Doctor Who - The Doctor's Wife

Let me start by saying that I have in general really enjoyed Doctor Who since Matt Smith took over last year. He has claimed the role and done a fantastic job. The same goes for Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill.
While I feel a sense of excitement every time I sit down to watch a new episode, I also feel nervous. Unfortunately I have been disappointed a few times in either the direction that some of the stories have gone as well as the overall tone. It is hard to actually put my finger on exactly what it is, but I often feel something is missing.

A couple of examples:

Victory of the Daleks should have been a great episode. It started well, and for the first ten minutes or so I was really into it. Then it devolved into a silly spectacle that felt like a commercial to sell new brightly coloured Dalek toys. This is my least favourite episode. One that I can almost actually say that I disliked.

The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood was not bad but I felt like, being a two parter, it should have had more gravitas. It really could have been done in a more tightly written single episode.

Also throughout the Eleventh Doctor's first season, we had the ongoing plot of the crack in time. A perfectly valid and interesting plot. Unfortunately its execution lacked any sort of subtlety. It felt like we were being hit over the head with it. Compare that to the way Bad Wolf was used in series one, or Harold Saxon in series three or even Rose coming back in series four. In those cases you often didn't notice what was happening at the time. It was only at the end when the connection was finally made that you had that ah ha moment. Plus it led to more enjoyment when you would re watch previous episodes and see Bad Wolf in graffiti or the Vote for Saxon sign in the alley or Rose appearing on a tv monitor.

This season started with The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon. Both exciting episodes. But I was left feeling that there were too many story lines left open. I'm sure that these will be tied up by the end of the series, which is fine, but I felt unsatisfied at the end of the episodes. I read a quote on twitter today that was appropriately directed at Doctor Who, Writing for TV Series and Managing Viewer Expectations... "Leave Breadcrumbs, Not Boulders"

Last week's episode, The Curse of the Black Spot, was one that I enjoyed (who doesn't enjoy pirates?). But even this episode had an unsatisfying ending. It felt like they ran out of time and just quickly slapped together an ending.

One more complaint. Enough River Song. She has been in some great episodes but I have had enough of her. She diminishes the value of the Doctor. I have said it before, I think it would have been better if they had heeded the title of the music written for River in The Forest of the Dead, "The Greatest Story Never Told".

By the way I only complain because I really love the show. Even the "bad" episodes are better than most tv. But the show has the potential to be truly great. With the calibre of the writers on the show, we deserve a great show. Perhaps that is the problem. We expect too much.


Okay. For those that are still with me, I will finally get to The Doctor's Wife.

Simply a great episode. Almost as good as my favourite, Vincent and the Doctor.

I think that Doctor Who works best when it is about the characters. This was an excellent character piece. The heart of the Tardis is stolen and placed into the body of a woman, Idris. There was no real attempt from the writer to hide this from the audience and to most viewers, I'm sure they got the point right away. Sometimes it fun to know something before the characters do. We could delight in her choices of words. She called the Doctor her thief and talked in past, present and future tenses.

Once the Doctor realized who she was we got some great insight into their relationship. They were made for each other. They need each other. And it was nice to see the emotional attachment they have for each other. The Doctor truly is married to the Tardis.

The villian was House. He was some sort of malevolent power living inside the asteroid, who had tricked travellers into his trap, including hundreds of Time Lords. He would feed on the energy from their Tardises, and now he had caught the last Time Lord. House then moved into the Doctor's Tardis in an attempt to make it to our universe. I like how House was just a disembodied voice. It reminded me a little of the Devil in The Satan Pit. A creature with unmeasured power going up against the Doctor.

We also had some great moments with Amy and Rory. As they ran around the corridors inside the Tardis, House played with their minds. House brought out the subconscious fears in Amy's mind. Poor Rory being left for hours, then years, then dying and leaving some rather dark messages for Amy was really well done. I have to say that the writer's seem intent on torturing Amy this season and Karen Gillan is really putting in some great performances.

Here are some lines that I feel sum up the episode.

Doctor: "You gave me hope and then you took it away. That's enough to make anyone dangerous. God knows what it will do to me."

Idris (Tardis): "The first time you touched my console you said.."
Doctor: "I said you were the most beautiful thing I'd ever known."
Idris (Tardis): "Then you stole me and I stole you."

Doctor: "You have never been very reliable."
Idris (Tardis): "And you have?"
Doctor: "You didn't always take me where I wanted to go."
Idris (Tardis): "No, but I always took you where you needed to go."

Idris (Tardis): "You talk and run around and bring home strays."

House: "Fear me, I've killed hundreds of time lords."
Doctor: "Fear me. I've killed all of them."

Idris (Tardis): "There's something I didn't get to say to you."
Doctor: "Goodbye?"
Idris (Tardis): "No. I just wanted to say, hello. Hello Doctor. It's so very very nice to meet you."

Doctor: "You okay?"
Rory: "No. I watched her die. I shouldn't let it get to me but it still does. I'm a nurse."
Doctor: "Letting it get to you. You know what that's called. Being alive. Best thing there is."

It is so exciting when you have the pleasure of watching a truly well written episode. This was really exciting.

I will also mention that I was unable to watch this episode live as it aired because I was busy. Of course I recorded it and sat down to watch it when I got home. But before I did that I noticed that a video blog had already been posted on youtube about this episode by Rosianna on the TARDIStacular channel. I came across her reviews of Doctor Who a few years ago and found them to be really well done. Rosianna is very intelligent and articulate and I really respect and value her opinion on the subject. Anyway, I did not immediately watch her review as I had to watch the episode first, but just the fact that her review was already uploaded the night that the show aired got me excited. I assumed (and assumed correctly) that this meant that the episode must have been extraordinarily good.
For those interested, here is her review:

By the way, Rosianna is also a writer, student, book reviewer and freelance copy editor. Such talent. So, Rosianna, if you ever read this blog, please forgive any of my improper uses of grammar and poorly constructed sentences etc. That was probably a bad one right there.
And for any Doctor Who fans, be sure to follow TARDIStacular on youtube.