29 April 2013

Well, it is huge, so it would be a long one... (Review: 'Doctor Who' 33.10, "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS")

The Doctor and Clara run into a trio of salvage merchants, as the TARDIS comes close to destruction…

I didn’t come into this with any real expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised at the interesting things that went down this episode:

  • Noises in space really irk me – I know it’s expected of the genre and a show not always known for scientific rigour, but it still irritated me.
  • This has to be the first ever Doctor Who episode where the entire guest cast were from an ethnic minority – and it wasn’t even mentioned on screen. For one thing, it was completely irrelevant.
  • We got to see some interesting TARDIS rooms, but there was still an awful lot of corridor action.
  • The Doctor really doesn’t want people to know his real name, does he? 
  • Clara (contains Lancashire and sass) was again superb. The revelation of her true identity is going to be a cracking one, that’s for sure. Mind you, if that dress was any shorter we could have ended up with a panty shot. 
  • For the second time in two episodes, everyone did something that is usually associated with the tales of one Steven Moffat.  
  • The back and forth between the leads is great; you see that Smith and Coleman have real chemistry. 
  • The snippets of audio from past Doctors was a lovely touch, as was having the Seventh Doctor’s umbrella make a brief appearance. 
  • The Van Baalens’ were OK, but not brilliant – I see there have been complaints about their acting on Gallifrey Base. 
  • Next week looks like it could be rather fun – Diana Rigg in particular.

Conclusion

An enjoyable tale, but lagged a bit at times and pressing a literal reset button did seem more than a bit of a cop-out. I had enough of that with Merlin.

7/10

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