The Doctor's Wife

[poliphilo]

Last weeks piratical malarkey was so poorly written I couldn't be bothered to notice it, but The Doctor's Wife is something else- one of the best episodes of any season; also a game changer- with Gaiman, the privileged outsider, delivering a number of tweaks to the mythos that every writer to come will be bound to take into account. 

Comments

[michael john grist (from livejournal.com)]

I didn't much like this one more than the majority of them. Of course the central idea was cool, but just far too rushed.

I realize now that it's not just the frantic pace of the Doctor I don't like- it's the frantic pace of the plot. 40 minutes or however long these episodes are is just not long enough to pack everything in that they try to pack in. Why does it always have to be running around corridors and sonic screw-drivering everything? Is that so interesting?

I always get the feeling that this frantic pace is there because there just isn't anything of substance without it. To hide that lack, everyone has to go mental constantly. I feel like I'm being gesticulated wildly at by a very dull person, or at least someone not confident their conversation is interesting enough without a lot of whizzes bangs and shouting.

Why couldn't this have been a slow melancholy episode, a mystery with building suspense? The Tardis is alive, but at the same time- as part of the same accident that caused her to take human form, the drippy boy and red-head girl are trapped in that weird cross-time place. That was cool. Doctor has nice romance with the Tardis, blossoming, but realizes only way to get back his drippy children is if the Tardis becomes mute and what she once was.

No silly racing around and sonic scredrivering. Actually earn some of that emotion foisted on us as the Dr. struggles not to cry at the end. Forget all the other nonsense, and let the story develop. Would have much preferred that.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I guess we Whovians must like all that chasing through corridors. Someone says "Run!"- as they do at least once an episode- and we smile because it's all cosy and familiar- and has been going on like that for nearly 50 years.

I take your point about everything being rushed- but that's the way it's been since the show was rebooted. Back in the 60s things were different. I recently watched an episode from the Hartnell era in which the whole 25 minutes was taken up with the characters trying to get across a crevasse- a situation New Who would negotiate in 20 seconds.

I found the Dr's brief flirtation with the Tardis genuinely moving, but I suppose that's because I've been living with the show for most of my life. We've had hints dropped in the past about how the Tardis may be sentient- and now we know.

[michael john grist (from livejournal.com)]

Fair enough, and that's probably why I haven't been able to engage with the series since the reboot. 25 minutes negotiating a crevasse sounds more interesting to me than clearing it in 20 seconds. If its so easy that you can clear it in 20 seconds (no doubt using the sonic screwdriver somehow!) then why even have it in there at all?