This week's episode of Doctor Who was a perfect example of being careful what you wish for. I've always wanted to know what was through the doors of the TARDIS. However, whenever we've had a peek (during Tom Baker's run, particularity in Logopolis, or more recently in Neil Gaiman's episode) what we've seen has been a bit of a disappointment - usually endless identical corridors or, on one occasion, a run-down Victorian swimming pool.
Unfortunately despite moments of brilliance, and a few beautiful sets, this once did not buck the trend and was largely the Doctor wandering around corridors while being chased by a fantastic looking but poorly realised and fleshed out monster. Again.
Unfortunately despite moments of brilliance, and a few beautiful sets, this once did not buck the trend and was largely the Doctor wandering around corridors while being chased by a fantastic looking but poorly realised and fleshed out monster. Again.
The TARDIS is a world in its own right, one that exists mainly in the imagination of the viewers. Rooms are mentioned and wonders hinted at (my favourite being the Room of Endless Sunsets) but we never see them. Which is probably for the best as the imagination has a budget and scope that no TV series can match. Every time we see inside the TARDIS it is made smaller on the inside as no set, however well decorated, can live up the expectation decades of imaginations have used. And most of the time the sets aren’t even that good - Tom Baker's TARDIS interiors were mostly filmed an abandoned hospital, the aforementioned closed down Victoria era swimming pool and on one infamous occasion the corridors of BBC TV Central itself.
At least here they'd built custom sets for the TARDIS. Even though they were mainly corridors (and seriously – where were all the roundels? There’s been raging arguments about the lack of roundels since The Invasion Of Time – maybe this oversight was a way to engage with older viewers in time for the 50th?). That said the library, with its liquid based encyclopaedias, looked amazing. Even though it looked like it was a refugee from the Harry Potter films. The replicator room was also amazing looking - I'm hoping to see that again in future. There were also a few nice references to previous episodes - you got to see The Doctor's cot again, the toy TARDIS Mel and Amy played with as children, and Sylvester McCoy's umbrella as Clara ran from room to room.
At least here they'd built custom sets for the TARDIS. Even though they were mainly corridors (and seriously – where were all the roundels? There’s been raging arguments about the lack of roundels since The Invasion Of Time – maybe this oversight was a way to engage with older viewers in time for the 50th?). That said the library, with its liquid based encyclopaedias, looked amazing. Even though it looked like it was a refugee from the Harry Potter films. The replicator room was also amazing looking - I'm hoping to see that again in future. There were also a few nice references to previous episodes - you got to see The Doctor's cot again, the toy TARDIS Mel and Amy played with as children, and Sylvester McCoy's umbrella as Clara ran from room to room.
| However, much like the Wizard of Oz, when you pull back the curtains and reveal the mystery of the TARDIS you lose far more than you gain. Actually the whole episode had a Wizard of Oz theme with a young woman getting lost in a strange magical land and having to be rescued by a trio of companions, one of who was a tin man! | The episode lacks the carefully crafted storytelling I've come to expect from Moffat's era. |
While getting to see inside the TARDIS was the main draw the story that enabled it didn't really make much sense. The entire plot revolved around The Doctor dropping the shields at the one second in all of space and time that he was most vulnerable. The coincidence involved stretched my belief a little bit far - especially as surely the times the shields are most needed are when you are teaching a learner driver how to fly the spaceship?
The salvage team were also poorly realised, and the reveal that the android was actually a human felt rushed and pointless. And the lava zombies, or the TARDIS turning on the Doctor and company, were never fully explained. Why were they chasing them around the ship? This is the third episode this series were a fantastic costume has been wasted on an enemy that feels under written and poorly established as a threat.
In fact the entire episode felt like one from Russell T Davies era where every idea he had, whether fully realised or not, was thrown into a big melting pot. The episode (and indeed this whole series) lacks the carefully crafted storytelling I've come to expect from Moffat's era.
In conclusion, it was a perfectly adequate episode, with some nice references and call backs to earlier Who episodes (both recent and classic), a smattering of nice set pieces, and good performances all round but like so much of the latest series it was lacking the final polish I've come to expect from Doctor Who. And it ended with the reset button being pressed (literally), the worst kind of ending for serial storytelling, which made it all the more pointless as it didn’t even happen!
Gareth
The salvage team were also poorly realised, and the reveal that the android was actually a human felt rushed and pointless. And the lava zombies, or the TARDIS turning on the Doctor and company, were never fully explained. Why were they chasing them around the ship? This is the third episode this series were a fantastic costume has been wasted on an enemy that feels under written and poorly established as a threat.
In fact the entire episode felt like one from Russell T Davies era where every idea he had, whether fully realised or not, was thrown into a big melting pot. The episode (and indeed this whole series) lacks the carefully crafted storytelling I've come to expect from Moffat's era.
In conclusion, it was a perfectly adequate episode, with some nice references and call backs to earlier Who episodes (both recent and classic), a smattering of nice set pieces, and good performances all round but like so much of the latest series it was lacking the final polish I've come to expect from Doctor Who. And it ended with the reset button being pressed (literally), the worst kind of ending for serial storytelling, which made it all the more pointless as it didn’t even happen!
Gareth
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