The Doctor's Wife

"She's a women and she's the TARDIS!"

Writer: Neil Gaiman

Format: TV 

Broadcast: 11th May 2011

Series: 6.04

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory

Synopsis 

The Doctor is lured by a Time Lord to a junkyard outside of the universe. There, the TARDIS matrix is implanted into a women called Idris, and for the first time the madman and his box interact. But House is at hand, and plans on continuing his feast of TARDISes...

Verdict 

The Doctor's Wife is utterly stunning. It really is one of the most beautiful stories ever told. The madman who stole a box to travel the universe - that's the general consensus of the Doctor's early days in leaving Gallifrey. But after this spectacular episode out perception may have been wrong! Could the TARDIS have stolen the Doctor? We know from episodes such as Boom Town and the later Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS that the TARDIS herself is well and truly alive. But that's never been more true here! The Doctor and co exited the universe. It's quite an incomprehensible fact to get your head around but they did. The TARDIS trio left the universe and entered what's seemingly dubbed as the 'Bubble Universe' despite the Doctor's disagreement with his own analogy. He was lured from an infamous psychic box which was an incredible throwback to my favourite ever Doctor Who story - The War Games. Seeing the boxes brought back really was a special moment for me. From 1969 to 2011, things truly never are forgotten. The look of happiness and glee from the Doctor when he thought there was still a living Time Lord out there was heartbreaking after what was to come. The boxes well and truly made the Doctor angry, a storage of messages from Time Lords long dead. House fed upon the Time Lords and their TARDISes. A diabolical scheme and the luring of a Time Lord was just despicable! However, upon arrival the TARDIS shutdown and despite that usually being a bad thing, what we got was absolutely astounding. The TARDIS was manifested into human flesh in the form of the beautiful Idris! Her character was just truly wonderful from start to finish. The idea of the TARDIS personified is just incredible in itself but Idris, something I imagine would be the female kind of name of TARDIS, was excellent. The barmy kissing scenes were terrific at the start with her getting new ideas regarding tongues! It was adorable that Idris referred to the Doctor as her thief. Truly magnificent. This story was just outstanding! Uncle and Auntie were extremely mysterious and freaky with their persona and attitude. The fact they were rebuilt using Time Lords was horrific and the Doctor was outraged at that, and rightfully so! He thought he was going to meet the Corsair but instead got people who didn't care about a thing. Nephew, the Ood, was interesting as he didn't really serve much of a purpose other than for the Doctor not to save him! It was intriguing that when things concerned the Doctor and the Time Lords, a possible reunion and the chance of the Doctor being forgiven what he did in the Time War, he sent Amy and Rory away into the TARDIS on a wild goose chase for the sonic screwdriver. Of course, things didn't go to swell from there onwards! House taking over the TARDIS was intriguing and despite the story being all about the Doctor and Idris, it was great that Amy and Rory had an eventful status in the episode! The way House was messing with their heads caused an emotional stir between the married couple with Amy believing her husband was dead at one point! It was brilliant seeing somewhere in the TARDIS that wasn't the console room. Speaking of which, it was magnificent to have the TARDIS console room of the Ninth and Tenth Doctors returned to! It was really interesting seeing a TARDIS combination that seemed out of place in that control room. It reminded of the beauty of seeing the Eleventh Doctor enter the TARDIS in the Junkyard during the events of An Unearthly Child. The absolute highlight of the episode has to be the dialogue between the Doctor and Idris. It was just incredible! Forget any relationships involving companions or what have you, this story undoubtedly portrays the greatest love story ever told in the Whoniverse! They really were like an old married couple, and why wouldn't they be? The mention of being the most beautiful thing the Doctor had ever seen was stunning, as was the emotion behind Idris telling her thief that she was always taking the Doctor where he needed to go. That'll teach him for questioning her unreliability! The building of the junk TARDIS was done incredibly and I thought it was fantastic how Idris felt pain at seeing her sister's corpses scattered beyond the end of the universe. Idris thinking Rory was the pretty one out of the two companions was hilarious! Well, she doesn't like strays does she! The defeating of House was done magnificently and the goodbye between the Doctor and his TARDIS was incredibly emotional. This was when they talked. And it was utterly astounding. 

Rating: 10:10