Doctor Who - The Doctor's Wife
The reason why Steven Moffat and RTD have been so successful at producing (generally speaking) great Doctor Who is because they can both write. Sure, you might not always like the end result, but they can - when pushed - produce great story arcs and (arguably more importantly) great individual episodes. Which is why it was a stroke of absolute genius for Moffat to get other establised writers - who have had serieses of their own as well as particular, idiosyncratic writing styles - to get involved with Doctor Who. And tonight's episode attests to that genius.
Throughout the entire episode, there was always a feeling that this was an assured, competent and - crucially - imaginative writer leading us by the hand through a desperately exciting race of an episode. Sure, I guessed that Idris had become the TARDIS. But that didn't stop there being numerous other twists that I didn't see. Partly because this was a consummate story teller who knew exactly where he wanted to take us and - crucially - also knew the pace at which his story had to go at in order to work. Compare this episode to the previous one - the latter felt like an exercise in padding, the former felt like a great author determined to say everything he wanted to say about Doctor Who in 45 (utterly outstanding) minutes.
Part of the success of this episode was that it never left with time to breathe, and to think about what was going on. But it was also about how the story changed (in a very natural way) during its runtime. It went from sci-fi to fantasy to body horror to traumatic mind-fuck to iconoclastic yet very reverential Doctor Who. The story had no problems with adding to the overall mythology of the show, but did so in a way that is intuitively plausible - why shouldn't the TARDIS have chosen the Doctor rather than the other way around, and why shouldn't she have chosen where he needed to go rather than following his commands about where he wanted to go? After all, that could explain why the Doctor almost always ends up in the thick of an adventure...
At the same time, though, this was written by someone with enormous respect both for the fan and for the casual viewer. There were details - from the big (like the use of the previous TARDIS control room) to the small (like the use of the little communication boxes from The War Games). Yet the whole thing was carefully, yet not patronisingly, explained - we were never left if any doubt about what was going on without having to have lots of idiotic exposition scenes. In a sense, this made tonight's episode the most successful of the season so far, in that it genuinely seemed to have been written with everyone in mind. Plus, it was full of laugh-out-loud moments - a particular favourite of mine being the TARDIS's decision about who was the pretty one.
Yet it wasn't just about the writing. This was also extremely well directed. The shots seemed to have been properly thought through, and were consequently very well composed. Two standout moments for me: the moment when the Doctor and Idris were in the same frame, with the latter present through the use of a reflection in a shaving mirror, and the moment when Amy walked into the corridor dedicated to maligning her. Plus the acting was uniformly good. Matt Smith in particular got to run the full gauntlet of emotions, while Suranne Jones gave an utterly convincing performance as an old, sentient time machine not used to talking contained in the body of a woman.
Was it perfect? Well, no, but as near as to make no difference. My biggest gripe was the Ood - not that it did anything wrong, but just that it didn't need to be there. House itself was enough of menace; we didn't need another monster grafted on top. Plus, some of the CGI around the Doctor's mail didn't quite work (although the FX in this episode was otherwise pretty strong). But these are minor, almost pedantic points. This was the sort of Doctor Who that I just lap up, and an utterly convincing explanation for why I like the show so much. Inventive, funny, scary, clever and sad - the Doctor himself in a nutshell.
In short, an absolute success of an episode. And when Steven Moffat leaves, the show could do much, much worse than giving Neil Gaiman a call about its vacancy.
Labels: Cult TV, Doctor Who, Reviews, RTD, TV
posted by The Nameless Libertarian @ 9:20 pm
9 Comments
9 Comments:
Excellent episode so I agree with most of your comments this evening. It was a great episode, it certainly beat last week's inept outing into a cocked hat.
It was really quite inventive except that a lot of the ideas came out of the 8th Doctor novels with their plotline of the living, sentinent TARDISes. Still to be fair there is nothing new under the sun although this really reminded of the EDAs.
There was also a DWM comic strip, Funhouse which was not dissimilar with the idea of an evil, sentinent house absorbig its occupants. Still as I say nothing new under the sun.
Also there was a touch of the Brain of Morbius about this. Perhaps it was deliberate.
Matt Smith was terrific. He is such an improvement over the lazy, Gordon Clown lover. He has been a shot in the arm for the programme after it almost ran into the ditch with some real shockers like Planet of the Dead. He was brilliant in this evening's episode.
As for the visual effects, they looked like they were generated by a computer as much as according to you the rat denigrates the whole of Talons of Weng Chiang. At least with the latter, someone had to be creative and invent something out of nothing but here someone with a computer has let the side down with shoddy VFXes. One expects better in this day and age. I agree with you - disappointing VFX, but an excellent and exciting episode.
"Sure, I guessed that Idris had become the TARDIS."
Well, I'm no expert on Doctor Who, but the fact that a new spirit possessed her exactly at the same time the TARDIS conked out made it perfectly clear, didn't it?
What they didn't explain was what they did with Idris' corpse. And at the end, I did wonder, does The Doctor ever sleep? Has he ever been seen being tired, being asleep, waking up, etc?
Yes, we've seen the Doctor sleeping, waking up, and dreaming. Remember "Amy's Choice" last season? Not the best episode, but it did show that the Doctor does sleep.
I loved it, it certainly showed up last weeks with the pirates as being very poor.
I even had a few tears welling up at the end [I was very pissed though]
Jonathan - I do faintly remember the sentient TARDISes in the EDA - Compassion was one, if memory serves. But I think the way in which this story was put together was original as it was the TARDIS being forced to possess a living person. And yes, I agree, there was more than a hint of The Brain of Morbius around tonight's episode. Nothing wrong with that though - if you're going to pillage, pillage from the best.
As for The Talons of Weng-Chiang - I still love it, despite the cute killer rat and the slightly anti-climatic final episode. But in order to be objective about it, I have to point out what doesn't work. But the rat doesn't destroy the story for me, any more than the giant snake destroys Kinda or the Magma Beast destroys The Caves of Androzani. I would iterate, though, that all of the effects worked for me tonight except for the box at the beginning. Each to their own, I suppose.
Mark - I seem to remember that there was a piece of misdirection at the beginning of the episode - didn't Auntie and Uncle tell Idris she was about to become a Time Lord? Besides, with the lacklustre plotting in The Curse of the Black Spot, I was half expecting her being the TARDIS to be the main twist in the episode.
As for the Doctor sleeping, I'm not sure that Amy's Choice shows that he does - wasn't he being rendered unconscious there? Sure, he showed knowledge of dreaming, but that doesn't mean he does so himself normally. But across the show it has been implied that the Doctor does sleep, but doesn't need to as much as humans and will often stay awake when he has something obsessing his mind (the Seventh incarnation, for example, was often implied to sleep very little).
TNL
It was, I quote, as 'Dr Whoish as Dr Who should be'. Amy and Rory were relegated once more to the sidekicks they are, The Dr was manic, funny and just a little bit human (tears in the eyes).
We got to meet The Tardis, as a person. Even better, SHE was a lady (was she ever anything else), and it turned out she was manic, funny and just a little bit human too. What's not to like.
Favourite bit - You call me Sexy, Only in private.
All in all The Squids and I thought it was ace. A real Dr Who Classic (although that may be because the last three were so shite).
The Squids understood the whole plot, even the boxes. They were devastated when the Lady died, cheered when she whooshed off around the Tardis to kill off Idris and cheered even more when she flipped the switch in response to The Doctors Plea.
We all agreed that She really was 'The Doctor's Wife'.
The Squids also reckon that the whole 'Tardis in a body' thing may well explain 'The Impossible Astronaut'.
Here is their theory (it's a bit loose so bear with them) -
The Tardis is, in fact, River Song, and River Song is the Tardis. The Tardis didn't become Human until now, but The Tardis can go anywhere in space and time. So Having been human once, she wants to be human again.
However, The Tardis must have a fixed point in time with which to anchor herself. Thus She has fixed on a point where Riversong actually meets the Doctor.
From that point Riversongs' timeline can only go backwards, whilst the Doctors' continues to go forward.
Confused?, me too, but hear them out.
They reckon that 'The Impossible Astronaut' is Riversong/The Tardis and the Dr isn't dying/regenerating but is, in fact, releasing the Tardis, that he kindly absorbed when Riversong/The Tardis was killed.
I have no idea if this is true or not but I am mighty relieved that my Squids are once again fighting over the potential plotlines.
Mummy x
Robert, Nameless, yes, ta for extra pointers about whether he sleeps or not, but I really don't think that "Amy's Choice" counts, because that was more hypnotic trance or something, the three of them were fully conscious in both parallel universes.
I've just re-watched this episode and it's absolutely brilliant.
The end scene—"I just wanted to say 'hello'"—was heartrendingly good: Matt Smith reduced almost to a little boy sobbing his heart out at the loss of a friend, but a friend who will always be there—not just in spirit, but actuality—but with the chance to communicate removed.
Just utterly amazing.
DK
Agreed, DK. I think this is one of Smith's finest performances as the Doctor. It also makes the TARDIS a clear character in the Doctor's adventures. A little masterpiece.
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