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“Do you ever wonder why I chose you all those years ago?”
“I chose you. You were unlocked.”
“Of course I was. I wanted to see the universe, so I stole a Time Lord and I ran away. And you were the only one mad enough.”
After the genetic sleight of hand that was ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’ and the rumour mongering of ‘The Next Doctor’, Doctor Who fans knew better than to fall into the trap set when it was announced that Neil Gaiman’s episode for this series would be called ‘The Doctor’s Wife’. But I don’t think anyone could have guessed the truth behind the title of this episode – or just how magically it would work.
Certain elements of this episode weren’t used quite as fully as they could have been – the strange world of Auntie, Uncle and Nephew, or the never-ending TARDIS corridors that Amy and Rory found themselves in. Gaiman himself has admitted that he was sad to see some scenes involving these storylines cut, either for time or budgetary reasons. But cutting them to give more weight to the central relationship was absolutely the right decision, and stretching the story out to two episodes would have weakened the tragic brevity of the Doctor and Idris’s time together.
And what a time it was. When it turned out that ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’ was actually a genetically manufactured soldier, it felt a bit like fan expectations had been manipulated to grab press attention; the same was true to an extent of ‘The Next Doctor’, although Jackson Lake’s story and the fact that it gave me an hour of David Morrissey on Christmas Day did make up for it. But while we weren’t actually given ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ here, the title is completely appropriate; a slightly odd, but perfectly apt, description of the Doctor’s feelings towards his TARDIS.
The Doctor’s love for his ship, and the suggestion that it always had a personality of its own, has been a consistent thread throughout Doctor Who. The dynamic here was both sweet and appropriately sparky, and the shared love for travelling felt completely right. I particularly enjoyed the nods towards fan debates, such as the TARDIS’s annoyance that the Doctor has spent 700 years ignoring the sign on the front and pushing the door to open rather than pulling. But the best one had to be the TARDIS admitting that she always took the Doctor where he needed to be; the Doctor’s ability to turn up just in time to save the day has always been debated by fans, and this explanation felt particularly fitting.
But Gaiman’s beautifully thought-out, touching script would have been nothing without the performances. Following her brilliantly camp take on the Mona Lisa in The Sarah Jane Adventures, Suranne Jones proves once again that being a former soap star doesn’t mean you can’t be brilliant. If she was good as the madwoman at the start of the episode, she became sublime as her true identity was revealed. She bounced brilliantly off Matt Smith, who was on fine form throughout. From their moment surveying the dead TARDISes to their delight at building a new console and saving the day, and their absolutely heartbreaking final scene together, they were absolute perfection together. The sight of Matt Smith's magnificent face welling up with tears is one I won't forget in a hurry.
‘The Doctor’s Wife’ was a very special episode of Doctor Who, adding a new element to one of the most important elements of the show in an amusing, touching and thoughtful way that deserves praise of the very highest kind.
The second half of this mini-series of the show ramps up next week with 'The Rebel Flesh', which includes Chris from Life on Mars. Whether or not he does any adorably bad dancing is yet to be confirmed.
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