Mini-Who Review: “The Doctor’s Wife”
I’ve never understood why people gush they way they do about Neil Gaiman. I don’t think he’s a bad writer, but I don’t think he’s ever done anything to justify the outrageous accolades that are lobbed at him by fans and critics. Most of this praise has to do with how “original” he is, but I just don’t see it. Why would you read him when you could read the more interesting writers he borrows from like Charles Williams, R.A. Lafferty, George Macdonald, and Gene Wolfe? It would be okay if he was just unoriginal, most good writers are, but most of his work that I’ve read has committed the irredeemable sin of being boring and meandering. “The Doctor’s Wife” was promoted with much fanfare, with many fans preemptively declaring it the best episode ever because it was penned by Neil.
Did it deliver? No. of course it didn’t. Why else would I write that disparaging intro?
There were some good ideas. I’ve always liked stories where people get lost in or have to explore the TARDIS, and there was plenty that could have been done with the villain not only influencing Amy and Rory’s minds as the were running for their lives with nowhere to go. Sadly, all that yielded was a few running shots in the same corridor and a somewhat creepy aging sequence that went by much too fast to have an real impact on the viewer. I really wish the whole episode had been set within the TARDIS so that these ideas could have been properly developed.
The most entertainment I got from this episode was that ludicrous “Goodbye/Hello” scene. There was no subtly to the whole thing at all, from the copious tears to the melodramatic swelling of the soundtrack. It tried so hard to be sad, that I just had the chuckle.
Wasn’t it always acknowledged that the TARDIS was alive. Was it really necessary to abandon all subtext and hammer that point home in such an obvious way?
And speaking of the soundtrack, what was with those Tim Burton sounds that kept playing during the first half? Were they trying to cater to Gaiman’s mall goth fanbase?
There’s not much to say about the resolution, it was just anti-climactic.
But I can credit “he Doctor’s Wife” with one thing, it certainly strenghtened my conviction that Matt Smith needs to calm down or regenerate already. It would be nice if he could do a story without mugging, flailing about like an idiot, or giving one of those “I’m the Doctor, I’m important” speeches that David Tennant already ran into the ground. I know Smith claims to take inspiration from Patrick Troughton, and to be fair Troughton was always a clown, but he was also subdued enough that he could switch from lighthearted jesting to being troubled by real peril and make it convincing. Smith has no such consistency and for that reason it’s hard to take him seriously.
An underwhelming episode from an underwhelming season. But the praise it’s received sure shows how far fan loyalty goes.
