From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated   
   From Address: jphalt@aol.com   
   Subject: Re: jphalt's Doctor Who reviews   
      
   THE DOCTOR'S WIFE   
      
   1 episode. Approx. 46 minutes. Written by: Neil Gaiman. Directed by:   
   Richard Clark. Produced by: Sanne Wohlenberg.   
      
      
   THE PLOT   
      
   A Time Lord distress call leads the Doctor into a "bubble universe,"   
   where he hopes to find survivors of the Time War. "You want to be   
   forgiven," Amy observes. "Don't we all?" he replies. But instead of   
   Time Lords, he discovers a junkyard of disconnected odds and ends from   
   different times and places, all on a sentient asteroid known as   
   "House" (Michael Sheen). House has four inhabitants: The friendly yet   
   bizarre Auntie and Uncle (Elizabeth Berrington and Adrian Schiller), a   
   voiceless Ood (Paul Kasey), and the mad and potentially violent Idris   
   (Suranne Jones).   
      
   The Doctor explores with House's blessing, sending Amy and Rory back   
   to the TARDIS to keep them out of his way. He follows Time Lord voices   
   to a door, on the other side of which he finds... more distress boxes,   
   created by Time Lords lured to this universe by House. The entity   
   feeds on TARDIS energy, which he is able to do only by transplanting   
   the sentient soul of the TARDIS into a human body. The Doctor's TARDIS   
   is now Idris - and House now inhabits the physical TARDIS, hunting the   
   Doctor's companions for sport.   
      
   Now the Doctor finds himself teaming up with his newly-human time   
   machine to save his friends, his time ship, and possibly the universe   
   itself. And he has a deadline of only 18 minutes to do it!   
      
      
   CHARACTERS   
      
   The Doctor: I think this is the most nakedly emotional episode Matt   
   Smith's Doctor has had. At the prospect of reuniting with some fellow   
   renegade Time Lords, his hopes are raised high - leading to despair   
   when House's true agenda is revealed. That is followed by pure joy,   
   when he realizes that Idris is actually the consciousness of his   
   TARDIS inside a human body... followed again by grief when the human   
   Idris dies, cutting him off from this rich dialogue with his sentient   
   vessel. Smith doesn't quite capture the Doctor's anger when he   
   realizes he's been duped. But with that one exception, he manages the   
   many emotional shifts demanded by the script, and does it without   
   sacrificing the Doctor's essential nature as an alien. A superb   
   performance, from an actor who has already climbed very near the top   
   of my "favorite Doctors" list.   
      
   Amy: Recognizes the Doctor's fallibility. Not in a harsh or critical   
   way, but with genuine concern. She knows the Doctor, and knows that   
   he's getting too emotionally invested in his hopes of finding other   
   Time Lords. We also see the inverse of her observational skills: an   
   ability to visualize concepts in order to unlock the door to the old   
   TARDIS console room. Rory might lose some of his jealousy if he could   
   see that for "delight" she pictures her wedding day.   
      
   Rory: If Amy is the more observant of the two, then Rory is the more   
   pragmatic. When House announces himself to Amy and Rory, demanding to   
   know why it shouldn't just kill them and have done with it, Rory   
   realizes almost instantly what the entity needs: amusement. He uses   
   that need to keep himself and Amy alive, albeit running in fear,   
   giving the Doctor a chance to save them. Rory's 2,000 year wait for   
   Amy is touched on again, as well, with the aged Rory created by House   
   showing a homicidal bitterness when he is separated from Amy for that   
   length of time again.   
      
      
   THOUGHTS   
      
   "Are all people like this? ...So much bigger on the inside!"   
      
   Neil Gaiman is one of the most successful voices in modern fantasy   
   literature. From his classic (and I feel fully justfied in using that   
   word) Sandman graphic novels to such imaginative works as Neverwhere,   
   American Gods, and The Graveyard Book, Gaiman has proved himself a   
   master at weaving a world that's simultaneously recognizable as our   
   own and recognizably completely different, melding the surreal with   
   the mundane, the fantastical with the ordinary.   
      
   Of course, Gaiman can have his off days, and his screen work has been   
   significantly less consistent than his literary work. But his mad,   
   eccentric voice comes through with wonderful clarity in his foray into   
   the universe of Doctor Who. With brilliantly visual direction by   
   Richard Clark and an all-around excellent production, this emerges as   
   the best Who story thus far in Series Six - possibly the best so far   
   of the entire Steven Moffat era!   
      
   The production design is stunning. I love the "junkyard at the end of   
   the universe," as Rory describes it. It's like watching the characters   
   wander around the inside of a Salvador Dali painting. Bits of odd junk   
   are all over the place. Amy looks inside a washer standing in the   
   middle of nowhere. There's a lamp, odds and ends, and the wreckage of   
   a giant spaceship in the background. The corridors look like they're   
   made out of bits that don't quite fit together. Just about every shot   
   gives you something interesting to look at.   
      
   But here I am describing the backdrop. As visually arresting as all of   
   this is, the real triumph is in the script and the acting. The   
   regulars are at their very best here, and guest star Suranne Jones   
   matches their level as she embodies the TARDIS. Her early "madness"   
   can be explained as the TARDIS adjusting to linear perceptions when   
   it's used to existing in all of Time and Space. She marvels at   
   sensations: kissing, biting, touching, seeing (her laughter at the   
   Doctor's chin). All of this is new to her, and all of it is   
   overwhelming. As she adjusts, she calms and is able to act as a   
   partner to the Doctor. And we get wonderful nuggets, particularly this   
   explanation of why the TARDIS so often goes off course:   
      
      
   "You didn't always take me where I wanted to go."   
   "No, but I took you where you needed to go!"   
      
      
   Simple, but perfect. The Doctor's many random adventures, particularly   
   in the early years when he truly couldn't control the machine? They   
   weren't random at all. The ship found trouble spots in Time and Space.   
   With both ship and Doctor thirsting for exploration and adventure,   
   they went to the places where they were most needed. Outside of maybe   
   a small handful of stories in the entire series, it's a tidy   
   explanation - and one that takes up all of about five seconds' screen   
   time.   
      
   A near perfectly-judged episode. It's idiosyncratic, but not so much   
   as to distance viewers from enjoying it. It's unique, but it   
   absolutely feels like Doctor Who at every turn. It's character-   
   centric, but not at the expense of being a fast-paced and atmospheric   
   adventure story. I said of The Curse of the Black Spot that it was not   
   a story I would likely ever re-watch. In contrast, this is a story   
   that I will revisit often.   
      
      
   Rating: 10/10.   
      
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