Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS ( TV story ) Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS was the tenth episode of the seventh series of " Doctor Who " produced by BBC Wales . It was the first time a TARDIS room other than a console room or corridor had been seen on television since " The Christmas Invasion " re - introduced the TARDIS wardrobe . It afforded by far the most expansive view of the TARDIS interior since the 1996 tele - film . As a child , head writer Steven Moffat was disappointed with the way the inside of a TARDIS was depicted in part 6 of " The Invasion of Time " . As a result , Moffat " challenged " writer Steve Thompson , who also found " The Invasion of Time " " wanting " as a kid , to explore the TARDIS interior " more effectively " than " The Invasion of Time " . ( TEDW 2 ) As important to the series ' narrative arc , it also contained the first instance of the Eleventh Doctor confronting Clara Oswald about her multiple lives and deaths . Synopsis . The Doctor ' s TARDIS is captured by brothers running a salvage company in space . In the process , Clara gets lost inside the time machine . To save her , the Eleventh Doctor promises the brothers they can have the TARDIS if they ' ll help search for his missing companion . They agree , only to find that what lies at the centre of the TARDIS can kill them all . Plot . The android Tricky is polishing a part inside the Van Baalen Bros . salvage ship when the system alerts him and Bram that there is salvage to be verified . Tricky says there is something " tasty " in range of the magno grab ; on their scanner screen is the TARDIS in flight . Bram believes that it ' s just space junk , but his brother Gregor wants to go for it , anyway ; believing it may hold some equipment worth value . They suit up . Meanwhile , the Eleventh Doctor insists Clara should bond with the TARDIS , to help the two get over this adversity that it feels towards her . She flatly refuses to talk to a piece of machinery . He gets her to agree to try flying it , and to make it easier , he puts it into Basic Mode ; she is momentarily insulted , believing it ' s because she ' s a girl and not because she ' s human . She flips some levers and suddenly , the ship shudders , losing then regaining power , and the music that the Van Baalen ship had been playing starts to play . The scanner screen cracks and shudders , and the Doctor starts to work the controls more frantically . He can ' t get the shields up , and the salvage ship ' s magno - grab nearly has them . The Doctor forces a lever up , and something in the TARDIS console explodes , throwing them both back . Clara asks him to tell her that there ' s a button he can press to fix it . He says , " Oh , yes , big , friendly button . " Clara asks if he ' s lying to make her feel better , and he is . A hand - sized metal object rolls towards Clara , who picks it up . It burns her right hand , and she drops it . The machinery of the salvage ship pulls the TARDIS into a bay , and , believing it to be a derelict escape pod , the brothers attempt to cut into it , but are unsuccessful . Tricky ' s bionic eyes pick up signs of a living being — a pair of shoes sticking out from under the wreckage , which belong to the Doctor . They withdraw , ashamed that they have just killed someone ; Gregor tells the other two keep quiet about this , and that the story will be that the occupant was dead when they found it . The Doctor pops in , saying it ' s not polite to whisper . Bram contends that they found his ship adrift . The Doctor immediately corrects him . An illegal magno - grab broke his ship . He shows them that he found the remote to the magno - grab in Gregor ' s pocket . The Doctor goes on to explain that the TARDIS would have been able to deflect the magnet normally , but since it was in Basic Mode to help teach Clara , the shields were not up - " dammit ! " Mentioning Clara , the Doctor realises that she is still inside , so he bolts for the TARDIS . Tricky stops him , telling him that the fuel is leaking and poisonous fumes would have likely done Clara in . The Doctor spots respirators , then talks the salvage crew into going with him , promising the salvage of a lifetime within the ship . Gregor agrees to open the doors for a split second to pull Clara out , but the Doctor tells him that it won ' t be that simple , opening the doors . . . Inside the TARDIS , the Cloister Bell sounds . Clara awakens in a corridor , having been knocked unconscious . She checks the hand that was burned . Coming to a door with a red light , she debates opening it . She regrets deciding to do so , as flames gush out . She runs down the corridor to escape . Moving around the TARDIS , Clara hears a growling noise . She takes refuge in a storage room containing a cot and a small model of a police box , along with an umbrella with a bamboo handle used by one of the Doctor ' s past lives . In the console room , the Doctor is amused by the reaction of the others to the size of the TARDIS ; he explains to them that the TARDIS is infinite and thus bigger than any ship the trio can imagine . He uses fans to vent the gas and smoke from the room . As they all take off their respirators , he tells the others that he needs them to help find Clara . They initially refuse , but he tells them he has activated the TARDIS self - destruct . Locking the doors so they can ' t leave , he informs them that the " salvage of a lifetime " he referred to was not the ship , but Clara . To avoid the source of the growling noise , Clara runs through the TARDIS , passing by the swimming pool and observatory . Finding herself in the library , Clara can ' t help but muse " that ' s just showing off . " She goes to a large book entitled " The History of the Time War " . Flipping through a few pages , she pauses and reads something , muttering to herself " So that ' s who . . . " She then hears the growling noise again , and hides behind a bookshelf . She knocks over some glass containers labelled " Encyclopedia Gallifreya " , which spills liquid that release recorded words . The source of the growling - a dark , " zombie - like " creature - runs past her . Her hand continues to ache from the burn , but she sees the burn marks slowly resolving into letters . In the corridors , Gregor manages to get the Doctor agree to having the four of them split up to find Clara ; however , he goes back on his word by telling Bram to go start taking the console apart , while the Doctor and Tricky search for Clara . During the search , Gregor ' s scanner finds something of such value that it cannot have a price put on it , and is described as everything he could possible want ; he enters the room containing this prize , finding glowing orbs attached to cables forming a makeshift tree . Gregor goes to detach one of the orbs , but is caught by the Doctor , who tells him not to do so . When asked what the room does , the Doctor explains it ' s Arch recon ; it reorganises matter according to his wishes . Gregor ignores him and takes an orb , causing flashing lights and a loud screech ; the Doctor warns that he can feel a full - on temper tantrum coming from the TARDIS . Gregor laughs him off , but finds the door is gone ; the Doctor explains that the TARDIS will not relinquish her genetic material . Amused , Gregor prepares to blow up the wall , only to find the wall is gone and the door is back ; " what ' s the matter TARDIS , afraid to fight me ? " In the meantime , Clara is being followed by another bizarre creature that is miming her movements . She eventually flees into the control room , which locks the creature out ; grateful , Clara kisses the console . However , she then finds that the exit to the outside is non - existent , effectively trapping her . In the corridors , Gregor finds that they have been walking in circles . The Doctor explains that the TARDIS is smarter that Gregor is giving it credit for ; it knows Gregor can break down any walls it puts up , so it looped his path instead to keep him from escaping with the orb . Seeing that he ' s in over his head , Gregor calls Bram , telling him to abort the salvage as the TARDIS is alive ; however , Bram ignores him , proceeding down a robe ladder from the console room . His back touches the time rotor along the way , burning him and making him lose his grip . Bram falls into a corridor , where another creature attacks and burns him to death by touching him . The trio race to find him , finding Bram ' s charged corpse ; Gregor flees , leaving Tricky with the Doctor . The Doctor and Tricky reach the console room , which he explains is an echo created by the TARDIS to save its passengers ; Tricky was allowed in because of his empathy for it . The Doctor realises Clara is in another echo of the console room . Gregor enters demanding to be lead out of the TARDIS , but the Doctor confiscates his scanner , using it to detect Clara and pull her through a portal into their echo room ; luckily , he managed to save her before another zombie creature could burn her . Gregor demands the Doctor end the countdown ; the Doctor , though revealing the self - destruct was a ruse to get their cooperation , finds the TARDIS engines have become unstable , thanks to a deadly time rift caused by the magno - grab . They must go to the engine room by way of the Eye of Harmony to prevent it from exploding . En route , Tricky ' s shoulder is impaled by a pole busting out of the engine ; to his surprise , Gregor refuses to cut off his arm to save him . The Doctor scans Tricky with the sonic screwdriver , telling him that while his eyes and voice box are artificial , he is actually human . Gregor shows Tricky the logo on their suits , making him realise they are brothers ; he goes on to explain an accident killed their father and severely injured Tricky , leaving him with amnesia and needing implants to regain his sight and voice . Gregor made Tricky believe he was an android as both entertainment and to take the captaincy from him . Though Tricky is angry , the Doctor tells him that this moment helped Gregor find a shred of decency ; he tells Gregor that this must always be remembered , telling him to cut the pole to free Tricky ' s arm . While travelling through the room housing the Eye of Harmony , the four are trapped by ossified creatures . When Gregor scans them and finds one similar to Clara ' s biology , the Doctor confesses these creatures are themselves from the future due to the time rift ; they end up trapping their past selves in this room for too long , causing the Eye to melt and burn their cells . The Doctor decides to try averting the future by letting the creatures in and knocking them into the chasm below the Eye ; he succeeds with his and Clara ' s versions . However , Tricky falls when knocking his and Gregor ' s version over , causing him to hang onto the rail ; Gregor helps him up , accidentally causing themselves to fuse into the creature . The Doctor and Clara flee into the other door , locking them out . In stead of the engine room , they find themselves in a canyon . Deciding that this is the end , the Doctor asks Clara to tell him who she is . Clara is confused . The Doctor tells her that he ' s met her before in the Dalek asylum and in Victorian England , and both times she died in front of him only to appear again in a new time - " What are you ? A trick ? A trap ? " However , Clara nearly falls over the edge of the canyon in fear , telling the Doctor at that moment he is the most frightening thing to her . Relieved to learn that Clara genuinely doesn ' t know she exists in multiple different lives , the Doctor hugs her . However , at that moment , he also realises that the TARDIS is " snarling " at them because it is injured ; the canyon is an illusion to ward off intruders . They both leap off the cliff with the hopes he ' s right . They arrive in a white void , which houses the engine . The Doctor finds that the engine has already exploded but the TARDIS has placed the room in time stasis as a safety measure . The Doctor is aware the TARDIS is trying to tell him something , but cannot figure out what — until he notices Clara ' s hand . The burn marks have now fully formed into the words " big friendly button " . The Doctor realises that they need to go back to the point of the disaster and activate the magno - grab remote — the device Clara picked up . They race to the console room , where the Doctor takes the discarded beacon and prepares to travel through a time rift to prevent their timeline . Clara asks what she will remember in the new timeline . She says she knows the Doctor ' s name from reading the Time War book . The Doctor tells her that she will remember nothing . The Doctor then crosses the rift and warns his younger self . Understanding the implications of his elder self , the younger Doctor grabs the beacon from Clara when she picks it up - the letters " big friendly button " inscribed on its side - and hits the button . Time resets to before the events of the episode . The Van Baalens ignore the TARDIS , which vanishes from their scanner , and continue . Still , something has mysteriously changed because of the Doctor . In this new timeline , Gregor has become more appreciative of Tricky ; the proof is that Tricky is now in the family picture , which was previously torn to exclude him . In the TARDIS , the Doctor is concerned and asks Clara if she feels safe with him , and she readily agrees . She urges the Doctor to " hit the button " so they can go to their next port of call . Story notes . Ratings . The episode first aired in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 27 April 2013 . Overnight ratings showed that 4 . 9 million viewers watched the episode live . When final ratings were calculated , the figure rose to 6 . 5 million , the seventh most - watched programme of the week on BBC One . In addition , " Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS " received 1 . 19 million requests on the online BBC iPlayer for the four days it was available in the month of April , making it the tenth most - watched programme on the service for the month . It received an Appreciation Index of 85 . Filming locations . " to be added " Home video releases . DVD Releases . " Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS " was released as part of Doctor Who Series 7 Part 2 on May 22 , 2013 , and as part of The Complete Seventh Series on September 24 , 2013 . Blu Ray Releases . " to be added "