A title like Journey
to the Centre of the TARDIS promises much. The Doctor’s trusty timeship is
the single central icon of the entire series from its very first episode up to
the present iteration, and it seemed that, in this anniversary year, we were
finally going to get right into its inner workings and see what made it tick.
Only… well, we’ve had that episode, haven’t we? Two years
ago, The Doctor’s Wife showed us the
soul of the TARDIS, explored its labyrinthine structure and atemporal
existence. The Doctor’s Wife already
gave us our exploration of the TARDIS, providing the living machine with the
equivalent of an origin story for a long-serving human (or human-like)
character. This, then, raised the stakes even higher for the latest episode;
not only did Journey have to provide
an intriguing, exciting voyage of discovery, it had to outdo Gaiman’s episode
and bring us even greater, more intimate revelations about the TARDIS’s
character.
Under that criterion, this
episode can only be regarded as a failure. I’ll accept that, with the shields
down, the TARDIS was able to be severely damaged by some relatively primitive
technology, even if it does make the ship seem disquietingly vulnerable. I’ll
accept that the Doctor suddenly found himself outside the TARDIS and on the
salvage ship, yet Clara found herself lost within the time machine’s corridors.
I’ll accept any amount of frankly illogical plotting (although I’ll still revel
in pointing it out) as long as it brings us to a powerful, affecting story. Journey didn’t.
There are some nice elements to
the trip through the TARDIS’s interior. The rooms that contain whole
environments hark back to highly imaginative moment sin the novel line, which
finally gave the TARDIS the feel of something truly gigantic (even infinite, as
it is claimed here). The architectural reconfiguration system, manifested as a
techno-organic tree with glowing bulbs, was visually effective. The library,
despite the rather obviously CG’d stacks, was an essential inclusion, the
antique look summoning the baroque stylings of the eighth Doctor’s version of
the Ship. I will come back to this. However, beyond these elements and some fun
echoes of the past, the TARDIS seems rather hollow. Endless corridors do not
make an exciting or interesting environment, even when they loop back on
themselves in order to trap their occupants. Too much of the TARDIS feels just
like any old spaceship.
Later on, we take a walk by the
Eye of Harmony, an element of Gallifreyan lore now reinterpreted once more into
something more visually impressive. The description of a star held in stasis at
the moment of collapse from supernova to black hole is a fine science fiction
conceit, but the roiling ball of flame by a bridge of death makes even less
sense than the Eye’s previous iterations, even in the notoriously illogical TV
Movie. Once we’re past this, the Doctor and Clara make it to the core of the
TARDIS, an engine room that appears to be little more than a selection of
gizmos spread-eagled across space with little regard to form or function. Yes,
I understand that the engine had exploded and was being held in the moment, but
it’s still presented as just an engine. If we’ve been taken past the mystical
Eye of Harmony and into the TARDIS’s true heart, we should really be given
something more than just a spacey motor.
So, yes, that library; a room
with much information to impart. For Clara to find, displayed proudly on a
pedestal, a book charting the Time War and the Doctor’s role within it, is
potentially a hugely significant development. Not only does it promise
revelations about the Doctor’s past, it also suggests that the TARDIS is eager
for Clara to discover it. I’m not entirely sure if I’m happy with the prospect
of the Doctor’s ‘secret identity’ being revealed; I really don’t think he needs
secrets to be exposed. I will, however, wait until the promised revelation
finally arrives before making up my mind. In any case, the ongoing mysteries
regarding both the Doctor and Clara come to something of a peak here, only for
the developments to be completely thrown out the window by the episode’s end.
Clara discovers the Doctor’s real name from the book in the library, while the
Doctor (and the audience) discover that Clara is, apparently, nothing more than
a perfectly ordinary young woman. Then the Doctor presses a literal reset
switch and wipes the entire episode from the timeline.
I’m not necessarily averse to a
reset switch type of ending; I’ve used myself. It does, however, have to leave
something behind, for without any consequences, there is little point to a
story. There’s certainly a hint that the Doctor still remembers the events of
the episode, no doubt due to his unique status as a Time Lord, and I can only
hope that this holds true. Otherwise, next week the mystery of Clara will still
be ongoing with no progress on the Doctor’s part, and it is already threatening
to become tedious.
The reset also pretty much
negates the development of the guest characters, although this really isn’t
much of a loss. Played by three of the blandest actors ever to grace the
series, the van Baalen Brothers are some of the least effective antagonists in
years. At least generic monsters give you something cool to look at; these
three were just some black guys in space. It’s a helpful cultural shorthand:
working-class black people = untrustworthy with criminal tendencies. Now, I’m
sure this wasn’t deliberate, and Doctor
Who has cast many black actors in very positive roles; however, it does,
inevitably, come across as an example of lazy racism. Three black people
co-opted into working for the nice white Doctor with the threat of violence. It
only gets worse when we look at their personalities (such as they are). There’s
the greedy, untrustworthy, little clever one; the greedy, untrustworthy, big
thick one; and the one who’s not so bad, but is so stupid that he’s told he’s
an android and believed it.
Now, an android who is programmed
to believe he’s human – that works. The other way round doesn’t, no matter how
much head trauma he’s suffered. Did he never think, when he was having a wee or
something, hang on, androids don’t wee? Not to mention the fact that we can
tell he’s not an android as soon as he takes a drink in his first scene. The
tragic thing is, the whole plot point is thrown in there just as a desperate
attempt to give these characters some development. The supposed identity of
Tricky, an android who has a special affinity with other machines, has a place
in an episode about the TARDIS. The alternative we’re presented with makes
little sense and even less impact.
Thus, it comes down to the
suspense created by the monsters, which are, in all fairness, rather effective.
A good, straightforward concept; burnt, shadowy figures quietly stalking our
heroes through the bowels of the Ship. The conjoined brothers are particularly
gruesome. Again, though, the episode promises more than it gives. Initially, it
seems that the creatures are either part of the TARDIS, or prisoners within it,
either of which would have been a potentially potent source of conflict between
the Doctor and Clara. Once they are properly confronted, and one of them is
revealed to have Clara’s DNA, huge questions are raised. Just what has the
Doctor been doing in his search for the truth about Clara? Are these creatures
in some way further aspects of her multiplied life? We get just a moment or two
of suspicion, before the Doctor drops the news that they are the protagonists’
twisted future selves. A creepy, ghoulish concept that fits the episode’s
setting well, but ultimately one that is the least interesting of the options
available.
That’s the problem in a nutshell.
The whole episode, from scripting to design, seems committed to being mediocre;
to pulling its punches. The highlight of the episode should not be a few
snatches of archived speech; the design should aspire to more than just ‘better
than in The Invasion of Time’ With
witless dialogue, a trudgingly linear plot and a crushingly disappointing
denouement, Journey to the Centre of the
TARDIS is that most frustrating of things: average.
Links and references: So, those echoes of the past in the console
room. They included various bits of TARDIS-related dialogue from the whole
history of the series. I managed to make out: Susan in An Unearthly Child, the third Doctor (not sure what episode), the eleventh
Doctor and Idris-TARDIS in The Doctor’s
Wife, the fourth Doctor in The Robots
of Death, the ninth Doctor in Rose,
Amy Pond in The Beast Below, Ian Chesterton in An Unearthly Child, and I think Peter Davison in Time Crash.
As well as the library, the
Arch=Rec Suite and the Eye of Harmony, the other previously mentioned location
we see in the TARDIS is the swimming pool (which might be the same as the
bathroom seen in the aforementioned Invasion
of Time). We also see the Doctor’s cot, Amy’s TARDIS model and the seventh
Doctor’s umbrella (not the question mark one, sadly).
Best line: Sorry, I've got nothing this week. All the best lines were from the archive.
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