The Doctor's Wife comments

[neadods]

Well, that was a great galloping gleeful bit of fanfic, wasn't it? In between the Gaimanisms - his horror has a very distinctive pattern - we get all sorts of fannish wank wars started settled.

- Time lords do get tattoos for the sake of tattoos (So much for the Three in the shower handwave!)

- Time Lords can change gender. (I'm a tiny bit surprised that I'm not feeling great disturbance in the fandom, like a billion "but the Doctor just CAN'T be a woman!" fanboys crying out at once and being silenced.)

- TARDISes only come in "female"

- The Doctor not only strokes bits of the TARDIS, he calls her sexy!

- It was the TARDIS part of Bad Wolf saying "My Doctor"

- The TARDIS deliberately takes the Doctor to where she thinks he needs to be


And bonus fanon turned canon:

- The TARDIS thinks she stole the Doctor. And had no intention of taking him back!

In short: it wasn't the deepest plot ever... but squee!

Comments

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

I also liked seeing parts of the TARDIS interior (all those corridors and the sliding doors reminded me so very much of The Sins of Adam), and the confirmation that the TARDIS does indeed have bedrooms, despite RTD's rather prudish insistence otherwise.

Best part for me? Seeing Nine and Ten's console room again :)

Overall, bar the first ten minutes or so (where I was seriously considering switching off), this is the first episode of Eleven's run that I've actually liked, and that in spite of still having no love for Matt Smith.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

the confirmation that the TARDIS does indeed have bedrooms, despite RTD's rather prudish insistence otherwise

How can RTD deny bedrooms when we've seen Nyssa's and heard mention of Romana's? (Although the idea of putting Amy and Rory in a room with *bunkbeds* strikes me as being pretty prudish, considering!)

Seeing Nine and Ten's console room again

I got chills. I didn't expect that - I sort-of expected the old wooden second control room of Four's - but then they walked in and - SQUEE!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Actually we've *seen* Romana's room. And Turlough's and Peri's. Not to mention One's sleeping areas for Susan, Ian and Barbara (Edge of Destruction).

Thus proving, once more, that RTD is a moron!

As for Amy and Rory's bunkbeds, I didn't find that prudish so much as hysterical - Eleven likes bunkbeds, so he gives them some, not thinking that a married couple might prefer a double bed!

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

yes, they showed Romana's room in Full Circle (where she mopes about not wanting to return to Gallifrey), and 4 & Adric walk past the open door in Keeper of Traken and ponder for a second (before jettisoning the room in Logopolis).

They showed Tegan & Nyssa's room once, and Turlough's (where he drops Peri after pulling her out of the water).

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Yup - Planet of Fire is the one where we see Turlough's room.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Eleven likes bunkbeds, so he gives them some, not thinking that a married couple might prefer a double bed!

True. But considering that he picked up Rory to have someone to kill every week to cool Amy's advances towards himself, that's particularly idiotic on the Doctor's part!

Maybe that's what she was so anxious to tell him in the little Red Nose Day two-parter - that he desperately needed to let them have different furniture!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure the Doctor didn't pick up Rory in order to kill him every week - in fact, last time I checked, the Doctor hasn't killed Rory once.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I'm kidding; I know the Doctor's not doing it. But Rory does get " killed" a lot!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I know.

Someone on my Flist was ranting about it last night.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

I was really hoping for Four's control room, as well. I know the set's long gone (which is probably why they used Ten's), but it should have been well within budget to recreate it -- or, likely, to find the fan who already has. (I'd be willing to wager there's at least one, and likely several, recreations of that set out there somewhere even now.)

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

actually, the original 4/5/6 set (or parts of it) i think was damaged in the fire that happened at one of the older Dr. Who Exhibitions back in the 90s.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I know, but I'm with redaxe - they could have rebuilt it if they really wanted it.

I hadn't known at the time that they still had the old Nine/Ten set around.

[tiggerallyn.livejournal.com]

How can RTD deny bedrooms when we've seen Nyssa's and heard mention of Romana's?

I've heard that RTD didn't want bedrooms on the TARDIS because that would imply certain bedroom activities.

On a semi-related note, Michael Moorcock had to cut a scene set in Amy's TARDIS bedroom in The Coming of the Terraphiles, but not because of certain bedroom activities but because there was no visual reference for the bedroom and Moorcock might've been describing it wrong.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I've heard that RTD didn't want bedrooms on the TARDIS because that would imply certain bedroom activities.

Yeah, because putting Nyssa and Tegan in the same room to prove neither of them was after the Doctor didn't spawn a bazillion lesbian fics...

I find it almost hypocritical that RTD would spend that amount of time building and hyping a Doctor/Rose love story (to the point of it directing the experiences of the next two companions he created) and then clutch pearls over the idea of bedrooms. It's not like they weren't already sleeping on the same ship!

there was no visual reference for the bedroom and Moorcock might've been describing it wrong

Isn't there being no visual reference the very definition of "whatever you do, it can't possibly be wrong"?

[travels-in-time.livejournal.com]

The Sins of Adam! I was trying to think of which fic that it reminded me of, thank you!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

the sliding doors reminded me so very much of The Sins of Adam

Oddly, I hadn't even thought about that until you mentioned it, but yes!

[fourzoas.livejournal.com]

(I'm a tiny bit surprised that I'm not feeling great disturbance in the fandom, like a billion "but the Doctor just CAN'T be a woman!" fanboys crying out at once and being silenced.)

I really LOL'd at that point in the episode--didn't Moff or Gaiman say something about "changing the way we see Doctor Who" or somesuch?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It certainly bolsters the line from the SJA where the Doctor says that he could regenerate into anything - any race, any gender, etc. So for those who dismiss or don't watch SJA, it's now been brought into the main show.

[biichan.livejournal.com]

- TARDISes only come in "female"

Well yeah, they're ships.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Point!

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

"it wasn't the deepest plot ever"

if anything, I think I liked it better than many others BECAUSE it wasn't trying to fit a 90 minute plot into 45 minutes on screen, which many have done since '05.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. I would have liked a little more there - like Idris apparently wasn't a tool of House (yet), so why not?

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

well, one of the problems with constant-crisis mode is that all the character work ends up a bit of an epilogue rather than within the story. This has been especially the case for Rory, so by having a less involved plot it gave space for the broader dialog AND signs of character development coming from within (Rory in particular) that often there's no time for in the plot twists 7 times in 12 minutes stories like Black Spot.

keep in mind some of my favs of the old series are the ones where there's room to breathe, room to talk and ponder in, like Warrior's Gate and Frontier in Space. Both have slower paces but breathe much more naturally than others do.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

While the TARDIS part of Bad Wolf certainly said "My Doctor", there's nothing to suggest that Rose didn't ALSO say it with her. (In fact, I'd argue that she did, given later events.)

Not a deep plot, but an excellent episode, and one that shows that Matt Smith needs good writing to make him believable as the manipulative, "Don't throw me in that there briar patch!" Doctor he seems to want to be (unlike Sylvester McCoy, who rose above material as bad as these past two years' worth, to be exactly that Doctor). Unfortunately, now we go back to the regular writers, who have a LOT to prove.

(I've noted elsewhere that I think this may be in the Top Ten Eps ever (http://redaxe.livejournal.com/477957.html). Certainly it has the best bit of dialogue I have ever heard in the series. (http://redaxe.livejournal.com/478256.html))

[redpanda13.livejournal.com]

Where you needed to go... Yes, that was nice.


Not to mention one of the funniest lines ever:

"She's the TARDIS... and she's a woman!"

"Did you wish REALLY HARD?!"

Causing the mental flashback to Sarah Jane asking Rose if the Doctor still stroked bits of the TARDIS. "Yeah! And I'm thinking, 'Do you two want to be alone?'" (The Doctor walks by and wonders what they're laughing about.)


Fine Guardian article about the episode:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/may/14/doctor-who-doctors-wife-gaiman

Neil Gaiman will be live online there at 4 PM GMT Monday; I'll be out of town and won't be able to provide a prompt link.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I'd argue that she did, given later events

Fair enough!

Matt Smith needs good writing

I still think he needs a little more acting experience, although writing helps a lot. The Doctor is a very Shakespearean character; inconstant and able to flip from oozing menace to childlike pleasure and back in a nanosecond. Having just been played by two actors with long Shakespearean chops, Matt found himself with big shoes to fill.

I love the "needed to go" line. It really does sum up the show (although I also kind of liked the very cracky theory that the TARDIS was trying to kill off the Doctor all these years.)

[harmonyfb.livejournal.com]

Time Lords can change gender. (I'm a tiny bit surprised that I'm not feeling great disturbance in the fandom, like a billion "but the Doctor just CAN'T be a woman!" fanboys crying out at once and being silenced.)

And that's also the sound of my husband gearing up to push for Joanna Lumley as the next doctor! :)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Look, it has three settings!

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

He's the biggest fanboy ever, I loved it :D

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It was a great delight, wasn't it? Doubly so after last week.