Dr Who, 'The Doctor's Wife' and 'The Flesh Rebels'
The Doctor’s Wife
I really enjoyed this episode written by Neil Gaimen. I loved the steam-punk look of it all. I was complaining about Moffat’s nostalgia in my last post and this episode was also nostalgic, but this time for the show’s past. I thought it was lovely homage to the Dr’s relationship with the Tardis, is really the central relationship of the show. Suranne Jones who played Idris/Tardis was excellent , so good that she caused me to ignore the dodginess of the original Idris being murdered so the Dr could have his moment with the Tardis!
I thought that Amy’s character was also more coherently written in this episode and I actually had a sense of who she might be. Her statement to the Dr, “You just want to be forgiven” and his answer “Don’t we all” was quite heartbreaking.
It didn’t do anything interesting politically, but it was brilliantly imaginative, funny, scary and moving in the right proportions. This bit makes me cry:
Dr: “Alive isn’t sad”
Tardis: “It’s sad when it’s over. I’ll always be here, but this is when we talked and now even that has come to an end”.
The Flesh Rebels
Very disappointing after ‘The Dr’s Wife’, for me this was just a pile of SF and horror clichés and the female characters were terrible - bitchy or cowardly. I’m not easily bored, but this managed to bore me.