Doctor Who/Recap/S32/E04 The Doctor's Wife: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''Hello. Hello, Doctor. It's so very, very nice to meet you.''|{{spoiler|'''The TARDIS'''}}}}

 

 

This episode, written by [[Neil Gaiman]] and directed by Richard Clark, won the 2011 Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation.

The hypercube is a form of communication for Time Lords. This one seems to come from one named the Corsair (previously mentioned by the Fourth Doctor in the [[Expanded Universe]]) and the Doctor knows him/her quite well. They were friends, through many incarnations, and although the Corsair's sex changed freely with new regenerations, one thing was always the same: the Corsair always got an Ouroubourous tattoo on each new body. The small mail cube has that exact same mark.

 

 

The travellers are greeted by two very raggedy old humanoids named Auntie & Uncle. They're closely followed by Nephew, a green-eyed lobotomized Ood. The TARDIS, in Idris' body, is ''delighted'' to see the Doctor, greets him with a "goodbye!", realises that that's wrong -- time is all too linear in a humanoid body -- and snogs him instead. The Doctor's a bit confused, especially when Auntie & Uncle warn him about contact with Idris, saying she is mad. And that she'll bite him. Which she promptly does. And she tells Rory what "petrichor" means, which he'll ask about soon enough in the future. But she has no idea how to behave around her "Thief", and before she knows it, she's carried off again by the humanoids.

** Rejoicing also occurred when Neil Gaiman, arguably the most prominent writer to ever craft a Doctor Who episode, was confirmed as writing an episode after several years of rumours.

* [[Arc Words]]: Oh we got some again. "The only water in the forest is the river." What, TARDIS, what?

* [[Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?]]: Used very much for drama here.

* [[Ascended Fanon]]: The episode all but confirms a lot of fan theories about the TARDIS and its relationship with the Doctor -- such as the fact that while she might not take him where he wants to go, she nevertheless takes him where he ''needs'' to go (or where ''he's'' needed).

** Also confirmed the long held fanon belief that (some? all?) Time Lords can change sex during a regeneration.

** The idea that the TARDIS is alive is ''not'' ascended fanon, however, having first been established way back in 1964.

* [[Author Appeal]]: Gaiman's love of the power of stories is in full effect.

** The episode proper opens with the Doctor finishing up a story about Robot King Arthur. Rory is skeptical, until Amy tells him she was there.

* [[Buffy-Speak]]: Idris. She refers to the Doctor as "Her Thief", Amy as "The Orangey Girl" and Rory as "Pretty".

* [[Call Back]]:

** {{spoiler|We also see the "coral" TARDIS control room formerly used by the Ninth and Tenth Doctors. Gaiman would have liked to use an even earlier version, but none still existed and the budget didn't stretch to recreating one just for this episode. So after the final David Tennant episode was filmed, the producers ordered that the coral TARDIS set be preserved until this episode could be filmed.}}

** At the very end of the episode, there's a nebula in the background that looks like the crack from season 5. Could potentially be more significant.

** Wasn't it mentioned in the first episode of this season what people would do with the body of a Time Lord?

** We now have "spacey-wacey" to go with [[Timey-Wimey Ball|"timey wimey"]].

*** [[Big Finish|Even]] [[Eighth Doctor Adventures|older]] [[Faction Paradox|than]] [[Older Than They Think|they think, actually.]]

** The makeshift TARDIS control room constructed by the Doctor out of ruined TARDIS junk is something of a hodgepodge homage to the various styles of control room seen throughout the 1963-1989 series, and was designed by the winner of a ''[[Blue Peter]]'' competition.

** "I always liked it when you called me Old Girl."

* [[Cannot Spit It Out]]: Idris{{spoiler|!TARDIS}} has difficulty with certain words {{spoiler|including her real name}}. {{spoiler|She's not ''used'' to having a body, or even being able to talk, for that matter. Anyone would be a bit off under the circumstances.}}

* [[Cargo Ship]]:

* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]: Anything possessed by House [[Sickly Green Glow|glows a sickly green colour]]. When it's in control of the TARDIS, not only do the inner lights go green, so does the lamp on the top.

* [[Contest Winner Cameo]]: The winning entry of the [[Blue Peter]] TARDIS interior design contest held back in Series 5 appears in this episode. {{spoiler|It's the makeshift TARDIS the Doctor builds to get back to his own.}}

** Could be that the {{spoiler|Junkyard!TARDIS's energy-bubble VFX}} is a nod to the opening sequence in Sylvester McCoy's run.

** The {{spoiler|House-possessed TARDIS pulling a [[Mind Screw]] on the Doctor's companion and the TARDIS appearing in a human form}} are very similar to events of the [[Big Finish]] audio [[Big Finish Doctor Who (Radio)/050 Zagreus/Recap|Zagreus]].

* [[Corpse Land]]: {{spoiler|The supposed "junkyard".}}

* [[Creepy Monotone]]: The House.

** These seem to be developing into one of Eleven's [[Catch Phrase|Catchphrases]].

* [[Don't Make Me Destroy You]]

* [[Evil Sounds Deep]]: House.

* [[Expospeak Gag]]: When the Ood was "redistributed." Translation: {{spoiler|you're breathing him.}}

* [[Foreshadowing]]: Lampshaded in the extent that Idris!TARDIS talks about things that the Doctor and the crew have not yet experienced. They all are revealed to be true, in time... (See [[Chekhov's Gun]] above)

** {{spoiler|The first thing Idris does upon seeing the Doctor is call him "Thief". As we find out later, she actually thinks of the Doctor as "her thief".}}

* [[Gender Bender]]: The Doctor offhandedly confirms that Time Lords can change gender when they regenerate. The Corsair, one of his old buddies, was usually a man but sometimes a woman ("She was a ''bad'' girl!")

* [[Genius Loci]]: The asteroid is sentient and able to communicate via its inhabitants. {{spoiler|Then it takes over the TARDIS, turning it into one as well.}}

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: Amy and Rory asking the Doctor not to give them a bunk bed {{spoiler|in their new bedroom, as the old one got destroyed in that battle with House.}} If you think about it, a bunk bed is not conducive for... fun time.

{{quote| "No, bunk beds are cool! A bed — with a ''ladder!'' You can't beat that!"}}

** When the Doctor explains a bit incoherently that {{spoiler|Idris is the TARDIS in a woman's body}}, Amy's response is, "[[Cargo Ship|Did you wish really, really hard?]]"

** After stating that there's a word on the tip of her ''tongue'', {{spoiler|Idris!TARDIS}} suggestively moves towards the Doctor and says she has "a new idea about kissing".

** The Doctor's plan of building a new TARDIS from scratch, as said by Idris: "Let's take these half digested corpses and sew them together into a single body and then make it go for a run" is basically what House was doing to Aunty and Uncle<ref> Although the Doctor at least wasn't using living ones</ref>.

** Or how both react after getting new bodies:

'''House''': ''[newly possessed the TARDIS]'' Corridors. I have so many corridors. - ''The Doctor's Wife'' }}

* [[One-Gender Race]]: Implied with {{spoiler|1=TARDISes}}, given Idris's reference to her 'sisters' scattered across the planet.

** {{spoiler|The Doctor asks Idris to send a message to Amy. She asks if Amy's the pretty one. Seconds later, ''Rory'' gets a message. Given how flirty Rory's wife gets with the Doctor at times, it's fitting that the Doctor's wife should turn the tables.}}

* [[Room Full of Crazy]]: Amy encounters a section of hallway where all the walls are covered with "HATE AMY", "KILL AMY", and even "KILL ME AMY". {{spoiler|The kicker is that those words were written by a long-dead Rory. It was a [[Mind Rape]] via The House}}.

* [[Scenery Gorn]]: The wrecked ships.

* [[Scheherezade Gambit]]: Rory convinces House to keep them alive because killing them at once wouldn't be any fun. "I had a PE teacher like you once..."

* [[Shave and A Haircut]]: This is what the message box uses to knock on the TARDIS door.

* [[Series Resemblance]]: Very heavily to [[Coraline]].

** One of the junked ships resembles, and is positioned the same way as, the wrecked ship in ''[[Alien]]''.

** The Junkyard [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy (Franchise)/The Restaurant At The End of The Universe|at the End of the Universe]], anyone?

** House's personality and treatment of Amy and Rory owes a lot to AM in [[Harlan Ellison]]'s famous short story ''[[I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream]]'', not to mention resembling a certain other monotoned, malevolent entity controlling a spaceship. Maybe House and HAL are related...

** Then there's that [[House of Leaves|other]] malevolent, labyrinthine {{color|blue|house}}

** 'Petrichor', a word for 'the smell after rain', is significant to one of the [[Discworld]] books.

*** And turns up a lot in ''[[American Gods (Literature)|American Gods]]''.

* [[Space Pirates|Space Pirate]]: The Corsair, at least in name if not spirit. Although what little we learn about him/her suggests that she/he might have been a benevolent version of this.

* [[Spaceship Girl]]: But in reverse of usual.

{{quote| '''Uncle''': I only wish I could go in your place Idris...nah, I don't 'cause it's ''really'' gonna hurt.}}

* [[Tele Frag]]: {{spoiler|Nephew is killed when the Doctor's makeshift TARDIS lands where he's standing.}}