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

The Doctor sees Idris' body in a holding cell, and she tries to convey to him who she is. "We travel. I go... VWORP... VWORP." She explains that she's the one that stole him. He's her Doctor. While he tries to argue that ''he'' stole ''her'', he releases her, and stands face-to-face with his ship. He awkwardly asks for her name. She assumes she's called "Sexy", since that's what he's always called her. She tries to get used to a physical body and linear time, with significant [[Time Travel Tense Trouble]] and very little sense of what's yet to happen and what's already passed. They flirt and banter away until they, in non-linear flow of time fashion, figure out that the remains of all the Time Lords and TARDISes House has fed upon in its time has given them access to a means of escape. They hastily build a new TARDIS out of TARDIS corpse parts, and Sexy Thing animates the remains with some feeling of horror.

 

 

Amy and Rory nearly don't make it, though, since House has brought Nephew along for the ride and tries to use him to kill them. In the nick of time, Nephew is killed, and the Doctor and Sexy are back inside the TARDIS husk.

** {{spoiler|House uses old Time Lord distress messages to lure Time Lords to the planet so he can eat them.}}

** {{spoiler|Amy was separated from Rory for thousands of years and he now hates her for abandoning him. Then she gets away from him, and comes across his desiccated corpse lying on the floor with "KILL AMY" (and, perhaps even more disturbingly, "KILL ME AMY") scrawled on every wall. Then she finds out it's just a [[Mind Screw]]. The story is in the implication of what's been happening between the illusions.}}

* [[Badass Boast]] / [[Do Not Taunt Cthulhu]]

{{quote| '''House''': Fear me. I've killed hundreds of Time Lords.<br />

{{quote| '''Doctor''': You gave me hope and then you took it all away. Thats enough to make anyone dangerous, god knows what it'll ''[[Bullying a Dragon|do to me]]''. '''BASICALLY, RUN!'''}}

* [[Big No]]: Amy on seeing {{spoiler|Rory's body}}. Helped on by the fact that she sounds like she's going to throw up in grief.

** This was also the first episode since the series returned in 2005 to give an extensive on-screen "tour" of the TARDIS interior beyond the console room.

* [[Body Horror]]: {{spoiler|The Time Lords who came to House before the Doctor were cut up and sewn back together to make Auntie and Uncle. But, for reasons never explained, not Idris.}}

** Also, we hear the [[Doctor Who/Recap/S32 E3 The Curse of the Black Spot|Cloister Bell]] once again when {{spoiler|House takes over the TARDIS}}. (The Cloister Bell was first heard in the Season 18 story ''Logopolis''.)

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

** At the end of the episode, the Doctor suggests they go to [[Doctor Who/20th AS the Five Doctors/Recap|the Eye of Orion]].

** The Doctor [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S4 E9 Forest of the Dead|clicks his fingers]] repeatedly when trying to get into the locked TARDIS.

** People being kept alive with bodies cobbled together from body parts belonging to several aliens, including Time Lords. [[Doctor Who/Recap/S13 E5 The Brain of Morbius|Hmmm...]]

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

** The psychic container used to deliver the message to the Doctor at the start of the episode is an intentional callback to [[Doctor Who/Recap/S6 E7 The War Games|The War Games]].

** Some have noted that the Doctor's remembrance of the robot king [[Doctor Who/Recap/S16 E4 The Androids of Tara|sounds familiar]], though Amy claims to have been part of those events.

* [[Continuity Nod]]: As in [[Doctor Who/Recap/S19 E1 Castrovalva|"Castrovalva"]], the Doctor jettisons TARDIS rooms to give him a boost.

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

** The Doctor has traveled to an alternate universe using only a TARDIS console before, in [[Doctor Who/Recap/S7 E4 Inferno|Inferno]].

** [[Status Quo Is God]]: The TARDIS ''just'' regrew the rooms jettisoned in [[Doctor Who/Recap/S19 E1 Castrovalva|"Castrovalva"]] last season. Easy come, easy go...

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: This episode starts off with funny moments ("I've got mail!") Then it segues into [[Neil Gaiman|Gaiman's]] [[Signature Style|extremely]] scary ending.

* [[Moral Dissonance]]: The Doctor apologises to Idris when he realises that cannabalising various TARDIS components might bother her {{spoiler|as a TARDIS herself}}.

** Or maybe a {{color|blue| house}} that seems to like [[House of Leaves|breaking people's minds?]]

* [[Noodle Incident]]: Whatever story the Doctor was telling Rory at the beginning. Apparently, it wasn't the Robot King.

'''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.

* [[The Ophelia]]: Idris has a lot of these traits, right down to the long hair and Victorian clothing. Considering that she was written by [[Neil Gaiman]], this was probably intentional.

* [[Ouroboros]]: The Corsair's tattoo.

* [[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..."

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

* [[Shout-Out]]

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

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

** The TARDIS corridors seen in this episode bear a strong resemblance to the corridors of the ''Liberator'' in ''[[Blake's Seven|Blakes Seven]]''.

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

*** And what about the patchwork people, similar and darkly dissimilar to the Igors. Or perhaps Frankenstein's Monster.

** "Biting's excellent. It's like kissing, [[Jekyll|only there's a winner!]]"

* [[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.}}

** The original opening involved the TARDIS team on the Planet of the Rain Gods being taken for sacrifice, and then abandoning that adventure when it had just gotten started because of the hypercube zooming up and scaring the locals, leaving the place unsorted. Neil Gaiman has admitted this is one of the cut scenes he misses the most, as it was the one cut sequence that came very close to filming. A 3-page comic adaption of the scene was published in the Doctor Who Brilliant Book 2012.

** Fan theory is speculating that {{spoiler|1=TARDIS-Idris}} was written with [[Helena Bonham Carter]] in mind. (Which explains why she resembles a [[Tim Burton]] character. [[Signature Style|Any given female Tim Burton character]].)

*** Or [[Neverwhere|Laura Fraser]].

** The original plan was to recreate one of the old-school console room sets for the climax, but there was no budget or studio space for one. Fortunately, plans for this episode pre-dated the final David Tennant episodes - it was originally planned for Season 5 - so the new producer Steven Moffat requested that the Tennant-era TARDIS set be preserved (and indeed it can be seen in many Season 5 behind-the-scenes videos as it was right next to the new set).