The Doctor's Wife (Doctor Who)
Encyclopedia
"The Doctor's Wife" is the fourth episode of the sixth series
of the British science fiction
television series Doctor Who
, which was broadcast on 14 May 2011 in the United Kingdom
, as well as in the United States
. The episode was written by Neil Gaiman
and was originally intended to be produced as part of the previous series
, but was pushed back due to budget constraints.
The episode was seen by 7.97 million viewers in the UK and achieved an "excellent" Appreciation Index
score of 87. It features the the Doctor
(Matt Smith) and his companions
Amy Pond
(Karen Gillan
) and Rory Williams
(Arthur Darvill
) and was met with generally positive reviews by critics.
) and Rory (Arthur Darvill
) receive a communication cube containing a distress call from a Time Lord
. Tracing the source of the call to a rift leading outside the universe, the Doctor deletes part of his TARDIS
to generate enough energy to traverse the rift. After landing in a junkyard on a solitary asteroid, the TARDIS shuts down and its matrix disappears. The three explore, and meet the strange inhabitants, Uncle, Auntie, a green eyed Ood
called Nephew and an excited young woman named Idris who fawns all over, and then bites, the Doctor. While Nephew locks up Idris, Amy and Rory return to the TARDIS, the Doctor follows the distress signal and finds a cabinet containing a large number of message cubes. Upon further investigation of Uncle and Auntie, he finds they are constructed of body parts from other beings, including Time Lords. They are controlled by the asteroid, called House, which is sentient and able to possess other technology around it. House led the Doctor there and removed the TARDIS' matrix, initially intending to consume its Artron energy. Upon learning that the Doctor is the last Time Lord and that no more TARDISes will ever arrive, House transfers itself into the TARDIS to escape from the rift. Amy and Rory are trapped inside as the House-controlled TARDIS dematerialises.
The Doctor learns that Idris contains the personality of the TARDIS' matrix. Idris, as the TARDIS, and the Doctor learn they selected each other hundreds of years prior when the Doctor fled Gallifrey
. Without House's support, Uncle and Auntie die, and Idris' body only has a short time before it also will fail. Idris reveals that House had stranded many TARDISes before, and that its universe is hours away from collapsing. The Doctor and Idris work together to construct a makeshift TARDIS from scraps, and then pursue House.
Aboard the Doctor's TARDIS, House threatens to kill Amy and Rory. He plays with their senses as they try to flee through the corridors, then sends Nephew after them. Idris makes a psychic connection with Rory to give him directions to a secondary control room (the control room used by the Ninth
and Tenth
Doctors) where he and Amy are able to lower the TARDIS' shields without House's interference. This allows the Doctor to land the makeshift console in the secondary control room, which atomises Nephew. House deletes the secondary control room as he prepares to break through the rift, which the Doctor anticipates. The TARDIS' safety protocols transfer them to the main control room, where the dying Idris releases the TARDIS' matrix back to the TARDIS, destroying House. A remnant of the TARDIS' matrix, in Idris' body, sadly states that she will not be able to speak to the Doctor again but will be there for him. Idris' body then disappears as the TARDIS matrix is fully restored.
The Doctor installs a security field around the matrix to prevent it from being compromised again. Rory asks the Doctor about some of Idris' final words—"the only water in the forest is the river"—but the Doctor doesn't understand. After Amy and Rory leave to find a new bedroom, the original having been purged by House, the Doctor talks to the TARDIS, and, in response, a nearby lever moves on its own, sending the TARDIS to its next destination.
, and has referred to 'her' as "old girl" many times, and as "sexy" occasionally in his Eleventh incarnation, both of which Idris indicates that she likes.
The Doctor refers to altering the control room's appearance as changing the desktop
, as the Fifth Doctor
does in "Time Crash
". Like the Third Doctor
in Inferno
, the Doctor and Idris operate a TARDIS control panel without an outer TARDIS shell. The Doctor also jettisons TARDIS rooms to create thrust, as he had done previously in Castrovalva. The TARDIS is mentioned to have retained an archive of previous control rooms unbeknownst to the Doctor, including many he has yet to create; the one shown in this episode is the design featured between "Rose
" and "The Eleventh Hour
", used by the Ninth
and Tenth
(and briefly by the Eleventh) Doctors.
When speaking of his fellow Time Lord the Corsair, the Doctor implies that Time Lords can change gender on regeneration. The Doctor admits he killed all of the Time Lords, alluding to the events of the Time War
and The End of Time
. In The War Games
, the Second Doctor
contacted the Time Lords using a cube similar to those seen in this episode. The Doctor again refers to himself as "a madman with a box", reprising Amy's and his own description of himself in "The Eleventh Hour".
The Doctor states that the Corsair added a tattoo of his mark, an Oroborus (a snake eating its own tail; a symbol of eternity), to his body upon each regeneration; this tattoo is found on his final incarnation's left arm, now worn by Auntie. A time-eating snake called the Oroborus is the adversary in K-9 episode, "Oroborus".
Nephew, the Ood possessed by House, has glowing green eyes. Ood's eyes also changed colour in "The Impossible Planet
" / "The Satan Pit
" when they were possessed by the Beast, and in "Planet of the Ood
" when controlled by the central Ood mind. The Doctor refers to Nephew as "another Ood I failed to save"; in "The Satan Pit" the Doctor commented that he did not have time to save the Ood.
Idris' cryptic words, "the only water in the forest is the river", are explained in the mid-series finale, "A Good Man Goes to War
".
Rory mentions waiting for Amy for 2000 years the second time he and Amy were separated from each other in the House-infested TARDIS. This was first said by Rory in the episode "The Big Bang
".
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The episode was written by Neil Gaiman. After Steven Moffat
replaced Russell T Davies as the showrunner of Doctor Who, being a fan of Gaiman's blog, Moffat met with Gaiman and Gaiman asked to write an episode. In an interview Gaiman stated "I came up with something that was one of those things where you thought that nobody's done that before." The episode was originally titled "The House of Nothing" before Gaiman sat down to write it, but that was changed to "Bigger on the Inside". This title remained until about six weeks before the episode aired, but the crew was beginning to worry that "Bigger on the Inside" would give away the surprise that Idris was the TARDIS, so it was changed. The final title, not specifically referred to in the story, is a reference to a fake title attached to the 1980s serial The Caves of Androzani
; then-producer John Nathan-Turner
had changed the title to that on his planning board in an attempt to weed out a suspected leak in his office.
Gaiman suggested they make an episode which centres on the TARDIS itself, which was not done before for the entire series since it began in 1963. The original plan focused on the idea of the Doctor pursuing an enemy inside the TARDIS, but went through several subsequent changes; Gaiman changed the plan to focus on the companion due to the Doctor's knowledge of his ship, made the TARDIS the threat to avoid making it a simple 'cat-and-mouse' game, and then included the idea of Idris to account for what happened to the TARDIS's mind after this attack. The central idea was a "what if" scenario to see what would happen if the Doctor and the TARDIS got to talk together. Head writer Steven Moffat
liked the idea of featuring the TARDIS as a woman, believing this to be the "ultimate love story" for the Doctor.
Gaiman began writing the episode before Matt Smith was even cast as the Eleventh Doctor; Gaiman envisaged David Tennant
's performance in the first draft, knowing Smith would play the Doctor differently. Despite this he had no issue writing the dialogue. The episode was originally slated for the eleventh episode of the fifth series
. However, it was delayed to the sixth because of budget issues; the eleventh episode would be replaced with "The Lodger
". Even so, Gaiman was forced to operate with less money than he would have liked; for instance, he had to scrap a scene set in the TARDIS' swimming pool
, and instead of being able to use a monster of his own design he had to use a pre-existing Ood prop.
The move to the sixth series also meant Gaiman had to include Rory, who ceased to exist in the original slot in the fifth series. With Rory included, Gaiman had to "reshape" much of the second half of the episode, featuring Amy being on the run in the TARDIS. In the original draft where Amy was the only companion, Gaiman added a "heartbreaking monologue" by the character, further stating "you get to see what it's like to be the companion from the companion's point of view, and she got to talk about essentially in that version how sad it is, in some ways. One day something will happen to her, she'll get married, she'll get eaten by monsters, she'll die, she'll get sick of this, but he'll go on forever." At a certain point, Gaiman had tired of re-writing drafts and asked Steven Moffat for help. Moffat wrote in what Gaiman called "several of [the episode's] best lines" and rapidly rewrote several scenes when budget problems harmed filming locations.
episode Mona Lisa's Revenge
. Sometime after appearing on The Sarah Jane Adventures, Jones was contacted to appear on Doctor Who at Gaiman's request, because they were looking for an actress who "is odd; beautiful but strange looking, and quite funny." Moffat meanwhile described Idris as "sexy plus motherly plus utterly mad plus serene." During a read-through of the script, the producers asked her to "neutralise [her] a bit," because they did not want Jones to "be a Northerner" or have a standard accent, but to act "kinda like the Doctor." Later, in March 2011, Gaiman confirmed Michael Sheen would also guest star in the episode to voice a character. Adrian Schiller previously appeared in the Eighth Doctor
audio drama Time Works
where he played Zanith.
. Additional filming took place in October 2010, with guest star Suranne Jones having being filmed for green screen
special effects. The scenes where Amy and Rory are on the run allowed the audience to explore the TARDIS outside the control room, something the producers had wanted to do for a while. A series of corridors was constructed and retained for future use. The episode also featured the return of the older TARDIS control room from the Christopher Eccleston
and David Tennant era. Gaiman had originally wanted to reconstruct a console room from the original series, but the cost proved prohibitive. The set was retained after filming for "The Eleventh Hour", but has since been removed. Arthur Darvill noted the floor of the older set had a cheese grater
-like quality to it, so when the scene called for the cast to fall on it, they found it uncomfortable to stay down for a long period of time.
"The Doctor's Wife" features a make-shift TARDIS console, which was piloted by the Doctor and Idris. The console was designed by Susannah Leah, a schoolgirl from Todmorden
, who won a competition on Blue Peter
, a children's programme that challenged its viewers to imagine a TARDIS console based on household objects. Leah's design was selected by Moffat, Edward Thomas, the production designer for the previous series, and Tim Levell, a Blue Peter editor, along with final input among the three age-group winners from Smith. Michael Pickward, the production designer for Series 6, commented that Leah's design captured the nature of "bits and pieces" of what TARDIS consoles have been in the past, as well as the nature of the makeshift console needed for this episode. The drawing was redesigned faithfully by the production team into the prop for the show, including the use of a coat hanger to start the makeshift TARDIS. Leah was brought by Blue Peter to see both the set under construction and on location during filming of the makeshift TARDIS scenes, meeting Smith and the other actors and production crew. Character Options
will release a toy playset based on Leah's console later in 2011. The House planetoid in the pocket universe was filmed on location at a quarry outside Cardiff
.
on 14 May 2011 and on sister station
BBC America
in the United States on the same day. In the UK, the episode received overnight figures of 6.09 million viewers, with a 29.5 per cent audience share. It became the third highest broadcast of the night, behind Britain's Got Talent
on ITV1
, and the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest
, which was shown later on BBC One. The episode received a final BARB rating of 7.97 million with an audience share of 34.7%. It had an overall Appreciation Index
of 87, considered to be excellent.
Dan Martin said: "With so many wild ideas at play, this would have been so easy to get wrong...yet in every sense it was pitched perfectly". He praised Suranne Jones in particular, saying she was "electrifying throughout". Martin later rated it the third best episode of the series, though the finale
was not included in the list. The AV Club gave the episode a score of "A", saying it was a "pretty terrific [episode]...a brisk, scary, inventive adventure filled with clever concepts and witty dialogue. And a lot of heart when in the way it deals with an important relationship rarely addressed on the series". He admired the cleverness of the "Idris/TARDIS" characterization and found the relationship "quite touching". Gavin Fuller of The Telegraph
praised the acting of Smith, Jones, and Sheen, and called the episode "hugely enjoyable". Neela Debnath of The Independent
praised Gaiman for mixing "romance, tragedy and horror, managing to strike a balance while telling a simple story", though she criticised the frequent deaths of Rory.
SFX magazine reviewer Russell Lewin gave "The Doctor's Wife" four and a half out of five stars, labelling it as "non-stop intrigue and carefully-controlled suspense all the way". He particularly praised Smith's energetic performance, saying "he pings and fizzes around the screen like a Technicolor firework, lighting up every scene he adorns". Digital Spy
's Morgan Jeffery rated it four out of five stars, saying it "isn't perfect, but you'd be hard-pressed to fault its ambition". He was critical of Surrane Jones' performance of Idris, as "her early eccentric behavior tends to grate rather than amuse" though her performance calmed down later in the episode. His other "slight criticism" was that Gillan and Darvill were "sidelined", but praised their performances. Jeffery felt that the strength of the episode was in character rather than in plot, and cited the defeat of the House as a "slightly disappointing" deus ex machina
.
IGN
's Matt Risley rated the episode 9 out of 10 and concluded, "Sweet, touching, intelligent, different, utterly imaginative and accessible by both hardcore fans and newbies alike - this is not only Doctor Who, but sci-fi telly at its finest". He also praised Gaiman's script for being "a simple idea executed brilliantly". Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times
admitted he was unsure if he was going to like it with the "grungy setting, wacko characters and peculiar dialogue", but ended up "captivated". He particularly enjoyed seeing more of the TARDIS' interior and called it an "instant oddball classic".
Doctor Who (series 6)
The sixth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who was shown in two parts. The first seven episodes were broadcast from April to June 2011 and the final six episodes from August to October. Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill continued their roles as The Doctor, Amy...
of the British science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, which was broadcast on 14 May 2011 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, as well as in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The episode was written by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
and was originally intended to be produced as part of the previous series
Doctor Who (series 5)
The fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 3 April 2010 with "The Eleventh Hour" and ended with "The Big Bang" on 26 June 2010. The series was led by head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, who took over after the departure of Russell T Davies. The...
, but was pushed back due to budget constraints.
The episode was seen by 7.97 million viewers in the UK and achieved an "excellent" Appreciation Index
Appreciation Index
The Audience Appreciation Index is a score out of 100 which is used as an indicator of the public's appreciation for a television or radio programme, or broadcast service, in the United Kingdom. Until 2002, the AI of a programme was calculated by BARB, the organisation that compiles television...
score of 87. It features the the Doctor
Eleventh Doctor
The Eleventh Doctor is the eleventh incarnation of the protagonist of the BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Matt Smith plays this incarnation, replacing David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in the 2010 episode "The End of Time, Part Two"...
(Matt Smith) and his companions
Companion (Doctor Who)
In the long-running BBC television science fiction programme Doctor Who and related works, the term "companion" refers to a character who travels with, and shares the adventures of the Doctor. In most Doctor Who stories, the primary companion acts as both deuteragonist and audience surrogate...
Amy Pond
Amy Pond
Amelia Jessica 'Amy' Pond is a fictional character portrayed by Karen Gillan in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
(Karen Gillan
Karen Gillan
Karen Sheila Gillan is a Scottish actress and former model who is best known for her current portrayal of Amy Pond in the British science fiction series Doctor Who.-Early life:...
) and Rory Williams
Rory Williams
Rory Williams is a fictional character portrayed by Arthur Darvill in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Having been introduced at the start of the 5th series, Rory joins the Eleventh Doctor as a companion in the middle of Series 5...
(Arthur Darvill
Arthur Darvill
Thomas Arthur Darvill is an English actor, known professionally as Arthur Darvill. He is noted for his work in the plays Terre Haute and Swimming with Sharks , but is probably best known for his role as the Eleventh Doctor's Companion Rory Williams in the television series Doctor Who.-Early and...
) and was met with generally positive reviews by critics.
Synopsis
While in deep space, the Doctor (Matt Smith), his companions Amy (Karen GillanKaren Gillan
Karen Sheila Gillan is a Scottish actress and former model who is best known for her current portrayal of Amy Pond in the British science fiction series Doctor Who.-Early life:...
) and Rory (Arthur Darvill
Arthur Darvill
Thomas Arthur Darvill is an English actor, known professionally as Arthur Darvill. He is noted for his work in the plays Terre Haute and Swimming with Sharks , but is probably best known for his role as the Eleventh Doctor's Companion Rory Williams in the television series Doctor Who.-Early and...
) receive a communication cube containing a distress call from a Time Lord
Time Lord
The Time Lords are an ancient extraterrestrial race and civilization of humanoids in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, of which the series' eponymous protagonist, the Doctor, is a member...
. Tracing the source of the call to a rift leading outside the universe, the Doctor deletes part of his TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
to generate enough energy to traverse the rift. After landing in a junkyard on a solitary asteroid, the TARDIS shuts down and its matrix disappears. The three explore, and meet the strange inhabitants, Uncle, Auntie, a green eyed Ood
Ood
The Ood are a fictional alien species with telepathic abilities from the long running science fiction series Doctor Who. In the series' narrative, they live in the distant future ....
called Nephew and an excited young woman named Idris who fawns all over, and then bites, the Doctor. While Nephew locks up Idris, Amy and Rory return to the TARDIS, the Doctor follows the distress signal and finds a cabinet containing a large number of message cubes. Upon further investigation of Uncle and Auntie, he finds they are constructed of body parts from other beings, including Time Lords. They are controlled by the asteroid, called House, which is sentient and able to possess other technology around it. House led the Doctor there and removed the TARDIS' matrix, initially intending to consume its Artron energy. Upon learning that the Doctor is the last Time Lord and that no more TARDISes will ever arrive, House transfers itself into the TARDIS to escape from the rift. Amy and Rory are trapped inside as the House-controlled TARDIS dematerialises.
The Doctor learns that Idris contains the personality of the TARDIS' matrix. Idris, as the TARDIS, and the Doctor learn they selected each other hundreds of years prior when the Doctor fled Gallifrey
Gallifrey
Gallifrey is a fictional planet in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who and is the homeworld of the Doctor and the Time Lords...
. Without House's support, Uncle and Auntie die, and Idris' body only has a short time before it also will fail. Idris reveals that House had stranded many TARDISes before, and that its universe is hours away from collapsing. The Doctor and Idris work together to construct a makeshift TARDIS from scraps, and then pursue House.
Aboard the Doctor's TARDIS, House threatens to kill Amy and Rory. He plays with their senses as they try to flee through the corridors, then sends Nephew after them. Idris makes a psychic connection with Rory to give him directions to a secondary control room (the control room used by the Ninth
Ninth Doctor
The Ninth Doctor is the ninth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by Christopher Eccleston....
and Tenth
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
Doctors) where he and Amy are able to lower the TARDIS' shields without House's interference. This allows the Doctor to land the makeshift console in the secondary control room, which atomises Nephew. House deletes the secondary control room as he prepares to break through the rift, which the Doctor anticipates. The TARDIS' safety protocols transfer them to the main control room, where the dying Idris releases the TARDIS' matrix back to the TARDIS, destroying House. A remnant of the TARDIS' matrix, in Idris' body, sadly states that she will not be able to speak to the Doctor again but will be there for him. Idris' body then disappears as the TARDIS matrix is fully restored.
The Doctor installs a security field around the matrix to prevent it from being compromised again. Rory asks the Doctor about some of Idris' final words—"the only water in the forest is the river"—but the Doctor doesn't understand. After Amy and Rory leave to find a new bedroom, the original having been purged by House, the Doctor talks to the TARDIS, and, in response, a nearby lever moves on its own, sending the TARDIS to its next destination.
Continuity
"The Doctor's Wife" revisits mythology elements regarding the Doctor and the TARDIS established from the original run of the show and continued into the new series. Idris, as the TARDIS, says that the Doctor left with her, a type 40 TARDIS, to flee Gallifrey more than 700 years ago, and the TARDIS' history of unreliability is explained as her taking the Doctor not where he wants to go, but where he needs to be. The Doctor has mentioned that the TARDIS is alive in previous episodes, including in The Five DoctorsThe Five Doctors
The Five Doctors is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced in celebration of the programme's twentieth anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago PBS station WTTW and various other PBS member stations...
, and has referred to 'her' as "old girl" many times, and as "sexy" occasionally in his Eleventh incarnation, both of which Idris indicates that she likes.
The Doctor refers to altering the control room's appearance as changing the desktop
Theme (computing)
In computing, a theme is a preset package containing graphical appearance details, used to customize the look and feel of an operating system, widget set or window manager....
, as the Fifth Doctor
Fifth Doctor
The Fifth Doctor is the fifth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Peter Davison....
does in "Time Crash
Time Crash
"Time Crash" is a mini-episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on 16 November 2007, as part of the BBC One telethon for the children's charity Children in Need...
". Like the Third Doctor
Third Doctor
The Third Doctor is the third incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor Jon Pertwee....
in Inferno
Inferno (Doctor Who)
Don Houghton came to Terrence Dicks with an idea for the story based on the real life Project Mohole. A smaller budget for the serial drove the idea of a parallel world, where the studio could use the same actors in multiple roles...
, the Doctor and Idris operate a TARDIS control panel without an outer TARDIS shell. The Doctor also jettisons TARDIS rooms to create thrust, as he had done previously in Castrovalva. The TARDIS is mentioned to have retained an archive of previous control rooms unbeknownst to the Doctor, including many he has yet to create; the one shown in this episode is the design featured between "Rose
Rose (Doctor Who)
"Rose" is the first episode of Series One of the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by show runner Russell T Davies and directed by Keith Boak, the episode was first broadcast on 26 March 2005....
" and "The Eleventh Hour
The Eleventh Hour (Doctor Who)
"The Eleventh Hour" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 3 April 2010....
", used by the Ninth
Ninth Doctor
The Ninth Doctor is the ninth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by Christopher Eccleston....
and Tenth
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
(and briefly by the Eleventh) Doctors.
When speaking of his fellow Time Lord the Corsair, the Doctor implies that Time Lords can change gender on regeneration. The Doctor admits he killed all of the Time Lords, alluding to the events of the Time War
Time War (Doctor Who)
The Time War, more specifically called The Last Great Time War, is a conflict within the fictional universe of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
and The End of Time
The End of Time
The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe, also sold with the alternate subtitle The Next Revolution in Physics, is a 1999 science book in which the author Julian Barbour argues that time exists merely as an illusion.-Auto-biography:The book begins by describing how...
. In The War Games
The War Games
The War Games is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in ten weekly parts from 19 April to 21 June 1969. It was the last regular appearance of Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor, and of Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines as companions Zoe...
, the Second Doctor
Second Doctor
The Second Doctor is the second incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton....
contacted the Time Lords using a cube similar to those seen in this episode. The Doctor again refers to himself as "a madman with a box", reprising Amy's and his own description of himself in "The Eleventh Hour".
The Doctor states that the Corsair added a tattoo of his mark, an Oroborus (a snake eating its own tail; a symbol of eternity), to his body upon each regeneration; this tattoo is found on his final incarnation's left arm, now worn by Auntie. A time-eating snake called the Oroborus is the adversary in K-9 episode, "Oroborus".
Nephew, the Ood possessed by House, has glowing green eyes. Ood's eyes also changed colour in "The Impossible Planet
The Impossible Planet
"The Impossible Planet" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the first part of a two-part story, followed by "The Satan Pit". The TARDIS lands in a base on a planet orbiting a black hole, an allegedly impossible situation that stumps even the Doctor...
" / "The Satan Pit
The Satan Pit
"The Satan Pit" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the second part of a two-part story, following "The Impossible Planet". With the TARDIS seemingly lost, Rose and the remaining humans are trapped on the base with the possessed Ood, while the planet...
" when they were possessed by the Beast, and in "Planet of the Ood
Planet of the Ood
"Planet of the Ood" is the third episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 19 April 2008. It features the return of the Ood, who appeared in the second series episodes "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit".The episode...
" when controlled by the central Ood mind. The Doctor refers to Nephew as "another Ood I failed to save"; in "The Satan Pit" the Doctor commented that he did not have time to save the Ood.
Idris' cryptic words, "the only water in the forest is the river", are explained in the mid-series finale, "A Good Man Goes to War
A Good Man Goes to War
"A Good Man Goes to War" is the seventh episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was first broadcast on BBC One on 4 June 2011...
".
Rory mentions waiting for Amy for 2000 years the second time he and Amy were separated from each other in the House-infested TARDIS. This was first said by Rory in the episode "The Big Bang
The Big Bang (Doctor Who)
"The Big Bang" is the 13th and final episode in the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the second part of a two-part season finale started with "The Pandorica Opens", at the end of which The Doctor is trapped, the TARDIS destroyed, and Amy Pond has been shot...
".
Writing
Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...
replaced Russell T Davies as the showrunner of Doctor Who, being a fan of Gaiman's blog, Moffat met with Gaiman and Gaiman asked to write an episode. In an interview Gaiman stated "I came up with something that was one of those things where you thought that nobody's done that before." The episode was originally titled "The House of Nothing" before Gaiman sat down to write it, but that was changed to "Bigger on the Inside". This title remained until about six weeks before the episode aired, but the crew was beginning to worry that "Bigger on the Inside" would give away the surprise that Idris was the TARDIS, so it was changed. The final title, not specifically referred to in the story, is a reference to a fake title attached to the 1980s serial The Caves of Androzani
The Caves of Androzani
The Caves of Androzani is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 8–16 March 1984. It was Peter Davison's last regular appearance as the Doctor, and marks the first appearance of Colin Baker in the role...
; then-producer John Nathan-Turner
John Nathan-Turner
John Nathan-Turner was the ninth producer of the long-running BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, from 1980 until it was effectively cancelled in 1989...
had changed the title to that on his planning board in an attempt to weed out a suspected leak in his office.
Gaiman suggested they make an episode which centres on the TARDIS itself, which was not done before for the entire series since it began in 1963. The original plan focused on the idea of the Doctor pursuing an enemy inside the TARDIS, but went through several subsequent changes; Gaiman changed the plan to focus on the companion due to the Doctor's knowledge of his ship, made the TARDIS the threat to avoid making it a simple 'cat-and-mouse' game, and then included the idea of Idris to account for what happened to the TARDIS's mind after this attack. The central idea was a "what if" scenario to see what would happen if the Doctor and the TARDIS got to talk together. Head writer Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...
liked the idea of featuring the TARDIS as a woman, believing this to be the "ultimate love story" for the Doctor.
Gaiman began writing the episode before Matt Smith was even cast as the Eleventh Doctor; Gaiman envisaged David Tennant
David Tennant
David Tennant is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in theatre, including a widely praised Hamlet, Tennant is best known for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, along with the title role in the 2005 TV serial Casanova and as Barty Crouch, Jr...
's performance in the first draft, knowing Smith would play the Doctor differently. Despite this he had no issue writing the dialogue. The episode was originally slated for the eleventh episode of the fifth series
Doctor Who (series 5)
The fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 3 April 2010 with "The Eleventh Hour" and ended with "The Big Bang" on 26 June 2010. The series was led by head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, who took over after the departure of Russell T Davies. The...
. However, it was delayed to the sixth because of budget issues; the eleventh episode would be replaced with "The Lodger
The Lodger (Doctor Who)
"The Lodger" is the eleventh episode of the fifth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One on 12 June 2010...
". Even so, Gaiman was forced to operate with less money than he would have liked; for instance, he had to scrap a scene set in the TARDIS' swimming pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
, and instead of being able to use a monster of his own design he had to use a pre-existing Ood prop.
The move to the sixth series also meant Gaiman had to include Rory, who ceased to exist in the original slot in the fifth series. With Rory included, Gaiman had to "reshape" much of the second half of the episode, featuring Amy being on the run in the TARDIS. In the original draft where Amy was the only companion, Gaiman added a "heartbreaking monologue" by the character, further stating "you get to see what it's like to be the companion from the companion's point of view, and she got to talk about essentially in that version how sad it is, in some ways. One day something will happen to her, she'll get married, she'll get eaten by monsters, she'll die, she'll get sick of this, but he'll go on forever." At a certain point, Gaiman had tired of re-writing drafts and asked Steven Moffat for help. Moffat wrote in what Gaiman called "several of [the episode's] best lines" and rapidly rewrote several scenes when budget problems harmed filming locations.
Casting
In September 2010, Suranne Jones announced she was cast a guest spot on Doctor Who as Idris for an episode of the sixth series of Doctor Who. Jones previously played Mona Lisa in The Sarah Jane AdventuresThe Sarah Jane Adventures
The Sarah Jane Adventures is a British science fiction television series, produced by BBC Cymru Wales for CBBC, created by Russell T Davies and starring Elisabeth Sladen...
episode Mona Lisa's Revenge
Mona Lisa's Revenge
Mona Lisa's Revenge is a two-part story of The Sarah Jane Adventures which was broadcast on CBBC on 12 and 13 November 2009. It is the fifth serial of the third series.-Part 1:Luke enters Clyde's painting for a competition and Clyde wins first prize...
. Sometime after appearing on The Sarah Jane Adventures, Jones was contacted to appear on Doctor Who at Gaiman's request, because they were looking for an actress who "is odd; beautiful but strange looking, and quite funny." Moffat meanwhile described Idris as "sexy plus motherly plus utterly mad plus serene." During a read-through of the script, the producers asked her to "neutralise [her] a bit," because they did not want Jones to "be a Northerner" or have a standard accent, but to act "kinda like the Doctor." Later, in March 2011, Gaiman confirmed Michael Sheen would also guest star in the episode to voice a character. Adrian Schiller previously appeared in the Eighth Doctor
Eighth Doctor
The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...
audio drama Time Works
Time Works
Time Works is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Synopsis:...
where he played Zanith.
Filming
It was planned as the third episode in the 2011 series but the order was changed during the production process. Initial production occurred in September, with Gaiman visiting the set during the production period and filming for the associated ConfidentialDoctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary series created by the British Broadcasting Corporation to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly...
. Additional filming took place in October 2010, with guest star Suranne Jones having being filmed for green screen
Green Screen
The Green Screen international wildlife film festival is held annually in Eckernförde, Germany. The festival shows full-length and short nature documentaries about animals in their natural habitat. It is the only festival of its kind in Germany...
special effects. The scenes where Amy and Rory are on the run allowed the audience to explore the TARDIS outside the control room, something the producers had wanted to do for a while. A series of corridors was constructed and retained for future use. The episode also featured the return of the older TARDIS control room from the Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston is an English stage, film and television actor. His films include Let Him Have It, Shallow Grave, Elizabeth, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Others, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra...
and David Tennant era. Gaiman had originally wanted to reconstruct a console room from the original series, but the cost proved prohibitive. The set was retained after filming for "The Eleventh Hour", but has since been removed. Arthur Darvill noted the floor of the older set had a cheese grater
Grater
A grater is a kitchen utensil used to grate foods into fine pieces. It was invented by François Boullier in the 1540s.-Uses:...
-like quality to it, so when the scene called for the cast to fall on it, they found it uncomfortable to stay down for a long period of time.
"The Doctor's Wife" features a make-shift TARDIS console, which was piloted by the Doctor and Idris. The console was designed by Susannah Leah, a schoolgirl from Todmorden
Todmorden
Todmorden is a market town and civil parish, located 17 miles from Manchester, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It forms part of the Upper Calder Valley and has a total population of 14,941....
, who won a competition on Blue Peter
Blue Peter
Blue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television show, having first aired in 1958. It is shown on CBBC, both in its BBC One programming block and on the CBBC channel. During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time...
, a children's programme that challenged its viewers to imagine a TARDIS console based on household objects. Leah's design was selected by Moffat, Edward Thomas, the production designer for the previous series, and Tim Levell, a Blue Peter editor, along with final input among the three age-group winners from Smith. Michael Pickward, the production designer for Series 6, commented that Leah's design captured the nature of "bits and pieces" of what TARDIS consoles have been in the past, as well as the nature of the makeshift console needed for this episode. The drawing was redesigned faithfully by the production team into the prop for the show, including the use of a coat hanger to start the makeshift TARDIS. Leah was brought by Blue Peter to see both the set under construction and on location during filming of the makeshift TARDIS scenes, meeting Smith and the other actors and production crew. Character Options
Character Options
Character Options is a British toy company, notable for having both the Disney and Doctor Who toy licenses. It hit the headlines during 2007 as the UK distributor for the Bindeez range of products was recalled due to a dangerous chemical.-Doctor Who:...
will release a toy playset based on Leah's console later in 2011. The House planetoid in the pocket universe was filmed on location at a quarry outside Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
.
Broadcast and reception
"The Doctor's Wife" was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC OneBBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
on 14 May 2011 and on sister station
Sister station
In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio and/or television stations operated by the same ownership....
BBC America
BBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...
in the United States on the same day. In the UK, the episode received overnight figures of 6.09 million viewers, with a 29.5 per cent audience share. It became the third highest broadcast of the night, behind Britain's Got Talent
Britain's Got Talent
Britain's Got Talent is a British television talent show competition which started in June 2007 and originated from the Got Talent series. The show is produced by FremantleMedia's TalkbackThames and Simon Cowell's production company SYCOtv. The show is broadcast on ITV in Britain and TV3 in Ireland...
on ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
, and the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest 2011
The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was the 56th annual Eurovision Song Contest and was won by Eldar & Nigar performing "Running Scared" for Azerbaijan. The event took place in the Esprit Arena in Düsseldorf, Germany, following Germany's win in the previous year...
, which was shown later on BBC One. The episode received a final BARB rating of 7.97 million with an audience share of 34.7%. It had an overall Appreciation Index
Appreciation Index
The Audience Appreciation Index is a score out of 100 which is used as an indicator of the public's appreciation for a television or radio programme, or broadcast service, in the United Kingdom. Until 2002, the AI of a programme was calculated by BARB, the organisation that compiles television...
of 87, considered to be excellent.
Critical reception
The episode was positively received. The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
Dan Martin said: "With so many wild ideas at play, this would have been so easy to get wrong...yet in every sense it was pitched perfectly". He praised Suranne Jones in particular, saying she was "electrifying throughout". Martin later rated it the third best episode of the series, though the finale
The Wedding of River Song
"The Wedding of River Song" is the thirteenth and final episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was first broadcast on BBC One, BBC America and Space on 1 October 2011.-Plot:...
was not included in the list. The AV Club gave the episode a score of "A", saying it was a "pretty terrific [episode]...a brisk, scary, inventive adventure filled with clever concepts and witty dialogue. And a lot of heart when in the way it deals with an important relationship rarely addressed on the series". He admired the cleverness of the "Idris/TARDIS" characterization and found the relationship "quite touching". Gavin Fuller of The Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
praised the acting of Smith, Jones, and Sheen, and called the episode "hugely enjoyable". Neela Debnath of The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
praised Gaiman for mixing "romance, tragedy and horror, managing to strike a balance while telling a simple story", though she criticised the frequent deaths of Rory.
SFX magazine reviewer Russell Lewin gave "The Doctor's Wife" four and a half out of five stars, labelling it as "non-stop intrigue and carefully-controlled suspense all the way". He particularly praised Smith's energetic performance, saying "he pings and fizzes around the screen like a Technicolor firework, lighting up every scene he adorns". Digital Spy
Digital Spy
Digital Spy is a British entertainment and media news website. According to Alexa Internet traffic statistics, as of February 2011, Digital Spy is the 93rd most popular website in the United Kingdom, with an overall Alexa ranking of 2,088....
's Morgan Jeffery rated it four out of five stars, saying it "isn't perfect, but you'd be hard-pressed to fault its ambition". He was critical of Surrane Jones' performance of Idris, as "her early eccentric behavior tends to grate rather than amuse" though her performance calmed down later in the episode. His other "slight criticism" was that Gillan and Darvill were "sidelined", but praised their performances. Jeffery felt that the strength of the episode was in character rather than in plot, and cited the defeat of the House as a "slightly disappointing" deus ex machina
Deus ex machina
A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.-Linguistic considerations:...
.
IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's Matt Risley rated the episode 9 out of 10 and concluded, "Sweet, touching, intelligent, different, utterly imaginative and accessible by both hardcore fans and newbies alike - this is not only Doctor Who, but sci-fi telly at its finest". He also praised Gaiman's script for being "a simple idea executed brilliantly". Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
admitted he was unsure if he was going to like it with the "grungy setting, wacko characters and peculiar dialogue", but ended up "captivated". He particularly enjoyed seeing more of the TARDIS' interior and called it an "instant oddball classic".