‘Doctor Who’ recap: ‘Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS’

Doctor Who begins this week by introducing viewers to a salvage spaceship run by Bram Van Baalen, his brother Gregor, and their android Tricky. They notice a ship on their scanner, which happens to be the TARDIS, and decide to board the ship.

Clara continues to tell the Doctor the TARDIS doesn’t like her. The Doctor wants Clara and the TARDIS to get along, so he says he wants to leave them alone together. He is showing her how to operate the TARDIS when lights start flickering. The Doctor notices he shields are down and then TARDIS starts malfunctioning. Clara picks up a piece she notices on the floor, but it burns her hand.

The TARDIS is brought onto the salvage ship. The men try to open the TARDIS door. They even uses lasers, but they cannot open the doors. The Doctor come up behind them and starts talking to them about how they captured the TARDIS. The Doctor notices Clara is not there and realizes she is still in the TARDIS. Tricky tells him the TARDIS is leaking and Clara is probably dead. The Doctor tells them he will give them the TARDIS if they help him get Clara out.

Clara wakes up under rumble in the TARDIS. She looks around for the Doctor. She notices a flashing red light on one of the doors and takes a minute to decide what it means. She opens the door and fire comes blazing into the room. She runs and opens another door where she finds creepy claw marks on the wall.

The Van Baalen’s argue about going into the TARDIS. They are all surprised that “it’s bigger on the inside,” of course. The Doctor tells them the TARDIS is infinite. He activates the self-destruct button on the TARDIS in order to make the men agree to help him find Clara, which gives them one hour. He locks the door and changes it to 30 minutes to force them to help.

Meanwhile, Clara is searching the TARDIS. She finds the Doctor’s crib, and a paper TARDIS (possibly Amy’s), and a magnifying glass (perhaps the one Donna used in "The Unicorn and the Wasp") in one room. She runs out of the room though because she sees a creature lurking in the corner. Clara continues running and sees the swimming pool and a room with a big telescope (that looks like the one in “Tooth and Claw”) while she’s running. She ends up in the library.

The brothers decide to strip the TARDIS of materials while they’re supposed to be looking for Clara. The Doctor and Tricky are searching together. Bram tries taking materials from the TARDIS console, but hears voices and stops, looking for the source of the sound. Gregor searches the ship for materials. His personal sensor tells him in a room, he has everything he could ever want. The Doctor comes in and says not to touch it. Gregor takes it anyway and the door disappears. The Doctor says the TARDIS will not allow him to take it away.

Clara finds a book called The History of the Time War in the library. She flips through it, saying “so that's who.” The creature finds her in the library. She knocks over a bottle and it leaks down the bookshelf. Voices are heard talking about the Medusa Cascade. Clara runs out of the library, away from the creature.

The Doctor tells them the TARDIS is creating a maze because Gregor took a circuit. Tricky tells Bram the ship is alive, but he doesn’t listen. He gets hurt and the creature that’s been following Clara finds him. The Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver and discovers there are more creatures on board and they try to attack. Clara finds the console room but sees the door is locked. Clara tries to finds another way out and keeps returning to the console room, no matter which way she tries to go. She gets flustered.

Tricky and the Doctor find the console room, but he says it’s a replica, an echo room. Clara is in another console room and sees what the Doctor knocks over. He can hear Clara breathing. Clara freaks out and opens the door, accidentally letting in one of the creatures. It catches her around the room. The Doctor tries to figure out how to get her out of that room. When he does, she punches him and tells him he has too many weird creatures on his ship. The Doctor admits he lied about turning on the self-destruct. But then he discovers the engine is overloaded.

They go to the center of the TARDIS and discover the creatures are following them all. Clara asks what they are, but the Doctor says “Trust me, some things you don’t want to know.” Clara gets separated from them again and notices the burn on her hand is now words. Clara sees echoes of herself in the TARDIS. She runs and finds an echo of the Doctor, the real Doctor comes in and says there is a tear in time on the TARDIS right now. The two run away from a creature and rods coming out of the wall.

Tricky got hit by one of the rods. Tricky learns he’s not really an android, he’s human and one of their brothers. Tricky lost his voice, sight, and memory in an accident..The Doctor goes to the power source, the Eye of Harmony. He takes the others in with him, but the creatures block their path. Clara demands to know what hey are, Gregor uses his sensor and it says the creature is Clara.The Doctor said Clara died again, but she doesn’t understand. They fight the creatures and Tricky pushes them into the Eye of Harmony. Tricky and Gregor turn into the creatures they just killed. The Doctor and Clara run into another room, the heart of the TARDIS.

The Doctor asks Clara who she is, now that he knows they’re going to die. He tells her about the various Clara’s he’s met. He realizes she has no idea what he’s saying. The Doctor and Clara jump and find themselves in the heart of the TARDIS. It is frozen in an explosion. The Doctor looks at the burn on Clara’s hand and he says he has to find when they crashed. He finds the time rift and says he will rewrite time.

Clara tells him she doesn’t want to forget that day. She tells him she knows his name because she read it in the book. He tells her she won’t remember. He goes into the time rift and tells himself he can reset time with the “big friendly button.” Back at the salvage ship, the TARDIS disappears from the screen. Gregor treats Tricky better. The Doctor asks Clara if she feels safe traveling with him on the TARDIS. They two set off on their next adventure.

Quotes and Comments:

"Don't get into a spaceship with a mad man, didn't anyone ever teach you that?" (The Doctor to the salvagers)

"Why have you got zombie creatures? Good guys don't have zombie creatures. Rule one, basic storytelling!" (Clara to the Doctor)

I enjoyed most of this episode. I do think the ending was too rushed and a bit too timey-wimey for me personally. I enjoyed the look at the TARDIS and I liked Clara’s interest in the different rooms. The library was absolutely wonderful and I hope we see it again. I’m not really interested in learning the Doctor’s name, I think the show has been around so long it would be impossible to name him without the majority of Whovians being upset or disappointed. I found the sidestory about the salvage brothers somewhat interesting, and it didn’t take away from Clara or the Doctor’s storyline.

Tune in next Saturday at 8 p.m. on BBC America.