Space (TV story)

Space was a Doctor Who television story written by Steven Moffat for Comic Relief 2011. It was the first part of a two-part story.

Synopsis
The Eleventh Doctor is doing repairs on the TARDIS with Rory Williams' help, but thanks to Amy Pond they make a mistake that could leave them trapped in the TARDIS forever.

Plot
Amy Pond tries to get the Eleventh Doctor's attention while he fixes the TARDIS. She fails, but finds Rory is helping the Doctor with his routine maintenance by installing thermocouplings. However, Amy thinks that he is helping the Doctor fly the TARDIS and they start to quarrel about Amy cheating on her driving test by wearing a short skirt to distract her examiner. The lights go out with a thudding noise. The Doctor asks Rory if he dropped a thermocoupling, which he apologises for doing. The Doctor groans in annoyance, yelling that he specifically told him not to drop the thermocouplings.

Amy also apologises. Confused, the Doctor asks why she's apologising when it was Rory's fault. Amy points out that Rory was looking up her skirt through the TARDIS' glass floor. The Doctor can only respond, "Oh....Rory!"

The Doctor turns on the emergency materialisation to land the TARDIS in the nearest safe place. The lights come back on to reveal the TARDIS has materialised inside itself. As a test to see if things are as bad as he believes, the Doctor walks through the doors of the inside TARDIS, stepping in through the outside doors. Rory says that is cool. The Doctor tells Rory it's a good thing he finds it amusing because they have caused a space loop that has now trapped them inside the TARDIS forever. Another Amy walks through the TARDIS doors, telling them things are going to get complicated.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill

Crew

 * Writer - Steven Moffat
 * Producer - Annabella Hurst-Brown
 * Director - Richard Senior

Story notes

 * This minisode, along with Time, was written especially for Comic Relief 2011.
 * This story was the first multi-part charity story since Dimensions in Time.
 * What question Amy wanted to ask the Doctor is not revealed in this episode, but Steven Moffat stated it would be addressed in the future. It was not addressed during the season proper, but was finally addressed in HOMEVID: Good Night, a part of the Night and the Doctor series of mini-episodes produced for the 2011 DVD/Blu-ray release of Series 6. Amy's question involves why she remembers and accepts the two separate timelines that were created for her as a result of the Doctor rebooting the universe in TV: The Big Bang.
 * In an interview with Doctor Who Magazine, Moffat confirmed that, just like recent Children in Need specials, the two-part mini-serial was produced as "canonical" Who.
 * The opening credits of both this episode and Time offer a rare, clean look at the opening titles including an unseen portion of the opening featuring a black void, slowly descending toward a light that leads into the time vortex.
 * This is the fifth TV story to be set entirely within the Doctor's TARDIS. The first was The Edge of Destruction, while the most recent, Amy's Choice, takes place entirely within the TARDIS, but has settings outside of the TARDIS (although the Doctor, Amy and Rory stay within it). In between, the Children in Need Special mini-episode was set entirely in the TARDIS, though there were re-cap scenes at the beginning which take place outside the TARDIS. Time Crash featured the TARDIS intersecting with its own timestream, causing the Fifth and Tenth Doctors to meet. Music of the Spheres also takes place entirely inside the TARDIS, though it was designed for and originally aired during Doctor Who at the Proms and therefore could be contested as a TV story.

Ratings
10.26 million (BARB)

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors

 * When the Doctor steps "out" of the TARDIS, from the interior he closes it with his left hand pulling the door shut, but when we see him exit, he uses his right hand to pull the door handle.

Continuity

 * This story is set entirely in the TARDIS. (TV: The Edge of Destruction, Children in Need Special, Time Crash, Amy's Choice, Time, Bad Night, Good Night, First Night, Last Night)
 * A similar space loop occurred in TV: The Time Monster, when the Doctor's TARDIS was inside the Master's TARDIS, and the Master's TARDIS was inside the Doctor's TARDIS. In TV: Logopolis, the Master's TARDIS materialised within the Doctor's.
 * Amy says "OK, kids. This is where it gets complicated." She told her child self the same line when she was released from the Pandorica in TV: The Big Bang.
 * This story is the third TV story to feature only the main cast. The others are TV: The Edge of Destruction and Children in Need Special.
 * Rory asks the Doctor if he's ever seen Amy drive, to which the Doctor replies in the negative. The Doctor actually did briefly see Amy drive, albeit in a dream, in TV: Amy's Choice. In that episode, Amy drove herself and the Doctor into a house. Rory states that Amy did the same thing when he let her drive his car once.
 * A TARDIS within a TARDIS happens as well in Logopolis, and the Doctor theorises that other space time anomalies could cause the TARDIS to appear within the TARDIS, though within the context of that story it was the Master's TARDIS within the Doctor's.

Home video releases
Although not available by itself, Space, along with Time was released on DVD and Blu Ray in the complete series 6 boxset on the 21 November 2011. They were included again in the Series 1-7 Bluray set released in 2013.

The version of the short included on the US Bluray unfortunately suffers from some video stuttering, likely due to the frame-blending method used.

Space Space Space