'DOCTOR WHO' 6.4 – "The Doctor's Wife"

It was mooted that renowned author Neil Gaiman (The Sandman, Coraline) might write an episode of Doctor Who during Russell T. Davies' era, but only now does the Hugo-winning wordsmith make his debut on the estimable sci-fi drama he grew up watching. "The Doctor's Wife" was a heady brew of fan-pleasing assortments, but sutured to the kind of barnstorming storyline that denied it becoming simply "one for the fans". Exemplifying many of the show's delights in a swift and pleasurable 45-minutes, it's very likely this could replace "Blink" as the ideal episode to show non-fans, as it worked as an effective entry point for Doctor Who as a concept.

This week, The Doctor (Matt Smith) received a distress call from a fellow Time Lord, via a levitating cube containing a psychic message. After detecting the source comes from an adjacent universe attached to ours like a benign parasite, The Doctor, Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) found themselves on a junkyard planet populated by two "patchwork" people called Uncle (Adrian Schiller) and Auntie (Elizabeth Berrington), their Ood servant Nephew (Paul Kasey), and a buxom woman known as Idris (Suranne Jones) who, shortly after the TARDIS landed, became the host body for the TARDIS's consciousness itself. Soon after, The Doctor realized the distress call was a trap set by the planet's own consciousness, referred to as House (voiced by Michael Sheen), which achieved residency in the "lobotomized" TARDIS and vanished with Amy and Rory trapped inside, aiming to devour more TARDIS's in the contiguous universe...

What can you really say? This was a wonderful episode from lifelong fan Gaiman, who seemed to scratch several itches pertaining to Doctor Who while he had the chance, offering audiences some surprising insights into the TARDIS and, most importantly, the machine's relationship with its "thief", The Doctor. It's been alluded to before that Time Lords have a psychic connection with their TARDIS, but by actually giving the TARDIS a physical form with the delightful Idris, we got a much deeper sense of the bond that's shared between them. It was actually quite comical, as Idris believes she chose The Doctor and has been taking him on adventures for the past 900-year, but also rather touching when The Doctor admitted his private name for the TARDIS is "Sexy", and rather heartrending in the final moments when The Doctor had to say goodbye (or rather "hello") to the closest thing he has to a life partner. That title's more apt than you may think.

Matt Smith was at his very best throughout "The Doctor's Wife". We know he's very comfortable with the comedy and physicality of the role, but this was perhaps the first time he's been required to emote to David Tennant levels. His lip-quivering in the aforementioned final scene with Idris was genuinely moving, and in many ways has changed the way we see The Doctor and the TARDIS as the show's enduring duo. Equally good was guest-star Suranne Jones (a very underrated actress who deserves a successful post-Coronation Street career.) Her performance was spirited, naughty, magical and sublime, perhaps owing a debt to Helena Bonham Carter's Red Queen in Alice In Wonderland. She found an instant bond with Smith that radiated through the television screen, and it was a significant wrench when her character had to disappear. The idea of a talking TARDIS has never been a good one, but Jones' performance almost made me regret The Doctor will never have more dialogue with his trusty time-machine.

Amy and Rory had some fun sequences, which were notable for giving us an extremely rare glimpse beyond the Console Room of the TARDIS. Sure, it my have only consisted of some hexagonal corridors (well, until David Tennant's Console Room got an encore), but it was still a treat for fans. The jeopardy for them was a little too illogical, as House toyed with them by playing tricks with Space and Time (did Rory really live until he was elderly, alone in a corridor?), but if nerdy nitpicks are about all you have negative to say that's a good position to be in.

Overall, "The Doctor's Wife" thankfully lived up to the considerable hype surrounding it. I'm sure even Neil Gaiman's been nervous about the reaction. Well, he needn't have worried because he has same creative spark as Moffat when it comes to Doctor Who and its ramshackle energy, but as a contributing writer he's also forced to ensure everything ties up neatly. It's been awhile since I've been able to say the same thing about Moffat, who these days appears to enjoy the freedom to leave plot-threads dangling for weeks, even years. But this was a self-contained episode blessed with wonderful production values (the scrapheap planet was beautiful), full of excellent ideas, great performances, lovely moments of humour, and held together because it was fundamentally the story of an old man's love for an inanimate object that's been given life. Doctor Who's version of Pinocchio.

Asides

• The visual of Idris "bleeding" TARDIS energy, which closely resembles the yellow energy Time Lords give off when they regenerate, had me pondering some connection to the little girl from the premiere who was seen regenerating (we assume.) Is there a connection with Idris, or are both visuals just similar?
• Do you think the idea for this episode popped into Neil Gaiman's head after fans speculated that Kylie Minogue's character Astrid (an anagram of TARDIS) was going to somehow be the TARDIS in "Voyage Of The Damned"?
• I loved the fanboy questions Gaiman managed to squeeze into the script: where does The Doctor sleep? Why does he always push the TARDIS door open, when the sign on the door says pull? Plus, we got to see the Tenth Doctor's Console Room again! I bet they're glad they kept that in storage over at BBC Wales.
• Before "dying", Idris had Rory pass a message onto The Doctor ("the only water in the forest is the river"), which must surely be a reference to River Song in the episode "Forest Of The Dead". Has Gaiman been asked to lay some groundwork for something Steven Moffat has planned, hearkening back to that season 4 two-parter? Is River's demise not actually set in stone? Would any return to that story in Matt Smith's future necessitate the return of David Tennant? I doubt it, but... speculate.
• There were some truly delicious and hilarious lines here. A few favourites being Amy's reaction when The Doctor introduced the bosomy Idris as his TARDIS/woman ("did you wish really hard?"), or "biting's excellent; it's like kissing only there's a winner".
• The revelation that The Doctor's been making newlyweds Amy and Rory sleep in bunk-beds!
• The working title for this episode was "The House Of Nothing", which I kind of prefer. It was also known as "Bigger On The Inside" for awhile.
• Did you catch The Doctor referring to "himself, or herself"? That surely confirms that Time Lords can change gender, right?
• It was fun to see another Ood, particularly now they have luminous green eyes. Or have they always had those?

written by Neil Gaiman / directed by Richard Clark / 14 May 2011 / BBC One

Next time...

'COMMUNITY' 2.23 & 2.24 – "A Fistful Of Paintballs" & "For A Few Paintballs More"

Last year's seminal episode "Modern Warfare" (commonly referred to as "the paintball episode") cemented Community's reputation as television's most creative, geek-friendly and imaginative comedy. A pastiche of the action genre (directed by Fast & Furious' Justin Lin) is turned the corridors of Greendale Community College into the setting for a Battle Royale-meet-28 Days Later scenario with the characters all competing for the inscrutable "prize" the last man standing will win. It was a dizzying concoction of in-jokes, hilarity, pop-culture references and surprisingly exciting action sequences, and one that a lesser show wouldn't even contemplate trying to top. Only, this season, they topped it...

The two-part season 2 finale "A Fistful Of Paintballs" and "For A Few Paintballs More" was twice as fun, twice as clever, twice as rich, and twice as exciting. It may have repeated the basic concept of last year's revered episode (everyone on campus turns feral with paintguns, in order to win a $100,000 prize), but improved on practically everything. This time the paintball knockout tournament had a sponsor in Pistol Patty's Cowboy Creamery, allowing the first part in particular to develop a Western theme and riff on Sergio Leone's "Dollars Trilogy", as the core characters split and once again had their friendship and loyalty tested. Of particular interest was Annie (Alison Brie) becoming a sultry cowgirl with a quickdraw more impressive than her cleavage; Jeff's (Joel McHale) Alpha Male status was tested by the arrival of mysterious bounty hunter "The Black Rider" (Lost's Josh Holloway); and Pierce (Chevy Chase) becoming the leader of a makeshift "town" with a strict no-gun policy.

The second part refused to rest on its laurels, instead lessening the Western motifs and taking the story to the next level -- a mix of Star Wars and war movies in general, with Abed (Danny Pudi) managing to woo Annie by channeling his inner Han Solo, and the Pistol Patty mascot playing the Darth Vader role as Greendale's residents became "rebels" to eradicate. In a neat twist, Patty was revealed to be the Dean or rival City College (a black man inside the creamy-white suit, subverting Vader's race-bending reveal in Jedi), and this turned the whole situation into that of a hostile takeover bid.

There are too many highlights to choose from, truth be told: the awesome gatling-paintgun in the Saving Private Ryan-like climax, the surprisingly hot kiss between Abed and Annie as the sprinkler system doused everyone in orange paint; The Black Rider in general (were his twin rifles a nod to Hot Fuzz?), Troy's Blazing Saddles-inspired yellow Sheriff costume; Pierce's faking of heart attacks to get himself out of tough spots; Chang (Ken Jeong) being obliterated by a volley of paint ("am I out?"); Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) nearing orgasm as Dean Steven whispered in his ear; the Stormtrooper-esque paintballers; Magnitude's (Luke Youngblood) death scene in Troy's hands ("Pop? Pop-what?"); Shirley's (Yvette Nicole Brown) inability to buy into the fantasy ("Can we move this along? I'm missing CSI"); Jeff's "hero moment" coming to a comically abrupt end; the Inception-like music throughout; the brilliant way Pierce's underhandedness saved the day; and the epilogue with Abed and the janitor who has to spend his summer mopping up the paint-splattered school.

Community's essentially a playground and make-believe episodes such as this are the moments when the show can embrace its considerably skill at Michel Gondry-ian creativity. There's no other TV show around that has the skill and budget to pull off these kind of episodes and somehow make it all look effortless and endlessly re-watchable. The way it also keep an eye on the characters is also rather wonderful – especially here, where Pierce's divisive treatment all season ended with a redemption that also earned out respect and sympathy. The final scene, with Pierce admitting he's attended Greendale for 12 years, and how the study group were the first people to befriend him, was rather moving. The fact the season ends with Pierce's self-imposed exile from the group was also a nice cliffhanger, although it surely can't be too long before he's back in the fold for season 3. Or will creator Dan Harmon take this opportunity to somehow refresh the show? Season 2, while far from terrible, definitely wasn't as sharp with the characters, and seemed to occasionally have fun with the format (an animated episode!) while allowing the characters to drift somewhat (Chang was used very inconsistently, Shirley's pregnancy wasn't very engaging.)

Overall, this was a tremendous two-part finale to what's been a great second term with the Community troupe. It just pains me this show's practically unknown in the UK, having only aired season 1 on obscure music channel Viva. It would be a fantastic purchase for Sky1 or E4, and I just can't see why there's not more British network interest in procuring it. It's proven to be the funniest and most innovative comedy around right now, with almost every episode taking an opportunity to deconstruct pop-culture or stretch the limits of what you perceive can be done on a US TV comedy budget. Added to that, it's so immensely likable because of the talented cast and the sharp material they're working with.

written by Andrew Guest (2.23) & Hilary Winston (2.24) / directed by Joe Russo / 5 & 12 May 2011 / NBC