New Who Review: Journey to the Center of the TARDIS

[puppetmaker]

Bottle, bottle, who’s got the bottle? Yes, this counts almost as another bottle episode.

Over all not my favorite of this season for reasons I will explain behind the cut.

Acting was solid over all. The big reveal was set up so you could see that the pieces where there.

It was nice to see parts of the TARDIS we had seen before or been told about before. Thanks to green screen we can have scope and claustrophobia all at the same time. There were lots of shout outs to fans of the previous Doctors and I am sure I missed some since we went through some places so fast.

So not bad but not as good as it could have been.

Next week The Crimson Horror.



OK I will say very plainly I hated the big shiny almost reset button. So the entire adventure didn’t happen however there are echoes and the TARDIS feels better about Clara? Writing one’s self into a corner doesn’t mean that the only out is that button. It was almost like the writer was screaming Do Over!

And that brilliant speech between Clara and the Doctor meant nothing. The overall “arc” didn’t move forward and in the end all the toys were returned in the same condition as they left the toy box. What was that? A Star Trek novel?

I did enjoy seeing the library and the various other nods to the different Doctors through out the TARDIS. I am not saying I didn’t have fun watching the episode but the end just bugged the every loving out of me.

Also the reason for the time loops was rather convoluted as where the loops themselves.

I am grateful that there was enough in the episode that I cared about because I don’t think I would be as ticked about the ending otherwise.

Comments

[thinkum]

I hated the Big Friendly Button ploy as well. How cliche!

What I wanted to know was who wrote the history book on the Time War. The Doctor timelocked all the other Timelords, so who else is around who knows his real name? River? Or did he write the book himself?

[wookieegunner.livejournal.com]

The overall “arc” didn’t move forward and in the end all the toys were returned in the same condition as they left the toy box. What was that? A Star Trek novel?

Given that the first time I heard or saw the name Peter David was on the cover of Deep Space Nine: The Siege I chortled a bit on this statement.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I think there is the illusion of a "Reset Button". The Doctor seems to be impervious to them. He has remembered things that have happened in a time loop before. And we still don't know what Clara Oswin Oswald is. She keeps on saying she is a Normal Human, but we know she has lived before (the Christmas Special) and will live again (the Dalek Episode), some how, because echoes of those two lives keep showing up in this one. Jenna-Louise Coleman gives clues in a BBC press interview: “All I can say is that Clara hasn’t just met the Doctor three times before…”
Curiouser and curiouser.