Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS was the tenth episode of series 7 of Doctor Who.

It was the first time a TARDIS room other than a console room or corridor had been seen on television since The Christmas Invasion re-introduced the TARDIS wardrobe. It afforded by far the most expansive view of the TARDIS interior since the 1996 tele-film.

As a child, head writer Steven Moffat was disappointed with the way the inside of a TARDIS was depicted in part 6 of The Invasion of Time. As a result, Moffat "challenged" writer Steve Thompson, who also found The Invasion of Time "wanting" as a kid, to explore the TARDIS interior "more effectively" than The Invasion of Time. (TEDW 2)

The story reveals more about the TARDIS, such as what happens when it is badly "wounded"; as everyone in the TARDIS finds out, time leaks of the past and possible future can cause illusions of people and potential versions of them to appear. However, the potential versions are actually tangible, as they have the chance to exist, while the past can't interact with the present. Voices of the past can also be heard, such as when Bram explores the control room; various Doctors and companions can be heard speaking.

As important to the series' narrative arc, it also contained the first instance of the Doctor confronting Clara about her multiple lives and deaths.

Synopsis Edit

The Doctor's TARDIS is captured by brothers running a salvage company in space. In the process, Clara gets lost inside the time machine. To save her, the Eleventh Doctor promises the brothers they can have the TARDIS if they'll help search for his missing companion. They agree, only to find that what lies at the centre of the TARDIS can kill them all.

Plot Edit

The android Tricky is polishing a part inside the Van Baalen Bros. salvage ship when the system alerts him and Bram that there is salvage to be verified. Tricky says there is something "tasty" in range of the magno grab; on their scanner screen is the TARDIS in flight. Bram believes that it's just space junk, but his brother Gregor wants to go for it, anyway; believing it may hold some equipment worth value. They suit up.

Meanwhile, the Eleventh Doctor insists Clara should bond with the TARDIS, to help the two get over this adversity that it feels towards her. She flatly refuses to talk to a piece of machinery. He gets her to agree to try flying it, and to make it easier, he puts it into Basic Mode; she is momentarily insulted, believing it's because she's a girl and not because she's human. She flips some levers and suddenly, the ship shudders, losing then regaining power, and the music that the Van Baalen ship had been playing starts to play.

The scanner screen cracks and shudders, and the Doctor starts to work the controls more frantically. He can't get the shields up, and the salvage ship's magno-grab nearly has them. The Doctor forces a lever up, and something in the TARDIS console explodes, throwing them both back. Clara asks him to tell her that there's a button he can press to fix it. He says, "Oh, yes, big, friendly button." Clara asks if he's lying to make her feel better, and he is. A hand-sized metal object rolls towards Clara, who picks it up. It burns her right hand, and she drops it.

The machinery of the salvage ship pulls the TARDIS into a bay, and, believing it to be a derelict escape pod, the brothers attempt to cut into it, but are unsuccessful. Tricky's bionic eyes pick up signs of a living being — a pair of shoes sticking out from under the wreckage, which belong to the Doctor. They withdraw, ashamed that they have just killed someone; Gregor tells the other two keep quiet about this, and that the story will be that the occupant was dead when they found it. The Doctor pops in, saying it's not polite to whisper. Bram contends that they found his ship adrift. The Doctor immediately corrects him. An illegal Magno-grab broke his ship. He shows them that he found the remote to the Magno-grab in Gregor's pocket.

The Doctor goes on to explain that the TARDIS would have been able to deflect the magnet normally, but since it was in Basic Mode to help teach Clara, the shields were not up - "dammit!" Mentioning Clara, the Doctor realises that she is still inside, so he bolts for the TARDIS. Tricky stops him, telling him that the fuel is leaking and poisonous fumes would have likely done Clara in. The Doctor spots respirators then talks the salvage crew into going with him, promising the salvage of a lifetime within the ship. Gregor agrees to open the doors for a split second to pull Clara out, but the Doctor tells him that it won't be that simple, opening the doors...

Red Flashing Light? - Doctor Who Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS - Series 7 2013 - BBC One


Red flashing light?

Inside the TARDIS, the Cloister Bell sounds. Clara awakens in a corridor, having been knocked unconscious. She checks the hand that was burned. Coming to a door with a red light, she debates opening it. She regrets deciding to do so, as flames gush out. She runs down the corridor to escape. Moving around the TARDIS, Clara hears a growling noise. She takes refuge in a storage room containing a cot and a small model of a police box, along with an umbrella with a bamboo handle used by one of the Doctor's past lives.

Self Destruct - Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS - Doctor Who Series 7 Part 2 (2013) - BBC One


The Doctor activates the TARDIS self-destruct — "one hour until this ship blows!"

In the console room, the Doctor is amused by the reaction of the others to the size of the TARDIS; he explains to them that the TARDIS is infinite and thus bigger than any ship the trio can imagine. He uses fans to vent the gas and smoke from the room. As they all take off their respirators, he tells the others that he needs them to help find Clara. They initially refuse, but he tells them he has activated the TARDIS self-destruct. Locking the doors so they can't leave, he informs them that the "salvage of a lifetime" he referred to was not the ship, but Clara.

To avoid the source of the growling noise, Clara runs through the TARDIS, passing by the swimming pool and observatory. Finding herself in the library, Clara can't help but muse "that's just showing off." She goes to a large book entitled The History of the Time War. Flipping through a few pages, she pauses and reads something, muttering to herself "So that's who..." She then hears the growling noise again and hides behind a bookshelf. She knocks over some glass containers labelled Encyclopedia Gallifreya, which spills liquid that release recorded words. The source of the growling - a dark, "zombie-like" creature - runs past her. Her hand continues to ache from the burn, but she sees the burn marks slowly resolving into letters.

In the corridors, Gregor manages to get the Doctor to agree to having the four of them split up to find Clara; however, he goes back on his word by telling Bram to go start taking the console apart, while the Doctor and Tricky search for Clara. During the search, Gregor's scanner finds something of such value that it cannot have a price put on it, and is described as everything he could possibly want; he enters the room containing this prize, finding glowing orbs attached to cables forming a makeshift tree. Gregor goes to detach one of the orbs but is caught by the Doctor, who tells him not to do so. When asked what the room does, the Doctor explains it's Arch recon; it reorganises matter according to his wishes. Gregor ignores him and takes an orb, causing flashing lights and a loud screech; the Doctor warns that he can feel a full-on temper tantrum coming from the TARDIS. Gregor laughs him off, but finds the door is gone; the Doctor explains that the TARDIS will not relinquish her genetic material. Amused, Gregor prepares to blow up the wall, only to find the wall is gone and the door is back; "what's the matter TARDIS, afraid to fight me?"

In the meantime, Clara is being followed by another bizarre creature that is miming her movements. She eventually flees into the control room, which locks the creature out; grateful, Clara kisses the console. However, she then finds that the exit to the outside is non-existent, effectively trapping her.

In the corridors, Gregor finds that they have been walking in circles. The Doctor explains that the TARDIS is smarter that Gregor is giving it credit for; it knows Gregor can break down any walls it puts up, so it looped his path instead to keep him from escaping with the orb. Seeing that he's in over his head, Gregor calls Bram, telling him to abort the salvage as the TARDIS is alive; however, Bram ignores him, proceeding down a rope ladder from the console room. His back touches the time rotor along the way, burning him and making him lose his grip. Bram falls into a corridor, where another creature attacks and burns him to death by touching him. The trio race to find him, finding Bram's charred corpse; Gregor flees, leaving Tricky with the Doctor.

The Doctor and Tricky reach the console room, which he explains is an echo created by the TARDIS to save its passengers; Tricky was allowed in because of his empathy for it. The Doctor realises Clara is in another echo of the console room. Gregor enters demanding to be led out of the TARDIS, but the Doctor confiscates his scanner, using it to detect Clara and pull her through a portal into their echo room; luckily, he managed to save her before another zombie creature could burn her. Gregor demands the Doctor end the countdown; the Doctor, though revealing the self-destruct was a ruse to get their cooperation, finds the TARDIS engines have become unstable, thanks to a deadly time rift caused by the Magno-grab. They must go to the engine room by way of the Eye of Harmony to prevent it from exploding.

En route, Tricky's shoulder is impaled by a pole busting out of the engine; to his surprise, Gregor refuses to cut off his arm to save him. The Doctor scans Tricky with the sonic screwdriver, telling him that while his eyes and voice box are artificial, he is actually human. Gregor shows Tricky the logo on their suits, making him realise they are brothers; he goes on to explain an accident killed their father and severely injured Tricky, leaving him with amnesia and needing implants to regain his sight and voice. Gregor made Tricky believe he was an android as both entertainment and to take the captaincy from him. Though Tricky is angry, the Doctor tells him that this moment helped Gregor find a shred of decency; he tells Gregor that this must always be remembered, telling him to cut the pole to free Tricky's arm.

While travelling through the room housing the Eye of Harmony, the four are trapped by ossified creatures. When Gregor scans them and finds one similar to Clara's biology, the Doctor confesses these creatures are themselves from the future due to the time rift; they end up trapping their past selves in this room for too long, causing the Eye to melt and burn their cells. The Doctor decides to try averting the future by letting the creatures in and knocking them into the chasm below the Eye; he succeeds with his and Clara's versions. However, Tricky falls when knocking his and Gregor's version over, causing him to hang onto the rail; Gregor helps him up, accidentally causing themselves to fuse into the creature. The Doctor and Clara flee into the other door, locking them out.

Instead of the engine room, they find themselves in a canyon. Deciding that this is the end, the Doctor asks Clara to tell him who she is. Clara is confused. The Doctor tells her that he's met her before in the Dalek asylum and in Victorian England, and both times she died in front of him only to appear again in a new time - "What are you? A trick? A trap?" However, Clara nearly falls over the edge of the canyon in fear, telling the Doctor at that moment he is the most frightening thing to her. Relieved to learn that Clara genuinely doesn't know she exists in multiple different lives, the Doctor hugs her. However, at that moment, he also realises that the TARDIS is "snarling" at them because it is injured; the canyon is an illusion to ward off intruders. They both leap off the cliff with the hopes he's right.

They arrive in a white void, which houses the engine. The Doctor finds that the engine has already exploded but the TARDIS has placed the room in time stasis as a safety measure. The Doctor is aware the TARDIS is trying to tell him something, but cannot figure out what — until he notices Clara's hand. The burn marks have now fully formed into the words "big friendly button". The Doctor realises that they need to go back to the point of the disaster and activate the magno-grab remote — the device Clara picked up. They race to the console room, where the Doctor takes the discarded beacon and prepares to travel through a time rift to prevent their timeline. Clara asks what she will remember in the new timeline. She says she knows the Doctor's name from reading the Time War book. The Doctor tells her that she will remember nothing.

The Doctor then crosses the rift and warns his younger self. Understanding the implications of his elder self, the younger Doctor grabs the beacon from Clara when she picks it up - the letters "big friendly button" inscribed on its side - and hits the button.

Time resets to before the events of the episode. The Van Baalens ignore the TARDIS, which vanishes from their scanner, and continue. Still, something has mysteriously changed because of the Doctor. In this new timeline, Gregor has become more appreciative of Tricky; the proof is that Tricky is now in the family picture, which was previously torn to exclude him.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor is concerned and asks Clara if she feels safe with him, and she readily agrees. She urges the Doctor to "hit the button" so they can go to their next port of call.

Cast Edit

Crew Edit

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics



General post-production staff

Special and visual effects



References Edit

Books Edit


  • Gregor's scanner detects Dynamorphic generators, a Conceptual geometer, a Beam synthesiser and Orthogonal engine filters aboard the TARDIS.
  • The Doctor tells Clara to "take the wheel" before quickly correcting himself. He previously argued with Captain Avery about the Atom accelerator being the 'wheel' of the TARDIS in The Curse of the Black Spot.
  • This is the first episode in which Clara is shown operating TARDIS controls.
  • Tricky mistakenly describes the TARDIS as "some kind of escape pod."
  • The TARDIS' sentience is alluded to yet again; and when the salvage team tries to open it, Tricky senses that she seems to "suffer".
  • The Doctor tells Clara that the TARDIS is not like a cheese grater.
  • The TARDIS display that declares "Engine Status: Overload" also mentions the console room, Eye of Harmony, library, observatory, and Arch-Recon. These rooms are all seen in the episode, although Arch-Recon is named fully as architectural reconfiguration system.
  • Clara sees the swimming pool while wandering through the TARDIS.
  • The Doctor states that the TARDIS is "infinite."
  • The clock key which controls the shield oscillators as made by Smiths.
  • The Doctor stores his cot in a small cupboard room lined with many other knick-knacks and gadgetry he has acquired over the years, including a small model of a police box.
  • The fuel rods of the TARDIS are meant to be kept immersed in fuel at all times. When they become exposed, the rods can cool down and warp, causing them to bust and break apart at extreme velocities, becoming deadly projectiles capable of piercing through the corridors of the TARDIS- and unfortunate bystanders.

Individuals Edit

  • Tricky thinks he's an android, as this is what his brothers told him as a means of relieving boredom. There is also a bar code tattooed on the right of his neck that may or may not be part of the joke.

Songs from the real world Edit

Story notes Edit

The Doctor and Clara in the heart of the TARDIS

The Doctor and Clara in the Heart of the TARDIS.

  • The name of the episode was influenced by the novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
  • This is the first televised story to include the word "TARDIS" in its title.
  • Sarah Louise Madison, Ruari Mears and Paul Kasey (Time zombies) are credited on-screen, but not in Radio Times.
  • Although the action was normal in the classic series, this is the first time since the series restarted that the Doctor has closed the TARDIS doors from the console, rather than manually shutting them or occasionally closing them by snapping his fingers.
  • This is the first Doctor Who episode since the final episode in The Web Planet, The Centre, to use the "British" spelling of a word "Centre" versus "Center", although other episodes don't use words that have different spellings in Britain and America.
  • The TARDIS in the opening credits shakes to match the captured TARDIS in the Magno-grab.

Ratings Edit

The episode first aired in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 27 April 2013. Overnight ratings showed that 4.9 million viewers watched the episode live. When final ratings were calculated, the figure rose to 6.5 million, the seventh most-watched programme of the week on BBC One.[1] In addition, "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS" received 1.19 million requests on the online BBC iPlayer for the four days it was available in the month of April, making it the tenth most-watched programme on the service for the month. It received an Appreciation Index of 85.

Filming locations Edit

to be added

Production errors Edit

BigFriendlyButton BigFriendlyButton2
How could this lettering......have come from this prop?
  • In a way totally unexplained by the narrative, the magno-grab remote prop has a different font to the scar it left behind on Clara's hand. Though it's not noticeable while watching the episode at normal speed, screen grabs make it immediately apparent that the letters just don't match up in any way. Most obviously, the prop's lettering is centre-justified, while the writing on her hand is left-justified. The error reveals a lack of continuity between the make-up department (or possibly VFX, if the scar was inserted digitally) and the art department.
Although the scar writing on Clara's hand is from the Magno-Grab Remote of the previous timeline where the Doctor simply threw the remote through the rift instead of climbing through. As a result, he had to re-burn the writing into the remote from his current timeline (the main one seen through most of the story). This could explain the difference in writing style as the narrative does establish that not everything happens the same as previously; we never actually see what Clara's burn looks like in the restored timeline, if she even receives one.
  • When the Magno-grab pulls the TARDIS in, the TARDIS is handled by several large mechanical arms before being dumped onto the pile of junk that Tricky sees a pair of legs in, legs that presumably belong to the Doctor. In order for the Doctor to have been thrown free in the way implied in the story, he would have had to be hanging on to the outside of the TARDIS unseen as it was being passed from one large mechanical arm to another and then somehow gotten underneath a pile of junk that the TARDIS was deposited on top of. This is most likely a result of a lack of continuity between different art departments.
  • When the Magno-Grab Remote rolls along the floor at the beginning of the episode, it is apparent that there is no writing on it as you can see all the way around it.
  • There is a noticeable jump cut after Clara's line "Because I'm a girl". Suddenly, the Doctor has his hands rested on the console again and Clara is standing up straight and looking straight at the Doctor.
  • There is another such cut later the lights go red in the TARDIS and after the Doctor's line "Ahh, Okay". In the First shot Clara's hands are together near her chin, but in the next shot, they are by her sides being raised to a similar position as before.

Continuity Edit

Home video releases Edit

Series 7b UK DVD Cover

Series 7, Part 2 DVD cover.

DVD Releases Edit

Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS was released as part of Doctor Who Series 7 Part 2 on May 22, 2013, and as part of The Complete Seventh Series on September 24, 2013.

Blu ray releases Edit

to be added

External links Edit

Footnotes Edit



Stream the best stories.


Get Disney+