The Doctor's Wife (TV story)

The Doctor's Wife was the fourth episode in the sixth series of Doctor Who. It saw the TARDIS personified in human form.

Synopsis
The Doctor receives a distress signal from an old friend. Could there really be another living Time Lord out there? Hopes raised, he follows the signal to a junkyard planet sitting upon a mysterious asteroid in a Bubble universe, populated by a very strange family.

The Doctor, Amy and Rory are given the warmest of welcomes by Auntie, Uncle and Nephew. But the beautiful and insane Idris greets them in a more unusual fashion – what is she trying to tell the Doctor? As the Doctor investigates, he unwittingly puts his friends in the gravest danger.

Plot
In another universe, a woman named Idris is scared of something that's about to happen, but is told that everything will be all right as she is serving a greater purpose by being drained of her mind and soul in preparation for the arrival of a Time Lord. A green-eyed Ood does this.

Meanwhile, in the main universe, 2011, the TARDIS is in flight and there's a knock on the door; when opened, a cube of light is seen that, when beckoned, hits the Doctor in the chest, whizzes about and then actually comes to him. The Doctor sees something on the box and announces he's "got mail!".

The object is revealed to be a hypercube, a form of communication for Time Lords. This one has come from one of the Doctor's old acquaintances, the Corsair. The message originates from "outside the Universe", but they follow the signal, deleting some of the useless rooms for fuel. As soon as they land, the TARDIS loses power - the Doctor seems perplexed at the concept in general; it's actually due to a different cause than before. The matrix, the soul of the TARDIS, has vanished. The planetoid they've landed on seems to be a junkyard.

The travellers are spotted by Idris, who starts kissing (later biting) the Doctor, calling him 'her thief', and speaking madly. Among one of the things she says is "the little boxes will make you mad." She is closely followed by Auntie, Uncle and Nephew, the green-eyed Ood. They apologize for Idris, saying she is insane, and Nephew takes her to get some rest. Idris asks if there's an 'off switch' and instantly falls asleep before being carried away by Nephew.

They are led deep into a cavern to meet House, and learn the planetoid is accreted matter around an asteroid. The Doctor wants to find and help any living Time Lords; he also tells House that he is the Last of the Time Lords and that his TARDIS is the last one. He sends Rory and Amy back to the TARDIS on a fool's errand to find his sonic screwdriver in his spare coat and locks them in with the sonic screwdriver he already had with him before heading towards the distress signals.

He discovers a cupboard full of hypercubes that keep repeating emergency messages from a number of Time Lords. The Doctor, now distraught, notices that Auntie and Uncle are behind him. He tells them that losing hope is enough to drive anyone mad, but it could be worse with him. He then discovers House has been "repairing" them: they've been jigsawed together from bits and pieces of other unfortunate Time Lords that found their way to the planet. The Doctor comments that they remind him of his Sixth incarnation's umbrella, and tells them both to run.

Back in the TARDIS, Amy and Rory have realised that a green glow is suffusing the TARDIS. As the Cloister Bell rings, the Doctor runs to the TARDIS, trying to stop its departure, but fails as it starts to dematerialize and hurtle off in the direction of the bigger, energy-rich universe, breaking connection with the Doctor. House announces he now has control of the TARDIS and threatens to kill the inhabitants if they don't give a reason not to. Rory claims that House needs entertainment, and killing them quickly wouldn't be fun, buying them time. They head for the TARDIS' corridors. House separates Amy and Rory. Amy is sent into a number of mind-games involving a fake Rory aging, trying to attack Amy and eventually dying, before the real Rory finds her.

The Doctor finds Idris, who tells him that she houses the TARDIS' soul. They talk (and flirt) until their non-linear flow of conversation begins to make sense and the Doctor lets her out of her cage. They once again meet Auntie and Uncle, who drop dead, unable to live without House to repair them and the Doctor realises Idris has little time to live. They agree to rebuild a TARDIS console from all the junk, while they bond. Idris infuses the mechanical bits with a part of her inherent energy (matrix/soul) to allow them to follow House. Meanwhile, Idris reveals that she allowed the Doctor to steal her from the Time Lords all those years ago. She wanted to escape from Gallifrey and see the universe, so she "stole" the only Time Lord mad enough to travel with her.

In the meantime, House has raised the shields of the TARDIS to prevent anyone from entering. They need to be lowered so the Doctor and Idris can enter. The Doctor has Idris send a telepathic message to 'the pretty one' with details on how to get to a backup control-room; Idris sends the message to Rory instead of Amy. They arrive outside a door which opens upon Amy mentally visualising four words Idris sent Rory. They enter the old control room used by the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, lowering the shields as they are followed by Nephew (revealed to be House's most obedient servant). The junk TARDIS lands on Nephew, blasting him into atoms. The Doctor quickly introduces Amy and Rory to Idris and engages in conversation with House, offering help to him as he is having trouble landing in the main universe. The Doctor suggests that House delete 30% of the rooms for power. House agrees - and deletes the previous control room the group are in.

The group are suddenly standing in the main control room, as all living things in deleted rooms are transported there. House doesn't care, though, since the TARDIS has now reached the normal universe. The Doctor pretends to congratulate House for defeating them, while Idris, about to die, whispers something into Rory's ear. The Doctor reveals that House's plan was to trap the matrix in a mortal body, then allow it to die and be released a long way from the TARDIS. Instead, the matrix has been released inside the control room and merges back with the TARDIS. It proceeds to purge House from the TARDIS. The matrix has one last conversation with the Doctor from Idris' body, saying the word she never got to say to him: "Hello."

The Doctor starts putting a firewall around the matrix as he works under the console platform. Rory says that before she died, Idris told him 'the only water in the forest is the River', and that they'll need to know that some day. Thinking Amy and Rory need some time to rest, the Doctor suggests that he take them to the Eye of Orion for the peaceful atmosphere and quickly remakes Amy and Rory's room (without bunk beds per their request), sending them off to bed. Though Rory stalls to ask the Doctor if he has a bedroom of his own, Amy quickly grabs his arm and takes him into the corridor. The Doctor tries to talk to the matrix again, wondering if it agrees with going to the Eye of Orion and is rewarded when the speed lever pulls itself, making him laugh happily.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill
 * Idris / The TARDIS - Suranne Jones
 * Uncle - Adrian Schiller
 * Auntie - Elizabeth Berrington
 * Nephew - Paul Kasey
 * Voice of House - Michael Sheen

Crew
to be added

Real world

 * Rory asks the Doctor if the House is the "junkyard at the end of the universe", possibly a reference to Douglas Adams' "Restaurant at the End of the Universe".
 * One of the code words to enter the archived control room is "Delight", referencing the character in Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series, who speaks in odd but meaningful phrases much like Idris.

Time Lords

 * The Doctor mentions an old Time Lord friend, the Corsair.

Story notes

 * This episode was originally planned to be the eleventh episode of Series 5, but because of budget limitations, was delayed until Series 6.
 * It was also planned to be episode three of Series 6, but was changed due to unknown reasons.
 * During an interview with Neil Gaiman on BBC breakfast he revealed that his episode is "very spooky" and that fans "are likely to be biting their nails off by the end".
 * Michael Sheen is credited as Voice of House on-screen, and as House in Radio Times.
 * On his blog, writer Neil Gaiman released a short conversation between Amy and the Doctor that did not meet the final cut in the episode he wrote.
 * This episode had the working title of Bigger on the Inside. That title was eventually used for the Confidential episode for this story.
 * While it has been hinted at before a few times in the franchise, most directly in the ending of DW: The End of Time, this episode offers the first concrete confirmation that Time Lords can change genders when they regenerate. This was a deliberate addition to the mythos on Gaiman's part.
 * Gaiman had wanted to use a classic-series-era console room for the sequences in the archived control room, but a set could not be reconstructed due to budgetary constraints. Instead the Tenth Doctor's console was left standing in the studio at Gaiman's request, secretly waiting to be used in this episode.
 * Early drafts of the script featured more of Idris before having her soul removed, more backstory about the Corsair's relationship with the Doctor , more TARDIS rooms , burial of Idris' corpse and clear indication that House survived its defeat.
 * Neil Gaiman read the written text of his script in a video short posted on the BBC. The last lines of the script indicated that the TARDIS took the Doctor and his friends "somewhere that is almost certainly not the Eye of Orion".
 * The TARDIS corridors built for this story are now standing sets, available for use in future stories.
 * Since the series was revived in 2005, any episode to feature classic alien species would include a tribute in the end credits (except for the Silurians for an unknown reason), crediting the aliens' original creator, i.e. "Daleks created by Terry Nation" at the end of "Dalek". This is the first episode to do so with an alien created in the revived series itself, specifically "Ood created by Russell T Davies".
 * The Junk TARDIS console was the subject of a 2009 design competition on Blue Peter. The winning design was by then-12-year-old Susannah Leah, whose subsequent visits to the BBC Art Department and location filming for this story featured in the 10th May, 2011 episode of Blue Peter.

Ratings
to be added

Myths

 * Viewers will see more of the Doctor's TARDIS. Correct, we saw more corridors and a secondary control room, which was "archived" from the Ninth/Tenth Doctor's TARDIS 
 * There are rumours this story will be set in a giant doll's house this also seems more likely due to the working title of his story being "The House of Nothing". Incorrect, House was an asteroid.
 * This story will contain something - or someone - that we have not seen since The War Games. Correct, we saw a hypercube.
 * The Ninth/Tenth Doctor's TARDIS will appear. Correct, it appeared as an archived control room.
 * Suranne Jones' Idris is the Doctor's wife. Whilst Idris was not the Doctor's marital wife, she was his TARDIS in human form, and had many attributes of a wife.

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors

 * When Amy finds the aged Rory it is obvious that his arms and hands are still those of a young man. (No make-up or appliances were added to age them.)

Continuity

 * The Doctor asserts that he killed all of the Time Lords. (DW: The End of Time)
 * The Cloister Bell rings as House takes control of the TARDIS.
 * An Ood appears and the Doctor mentions his continuing inability to save them. (DW: The Satan Pit, Planet of the Ood)
 * The Doctor tells Uncle and Auntie to "Basically, run!". He said the same thing to the Atraxi. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
 * The TARDIS previously took on the form of the Brigadier to communicate with the Doctor in BFA: Zagreus 
 * A hallucination of an aged Rory mentions waiting 2000 years 'again'. (DW: The Big Bang)
 * Amy's thought of delight is her wedding. (DW: The Big Bang)
 * The Doctor mentions he had an umbrella that resembled the patchwork of body parts that Uncle and Auntie both have. Said umbrella belonged to the Sixth Doctor and briefly the Seventh Doctor. It resembled the multicolored coat worn by the Sixth Doctor.
 * Behind the Doctor's back, Amy and Rory again discuss what they are going to do with him concerning them witnessing the death of his 1103 year old self. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut, The Curse of the Black Spot)
 * The Doctor previously sent a message by hypercube in The War Games.
 * Previous TARDISes in human form include Marie in Alien Bodies and Compassion from The Shadows of Avalon to The Ancestor Cell (Although they were evolved future TARDISes); the idea of TARDIS minds in human bodies was also seen in Unregenerate!.
 * The previous TARDIS console appears for the first time since DW: The Eleventh Hour.
 * The TARDIS first used psychic connection to send messages (and to frighten) its inhabitants in DW: The Edge of Destruction.
 * Extra energy is given to the TARDIS by deleting various rooms of the TARDIS. (DW: Logopolis, Castrovalva)
 * The Doctor offers to take Amy and Rory to the Eye of Orion. (DW: The Five Doctors)
 * Idris/The TARDIS states she has all of the older control rooms saved in her archives, as well as many that have not been seen yet. (IDW: Tesseract)
 * Idris/The TARDIS told the Doctor that although she didn't take him to where he wanted to go, she took him to where he needed to go, which explains most of the times that the TARDIS gets the flight wrong (e.g. landing on the Moon rather than Mars).
 * Idris/The TARDIS mentions the Doctor "bringing in strays", Martha Jones makes a similar comparison in Utopia.
 * The Doctor and the TARDIS reference the ability to change the TARDIS 'desktop theme'. (DW: Time Crash)
 * The inhabitants of House's asteroid refer to themselves by familial titles, much like the Family of Blood. (DW: Human Nature / The Family of Blood)
 * While housing the Matrix, Idris names herself 'Sexy' in reference to the Doctor calling her 'you sexy thing'. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
 * The TARDIS says that she likes it when the Doctor calls her "old girl", which the Doctor did numerous times in the classic series.
 * The TARDIS calls the Doctor her "thief", and they discuss that he stole (or "borrowed") her. The Doctor's theft or 'borrowing' of the TARDIS has been referenced in previous television stories, notably The War Games and The Five Doctors.
 * The Doctor says that the place they materialise is filled with rift energy, which will enable the TARDIS to regain power quickly. (DW: Boom Town, Utopia)
 * While trying (unsuccessfully) to get into the TARDIS, The Doctor snaps his fingers as he did to gain access in DW: The Forest of the Dead, DW: The Eleventh Hour and DW: Day of the Moon.
 * Ian Chesterton was the first to observe of the TARDIS "It's alive!" (DW: An Unearthly Child)
 * The Doctor previously traveled using just the TARDIS console. (DW: Inferno)
 * Idris claims that she's known the Doctor for approximately 700 years, implying that he stole the TARDIS when he was approximately 200 years old.
 * Idris is annoyed that the Doctor never reads instructions. The Doctor admitted he threw the TARDIS instruction manual into a supernova because he disagreed with it. (DW: Amy's Choice)
 * Idris tells Rory to tell the Doctor "The only water in the forest is the river". The significance of these words is revealed in DW: A Good Man Goes to War.
 * Amy is briefly enveloped in darkness by House, effectively being blinded as she was in The Time of Angels
 * The Junk TARDIS console features safety belts to hold onto, a feature once seen on the console of the Doctor's TARDIS in DW: Timelash.
 * This story marks the first time TARDISes (or parts thereof) other than the Doctor's have been shown on-screen since DW: Time and the Rani.
 * This is the first time that the doctor travells to another planet this series. This is the first time since DW : A Christmas Carol.

Home video releases
The DVD will be released in two halves. Part One, which will contain episodes one to seven, will be released in Summer, shortly after the airing of episode seven.