TV SHOW REVIEW: Doctor Who: The Doctor's Wife

Last week's next-time trailer for the Doctor's Wife got me very excited for this week's episode. I already knew that the episode was to be called "The Doctor's Wife", and the next-time clip revealed that a time lord would call The Doctor for help on a planet. Sadly, the story ended up scrapping the whole time lord idea- The Doctor's still the only one left. But, the real story of the episode is still strong, written well by author Neil Gaiman.

So, on to the story. The Doctor opens the TARDIS doors to find a glowing white cube hovering in space. He is ecstatic to find that a time lord, "one of the good ones", has sent him a message, and so follows the cube outside of the universe, to a living planet (voiced by Michael Sheen). On the planet, the Doctor and gang meet the strange Auntie and Uncle, who turn out to be made up of strange time lord parts. Also living there are nephew, a stranded ood with a broken communications device, and a crazy lady. When the Doctor finds out that the Time Lord message was just a lie sent by the planet to lure the Doctor in, he sends Amy and Rory back to the Tardis and locks them in. He finds out that the planet lives on TARDIS energy, and that to get that energy, the planet must transfer the energy into   a body, the Doctor's Wife. The planet then begins to eat the TARDIS, but Rory persuades the planet that it would be much more fun to kill Amy and Rory slowly. The scenes where the planet tortures Amy and Rory in the TARDIS are very well done with great suspense and editing. I won't spoil too much more of the story, but it is pretty strong of a storyline.

So, is "The Doctor's Wife" good? Well, I consider it so. While I think that having Rory die AGAIN and the TARDIS and the Doctor being separated AGAIN, this time both of those have been handled in the most creative way possible. Having the Doctor meet the real love of his life, the TARDIS, in human form, is the best thing ever for him. The scenes between the Doctor and the TARDIS are extremely strong and the episode as a whole is intense, well-written, and overall brilliant. Also, you have to bear in mind that, even though Rory dies in this one again, one- it's only a trick the planet plays on Amy, and two- Neil Gaiman wrote this episode for series one originally but it was put back due to budget issues. So, if it had been last season, it would have been Rory's first death anyway. Also, it's great to see the Ood make a return, but I think that a deeper part of the story for the Ood would have been better than just having an Ood there just so the BBC could make use for it's costume collection. I was dissapointed that there wasn't at least one returning timelord, but, with Amy's baby regenerating and River Song revealing all her secrets soon (cliffhanger for mid-season break?), an extra timelord would probably have made a lot of mess. Also, great to see the use of the David Tennant TARDIS interior for one of the rooms of the TARDIS Amy and Rory get trapped in.

The episode ends strongly and emotionally, with the Doctor having to put the TARDIS' soul back inside the machine. Next week's episode looks interesting, being about clones (Sontaran Stratagem?) and living skin (cassandra). It may not be the most original episode, but it will be the series cliffhanger so let's hope it's strong.


Pros:

• Strong story
• Great Acting
• Continuity of stuff from older series throughout adds awesomness
• Michael Sheen

Cons:

• Doctor cut off from TARDIS and Rory dies, again