Doctor Who - s6e4: The Doctor's Wife
May. 19th, 2011 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lightcastlePeople seem pretty split on this episode, and I don't think it is just Neil Gaiman-worship/backlash.
The TARDIS is perhaps the most iconic element of Doctor Who; I can only think of the Daleks as even close. As much, and perhaps even moreso than the Doctor himself, the TARDIS is the glue of the show. It is a character and always has been. It has long been established that it is in someway sentient, (I think the very first serial has Ian saying that it's alive.) and that in some way they love each other. (I'm not sure how far back I can swing that one, but easily true by the Tom Baker era.) The temptation to make that explicit has been avoided in the show, although brought up a fair amount in spin off media from what I understand. Most suspect that it has been avoided because much like a Dalek/Cyberman fight, just about everyone has thought about it and just about everyone has decided it would be hard to pull off well.
Gaiman pulled it off well. Sure, I am among those who would want something more profound and interesting from TARDIS, something deeper and less likely to result in massive fridge logic, but we got a mad, bitey woman and it was endearing. (Admittedly, some may argue I am known to be fond of mad, bitey women, and thus might be biased. *smile*)
There were some lovely moments in their interactions, most of them hinging on the fact that the TARDIS stole him (and is more honest about it than he is about stealing the TARDIS). I loved that, and it was truly sweet. (The only really false note for me was the "You are not my mother/You are not my child" bit, which just felt very tired.)
In some ways, the fact that House was so deeply boring as a villain (which is a shame since the idea had potential) and that the corridor run had no real tension or scares doesn't even matter that much since the point of this episode was the Doctor and the TARDIS talking. The rest felt like a throw away and probably WAS a throwaway. The show probably would have been strengthened with keeping them all together and finding something more interesting for them to do. It was only a character study anyway, so why bother trying to add in something else when you only have an hour-long show.
A perfectly ok filler episode in my view, and it seems they at least threw in something to forward the season arc with the "the only water in the forest is the River".
I will also, as a continuity junkie, give a nod to Gaiman for throwing in as many as he did. Hypercubes, the Eye of Orion, Six's umbrella, etc. I also like that he at least tried to establish that Time Lords can change gender on regeneration, which I appreciate.
The TARDIS is perhaps the most iconic element of Doctor Who; I can only think of the Daleks as even close. As much, and perhaps even moreso than the Doctor himself, the TARDIS is the glue of the show. It is a character and always has been. It has long been established that it is in someway sentient, (I think the very first serial has Ian saying that it's alive.) and that in some way they love each other. (I'm not sure how far back I can swing that one, but easily true by the Tom Baker era.) The temptation to make that explicit has been avoided in the show, although brought up a fair amount in spin off media from what I understand. Most suspect that it has been avoided because much like a Dalek/Cyberman fight, just about everyone has thought about it and just about everyone has decided it would be hard to pull off well.
Gaiman pulled it off well. Sure, I am among those who would want something more profound and interesting from TARDIS, something deeper and less likely to result in massive fridge logic, but we got a mad, bitey woman and it was endearing. (Admittedly, some may argue I am known to be fond of mad, bitey women, and thus might be biased. *smile*)
There were some lovely moments in their interactions, most of them hinging on the fact that the TARDIS stole him (and is more honest about it than he is about stealing the TARDIS). I loved that, and it was truly sweet. (The only really false note for me was the "You are not my mother/You are not my child" bit, which just felt very tired.)
In some ways, the fact that House was so deeply boring as a villain (which is a shame since the idea had potential) and that the corridor run had no real tension or scares doesn't even matter that much since the point of this episode was the Doctor and the TARDIS talking. The rest felt like a throw away and probably WAS a throwaway. The show probably would have been strengthened with keeping them all together and finding something more interesting for them to do. It was only a character study anyway, so why bother trying to add in something else when you only have an hour-long show.
A perfectly ok filler episode in my view, and it seems they at least threw in something to forward the season arc with the "the only water in the forest is the River".
I will also, as a continuity junkie, give a nod to Gaiman for throwing in as many as he did. Hypercubes, the Eye of Orion, Six's umbrella, etc. I also like that he at least tried to establish that Time Lords can change gender on regeneration, which I appreciate.
