From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated
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Subject: Re: jphalt's Doctor Who reviews

THE DOCTOR'S WIFE

1 episode. Approx. 46 minutes. Written by: Neil Gaiman. Directed by:
Richard Clark. Produced by: Sanne Wohlenberg.


THE PLOT

A Time Lord distress call leads the Doctor into a "bubble universe,"
where he hopes to find survivors of the Time War. "You want to be
forgiven," Amy observes. "Don't we all?" he replies. But instead of
Time Lords, he discovers a junkyard of disconnected odds and ends from
different times and places, all on a sentient asteroid known as
"House" (Michael Sheen). House has four inhabitants: The friendly yet
bizarre Auntie and Uncle (Elizabeth Berrington and Adrian Schiller), a
voiceless Ood (Paul Kasey), and the mad and potentially violent Idris
(Suranne Jones).

The Doctor explores with House's blessing, sending Amy and Rory back
to the TARDIS to keep them out of his way. He follows Time Lord voices
to a door, on the other side of which he finds... more distress boxes,
created by Time Lords lured to this universe by House. The entity
feeds on TARDIS energy, which he is able to do only by transplanting
the sentient soul of the TARDIS into a human body. The Doctor's TARDIS
is now Idris - and House now inhabits the physical TARDIS, hunting the
Doctor's companions for sport.

Now the Doctor finds himself teaming up with his newly-human time
machine to save his friends, his time ship, and possibly the universe
itself. And he has a deadline of only 18 minutes to do it!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: I think this is the most nakedly emotional episode Matt
Smith's Doctor has had. At the prospect of reuniting with some fellow
renegade Time Lords, his hopes are raised high - leading to despair
when House's true agenda is revealed. That is followed by pure joy,
when he realizes that Idris is actually the consciousness of his
TARDIS inside a human body... followed again by grief when the human
Idris dies, cutting him off from this rich dialogue with his sentient
vessel. Smith doesn't quite capture the Doctor's anger when he
realizes he's been duped. But with that one exception, he manages the
many emotional shifts demanded by the script, and does it without
sacrificing the Doctor's essential nature as an alien. A superb
performance, from an actor who has already climbed very near the top
of my "favorite Doctors" list.

Amy: Recognizes the Doctor's fallibility. Not in a harsh or critical
way, but with genuine concern. She knows the Doctor, and knows that
he's getting too emotionally invested in his hopes of finding other
Time Lords. We also see the inverse of her observational skills: an
ability to visualize concepts in order to unlock the door to the old
TARDIS console room. Rory might lose some of his jealousy if he could
see that for "delight" she pictures her wedding day.

Rory: If Amy is the more observant of the two, then Rory is the more
pragmatic. When House announces himself to Amy and Rory, demanding to
know why it shouldn't just kill them and have done with it, Rory
realizes almost instantly what the entity needs: amusement. He uses
that need to keep himself and Amy alive, albeit running in fear,
giving the Doctor a chance to save them. Rory's 2,000 year wait for
Amy is touched on again, as well, with the aged Rory created by House
showing a homicidal bitterness when he is separated from Amy for that
length of time again.


THOUGHTS

"Are all people like this? ...So much bigger on the inside!"

Neil Gaiman is one of the most successful voices in modern fantasy
literature. From his classic (and I feel fully justfied in using that
word) Sandman graphic novels to such imaginative works as Neverwhere,
American Gods, and The Graveyard Book, Gaiman has proved himself a
master at weaving a world that's simultaneously recognizable as our
own and recognizably completely different, melding the surreal with
the mundane, the fantastical with the ordinary.

Of course, Gaiman can have his off days, and his screen work has been
significantly less consistent than his literary work. But his mad,
eccentric voice comes through with wonderful clarity in his foray into
the universe of Doctor Who. With brilliantly visual direction by
Richard Clark and an all-around excellent production, this emerges as
the best Who story thus far in Series Six - possibly the best so far
of the entire Steven Moffat era!

The production design is stunning. I love the "junkyard at the end of
the universe," as Rory describes it. It's like watching the characters
wander around the inside of a Salvador Dali painting. Bits of odd junk
are all over the place. Amy looks inside a washer standing in the
middle of nowhere. There's a lamp, odds and ends, and the wreckage of
a giant spaceship in the background. The corridors look like they're
made out of bits that don't quite fit together. Just about every shot
gives you something interesting to look at.

But here I am describing the backdrop. As visually arresting as all of
this is, the real triumph is in the script and the acting. The
regulars are at their very best here, and guest star Suranne Jones
matches their level as she embodies the TARDIS. Her early "madness"
can be explained as the TARDIS adjusting to linear perceptions when
it's used to existing in all of Time and Space. She marvels at
sensations: kissing, biting, touching, seeing (her laughter at the
Doctor's chin). All of this is new to her, and all of it is
overwhelming. As she adjusts, she calms and is able to act as a
partner to the Doctor. And we get wonderful nuggets, particularly this
explanation of why the TARDIS so often goes off course:


"You didn't always take me where I wanted to go."
"No, but I took you where you needed to go!"


Simple, but perfect. The Doctor's many random adventures, particularly
in the early years when he truly couldn't control the machine? They
weren't random at all. The ship found trouble spots in Time and Space.
With both ship and Doctor thirsting for exploration and adventure,
they went to the places where they were most needed. Outside of maybe
a small handful of stories in the entire series, it's a tidy
explanation - and one that takes up all of about five seconds' screen
time.

A near perfectly-judged episode. It's idiosyncratic, but not so much
as to distance viewers from enjoying it. It's unique, but it
absolutely feels like Doctor Who at every turn. It's character-
centric, but not at the expense of being a fast-paced and atmospheric
adventure story. I said of The Curse of the Black Spot that it was not
a story I would likely ever re-watch. In contrast, this is a story
that I will revisit often.


Rating: 10/10.

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