Doctor Who: "The Doctor's Wife"

[lizbee]

Yes, show, this is how you do it.



Pretty much from the first scene, I was Toph-facing. And by the end, I was Toph-facing but also crying. And in between, I lolled at bits and was a bit scared at others. In other words, the perfect Doctor Who.

(Toph-face, for those who aren't yet familiar:



So, yes.)

I think maybe this is one I'll need to watch a second time, or maybe even a third, just to find words for all my thoughts. Randomly:

- It starts off in a junkyard! Meta!
- It's a junkyard of TARDISes! "All my sisters are dead, and these are their corpses."
- Seeing the TARDIS embodied as a human with a voice just drives home how alive and wonderful she is. And I'm so, so glad that the TARDIS coral scene from "Journey's End" was cut, because creating a long-lived, sentient and intelligent entity, and then giving her to two people with short human lifespans would have been sadistic.
- I'M JUST PROTECTIVE OF MY TARDIS, OKAY?
- And she is protective of her Doctor. So that's all right.
- However, I am not sure that I can picture, say, One or Two or Three or Five or Six or Eight or Nine addressing the TARDIS as "Sexy". Four would, of course, he did kiss her that time. And Seven did all the time, and then Ace overheard and said that was sexist and objectifying, and Seven said that was very heteronormative of her, and Ace said, no, ships are always women and the TARDIS is a "her", and Seven mentioned that at some point in the future that he absolutely did not engineer himself, the TARDIS will be the Brig. And then they went to blow stuff up. It was great.
- Amy's "Did you wish really hard" = MANY LOLS.
- I feel bad for Idris, dead before the opening credits. KIDS! DON'T DO DRUGS OR STEAL TARDIS SOULS!
- So, okay, the plot itself wasn't amazing. But I feel, between this and the Time Lord child in "Day of the Moon" that the ground is being prepared for the return of the Time Lords, so I'm willing to forego a bit of epic in exchange for heart.
- Having said that, it is natural, of course, that the TARDIS would be full of cheap corridors, but I kind of wish we'd had less of Amy and Rory and more of TARDris and the Doctor. And, yes, I just expressed a wish for less surreal psychological torture, that's how good this episode was.
- "You want to be forgiven." I love Amy's recognition of the Doctor's issues, and her telling him to try to avoid getting emotional. And she knows he destroyed the Time Lords! I think, though I've lost track, this makes her the first New Who companion who knows that detail. -
- Relatedly, I liked the way the Doctor just became very quiet and sad when he was angry. And increasingly flat and resigned. "Another Ood I couldn't save."
- And then his farewell to TARDris, so sad and bittersweet. She's not dead, just different.
- THE TARDIS STOLE THE DOCTOR. SHE WANTED TO SEE THE UNIVERSE, SO SHE STOLE A TIME LORD! I LOVE HER.
- PUSH TO OPEN. They truly are an old married couple.
- Bunkbeds? Oh, Doctor.
- So does the Doctor have a bedroom? MILLIONS OF FIC WRITERS NEED TO KNOW!
- "I like biting. It's like kissing, but with a winner." Suranne Jones is a bit great, isn't she? She also played the Mona Lisa in The Sarah Jane Adventures. Maybe one day she can play a person in her own right, not the embodiment of something. But it's okay if she doesn't, because she's pretty amazing.
- Many points to Gaiman for a script that sparkled, dialogue-wise. SUCH A REFRESHING CHANGE AFTER LAST WEEK.
- Rory is the pretty one.
- Lots of lovely inversions of assumptions and fanon and stuff. Finally, as if it wasn't totally clear already, Time Lords can change sex when they regenerate. Humans are bigger on the inside. The TARDIS stole the Doctor. Even the Doctor's assumptions -- she archives his old console rooms.

In conclusion: HOW YOU SO GREAT, SHOW? KEEP GOING WITH THAT. I LIKE IT.

Comments

[such_heights]

YES, THIS. I keep thinking I am over the high of my squee, then I read another reaction post and get all flaily again. THIS WAS EVERYTHING I DIDN'T KNOW I WANTED. *_*

[lizbee]

Early this week, I found myself convinced that Idris was Romana, and then I was afraid I'd be disappointed if it turned out she wasn't. And I'm so, so glad that I got over that, because this was AMAAAAAAAAZING.

[nam_jai]

Me, I had been fond of the cracky and getting increasingly unlikely River-is-the-TARDIS theory, but I was perfectly willing to let that go. Chiefly because it's not so much that I was attached to the theory per se, but I've always been fascinated by the idea of the TARDIS as a sentient being, and I wanted to see her in a walking-talking form. And I got that, so hooray! (And River can go on being awesome as herself, in her own right.)

To sum up: Why so grumpy, Katara? Toph is right, it was fantastic!

[lizbee]

Why so grumpy, Katara? Toph is right, it was fantastic!

Katara always seems to end up being the cranky fan who wishes RTD and Rose would come back. Which is silly, because obviously Katara would be a Martha fan.

[thymindmaymove]

How great is it that Rory is the pretty one? Actually, how great was all of it? And TARDris is the best name in the history of naming things.

[lizbee]

But he IS the pretty one!

[thymindmaymove]

He appeals to me on every geeky level. I approve of show agreeing with me on this.

[nonelvis]

And I'm so, so glad that the TARDIS coral scene from "Journey's End" was cut, because creating a long-lived, sentient and intelligent entity, and then giving her to two people with short human lifespans would have been sadistic.

Yes, this, OMG. I can't believe RTD wrote this scene in the first place, but at least they had the sense to cut it.

I have yet to watch this episode a second time. I will be fixing that problem shortly.

[lizbee]

Yes, this, OMG. I can't believe RTD wrote this scene in the first place, but at least they had the sense to cut it.

Worst. Scene. Ever. On pretty much every level, actually.

[copracat]

I was hoping, while Rory and Amy were running around that ridiculous, lovely corridor, that they would end up in a Three or Four era console room. They weren't that complex, after all. I suppose they spent all the set budget on the junk planet.

I found this episode went incredibly fast. It seemed to last five seconds, I was so engaged. Yet there wasn't much more story than last episode.

[lizbee]

They weren't that complex, after all. I suppose they spent all the set budget on the junk planet.

It's my understanding they were originally planned to wind up in the swimming pool and/or library, but the budget limited them to corridors and a set that was already lying around.

[violetisblue]

"I feel bad for Idris, dead before the opening credits."

Though given what we found out about Auntie and Uncle, she might've died long before that.

[lizbee]

That's true. I just assumed, from her having a name, she was still an original person.

[violetisblue]

I still can't get over how they just did a children's-show version of "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream."

[lizbee]

I'm sure Harlan Ellison will be expressing his outrage through the medium of trollery any minute now.

[violetisblue]

Doesn't he usually just file a lawsuit? And grope people?

[lizbee]

I'd like to see him try to grab the Moff. I think that would end in lolz.

[ellen_fremedon]

Oh god they totally did. You're right.

[violetisblue]

Seriously, call it "House" all you want but I know AM when I see it, or rather hear it. Yikes.

[ellen_fremedon]

Yes to all of this. I keep thinking of this episode and just grinning and having to chairdance.

But I feel, between this and the Time Lord child in "Day of the Moon" that the ground is being prepared for the return of the Time Lords, so I'm willing to forego a bit of epic in exchange for heart.

From your lips to Moff's ears. I spent most of the RTD years hoping they would stay dead, but I think Moffat could bring them back in some way that made narrative sense, or any kind of sense.

Also, not-so-randomly, I love your icon.

[lizbee]

From your lips to Moff's ears. I spent most of the RTD years hoping they would stay dead, but I think Moffat could bring them back in some way that made narrative sense, or any kind of sense.

Indeed. And I kind of like the idea that the Doctor might have to go on the run from his own people again, or something. I know a lot of New Who-only fans were quite shocked to learn that the Time Lords weren't actually very nice people, and there's a bit of fun to be had with that.

Also, not-so-randomly, I love your icon.

Thanks! I knew I was saving it for a reason!

[miss_s_b]

I love everything today. I love this episode. I love you. I love GNeil. I love this post. I love the Tardis so, SO much...

[susanreads]

It was fanTAStic and I need to watch it again. Especially the flight of the patchwork console, now I'm not too anxious about what's happening to Amy and Rory.

Rory is the pretty one YES!

Every time House ate a Tardis it must have used up a human or other sentient mortal. Where did they come from? I guess other kinds of ships also fall through the Rift, so the junkyard isn't entirely Tardises.

Those boxes with the distress signals, which will make the Doctor angry. WOW.