Doctor Who 6.4: The Doctor's Wife
May. 15th, 2011 10:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayMay I just say, Neil Gaiman should write more Doctor Who episodes. That was totally brilliant.
I think a thousand fan speculations have just been confirmed. Doctor/Tardis is now canon :-)
I really did love this. After The Doctor's Daughter, I knew that whatever this episode was going to be about wouldn't be obviously about the Doctor getting married. It was, however, about his wife in a way that I didn't expect. After all, even before this episode many of us talked about the TARDIS as his one true love.
There are two things we learned about their relationship that I keep coming back to. The first is the idea that the TARDIS stole the Doctor just as much as he stole her. I love it and it really fits well with a lot of what we've seen of their relationship over the years.
The second is the idea that all those times the Doctor has ended up somewhere other than where he wanted to be, it was because the TARDIS was taking him to where he needed to be. It works beautifully. It explains why he's always arriving in places just when things are kicking off and someone needs him. It also explains why he can sometimes land precisely where he intended to land: the TARDIS knew that he needed to land there and let him. It's a really terrific explanation for something that we've been speculating and arguing about for years.
As for the overall episode...
As soon as I saw the planet, I kind of went "yup, this is Neil Gaiman's episode". There's something about the feel and look of it that was incredibly *him*. That may be in part because I'm currently re-watching Neverwhere and it had a similar sort of feel. There are some incredibly disturbing ideas in this episode. A sentient planet that eats TARDISes, that rebuilds its servants with 'off-cuts' of people it has lured to it. That's quite horrific.
The scene looking down on the TARDIS graveyard, where our Tardis mourns the deaths of her sisters, was beautiful and a reminder that each one of those beautiful vessels had a living core that was destroyed. It brought home just what a horror House was. That mixture of dark and quirky and beauty is such a Gaiman trademark and it works perfectly for Doctor Who.
The scenes on the TARDIS with Amy and Rory were also excellent. I loved the chance to see some TARDIS corridors (yes, I'm a sad geek) and it was lovely to see how well Amy and Rory work together. At the same time, the way that House played with Amy's mind was terrifying and I really felt for her seeing Rory's body surrounded by those hate messages. House knew so well just what would be the worst thing that Amy could see.
I do wonder what, if anything, it did to Rory. And if it didn't do anything, if it only attacked Amy's mind, what is different about Rory?
Speaking of Rory...
How much do I love that the TARDIS thinks he's the pretty one :-) Aww. She's a Rory fan.
There is so much still to mention that I loved: archived control rooms, Amy and Rory's bunk beds, building a console, the clever resolution to the episode. So much to love.
My heart nearly broke when the TARIDS and the Doctor said good-bye. It was so beautifully done.
At the same time, the Doctor's joy when she helped him pick a new destination was just lovely. I wish there was some way that she could talk, but I think they can communicate just perfectly.
In short, this is joining the ranks of one of my favourite New Who episodes. It was brilliant.
I think a thousand fan speculations have just been confirmed. Doctor/Tardis is now canon :-)
I really did love this. After The Doctor's Daughter, I knew that whatever this episode was going to be about wouldn't be obviously about the Doctor getting married. It was, however, about his wife in a way that I didn't expect. After all, even before this episode many of us talked about the TARDIS as his one true love.
There are two things we learned about their relationship that I keep coming back to. The first is the idea that the TARDIS stole the Doctor just as much as he stole her. I love it and it really fits well with a lot of what we've seen of their relationship over the years.
The second is the idea that all those times the Doctor has ended up somewhere other than where he wanted to be, it was because the TARDIS was taking him to where he needed to be. It works beautifully. It explains why he's always arriving in places just when things are kicking off and someone needs him. It also explains why he can sometimes land precisely where he intended to land: the TARDIS knew that he needed to land there and let him. It's a really terrific explanation for something that we've been speculating and arguing about for years.
As for the overall episode...
As soon as I saw the planet, I kind of went "yup, this is Neil Gaiman's episode". There's something about the feel and look of it that was incredibly *him*. That may be in part because I'm currently re-watching Neverwhere and it had a similar sort of feel. There are some incredibly disturbing ideas in this episode. A sentient planet that eats TARDISes, that rebuilds its servants with 'off-cuts' of people it has lured to it. That's quite horrific.
The scene looking down on the TARDIS graveyard, where our Tardis mourns the deaths of her sisters, was beautiful and a reminder that each one of those beautiful vessels had a living core that was destroyed. It brought home just what a horror House was. That mixture of dark and quirky and beauty is such a Gaiman trademark and it works perfectly for Doctor Who.
The scenes on the TARDIS with Amy and Rory were also excellent. I loved the chance to see some TARDIS corridors (yes, I'm a sad geek) and it was lovely to see how well Amy and Rory work together. At the same time, the way that House played with Amy's mind was terrifying and I really felt for her seeing Rory's body surrounded by those hate messages. House knew so well just what would be the worst thing that Amy could see.
I do wonder what, if anything, it did to Rory. And if it didn't do anything, if it only attacked Amy's mind, what is different about Rory?
Speaking of Rory...
How much do I love that the TARDIS thinks he's the pretty one :-) Aww. She's a Rory fan.
There is so much still to mention that I loved: archived control rooms, Amy and Rory's bunk beds, building a console, the clever resolution to the episode. So much to love.
My heart nearly broke when the TARIDS and the Doctor said good-bye. It was so beautifully done.
At the same time, the Doctor's joy when she helped him pick a new destination was just lovely. I wish there was some way that she could talk, but I think they can communicate just perfectly.
In short, this is joining the ranks of one of my favourite New Who episodes. It was brilliant.
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Date: 2011-05-17 12:58 pm (UTC)