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NIGHT AND THE DOCTOR

4 episodes: Bad Night, Good Night, First Night, Last Night. Approx. 14
minutes. Written by: Steven Moffat. Directed by: Richard Senior.
Produced by: Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger, Beth Willis.


THE PLOT

As Amy and Rory sleep, the Doctor continues to have adventures.
Whether getting up to madcap antics at a party involving ambassadors
and princes changed into fish and flies, or simply going out with
River Song on dates that are like as not to end in danger, his life
just continues even as his companions slumber. "We're such small parts
of your life," Amy realizes when she walks into the midst of one of
his nocturnal outings. But Amy isn't the only one catching just a
small glimpse of a larger picture. Even the Doctor himself sees only
patches of the full tapestry, particularly on a night involving
multiple versions of River Song, two versions of himself, and a night
that is both a first and a last...


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: In The Doctor's Wife, his companions asked if he had a
room. The answer was implicit - He didn't need a room, he had a
TARDIS. This short piece raises another question: Does the Doctor
actually sleep? I'm pretty sure some of his earlier incarnations were
seen to, or referred to as sleeping. But the 11th Doctor doesn't seem
to sleep. He just keeps on with his life and his adventures. He
counters Amy's fears about being just a tiny part of his existence by
telling her that his companions are all that he truly remembers. But
he keeps pushing forward with activity, perhaps afraid to stand still
and let real emotion touch him.

Amy: Good Night gives Amy some charming material. She remembers two
versions of her life - one from the universe with the Crack, in which
she had no parents or family, and one from the rebooted universe, in
which she always has had parents. "My life doesn't make any sense,"
she complains.

River Song: On her first night in Stormcage, the Doctor rescues her
with a date and lays down the rules which will be entrenched in her
mind by the time they first meet. We see three different versions of
River in this story. The youngest River is tentative, clearly
concerned about a life in prison. The middle River is jealous at the
thought that the Doctor has another woman on the TARDIS (not realizing
that the other woman is her). The latest River is the most carefree
and comfortable with the Doctor. All three are highly firtatious, and
both the youngest and oldest River make the same remark about the
possibilities posed by two Doctors at the same time. The interplay
between Matt Smith and Alex Kingston is charming, and they have an
evident screen chemistry that keeps the last two episodes humming
smoothly.


THOUGHTS

First off: Yes, I'm aware there's a fifth episode - "Up All Night" -
included on the Series Six set. But it's fairly clear watching it (and
looking up its credits) that this is just an unaired episode prequel
to Closing Time, no more worthy of a separate review than any of the
other episode prequels. It has no connection whatever with the other
four Night and the Doctor scenes, and so I feel quite justified in
simply ignoring it for purposes of this review.  After all, I didn't
review the "additional scenes" on the Series Five set - and "Up All
Night" is even more inconsequential than those were.

Mind you, those Series Five additional scenes probably form the root
of this bonus serial.  Those two comedy scenes, the first acting as a
bridge between The Eleventh Hour and The Beast Below, the second as a
bridge between Flesh and Stone and Vampires of Venice, were terrific
bonuses.  They were also well-received, which is probably why writer/
executive producer Steven Moffat decided to take the idea even further
for the Series Six set.

At first, the "Night and the Doctor" scenes appear to be more comedy
extras along the same lines.  "Bad Night" offers a madcap glimpse of
an extra adventure, with an amusing payoff to Amy's swatting of a fly.
"Good Night" is slower and more sincerely emotional, offering a
genuinely charming scene between the Doctor and Amy. It's also during
this scene that it becomes obvious that these bits are interconnected,
as the conversation Amy has with the Doctor is the same one he evaded
during "Bad Night."

The last two episodes are the most clearly linked, as the Doctor
interrupts River Song's first night in Stormcage with a TARDIS trip.
As with the first episode, the tone is almost entirely comical.  But
"First Night" doesn't even pretend to resolve, instead ending with a
(comic) cliffhanger leading into "Last Night." The final episode
retains the comedy tone - right up to the end, when we get a surprise
emotional kicker, allowing the entire four episode piece to end on a
poignant note.

Ultimately, all four episodes are thematically linked in a way that's
best summed up by the Doctor's own words to Amy in "Good Night." When
she talks about a strange woman (who ends up being herself) buying the
child Amy an ice cream and telling her, "Cheer up. Have an ice cream,"
the Doctor replies with some rare, perfect advice:

"Amy, time and space is never ever going to make any kind of sense. A
long time ago, you got the best possible advice on how to deal with
that. So I suggest you go and give it."


A lovely little home video bonus, one whose ambition and
accomplishment goes above and beyond what could reasonably be expected
of a simple dvd extra.  Taking into account that this is a bonus story
shot almost entirely on one set, with no guest stars, then this is
stunningly good.


Rating: 9/10.

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