A Mad Man's Mad Box

Now that's what I call an easy escape. Just re-write history, make the things which kept people's hearts racing never happen and allow a big friendly button to save the day. The worst thing is that I wouldn't have minded if this had been the plot of any other episode of this season, after all, this is pretty much the basic idea of Moffat's finales, only that this time it was done in a really un-crafty way. But this was "The Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS" (or "Journey"  for the sweet shortness of it). Which was maybe the  most anticipated episode of this season because it is one of those few times that we get to see the inside of the TARDIS. It's almost as if you'd have an episode featuring the Doctor's diary. And as in my humble opinion he isn't keeping one (or not ATM anyway), the TARDIS' interior comes pretty close to a diary's function. She's the one and only companion who manages to stick around. Which means if there is a place in the universe which can tell us something about the Doctor's past then it's inside that magical blue box. Therefore, it's only natural that the title of this week's episode got Whovians exited.

So just imagine the disappointment when we find out that the inside of the most iconic thing of this series seems to exist mostly of corridors. Or that's what Thompson decided to show us anyway. I get the idea. If you have many rooms you need many corridors connecting them. But the sheer number of corridors is simply ridiculous. Besides, when you get the chance to write a story set within the mighty walls of the TARDIS there are a number of items and rooms (from the classic series) which could have had a re-appearance on screen.

And this ties in with the second point which could have used improving. The rooms. Sure, we got to see a few glimpses of the Doctor's past (the cot, Amy's model of the TARDIS, and maybe other stuff which will be the only reason for fans to re-watch this episode a few times). But most of us were expecting more than seeing the swimming pool, the TARDIS architectural reconfiguration system and the famous library, which is giant but does not feature the aforementioned swimming pool... come on, how difficult would it have been to change that via CGI? You really could have given us that small pleasure. This way the most interesting part of the library is that the Encyclopedia Gallifreyica is kept in bottles. Whispering bottles. I love the idea. BTW, shouldn't the label translate rather to Encyclopaedia Galilifreyica? But given the fact that the TARDIS just crashlanded it's not difficult to accept that its translation mechanism appears to be somewhat faulty.

Even though I know that the TARDIS has changed its interior twice since the series' revival, I still imagined that some parts of it stayed the same and were still in there, like  the really impressing staircase-y bit  which we got a glimpse at "The Christmas Invasion". Somehow back then the TARDIS looked warm and more alive, something which got more and more CGI-ed away during the last seasons. Being familiar with Moffat's soft spot for fairy-tale-y motives things could have been much more impressive and less mechanic. After all, the TARDIS is not a machine, something which wasn't *really*pointed out this time.

And then there is the pointless and plotholes-ridden plot of "Journey", about which I do not really have the patience to complain. Still, just to mention a few things: after the TARDIS ends up in that salvage space-ship why is the Doctor outside the blue box, while Clara is still inside? And what are the odds of the TARDIS being attacked the very second the Doctor puts the shields down? The only thing which gets explained is those creepy, zombie-like creatures.And they make sense.

Of course, there were a few moments which managed to live up to expectations. The most touching TARDIS-Doctor moment was when he and Clara enter the heart of the TARDIS just to see her engine/heart being torn apart and frozen in time.  His "she's just always been there for me, taken care of me. And now it's my turn and I don't know what to do" was pretty touching. Additionally, "Journey" was the first episode in which the Doctor admits to have secrets and that it's important to him to keep them. Giving the nature of the series, this is only logical, but I can't remember having seen this issue addressed on screen this obviously. Plus, we learn that the Doctor does have an actual name. And it's not the Doctor. Otherwise, Clara  wouldn't have brought it up like this. Although, I think it's strange that the Doctor keeps a book about the history of the Time War ready to hand in the Library which contains his real name. And this brings me to the only good point of the wibbely-wobbely-timey-wimey storyline, namely, that rewriting these event made Clara forgetting about everything, including the Doctor's name.

So all in all, this could have been worse, but at the same time it could have been so much better... Let's hope that Gaiman's Cyberman-two-parter will manage to save this season from becoming the worst of 'New-Who'. Because that's where things are heading ATM.