Doctor Who S32E4, "The Doctor's Wife" [spoilers]

[Broomstick]

I'm not disapproving at all, I merely find it interesting to note that the Doctor does seem to be growing into something more like the Doctor River Song described initially. He even opens the TARDIS doors with a snap of his fingers now and then.

Did you catch that when he couldn't get the doors open in the junkyard? After the sonic screwdriver didn't work he tried snapping his fingers.

I have a feeling the finger-snap to open the doors has more to do with Sexy than anything the TARDIS builders intended. Either that, or it was the only way she could get him to stop opening doors inward, contrary to posted instructions.

[Parallax]

At least we got rid of (or at least forgot about) that idiotic remote car lock idea.
Ugh.

[NecronLord]

Did you catch that when he couldn't get the doors open in the junkyard? After the sonic screwdriver didn't work he tried snapping his fingers.

Yeah. Spotted that.

[El Moose Monstero]

Did you catch that when he couldn't get the doors open in the junkyard? After the sonic screwdriver didn't work he tried snapping his fingers.

Yeah. Spotted that.

It's not the first time he did that though - there was some point last season, wasn't there? Maybe the initial opening scene with Amy? Excluding the end of Silence in the Library.

Re: the forest in the river water thing - it might be just the indicator that tells the Doctor when she's going to go off to the library, and so when he needs to do the thing with the screwdriver. He won't actually know when it's supposed to happen from his point of view, although I always got the impression that River had seen more than one regeneration based on what she'd said in Silence in the Library, but that could be a misinterpretation.

I'd appreciate River more, as she does have her moments, if she wasn't basically Moffat's Thrawn. Better at the doctor than flying the tardis, constantly demanding rescue, constantly rubbing his nose in spoilers, generally just too goddamn smug about everything, trusted enough to be told his name etc etc. She better do something pretty damn amazing to earn all that. Unless it's going to be a tragic sort of thing, where she is about to die in the library, so the Doctor hops through time doing all the magic moments she remembers across her timeline, doing within 5 minutes what she experienced over a whole lifetime, fulfilling everything she said he would do.

EDIT: Would much rather have Captain Jack back for a spell than River.

[Broomstick]

Everyone assumes the line "There is no water in the forest but the river" refers to River Song, but it may not. After all, quite a few people assumed "The Doctor's Wife" would involve her, but it was all about the TARDIS. It could well be a clue dropped to mislead.

[Thanas]

EDIT: Would much rather have Captain Jack back for a spell than River.

Oh god, yes. A thousand times yes.

[open_sketchbook]

Due to the way her arc is structured (which is to say, backward) I am withholding judgement on River Song until we actually learn how she wound up that way.

[Big Orange]

The junk yard was full of not only fragments of destroyed TARDISes, but also fragments of ships (and... people) from many other cultures (I wonder if amongst the rubble there's an injoke to other sci-fi franchises?).

I just assumed they were the other TARDISes (after all they can look like anything). We've seen them disgused as spaceships before.

And possibly washing machines, from one scene!

And TARDISes are bigger on the inside, so when House tore them shreds, pulled them inside out while feasting on their innards, their interior furnishings and frames spilling out would've been enough to form a whole planetoid. Anyway this episode's junkyard planet reminded me of "Utopia" and speaking of "Utopia", the TARDIS' sentient matrix didn't like the presense of Captain Jack and lept the TARDIS trillions of years into the future to escape the man who was invincible to practically everything in the Universe. Why?

[Broomstick]

I got the impression that to whatever temporal senses possessed by Time Lords, and quite like those possessed by TARDIS's, Captain Jack being a "fixed point" and a "fact" is something like a bad smell mixed with something ugly looking and upped a few orders of magnitude beyond that in the category of repulsive and disgusting. Nothing personal against Jack, it's just that he's wrong somehow to the Doctor and the TARDIS.

They do seem to get somewhat past that later on, though.

[Broomstick]

On another message board someone pointed me to this deleted scene at Bad Wolf Bay from "Journey's End", which indicates a TARDIS is grown.


Huh. Now that's interesting. In which case maybe they don't have gender at all as we understand it, a TARDIS being able to grow from chunks of another TARDIS, neither male nor female. Or there could be some weirdly complicated stuff going on, but I'll go for Occam's Razor here.

[TimothyC]

It's not the first time he did that though - there was some point last season, wasn't there? Maybe the initial opening scene with Amy? Excluding the end of Silence in the Library.

Two episodes ago, when he 'escapes' from the 'prison' in Area 51. The falls over knocking into Sexy*, making her temporarily visible, and then snaps his fingers to make the door open.

*Yes, I will go there.

[Broomstick]

Who are we to argue with the TARDIS? If she says her name is Sexy then that's her name.

The Doctor has actually done the fingersnap to open the door more often than just that. It's pretty quick and easy to miss most times, though.

ETA: And I'd be shocked, shocked I tell you, if someone didn't "go there".

[Enigma]

I'm not surprised if Rule 34 is used here. I can picture the Doctor caught literally with his pants down as he's humping the console.

[Broomstick]

That actually sounds more like something Captain Jack would be caught doing than the Doctor.

[Revy]

Man, I just hope we see the last of River Song soon.

The problem is, I think the show makers/producers like her a lot. And given the enigmatic end episode quote, I wouldn't be surprised if we not only see quite a bit more of her, but the Doctor ends up actually saving her from her eventual fate. I'm still pretty sure that the Doctor won't end up permenantly dead despite the whole astronaut incident at the start of the season.

Of course if they end up saving the Doctor and River from their eventual fates then that just adds yet another reason for me to get annoyed at River's constant wangsting over the nature of her timey wimey relationship. Seriously, how the hell am I supposed to bleed my heart for her when she ends up in a digital heaven, and may now even wind up being brought back to life at some point? If she was going to flat out no holds barred 'DIE', then I might buy into the drama of it. But she's not. I don't feel sorry for her at all. Even if the Doctor doesn't download her from the Library some day, he can still go and visit her whenever he wants. There's really no sense of impending doom hanging over her. As it stands, I have more concern for the Doctor's ultimate fate atm than I do for River, because he looks more convincingly dead than she does.

This episode makes the TARDIS' actions in the Black Spot episode make more sense. I think someone already said it, but given how aware of the future the TARDIS seems to be, she may have known that there wasn't really a threat there on that ship and so didn't want to let the Doctor run away before he figured out what was really going on. It seemed like an annoying plot contrivance before, but it sorta makes sense now.

Also, I said in a previous thread that I thought the mystery regenerating kid might be Amy and the TARDIS' child, not the Doctors or Rivers. Probably not after this, but still, would be cool if it were. TARDIS knocks up Amy? Heh. Also, the Silents have TARDIS tech, and apparently hundreds of dormant TARDIS' hiding on Earth. Maybe we don't see them use them because they need living TARDIS souls/matrixs', and their ultimate goal is to create a fleet of working TARDIS' that they can use to establish themselves as the new Time Lords of the universe? Or maybe not, I'm just guessing wildly.

[Lord Woodlouse]

On another message board someone pointed me to this deleted scene at Bad Wolf Bay from "Journey's End", which indicates a TARDIS is grown.


Huh. Now that's interesting. In which case maybe they don't have gender at all as we understand it, a TARDIS being able to grow from chunks of another TARDIS, neither male nor female. Or there could be some weirdly complicated stuff going on, but I'll go for Occam's Razor here.

Yeah, Captain Jack was attempting to grow his own TARDIS from the Doctor's severed hand. You can see it in the background in the first season of Torchwood.

I guess after that he didn't need one.

[xerex]

Also, I said in a previous thread that I thought the mystery regenerating kid might be Amy and the TARDIS' child, not the Doctors or Rivers. Probably not after this, but still, would be cool if it were. TARDIS knocks up Amy?

try this guess on for size.

The little girl is not a Time Lord but actually the soul of the 'Black Tardis' trapped in the body of Rory and Amy's child.

[Broomstick]

Two things that sort of hit me today about the show.

First: I've been watching Doctor Who for 28 years and never noticed the "pull to open" on the sign on the door. But it's there, and it's been there - went and looked at some old episodes. Right in front of me the whole time, never noticed. Now I can't not see it.

Two: I thought "petrichor" was something made up. It's not. It's the English word for the smell of dust after rain, coined in 1964 by some Australians who apparently felt the need for such a word. Because, I guess, English doesn't have enough words in it or something.

[Eternal_Freedom]

First: I've been watching Doctor Who for 28 years and never noticed the "pull to open" on the sign on the door. But it's there, and it's been there - went and looked at some old episodes. Right in front of me the whole time, never noticed. Now I can't not see it.

Amusingly enough, I've been watching the Cushing films today, and that Tardis's doors do open outward.

[Lord Woodlouse]

My old hometown (Scarborough) still has a police telephone box, who's doors open outward.

[hongi]

I had impure thoughts about the TARDIS while watching this episode. Damn you Gaiman.

Thank you.