S34E5: Journey to the Centre of the Tardis

[Admiral Valdemar]

"Lancashire. Sass."
"Intelligent sensor."

I'm sorry, but that bit cracked me up.

[Parallax]

Wish there had been some shoutouts to previous companions, like what if they found some of Leela's weapons, or some nitro9 canisters and a comment about how dangerous that stuff is....

Think I heard Susan from Unearthly Child spelling out what TARDIS means.

Yeah, when Soon To Be Dead Scavenger was scrounging around the console, there were faint voice overs from the classic series all about the TARDIS.

As for callbacks to the classic series, at one point an umbrella is picked up that looked exactly like the first one the 7th Doctor used (before the question mark handle one).

[The Romulan Republic]

This was a fairly poor and confusing episode, but it had some suspense and might be worth watching to see some more of the TARDIS. It could have been worse.

[Havok]

Man, if you were confused by this episode...

[The Romulan Republic]

Come on. The level of nonsensical technobable seems high even by Doctor Who's standards.

And some of the Doctor's behaviour seemed out of character, although he's not very consistent. I'm not a psychologist, but I think the Eleventh Doctor's bipolar.

[Parallax]

Oddly enough, most the the systems and tech mentioned were already mentioned in the series at some point. Diomorphic generators, as a quick example, have definitely been talked about before.

[Stark]

Copy and pasting buzzwords IS the core of western fanservice, after all. Did they synthesize a consistent message out of them?

Yes, that's a rhetorical question.

[Parallax]

What I'm trying to indicate is that I wouldn't label what was in the episode as "non-sensical technobabble". It all seemed to follow what has been shown/demonstrated/mentioned in the show previously. No systems were magically pulled out of their proverbial asses to save the day (even the time loop that saved the day is a very old Doctor Who trick).
None of the tech mentioned (especially the concepts tied to them) seemed to be new, with the possible exception of the 'room echo' thing which didn't end up doing that much anyhow.

It's not as if the Doctor saved the day by 'amplifying the Q rotation of the Plaht Device to deflect temporal radiation' or whatever Trek did on a regular basis.

Edit:

And some of the Doctor's behaviour seemed out of character, although he's not very consistent. I'm not a psychologist, but I think the Eleventh Doctor's bipolar.

Examples? The Doctor has decided to place the TARDIS at risk before, just because he wanted to show off or tinker with it. The Horns of Nimon (as shitty a story as it was) had that exact thing happen. Romana couldn't believe the Doctor did it but he did, simply because sometimes is an irresponsible jerk.

[The Romulan Republic]

Did he actually endanger the TARDIS? The self-destruct was a ruse.

As for out of character behaviour, he didn't seem as angry at the captain of the salvage ship as past episodes might lead one to expect. I guess the Doctor was in a forgiving mood.

[Parallax]

He took the TARDIS shields down, which allowed it to be damaged by the magno-grip to begin with. Why? Because he wanted the ship in 'basic mode' so he could try to teach Clara to fly it. In short, he took the shields off-line because he wanted to show off.
That's pretty damn irresponsible in my book.

I'd assume that the lack of anger from the Doctor was due to a few things; namely that he had far bigger problems at hand (death of the TARDIS and everyone there being at top of the list).

[The Romulan Republic]

What were the odds that something dangerous would be their at that time in the middle of space?

Seems like the Doctor just got really unlucky.

[Parallax]

It would have be fine if he had done something like ... oh, checked the scanner for nearby ships/colonies/freaky occurrences first.
Yet there's no indication that he checked the monitor/sensors at all, he just flicked some switches leaving the TARDIS vulnerable without seeing if it was safe to do so.

And it obviously wasn't. And it's not like the TARDIS' obviously impressive sensor systems wouldn't have detected said Earth clunker salvage ship, he just didn't bother to check.

And odds of danger around the Doctor at any given point? Pretty well damn well all the time.

[Havok]

If a string of five technobabble words was what confused you, you really ought to stop watching Doctor Who.
I mean, I'm surprised you can even follow along. They way they do seasons and that regeneration thing must have your head spinning.

[Batman]

I don't know about oldWho but in nuWho the Doctors not only have a pretty consistent history of not paying much in the way of attention at times, but of...being less than pinpoint accurate in when and where they park the TARDIS as opposed to when and where they intended to. It wouldn't particularly surprise me if the Doctor did scan the area and deemed it safe, only to arrive there 5 years early.

[Alkaloid]

The issue I have, apart from the poor pacing, and the miraculous recovery of being run through the shoulder and pinned to the wall from what it turned out was not an android, was it made the TARDIS feel small. The idea of having to explore the tardis, and search through all things the doctor has picked up or is keeping on board for other reasons has a lot of potential, but they wasted all of it. Even the scene with the star seemed cramped, because no one stopped to bask in the enormity of it all, and just enjoy the fact that they are travelling in this fantastic amazing thing that can fit in your bedroom but contains an entire universe and the salvage of a 900 year long and very interesting life. Instead it was all rush rush run away from monsters that are us from the future but dying and for some reason murderous and entirely unnecessary to the plot and only serve to make the pacing suck oh look the swimming pool that got mentioned once lets stop fleeing giggle at it for half a second and carry on.

[jwl]

They certainly showed the warped space of the TARDIS really well, which is kind of the point of its internal size anyway. Plus, if you look at it quantifiably, this episode makes the TARDIS bigger than its ever been thought of before.

[Soontir C'boath]

Sooner or later when special effects isn't a burden, I hope the Doctor finally installs a trans-mat system. You would think that if the TARDIS might as well be infinite, then it needs a quick transportation system to get around it.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Sooner or later when special effects isn't a burden, I hope the Doctor finally installs a trans-mat system. You would think that if the TARDIS might as well be infinite, then it needs a quick transportation system to get around it.

The Doctor has always HATED Transmat. It always seemed to be not so trustworthy tech and there were a Lot of issues with it on the old show.

[jwl]

Plus it's implied that the corridors all take shortcuts by messing with space anyway.

[Starglider]

I thought it was surprisingly effective. I mean, it has various bits that should have been stupid and annoying, not least the reset button. Somehow it worked well as a coherent whole though, possibly due to the acting being above the usual Dr Who standard. Frankly you can't expect typical TV writers to make something like the TARDIS consistent across 50 years of canon or plausibly detailed fantasy physics, the episode had genuinely interesting ideas and good atmosphere, and that puts it above most of this season.

[Parallax]

They certainly showed the warped space of the TARDIS really well, which is kind of the point of its internal size anyway. Plus, if you look at it quantifiably, this episode makes the TARDIS bigger than its ever been thought of before.

It's been strongly implied, if not outright stated, that the TARDIS reconfigures it's internal architecture all the time - including moving stuff so that the occupants don't need three weeks of supplies and a team of pack animals just to find the nearest bathroom.
I assume the only way the Doctor finds his way around (usually) is the mental link he has with the TARDIS.

[jwl]

They certainly showed the warped space of the TARDIS really well, which is kind of the point of its internal size anyway. Plus, if you look at it quantifiably, this episode makes the TARDIS bigger than its ever been thought of before.

It's been strongly implied, if not outright stated, that the TARDIS reconfigures it's internal architecture all the time - including moving stuff so that the occupants don't need three weeks of supplies and a team of pack animals just to find the nearest bathroom.
I assume the only way the Doctor finds his way around (usually) is the mental link he has with the TARDIS.

I got the idea it was more to do with the same kind of space bending that causes the bigger on the inside thing in the first place. Evidence for it in this episode would be the TARDIS sending them in circles when they stole the egg-thing, the doctor taking a "shortcut" to the centre, and the size of the library not matching up with the distance clara ran along the corridors.

[Havok]

It still has to make shit to fill the space.

[Batman]

Not necessarily. That's what bending space is all about. You step into the corridor, you step out of the corridor, you're a kilometre (or a lightsecond or whatever) away from where you started without the actual need for there being that much corridor. The TARDIS only has to create the spaces people actually hang out in, and only while they do.

[Parallax]

That's one theory.

Except we know that the internal space (or least least large chunks of it) exists whether or not someone is there to use it. For instance, way back in Catrovalva, the 5th Doctor has 25% of the TARDIS interior burned up for more power - that 25% must already exist and be sitting there empty to be burned up.
Likewise, the 4th Doctor wandered through parts of the TARDIS that hadn't "been used for centuries".

What seems to work best is the TARDIS moves stuff about at it's own whim and according to crew need. The interior is always there. But it is Doctor Who and stuff changes timey wimey etc etc.