Far out in space, a salvage ship operated by the Van Baalen Bros encounters what, at first, appears to be nothing more than rusty garbage—at best, an escape pod—set adrift. Little do the Van Baalens suspect that, once snared in their outlawed Magno-grab, this salvage job will materialize into something beyond their wildest dreams. And nightmares. So begins Steve Thompson's "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS."

"Please tell me there's a button you can press to fix this!"

"Oh! Yeah! Big friendly button!"

From the console room, surrounded by flames, the Doctor struggles to regain control of the TARDIS. But it's no use: in basic mode, with her shields down, she is completely venerable and, despite his best efforts, is dragged into the salvage ship. An explosion and a shower of sparks separate him from Clara.

On board the salvage ship, efforts by the team of Gregor, Bram, & The Android Tricky to crack open the escape pod fail—instead uncovering a broken fuel line that threatens both ships and that "Somebody's under that thing! The crew was still on board when we dragged her in!"

As the Van Baalens discuss culpability, the Doctor surprises them—emerging from beneath the TARDIS, where he had appeared to have be crushed—Wizard-of-Oz-like—to interject "It's rude to whisper," introducing himself—"Hi. I'm the Doctor."—pick-pocketing one of the Van Baalens, and, finally, realizing that Clara is missing, proposing a deal for her rescue: "Listen. Right behind those doors is the salvage of a lifetime."

Inside the TARDIS, bathed in red flashing light, Clara regains consciousness to the ringing of the Cloister Bell and a burning hand.

"Doctor…? Doctor?"

Believing herself to be alone, she begins exploring the unfamiliar, labyrinth of corridors—just as the Doctor and the Van Baalens begin their search for her from the console room, from which the Doctor, madman that he is, has locked them all inside and threatened to self-destruct the TARDIS should Clara not be found alive.

"'The salvage of a lifetime.' You meant the ship. I meant Clara."

But she—they—are not alone. Within the damaged TARDIS, past and future have leaked out and birthed something else: Time Zombies that threaten to prevent any rescue and any escape. To make matters worse, the TARDIS herself has got huffy with all of Gregor and Bram's messing about. Gregor has stolen a circuit from the TARDIS's architectural reconfiguration system. Bram's gone to stripping apart the TARDIS's console. Doors that were, minutes ago, open are suddenly locked—or disappear entirely. Corridors twist back upon themselves.

The labyrinth's just become more… labyrinthy.

After being chased out of a kind of medieval cellar, past an observatory and a swimming pool, and through a library—probably, the library—where she casually pages through The History of the Time War, learns the Doctor's name, and accidentally spills some of the Encyclopedia Gallifrey—Clara finds herself back in the console room. Or, possibly, an echo of it. Within another echo, Bram is killed by a Time Zombie.

Separated from Gregor, the Doctor and Tricky arrive at same console room (or yet another echo of it) moments later. Realizing that the TARDIS is trying to protect them, the Doctor deduces that there's more than one echo room, and that Clara must be there too—in one of the echoes.

"I can hear her."

Gregor rejoins them. And using Gregor's scanner and his sonic, the Doctor reaches in and grabs Clara—just before her Time Zombie can do the same.

With Clara rescued, Gregor orders the Doctor to cancel the self-destruct. The Doctor explains that the countdown was a fake—that he only made it look as though the engine was actually exploding. In fact, the engine is overloading, and they are all in trouble.

So begins their journey to the centre of the TARDIS.

Chased by Time Zombies beneath the TARDIS's primary fuel cell, its rods having begun to warp and spearing Tricky, Gregor is forced to reveal that Tricky isn't an android, but his brother, injured during a salvage accident in which he lost his sight, voice, and memory. Pretending that he was a robot was just "a joke—a stupid joke."

The way to the engine is through a chamber containing the Eye of Harmony, an exploding star in the act of becoming a black hole. But stay in there too long, and one's cells will liquefy and skin will start to burn.

As they traverse the chamber, the Time Zombies move to block their escape. And the Doctor is forced to reveal what they are when Gregor's scanner identifies one of them as Clara. They're them. Their future.

"Listen I brought you here to keep you safe, but it happened again. You died again."

Recognizing himself in one of the Time Zombies, in a moment of insight, the Doctor theorizes that the future can be averted if they can interrupt the time line. But with no way out, that appears hopeless. Until Tricky takes matters into his own hands and fights off two of the Time Zombies. Unfortunately, in saving the others, he himself becomes the one in need of saving, and, as his brother Gregor reaches for him, time reasserts itself, and both are transformed into Time Zombies.

The Doctor and Clara race for the exit—emerging from the chamber "outside," but still in the TARDIS.

They argue—or rather the Doctor, believing that they are dead (or will be soon), interrogates Clara.

"What are you, hey? A trick? A trap?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

She nearly falls. He catches her. They embrace.

"You really don't, do you?"

Trembling, she reveals, "I think I'm more scared of you right now than anything else on that TARDIS."

They embrace again.

"Okay. I don't know what the hell this is about, but the hug is really nice."

"We're not going to die here. This isn't real. It's a snarl…. The TARDIS is snarling at us—trying to frighten us off. We need to jump."

They jump—reaching the engine.

It's already exploded.

The TARDIS has wrapped her hands around the force—frozen it.

With no way to save her now, the Doctor is heart-broken. Clara takes his hand. Within hers is the key: the words Big Friendly Button burned into her palm. They are reference to the remote that the Doctor pick-pocketed from Gregor. Return with it through one of the cracks in time inside the dying TARDIS to the very moment that they crashed aboard the salvage ship, and today will be rewritten.

It works.

Today saved.

Great Lines

Bram: "How big is this baby?"

Doctor: "Picture the biggest ship that you've ever seen. Are you picturing it?"

Bram: "Yeah."

Doctor: "Good. Now forget it. Because this ship is infinite."

Doctor: "Don't get into a spaceship with a madman. Didn't anyone ever teach you that?"

Doctor: "I can feel a TARDIS tantrum coming on."

Doctor: "I just wiggled a few buttons. The old wiggly-button trick. And the face—you've got to do the face: 'Save her or we all die.' I thought I rushed it a bit, but—"

Clara: "I don't want to forget. Not all of it. The library. I saw it. You were mentioned in a book."

Doctor: "I'm mentioned in a lot of books."

Clara: "You call yourself 'Doctor.' Why do you do that? You have a name. I've seen it. In one corner of that tiny—"

Doctor: "You're not afraid?"

Clara: "Of?"

Doctor: "The future. Running away with a spaceman in a box. Anything could happen to you."

Clara: "No; that's what I'm counting on."

Wibbly-wobbly Timey-wimey… Stuff that You Might Have Missed

Clara's wearing red again. Lights are flashing red. Time Zombies have red eyes.

The key that the Doctor uses to shut the TARDIS down to basic mode is engraved SMITHS. "John Smith" is one of the Doctor's aliases. And the Eleventh Doctor is, of course, played by Matt Smith.

In the "medieval cellar," beside the door, is the crib that the Doctor gave to Amy to place the new-born Melody in (see "A Good Man Goes to War"). Nearby, Clara picks up a papercraft TARDIS—perhaps, one that once belonged to Amy. Clara also picks up an umbrella which bears a striking resemblance to the one that she carried in "The Snowmen."

The library and swimming pool have been mentioned several times in the new series—at one time, in alternating breaths. In "The Eleventh Hour," meeting the young Amelia Pond for the first time, the Doctor explains, "Just had a fall—all the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up"—to which Amelia responds, "You're soaking wet." "I was in the swimming pool." "You said you were in the library." "So is the swimming pool." In "Day of the Moon," that swimming pool—presumably, relocated—or a new one saves River's life—or, at least, one of her regenerations. In "The Doctor's Wife," it had to be jettisoned.

While dismantling the TARDIS's console, Bram is confronted by echoes of from the Doctor/TARDIS's past—including:

• from "An Unearthly Child," Susan's explanation: "Well, I made up the name TARDIS from the initials: Time And Relative Dimension In Space;"


• from "Colony in Space," part of an exchange between the Third Doctor and Jo Grant in which he explains "The TARDIS is dimensionally transcendental" and she asks "What does that mean?;"


• from "The Doctor's Wife," an exchange between the Eleventh Doctor an Idris: "You're doing it, you sexy thing!," "See!? You do call me that! Is it my name?," "You bet it's your name!," and "Whoo!;"


• from "The Robots of Death", the Fourth Doctor's explanation (to Leela) of how the TARDIS is larger on the inside than the out: "That's transdimensional engineering, a key Time Lord discovery."


• from "Rose," the Ninth Doctor assuring Rose Tyler that, within the TARDIS, they are safe from the Autons: "The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door—and, believe me, they've tried;"


• from "The Beast Below," Amy Pond's exclamation during her first trip aboard the TARDIS: "We are in space!;"


• from "Smith and Jones," Martha Jones asking, "How does it do that? It's wood. It's like a box with that room just rammed in;"


• from "An Unearthly Child," Ian Chesterton remarking: "A thing that looks like a police box, standing in a junkyard: it can move anywhere in time and space?;" and


• from "Planet of the Spiders"—another Metebelis III reference—Sergeant Benton's assertion: "I'm expendable and you're not"

—several of which are overlapping.

Krewe du Who Challenge: There are three bits in there that I can't quite make out. Two come right before Amy's "We are in space!" The first is severely buried. In a man's voice. And seems to end in an ara—possibly, Sarah. The second sounds like it's being spoken by a maniacal Frenchman. Or, maybe, a French alien. Or an alien with a French accent. I have no idea what he/it is saying. And the last comes just after Martha's "It's like a box with that room just rammed in." Again, this one is severely buried. It may even be a continuation of the first. If you think that you can identify what's being said, in which episode it was said, and who—no pun intended—said it, let us know in comments.

While being chased by the Doctor's Time Zombie, Clara hides in the library—accidentally, tipping over one of the Encyclopedia Gallifrey. What spills out is largely unintelligible, but I'm reasonably sure that there's mention—in a young woman's voice—of Zygon hatchlings and warriors and sterilization.

The episode ends with a scene in which Clara appear in the console room with wet hair. Where has she just come from? The shower? The swimming pool? If the latter, how did she know where to find it if she was supposed to forget everything that happened?

In the same scene, the Doctor remarks, "We've had two days crammed into the space of one"—and asks Clara, "Do you fell safe?" Both suggest that the Doctor's memories transcend linear time—and include memories of events that did/but didn't happen.