Spoilery Review of "The Doctor's Wife"

So, don't say I didn't warn you.  This is just what it says on the tin.

I've been looking forward to this episode for a long time.  Pretty much immediately after I read Neil Gaiman's book "The Graveyard Book" and later on heard that he was writing a Doctor Who episode.  I mean, if he can write freakishly good stuff like that, who knows what he could do with the good Doctor, right?

Well, I wasn't disappointed.  It was a wonderful episode.  Was it perfect?  Ummm, nope.  But it's not like they could make the changes I'd like.  You'll see what I mean.

First of all, TINY cast!  Wow, seven people and a voice actor?  Well, they had to save money somewhere I suppose.  Special effects shots, everywhere!  House, a rather enigmatic fellow of indeterminate size, had all this green smoke stuff all the time, that must have been loads of fun.  Then there were all the shots of the TARDIS and the shell-TARDIS flying through the rift between universes.  Beautiful, certainly, but that usually does cost a fair bit in production terms.  Bits of regeneration-like energy from Idris, that's beautiful but probably complex.

Aunt and Uncle were rather tricky prosthetic challenges, I'd guess.  Uncle's ear was lopsided, and to make Auntie's mismatched hands look like they functioned normally?  Serious thumbs up to those geniuses.  Then there's Nephew.  I suppose they had the Ood heads around already, but then you have to change the eye color.  Plus, there was aged/dead Rory.  Oh, so sad.  Very effective, thumbs up Arthur Darvill, but... How many times has he died now?  C'mon, Moff, let the Rory-meister live!

And sets!  House was rather messy, wasn't he?  Leaving all that TARDIS junk all over the place... I'm sure "Hoarders" would have something to say about that.  That set, though, really complemented the characters.  Then we get TARDIS corridors.  I bet they can re-use those, and I do love the look.  Yay for hexagons!

The Doctor's interactions with Idris, aka Mrs. TARDIS!  Oh, what a great relationship!  I've often wondered about the Doctor's sanity, but Suranne's performance really made you realize, perhaps the TARDIS itself is just as off-kilter as our favorite Time Lord.  Such a sweet, doomed romance.  I rather wish we'd known more about Idris, before Nephew drained her soul and filled her with the TARDIS, but maybe that would have just confused matters.  Either way, I loved every second they were on screen together.  The Doctor, with his TARDIS.

All of that is quite positive, yes.  Now comes my nitpicks.  Amy didn't have much to do.  She did her patented Glare #1 a couple of times, when the Doctor was talking about reattaching a head, and when she commented "It's just what they're called, it doesn't mean he knows what he's doing."  But other than that, I don't feel we got much of her.  We've already seen the agonized "Rory is dead" thing already.  A few too many times.

The Doctor... really, I do like Matt Smith.  He's done an excellent job of making this role his own.  But when he told Aunt and Uncle to run, I somehow felt it fell flat.  I wanted to hear Ten telling them to run. They'd have been on the exact opposite of that asteroid as fast as their little Frankensteined bodies would allow, if Ten's rage had been focused on them!  I also wanted his reaction to "the little boxes".  Usually, Eleven's quiet, oh-so-old sadness is perfect in such situations, but I wanted more this time.  The raw emotion that David Tennant could give with just the slightest look.

I did a bit of reading in Doctor Who Magazine, and the interview with Mr. Gaiman gave me a bit of hint as to why I might feel that way.  He got the basic idea of the episode before Matt Smith even became the Doctor.  Bingo!  I think Mr. Gaiman was significantly influenced by DT's performance, even if he did claim to write it for a "generic" Doctor.  What a long time to wait before seeing your vision come to life! Well, congrats, Mr. Gaiman, I do think this was an incredible episode.  I'll be happy to re-watch it many times.  The Whoverse has greatly benefitted from "talking" with the TARDIS, if only for half an hour or so.