A Pretty Cool Appliance

First off, apologies to those who read my quirky little reviews. I've had a bit of computer problems over the past few weeks, but now I'm up and running with a brand new kick butt set-up. Not sure if it will improve my reviewing skills, but things move a lot quicker these days, and the new 27” HD screen doesn't hurt either.

Among Season 7's episodes I think this one, “Journey to the Center of the TARDIS” ranks among the top 2 in audience anticipation, the other being the upcoming Neil Gaiman penned episode, you can quibble over which holds the top anticipation spot.

I had started to write a long dissertation on my general feelings on where Doctor Who is going these days, but that's for later . . . . . . . on to . . . . . .

WHAT I LIKED
The Swimming Pool! Actually this was more or less a non-surprise. If we were going to take a tour of the TARDIS interior we were going to see the pool ever since The Doctor arrived in the garden of Amy's auntie, we knew someday we would see the TARDIS swimming pool. But to see it just through a door way was a bit of a disappointment.

Time for a dip . . . .

“The History of the Time War” – I liked that touch – but if The Doctor locked the Daleks and Time Lords in a Time Lock, who wrote the book???? There were Gallifreyan markings on the book. Did The Doctor write the book in his wanderings after “destroying” both of those races??? Or did some third party write it? I seriously doubt that The Master, being the only other Time Lord to have escaped the Time War, wrote it. I guess his alter-ego Professor Yana could have written it and The Doctor grabbed it to keep it out of anyone's hands.

Kind of a bummer that Clara supposedly saw The Doctor's name in the Time War Book, which of course lays hints for the last episode of this season, "The Name of The Doctor" - perhaps this is a hint . . . . . . .

If they do actually name The Doctor, which I and pretty much all of Whoville hope never happens, I'll throw this out there, my guess at his name, Hieronymous Smith, there it is , you heard it here first LOL

The “voices form the past” that emanated from the TARDIS console when Bram started to dismantle it – they were hard to hear, but I distinctly heard the following: 

Ian Chesterton questioning how a Police Box in a junk yard could be traveling through time and space.
Susan Foreman explaining what TARDIS stand for for the first time ever.

The Doctor's 9^th incarnation (Christopher Eccleston) telling amazed shop girl Rose Tyler that the doors of the TARDIS had withstood even the hordes of Ghengis Kahn.

And there was something from Tom Baker that I could not make out. I could hear his voice, just not what he said.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

This is a bit of a knock on the set designers – the TARDIS and doors could have been from any spaceship – I know that heading into the 50^th anniversary with the redesign of the Console Room they are going for a sleeker look, but some of the ambiance from the library and the attic rooms could have spilled out into the halls a bit.

We didn't see the TARDIS garage – maybe that's being saved for later.

Here in the US, we have an office supply chain called STAPLES and for a while they ran an advertising campaign featuring the “Easy Button”, all anyone had to do was push it and all of their office supply problems were solved. That's what the “Big Friendly Button” solution to this week's episode reminded me of . I get the concept and it was kind of cut, but between that quickie fix to the problem at hand and last week's out of nowhere solution, I guess I'm getting a little tired of the pat fixes to problems.

The Heart of the TARDIS has exploded.  OK - if that's the deal - how did the TARDIS do all it did to mess with the Doctor, Clara and Van Baalens???

THE ELEPHANT IN THE TARDIS

OK – this episode REALLY messed with canon. How? The Eye of Harmony, that's how. The second that I saw the EYE OF HARMONY pop up on the TARDIS screen I let out a Tennant like “Wot????”

WOT?!?!?!?!?!!?

The Eye of Harmony has been described as quite a few things since it was first brought up in the Fourth Doctor episode “The Deadly Assassin” wherein the Eye of Harmony was described as the power source of the entire planet of Gallifrey, it was the nucleus of a Black Hole that was placed under the Citadel of the Time Lords. It wasn't until the 8^th Doctor's time in the TARDIS that the eye of Harmony was described as a part of the TARDIS, which is a nice shoutout to the 8^th Doctor, in this season of shoutouts to previous Doctors, but there's a problem.

It's been established in the current canon, that being 2005 to the present, that the TARDIS twice popped into Cardiff to refuel at the Rift there. If the Eye of Harmony is basically an eternal power source, why exactly were the refueling at the Rift needed??? Were they just top offs?? Kind of a refill for the anti-freeze? Sorry – that's kind of sloppy as far as the canon goes. 

THE MYSTERY OF CLARA
Aside form The Doctor telling Clara all about her previous deaths and such, only for it to be wiped out by the Big Friendly Button, we've gotten nowhere as far as her mystery goes.  I get the feeling that it's all heading for the finale of this season, "The Name of the Doctor" as for explanations about who Clara actually is.


NEXT WEEK
In watching the previews for next week, we have a bit of a return to the "Doctor and companion lite" episodes of seasons 2 and 3 ("Blink" and "Love and Monsters") where The Doctor and Clara don't figure to be the main players.  I actually like these episodes since they allow other actors to stretch their wings, so to speak.  And I LOVE Straxx :-)   For the old heads out there, pay attention, there's a reference to a previous Doctor and companion.

Feels good to be back :-)