystery, no intrigue, just a special effects budget.

I haven't seen the "Journey.." episode yet. I saw the word 'spoilers' here and thought: "whatever." Pretty much sums up how i feel about the show these days. Yet i still keep watching it.