Doctor Who 6.04
Yes. Just yes.
Words are near impossible to find. Even thinking about this episode makes me smile. It’s wonderful. The premise could have gone so horribly wrong, and sunk if it had been less well-written. But it flew. Oh, it flew.
There are so many nods to both New and Classic Who. Because one of the TARDIS in a human body was the cause for Nine to regenerate. And the cube was the direct cause for Two to regenerate, because it allowed the Time Lords to catch him. And so many others.
And aftereffects of the Time War, giving the Doctor hope and then taking it away. Oh, Doctor. And the reason-- not just to have someone around-- but to actually be forgiven because he can’t do that for himself, and no other species has the right. He may have come to terms with what he did, but forgive himself? Never.
Up until this, I’d honestly thought Amy didn’t know why the Doctor was the last Time Lord. Eleven seemed to have moved on, and telling Amy, whom he’d already broken, it just didn’t seem likely. My personal canon: it happened after 5.03, because she needed to know why he reacted so badly to the Daleks.
The TARDIS herself! She chose him as much as he chose her. And her taking him where he needed to go! That’s a bit of personal canon that’s now actual canon. Their relationship, I don’t know how to describe it. Thinking of it in sexual terms squicks me, but there’s no denying they love each other and no denying that they find each other beautiful. Sexuality needn’t play a role in that. They’re mutually dependent in a good way-- it’s symbiosis.
The “no talking” thing bothers me a bit, but that’s solely because of how I conceived the TARDIS. And once I wrapped my head around it, quite simply, no talking means the TARDIS is physically unable to speak. But she and the Doctor obviously communicate, whether through her flying herself or subtler means. And she’s telepathic. That is her main mode of communication. She doesn’t use words; she doesn’t need them. But having the opportunity to tell him something she’d wanted to for seven hundred years: “Hello.” It’s perfect.
My one quibble, and it is oh so minor: the conversation with Rory at the end, when he says, “I watched her die.” I wish the Doctor would have said, “She’s not dead.”
I love all the little details: the thirty archived console rooms (another hint his thirteenth incarnation won’t be his last?), how the Doctor both loved and hated having her in human form, how the TARDIS couldn’t speak well at first, the bunk beds (so Eleven), how the TARDIS thinks Rory is the “good looking one” as opposed to the Doctor, that some corridors go up and down, that some Time Lords did shift sex/gender with regeneration (opening the door for a female Doctor?), and so much more.
“The only water in the forest is a river.” Does that refer to the Library and the solution the Doctor used there? I’m not speculating further here, as it can go two ways, one of which makes me angry. And this is supposed to be a happy review.
I’m a bit sad that the RTD-era console room no longer exists, but what other choice was there? There was no point in building a new one when one already existed.
The Corsair! Like many others, I’d love fic. And s/he’s proof that not all renegades are like the Master and the Rani. Some were more like the Doctor.
My favorite scene: the very end, when the Doctor is alone in the console room, and the TARDIS dematerializes herself. It makes me tear up every time. And if you listen carefully, you can hear Idris laughing.
There are so many layers, so much depth, that I can’t even put to words right now. I know I’m forgetting things I wanted to mention. It’s one of my favorite Who episodes. Well done, Gaiman. Well done.
I rather like that this was in S6 instead of S5. It fits better here. S5 was about Amy; S6 seems to be focused on the Doctor. And The Doctor’s Wife is clearly about the Doctor and the TARDIS.
In the end, all I can say is that this episode was a love song about the fundamental relationship in Doctor Who. It’s a celebration of, simultaneously, nearly 48 years of history and seven hundred. It’s the awe, the joy, the adventure, the madness. This is Doctor Who in a nutshell, and I love it.
Words are near impossible to find. Even thinking about this episode makes me smile. It’s wonderful. The premise could have gone so horribly wrong, and sunk if it had been less well-written. But it flew. Oh, it flew.
There are so many nods to both New and Classic Who. Because one of the TARDIS in a human body was the cause for Nine to regenerate. And the cube was the direct cause for Two to regenerate, because it allowed the Time Lords to catch him. And so many others.
And aftereffects of the Time War, giving the Doctor hope and then taking it away. Oh, Doctor. And the reason-- not just to have someone around-- but to actually be forgiven because he can’t do that for himself, and no other species has the right. He may have come to terms with what he did, but forgive himself? Never.
Up until this, I’d honestly thought Amy didn’t know why the Doctor was the last Time Lord. Eleven seemed to have moved on, and telling Amy, whom he’d already broken, it just didn’t seem likely. My personal canon: it happened after 5.03, because she needed to know why he reacted so badly to the Daleks.
The TARDIS herself! She chose him as much as he chose her. And her taking him where he needed to go! That’s a bit of personal canon that’s now actual canon. Their relationship, I don’t know how to describe it. Thinking of it in sexual terms squicks me, but there’s no denying they love each other and no denying that they find each other beautiful. Sexuality needn’t play a role in that. They’re mutually dependent in a good way-- it’s symbiosis.
The “no talking” thing bothers me a bit, but that’s solely because of how I conceived the TARDIS. And once I wrapped my head around it, quite simply, no talking means the TARDIS is physically unable to speak. But she and the Doctor obviously communicate, whether through her flying herself or subtler means. And she’s telepathic. That is her main mode of communication. She doesn’t use words; she doesn’t need them. But having the opportunity to tell him something she’d wanted to for seven hundred years: “Hello.” It’s perfect.
My one quibble, and it is oh so minor: the conversation with Rory at the end, when he says, “I watched her die.” I wish the Doctor would have said, “She’s not dead.”
I love all the little details: the thirty archived console rooms (another hint his thirteenth incarnation won’t be his last?), how the Doctor both loved and hated having her in human form, how the TARDIS couldn’t speak well at first, the bunk beds (so Eleven), how the TARDIS thinks Rory is the “good looking one” as opposed to the Doctor, that some corridors go up and down, that some Time Lords did shift sex/gender with regeneration (opening the door for a female Doctor?), and so much more.
“The only water in the forest is a river.” Does that refer to the Library and the solution the Doctor used there? I’m not speculating further here, as it can go two ways, one of which makes me angry. And this is supposed to be a happy review.
I’m a bit sad that the RTD-era console room no longer exists, but what other choice was there? There was no point in building a new one when one already existed.
The Corsair! Like many others, I’d love fic. And s/he’s proof that not all renegades are like the Master and the Rani. Some were more like the Doctor.
My favorite scene: the very end, when the Doctor is alone in the console room, and the TARDIS dematerializes herself. It makes me tear up every time. And if you listen carefully, you can hear Idris laughing.
There are so many layers, so much depth, that I can’t even put to words right now. I know I’m forgetting things I wanted to mention. It’s one of my favorite Who episodes. Well done, Gaiman. Well done.
I rather like that this was in S6 instead of S5. It fits better here. S5 was about Amy; S6 seems to be focused on the Doctor. And The Doctor’s Wife is clearly about the Doctor and the TARDIS.
In the end, all I can say is that this episode was a love song about the fundamental relationship in Doctor Who. It’s a celebration of, simultaneously, nearly 48 years of history and seven hundred. It’s the awe, the joy, the adventure, the madness. This is Doctor Who in a nutshell, and I love it.