"Space" and "Time" are two
mini-episodes of the British
science fiction television
Science fiction first appeared in television programming in the late 1930s, during what is called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary ...
series ''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...
''. They were broadcast on 18 March 2011 as part of
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
's
Red Nose Day
Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.
Definition
Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic episo ...
telethon
A telethon (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon") is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or even days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other purportedly worthy cause.
Most telethons f ...
for the charity
Comic Relief
Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.
Definition
Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic episo ...
. The two mini-episodes were written by the programme's head writer
Steven Moffat
Steven William Moffat (; born 18 November 1961) is a Scottish television writer, television producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work as showrunner, writer and executive producer of the science fiction television series ''Doct ...
and directed by Richard Senior.
The episodes form a two-part story, set entirely within the
TARDIS
The TARDIS (; acronym for "Time And Relative Dimension In Space") is a fictional hybrid of the time machine and spacecraft that appears in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and its various spin-offs. Its exterior ap ...
, starring
Matt Smith
Matthew Robert Smith (born 28 October 1982) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as the Eleventh Doctor, eleventh incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the BBC series ''Doctor Who'' (2010–2013), Daemon Targarye ...
as
the Doctor, and
Karen Gillan
Karen Sheila Gillan (; born 28 November 1987) is a Scottish actress. She gained recognition for her work in British film and television, particularly for playing Amy Pond, a primary companion to the Eleventh Doctor in the science fiction seri ...
and
Arthur Darvill
Thomas Arthur Darvill (born 17 June 1982) is an English actor. He is known for portraying Rory Williams, a companion of the Eleventh Doctor in the television series ''Doctor Who'' (2010–2012), as well as Rip Hunter in ''Legends of Tomorrow'' ( ...
as married couple
Amy Pond
Amelia "Amy" Pond is a fictional character portrayed by Karen Gillan in the long-running British science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Amy is a companion (Doctor Who), companion of the series protagonis ...
and
Rory Williams
Rory Williams is a fictional character portrayed by Arthur Darvill in the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Having been introduced at the start of the fifth series, Rory joins the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) ...
. Rory, helping the Doctor work on the TARDIS, looks up the glass floor surrounding the console and becomes distracted by Amy's short skirt, causing him to drop the thermal couplings he was holding. This causes the three to be stuck in a "space loop" where the TARDIS materializes inside the TARDIS.
"Space" and "Time" were filmed in two days alongside the
sixth series DVD ''
Night and the Doctor
''Night and the Doctor'' is a series of five made-for-DVD mini-episodes of '' Doctor Who'' which were written by Steven Moffat. They were released as bonus features in the ''Complete Sixth Series'' DVD and Blu-ray box sets in November 2011. The ...
'' extras "Bad Night" and "Good Night". The episodes are intended to show what life aboard the TARDIS would be like. Several editing techniques and doubles were used for the various shots where there were more than one of the same character on the screen. The mini-episodes received mixed reviews; some scenes were thought to be funny, but other jokes were criticised for relying on sexist humour. "Space" and "Time" were later released on the DVD and Blu-ray sets of the sixth series.
Plot
"Space"
Amy is trying to get
the Doctor's attention while he fixes the
TARDIS
The TARDIS (; acronym for "Time And Relative Dimension In Space") is a fictional hybrid of the time machine and spacecraft that appears in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and its various spin-offs. Its exterior ap ...
. She discovers that her husband
Rory
Rory is a given name of Gaelic origin. It is an anglicisation of the ga, Ruairí/''Ruaidhrí'' and gd, Ruairidh and is common to the Irish, Highland Scots and their diasporas. for the given name "Rory". The meaning of the name is "red king", ...
is helping the Doctor by installing thermal couplings underneath the glass floor of the TARDIS. Rory and Amy then start a small argument about Amy cheating when she took her driving test, 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 door saying, "Okay, kids, this is where it gets complicated."
"Time"
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 through 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.
Production
''Doctor Who'' had previously aired two related specials for
Comic Relief
Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.
Definition
Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic episo ...
. The first was the 1999 spoof ''
The Curse of Fatal Death
''Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death'' is a '' Doctor Who'' special made specifically for the Red Nose Day charity telethon in the United Kingdom, and was originally broadcast in four parts on BBC One on 12 March 1999 under the title ''Doctor ...
'', which was also written by
Steven Moffat
Steven William Moffat (; born 18 November 1961) is a Scottish television writer, television producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work as showrunner, writer and executive producer of the science fiction television series ''Doct ...
.
The spin-off series ''
The Sarah Jane Adventures
''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' is a British science fiction television programme that was produced by BBC Cymru Wales for CBBC, created by Russell T Davies, and starring Elisabeth Sladen. The programme is a spin-off of the long-running BBC sc ...
'' produced its own mini-episode "
From Raxacoricofallapatorius with Love
"From Raxacoricofallapatorius with Love" is a special one-off episode from ''Doctor Who'' spin-off ''The Sarah Jane Adventures''. It was the first ''Doctor Who'' spin-off to produce a special for Comic Relief and was broadcast on 13 March 2009 a ...
" for the 2009 Comic Relief appeal.
Unlike ''The Curse of Fatal Death'', "Space" and "Time" are considered to be canonical. The canonicity of the two mini-episodes was affirmed by Moffat in ''
Doctor Who Magazine
''Doctor Who Magazine'' (abbreviated as ''DWM'') is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Launched in 1979 as ''Doctor Who Weekly'', the magazine became a monthly publication the followi ...
''.
Moffat stated that, unlike ''The Curse of Fatal Death'', "Space" and "Time" is not a spoof or a sketch, but rather "a little miniature story" in the style of the ''Children in Need'' mini-episodes. He described it as "A moment of life aboard the TARDIS. But obviously life about the TARDIS instantly gets you into terrible jeopardy, and all of causality is threatened. As I'm sure it is every day when they get up and have their coffee..."
The concept of a TARDIS inside the TARDIS had been previously explored in ''
The Time Monster
''The Time Monster'' is the fifth and final serial of the ninth season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 20 May to 24 June 1972.
The serial is set in a vi ...
'' (1972) and ''
Logopolis
''Logopolis'' is the seventh and final serial of the Doctor Who (season 18), 18th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC One, BBC1 from 28 February to 21 March ...
'' (1980), though both times it was the TARDIS of
the Master.
Amy also repeats one of her lines from "
The Big Bang
The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...
" at the end of "Space".
The special was shot over two days alongside the made-for-DVD ''
Night and the Doctor
''Night and the Doctor'' is a series of five made-for-DVD mini-episodes of '' Doctor Who'' which were written by Steven Moffat. They were released as bonus features in the ''Complete Sixth Series'' DVD and Blu-ray box sets in November 2011. The ...
'' mini-episodes "Bad Night" and "Good Night". It was mostly shot on the first day, where all of the scenes with the TARDIS inside the TARDIS were filmed.
Several tricks were used to create the illusion that there were more than one Doctor, Amy, and/or Rory. In scenes where the camera had to move between the double characters, a "whip-pan" was used twice, with the actor in a different place each time. The two shots were then edited together into one seamless take.
For scenes where there were more than one of the same character in the same shot, such as the two Amys in front of the TARDIS, the camera was held very still and the scene was filmed twice, with the actor's double filling in for the part they were not playing.
The doubles were also used briefly in scenes where the characters' backs were to the camera, such as when the Doctor, Amy, and Rory watched the future Amy and Rory enter the TARDIS.
Broadcast, release and reception
"Space" and "Time" were broadcast during the
Comic Relief
Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.
Definition
Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic episo ...
Red Nose Day
Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.
Definition
Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic episo ...
telethon on 18 March 2011 on
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
.
The telethon was watched by 10.26 million viewers.
[ Note: Information is in the section titled "w/e March 14–20, 2011", listed under BBC1] The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
channel. The mini episodes were included as bonus features in the ''Complete Sixth Series'' DVD and Blu-ray box set, released on 21 November 2011 (
'' responded positively, noting it "manages brilliantly to nod to just about every Whovian in-joke, demographic and fetish within the span of two tiny instalments". ''
'' reviewer Christopher Bahn opined that the two Amys in "Space" and "Time" were "a lot more fun to watch" than the two in the
".
's Teresa Jusino, who had been positive towards Amy's character in the past, was disappointed that the ending of the miniepisodes relied on "too-easy, dated, sexist humor". She cited the fact that Rory dropping the coupling was blamed on Amy's short skirt rather than Rory himself, which implied that she had a "responsibility to cover up, because 'men will be men'".
In ''Who is the Doctor'', a guide to the revived series, Robert Smith wrote that the episode was "cute, plotted to perfection and ends precisely when it should, before it has the chance to outstay its welcome".
He said that the episodes used Amy well, as it did not make her unlikable.
On the other hand, his coauthor Graeme Burk said that the story was "derivative and lazy" and a "missed opportunity".
", and felt that Moffat could have written something better and funnier. Like Jusino, he thought that the "blokey humor" was "misplaced", denying a broad audience appeal and leading to the sexist last line: "Pond, put some trousers on!".
Despite this, both Jusino and Burk enjoyed the scene where Amy flirts with herself.