{"id":753,"date":"2011-05-21T11:35:24","date_gmt":"2011-05-21T11:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/?p=753"},"modified":"2011-05-23T13:06:05","modified_gmt":"2011-05-23T13:06:05","slug":"so-what-did-i-think-of-the-doctors-wife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/05\/21\/so-what-did-i-think-of-the-doctors-wife\/","title":{"rendered":"So… What did I think of The Doctor’s Wife?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Who\u2019s this Neil Gaiman character then? First rising to fame when he remodelled obscure DC Comics superhero Sandman in his own shaggy-haired, heavy-lidded, pale skinned, dark clothed image as prince of dreams, he wrote all 75 issues over seven years. Dream and his various siblings including Destiny, Delirum and of course, cheeky apparently teenaged Death, struck a deep chord with emo comic fans everywhere, but spoke to a much wider audience as well, including riffs on Shakespeare, Dante, the Brothers Grimm, Tom Brown\u2019s Schooldays and much else besides. Off the back of Sandman, he wrote novels, television plays, and recently has had several high profile movie adaptations including Coraline and Stardust. His lyrical, whimsical style is a perfect match for twenty-first century Doctor Who and he\u2019s approached the task with daring, grace and a tremendous amount of wit and style.<\/p>\n

If it isn\u2019t obvious yet, I adored, The Doctor\u2019s Wife<\/em>, easily my favourite of the series so far. From the opening grimly exchanges between Auntie, Uncle and Idris to the final heartbreaking \u201chello\u201d from the ghost out of the time machine, this was classy, elegant, exciting, thrilling stuff. Director Richard Clark\u2019s location work is absolutely gorgeous, with amazing set dressing and wonderfully weird lighting and the central idea is nothing short of astonishing. After a first viewing, I wondered if the details of the plot all quite worked. I probably wouldn\u2019t have minded if they haven\u2019t. It\u2019s the TARDIS, in the body of a woman (\u201cdid you wish really<\/span> hard?\u201d). That\u2019s probably enough for me. But a second viewing proves that \u2013 although whipping past at a dizzying rate \u2013 all the requisite explanations are there. Every i has been dotted and every t crossed, it\u2019s just that Gaiman didn\u2019t want to labour the point. And quite right too.<\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t just about a meeting between a thief and the box he stole, there\u2019s proper jeopardy too as House heads off back to our universe to wreak havoc and may be find an entertaining way of bumping Amy and Rory off too if he gets sufficiently bored. So we get a proper exploration of the TARDIS, with proper corridor sets and everything (no CGI refit of the console room for one or two quick shots) for the first time since Time and the Rani<\/em>. And these bewildering scenes are almost the best that the show has to offer, plunging our young couple into a weird nightmare world. As he is contractually required to do in, I assume, every story this season, Rory dies, but is brought back to life swiftly enough that it\u2019s a mere bump in the road, scarcely enough to derail the narrative.<\/p>\n

But the very best part of the episode is happening back on the planet, where in a dementedly brilliant scheme, the Doctor and his personified TARDIS manage to build a new TARDIS out of TARDIS scrap. As I\u2019ve documented elsewhere, a potential problem with 45 minute self-contained stories is that 40 minutes is spent gleefully ratcheting up the tension and then the solution is crammed into a few minutes and feels insufficient, ill-thought-out or just unduly brief. Big, complicated problems require difficult and costly solutions. What\u2019s brilliant about The Doctor\u2019s Wife<\/em> is that the solution is begun early and is just as much fun as the problem. Elsewhere, Gaiman is ruthlessly efficient. There are only seven characters in total, one basically mute and one only a voice. Two character simply drop down dead when they have fulfilled their narrative purpose. But this speed feels like energy not like hurry. And it\u2019s useful when you\u2019re daring to illuminate a character\u2019s history, one who is much more interesting while still mysterious, to not be tempted to stop and smell the flowers, to give us a couple of quick glimpses and then to slam the door shut and lock it securely.<\/p>\n

No account of The Doctor\u2019s Wife<\/em> would be complete without a run-down of some of the outstanding one-liners. Here are some of my favourites (from memory, so apologies for any paraphrasing).<\/p>\n