Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Jahvel Hall, Ashley Walters, Mark Oliver, Sarah Louise, Madison, Ruari Mears, Paul Kasey.

To follow up one of the classic stories of Doctor Who with something even better could never really happen but to come close, to get within a Tardis’ heartbeat of achieving that is still pretty special. Stephen Thompson made Journey To The Centre Of The Tardis have one big impression, one vital piece of the puzzle that had been hiding in plain sight come alive by doing something that no other writer had dared to do and that was to make the Doctor’s home the absolute star of the show.

Stephen Thompson’s previous tenure as a writer for an episode of the programme was with the marmite chapter of The Curse of the Black Spot, there were those that loved the way that particular script worked and even more who were disappointed by it. However this particular story was Gallifreyan dynamite as so many strands that seemed so obvious, so easy to spot, came together in a hurricane of information, throwing everything up in the air and seeing where they land. Certainly ingenious and had it not been for the previous episode of Hide and its towering strength it would have gone down as being as brave, as peculiarly excellent a story fans of the show could have hoped for.

The only despairing moment, possibly maddening was the unnerving feeling that instead of paying homage to the show all the way through there was the touch of the comic and how many references could the show make to that other British television institution of Red Dwarf. Red Dwarf is quite simply brilliant, a rare piece of British comedy that works well but there is no need for these shows to cross.

That aside and with The Tardis giving up so many of her secrets, re-introducing the idea of the Eye of Harmony to younger viewers that may have wondered just exactly makes older fans weep with joy when these deferences to the continuality to the show are made and the sight of the fabled library with perhaps the biggest continuous nagging question so close to being answered. There has been much made of the final episodes title of The Name of the Doctor that many people are vexing themselves at the thought of this conundrum being addressed, more importantly, when are fans going to ever see exactly what happened in the Time War? The leather bound tome holds that information but will fans ever see the Tardis give up this particular secret?

Finally thanks to Stephen Thompson, the line that has been mooted many times over the years and most recently with the fantastic Neil Gaiman episode, The Doctor’s Wife, is wiped away and answered, The Doctor and The Tardis, a love story of man and ultimate gadget with the occasional little horror running round in its underbelly. Without one, the fans certainly cannot have the other.

Ian D. Hall