8. Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS (S7, E11)
Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS didn't receive particularly positive reviews when it aired. Perhaps expectations were set too high, with fans having waited a long time for the chance to see more of the TARDIS than just the control room and a brief glimpse at the wardrobe in The Christmas Invasion. The 'big friendly button' ending was seen as mocking viewers' disapproval of the series' frequent use of narrative resets, while also seemingly reversing Clara's discovery of several pieces of information which crucial to the season's arc. The reason none of this particularly matters is because the central conceit laid out in the title, an episode set in the unseen bowels of the Doctor's ship, allows for such a splendid confection of alien imagery and nods to the series' history. Journey is a visual delight, from the gorgeous TARDIS library with its liquid form encyclopediae and that deliciously teasing History Of The Time War tome, to the long-awaited reveal of the Eye Of Harmony. We get a glimpse of the swimming pool and the Yggdrasil-like machine allowing the TARDIS to reconfigure and rebuild its internal architecture. When Clara pops into a storage room, she discovers the Doctor's cot (previously seen in A Good Man Goes To War), one of Amy's papier maché TARDISs, and possibly the Seventh Doctor's umbrella. Yes, there are some fairly glaring faults and the performances of the three Van Baalen brothers are at times staggeringly bad, but this is an episode with treats around every corner for long-term fans and Clara at her most gorgeous in that disgracefully adorable red dress.
