| "Space" / "Time" | |||||
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| Doctor Who serial | |||||
The TARDIS inside itself and two Amy Ponds |
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| Cast | |||||
| Production | |||||
| Writer | Steven Moffat | ||||
| Director | Richard Senior | ||||
| Producer | Annabella Hurst-Brown | ||||
| Executive producer(s) | Steven Moffat Piers Wenger Beth Willis |
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| Series | Specials (2010–11) | ||||
| Length | 2 episodes, 3 minutes each | ||||
| Originally broadcast | 18 March 2011 | ||||
| Chronology | |||||
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"Space" and "Time" are two mini-episodes of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. They were broadcast on 18 March 2011 as part of BBC One's Red Nose Day telethon for the charity Comic Relief. The episodes form a two-part story, set entirely within the TARDIS, starring Matt Smith as The Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams, and were written by the programme's head writer Steven Moffat.
Contents |
Amy is trying to get the Doctor's attention while he fixes the TARDIS. She discovers that Rory is helping the Doctor by installing thermal couplings underneath the glass floor of the TARDIS. Rory and Amy then start a small argument, when the TARDIS suddenly shakes and the lights go out. The Doctor asks Rory if he dropped a thermal coupling, which Rory admits to and apologises for doing. Amy then apologises as well and, at the Doctor's confusion, explains that Rory was looking up her skirt through the glass floor when he dropped the thermal coupling. The Doctor then notes that they have landed through "emergency materialisation" which should have landed the TARDIS in the safest space available. The lights come on, revealing another TARDIS inside the control room — the TARDIS has materialised inside itself. The Doctor experimentally walks through the door of the TARDIS inside the control room and instantly walks back into the control room through the door of the outer TARDIS. The Doctor tells Rory and Amy that they are trapped in a "space loop" and that nothing can enter or exit the TARDIS ever again. Despite the Doctor's words, another Amy enters through the TARDIS outer door saying "Okay, kids, this is where it gets complicated."
Continuing from the ending of "Space", the other Amy reveals that she is from a few moments in the future, and is able to come into the current outer TARDIS because "the exterior shell of the TARDIS has drifted forwards in time". The other Amy knows what to say and do because, from her perspective, she is repeating what she heard herself say earlier on. The Doctor sends the current Amy into the TARDIS within the current TARDIS, in order to "maintain the timeline". The two Amys take a moment to flirt with each other before the current one departs, much to the Doctor's exasperation. However, not long after the current Amy has left, Rory and Amy enter through the door of outer TARDIS, explaining that the Doctor, from their perspective, has just sent them into the inner TARDIS. The current Doctor promptly sends the current Rory and the now-current Amy through the inner TARDIS. The Doctor then explains that he will set up a "controlled temporal implosion" in order to "reset the TARDIS", but in order to do so he must know which lever to use on the control panel. Moments after he speaks, another Doctor enters though the outer TARDIS door and tells him to use "the wibbly lever", which he quickly operates, then steps into the inner TARDIS to tell his past self which lever to use. The inner TARDIS dematerialises while the outer TARDIS (being the same TARDIS) does the same, and the Doctor assures Amy and Rory that they are now back in "normal flight", and then advises Amy to "put some trousers on."
The situation where a TARDIS materialised within a TARDIS in a recursive loop has occurred before in previous episodes in the Third Doctor and Fourth Doctor's era, The Time Monster and Logopolis. However, in both cases, it was the Master's TARDIS that had joined with the Doctor's, whereas in "Space" and "Time", the same TARDIS materialised within itself.
In attempting to explain "conceptual space" to Rory, the Doctor used the analogy of the curve of a banana, the mentioning of which being a running joke since the episodes of the Ninth Doctor. Amy reprises the line "Okay, kid(s), this is where it gets complicated" from "The Big Bang", which similarly dealt with her being in two places at once due to a near-cataclysmic paradox.
The TARDIS previously materialized within itself in the audio drama The Haunting of Thomas Brewster.
This is the third charity short produced since the program's return in 2005, the other two having been made for Children in Need. The first, with an official title of only "Doctor Who: Children in Need", aired in 2005. The second, "Time Crash" (also written by Moffat, and also featuring a time loop and ontological paradox), aired in 2007. An earlier charity short in aid of Comic Relief, The Curse of Fatal Death, also written by Moffat, aired in 1999. This story also involved a time loop within a time loop. The spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures produced its own mini-episode From Raxacoricofallapatorius with Love for the 2009 Comic Relief appeal.
As with the 2005 Children in Need and "Time Crash" mini-episodes, "Space" and "Time" are considered to be canonical (unlike Curse of Fatal Death which, as a spoof, does not fall into continuity). The canonicity of the two mini-episodes is affirmed by Moffat in Doctor Who Magazine Issue #432.
The Guardian responded positively, noting it "manages brilliantly to nod to just about every Whovian in-joke, demographic and fetish within the span of two tiny installments". [1]
The BBC posted the episode in two parts on their official YouTube channel: Part 1 and Part 2
The mini episodes are included as bonus features in the Complete Sixth Series DVD and Blu-ray box set scheduled for release on 21 November 2011 (Region 2) and 22 November 2011 (Region 1); the latter will mark the episodes' first official availability in North America.
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