Doctor Who Series 7 Episode 10 - Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS - Review

Starring: Matt Smith, Jenna Louise-Coleman, Ashley Walters, Mark Oliver & Jahvel Hall

Written By: Stephen Thompson

Directed By: Mat King

Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS was born from showrunner Steven Moffat being “haunted” by the TARDIS interiors in the 4th Doctor story The Invasion Of Time. While that isn't a bad story, one area where it failed was with the TARDIS interior. The story used hastily constructed sets to represent the corridors and some of the different rooms of the TARDIS, that viewers usually don't see. Even for 1978, the sets looked terrible, and didn't look like something that was part of one of the best spaceships in the universe. So, the ultimate purpose of Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS is to show off the depths of the TARDIS, but in style. But does it do a better job than The Invasion Of Time?

Flying through space, the TARDIS is pulled into the magnetic grab of a salvage spaceship, and ends up being seriously damaged. The Doctor meets the salvage hunters and gets them to help save Clara, who is trapped in the depths of the TARDIS, after tricking them into thinking that they have 30 minutes to save her, before the TARDIS self-destructs. Like most of Series 7, this is another fantastic premise. However, this idea is fatally flawed by various things. The first of these being the salvage hunters, Gregor, Bram and Tricky. Not one of them is an interesting character, and they are all entirely forgettable. The only defining traits that I could find was that Gregor treats his brothers badly, Bram literally has nothing and Tricky, while the best of the three, is flawed by unnecessary character developments and twists, specifically about 2/3 into the episode. The big twist that happens here makes an already uninteresting character even worse by how unnecessary it all feels. It adds nothing to the grand scheme of the story, and I don't really care, despite it being treated as some sort of grand reveal.

 

Something that the episode handles far better than the supporting cast is the main threat. To add tension to the hunt to find Clara, the corridors of the TARDIS are stalked by creatures akin to Time Zombies. Their design looks great and its highly likely that they will scare a fair few younger viewers, while also making some scenes feel really tense. I also loved the way that they were shot by director Mat King, as whenever they were in shot, it was blurry and we weren't able to see them clearly. The CGI and special effects for this episode also looked fantastic, with the highlight being the opening scenes of the salvage ship.

 

Littered throughout the episode were multiple moments of fan-service, such as seeing the Doctor's cot again or seeing the classic Seal of Rassilon on the book about the Time War. We also see several areas of the TARDIS that up to now have remained a mystery, such as a vast library, the Eye of Harmony (a nice bit of continuity from Doctor Who – The TV Movie) and even the main engines of the TARDIS. However, as good as it is, I don't think it's anywhere near enough. This episode was promoted in a way that told us we would see more of the TARDIS than ever before, and that is essentially its main purpose. So where is it? Why did we only see a fleeting glimpse of the swimming pool? Where's the conservatory-like area from The Invasion Of Time? There was even a missed opportunity in the story by failing to include the Drawing Room that we saw in the Doctor Who Adventure Game TARDIS.

 

The resolution of the episode, while I won't spoil it entirely, is incredibly underwhelming, as it ends up being a solitary button that saves the day. That being said, this isn't anything new this series. The resolution from The Power Of Three is exactly the same ending that we get here, and it feels lazy. I'm not saying that pressing a button to solve everything can't work, but it needs to be handled right, and sadly this just wasn't the case here. There was simply too much build-up and too great a sense of danger for that sort of ending to work.

 

So to round things up, Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS certainly has good intentions and it gets them somewhat right. Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman give good performances, but there isn't much I can say about them, as their characters weren't massively involved in the episode. Clara is still lacking a personality and five episodes into her run as a companion, this is becoming a bigger and bigger problem. The premise for this episode was a great one, and was accompanied by a great threat, some nice fan-service and it looked great thanks to some terrific effects. However, it was also let down drastically by some of the worst supporting characters of the series so far, a lack of the promised exploration into the TARDIS, unnecessary plot developments and an awful ending.

 

Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS



5/10