It's Whosday! Recaps: "The Doctor's Wife"

Series 6, Episode 4
Title: "The Doctor's Wife"
Writer: Neil Gaiman
Director: Richard Clark

This past Saturday, the moment Doctor Who fans have been waiting ages for finally arrived. After much rumor-mongering, hand-wringing and nerd-tastic speculation, the long-awaited episode written by Neil Gaiman was aired. Being a complete superstar in the fantasy/sci-fi world, Gaiman's writing style seemed like it would be a perfect match for the show's whimsically dark style. Well, lo and behold, we were all absolutely right. "The Doctor's Wife" is an incredibly strong episode, highlighted by some wonderful acting performances anchoring Gaiman's sharp, fan-friendly script. So far, it's the clear favorite from Series 6 and I'm tempted to say that it's my favorite of the Moffat era entirely. Given time, I could even see it becoming my favorite episode of the entire series. Can you tell that I liked it yet...?

Unlike last week's pirate debacle, "The Doctor's Wife" can be summed up fairly quickly. After receiving a distress call from a Time Lord known as the Corsair, the Doctor sends the gang off to beyond the universe in the TARDIS. They land on a sentient asteroid known as the House (or often just "House"), populated by two odd people named Auntie and Uncle, one green-eyed ood named Nephew and finally Idris, a wacky woman who greets the Doctor by charging at him shouting "my thief!" and biting him ("biting's great! It's like kissing but there's a winner!"). After some sleuthing, it's reveled that Idris is actually the TARDIS' soul, which was ripped out of the blue box by House and stuffed inside a human body so that House could devour the TARDIS-shell. The distress call that the Doctor responded to was just one of many dying messages sent by Time Lords who suffered a similar fate.


Well, Amy and Rory get stuck inside the de-souled TARDIS during dinner time, forcing them to run through lots of corridors to avoid the lethal wrath of House. Meanwhile, the Doctor and his wonderful time (and space) machine are finally given the chance to speak face to face. Naturally, they quickly start to sound like an old married couple, jabbing and mocking each other before remembering all of their happy times together. They cobble together a make-shift TARDIS from parts they find on House's surface and intercept the real TARDIS as House drives it back towards the real universe (vaporizing poor Nephew in the process). Idris dies, since her squishy human body can't handle the raw TARDIS energy within her, but the escaping soul charges through the police box and obliterates House. There's a tearful farewell (of sorts) between the Doctor and his personified TARDIS, before she finally fades away.

It's a simple idea for an episode, but Gaiman and director Richard Clark execute it perfectly. The dynamic between Matt Smith and Suranne Jones (who plays Idris) is everything you could possible want between a man who's an semi-immortal alien and a woman who's a spaceship that exists at all moments in time and space simultaneously (or something like that). Even with the slightly boring b-plot involving Amy's and Rory's wacky adventures in the previously unseen TARDIS corridors, the episode zips along, full of quotable one-liners, exciting action sequences and some very emotional, affecting character moments. This is certainly an episode written for the fans (and by a fan, for that matter), since you need some appreciation of the history between the Doctor and his blue box for his conversations with Idris to carry their full weight. That doesn't stop it from being a wonderful episode of Doctor Who, however, and I'd bet it will be one of the most beloved of the new series for years to come.

Stray Observations

-This episode's use of the color green is awesome. Super creepy and far outside the usual DW palate.
-Auntie and Uncle don't get much screen time before they die (quite hilariously, I'll add), but in that short time, Adrian Schiller (who plays Uncle), manages steal all sorts of scenes with his accent alone.
-Idris seems like she was written for Helena Bonham Carter. Certainly Suranne Jones' wild hair seems familiar to anyone who's watching anything by Tim Burton... ever.
-Matt Smith has chemistry with his TARDIS. He also has chemistry with tiny message boxes ("C'mere, you scrumptious little beauty!). This season seems to be milking his flirtatious side for all it's worth.
-"Love an ood" has been added to my list of great DW shirt ideas.
-Not much time is spent on the Doctor's search for forgiveness from any Time Lord survivors, but it's something I'd love to see explored in later episodes/seasons of the show.
-The Doctor calls the TARDIS "Sexy" when they're alone. Because of course he does.
-They sort-of killed Rory again. You bastards!
-Unlike last week's episode, "The Doctor's Wife" seems to have had some money spent on it.
-Oh, by the way, House is voiced by Fake Tony Blair, ie: Michael Sheen. He does a great job.
-"Another ood I failed to save." Again, with the shirts...
-The final scene between Idris and the Doctor should be really corny, but Matt Smith's very honest performance saves everything. Also, it's really sad!
-Finally, the big, serialized plot point of the episode arrives at the end, when Rory tells the Doctor Idris' dying words: "The only water in the forest is the river." Speculate away, guys! This obviously has something to do with River Song... but I'm guessing we're just going to have to wait for Episode 13 to find out anything substantial.

(Photos courtesy of Emma-Jane)