Live from Master Closet Studios, you’re listening to the only podcast on the internet that’s speaking to the FUTUUUURE: it’s the Noobs and the Whovian!
My name is Austin and I’m the Whovian, and these are my sons Corbin and Tripp and we’re the noobs!
This is the podcast that introduces a whole new generation to Doctor Who by watching an episode each week and discussing it from the perspective of a dad who’s seen it before, and two sons who haven’t.
Welcome to Episode 80 covering series 6 episode 4: The Doctor’s Wife.
Super-short Recap
This is the one where the Doctor hangs out with the TARDIS while Amy and Rory hang out IN the TARDIS even though the TARDIS isn’t IN the TARDIS because the TARDIS is hanging out in a woman. Plus there’s an Ood!
Remember that one?
Production notes
- Story # 216
- Originally aired May 14, 2011 to 7.97 million viewers
- Written by: Neil Gaiman
- Directed by: Richard Clark – did Gridlock and The Lazarus Experiment
- Awards: 2012 Hugo for Dramatic Presentation, Short Form Award
- Neil Gaiman became the first non-showrunner to win a Hugo for a Who episode
Misc Trivia
- Last week, everybody lived. This week, we have the opposite. This is the first episode since 1977’s Fourth Doctor story Horror of Fang Rock where every character except the Doctor and his companions ends up dead.
- This was originally slated as Series 5 Episode 11. Rumors that Mofatt had Neil Gaiman writing an episode had been swirling for a while. In fact, he HAD, since Tennant’s time.
- One of the results of this delay was that the control room used by Nine and Ten was left standing for 18 months for this episode.
- The story apparently underwent LOTS of changes during various stages or re-writing. Originally, it would’ve featured the Doctor being chased by a monster through the TARDIS. Then, it was decided it would be the companion and the monster would be the TARDIS itself. Then they came up with the Idris idea to explain why the TARDIS matrix itself wasn’t in control.
- First time in NuWho that we go beyond the control in the TARDIS.
- From an onscreen standpoint, this episode begins the slow march towards Jodie.
- The Doctor mentions that the Corsair was a woman in at least two regenerations.
- This is the first specific onscreen mention of a timelord changing genders during a regeneration.
- We had a hint at it when Eleven said “I’m a girl!” after feeling his new hair.
Cast
- House – voiced by Michael Sheen
- He played alongside David Tennant in the Neil Gaiman-written show Good Omens
- Idris – Suranne Jones
- Suranne had previously played Mona Lisa in the SJA episode, Mona Lisa’s Revenge
- It’s Your Name November! If you haven’t already, it’s time to reserve your name dot com! Whatever industry you’re in, having your very own domain name can come in handy.
Checklist
- Name of the episode spoken in dialogue?
- Creature of the week
- House – a sentient asteroid. Hard surface, big squishy oogly thing inside.
- Seems like a friendly planet, literally!
- House – a sentient asteroid. Hard surface, big squishy oogly thing inside.
- Bow ties are cool
- Hats
- Doctor Who?
- Jiggery Pokery
- Sonic
- TARDIS
- It has at least 7 squash courts!
- He tried snapping his fingers to open the door, but it didn’t work. Is that because the Matrix wasn’t in it at the time?
- They address the doors opening inward instead of outward, like Police Boxes should.
- There are 30 control rooms archived so far, even though only the Doctor himself has only seen about a dozen.
- Psychic paper
- Random
- Jibberty Jabberty
- Silence will fall
- Eye-patch Lady
- Jammie Dodger sighting
- Running count – 2
Who’s Who?
- Who is Rory?
- He dead… again.
- Died in both dream worlds – Amy’s Choice
- Shot by a Silurian and absorbed by the crack in time – Cold Blood
- Auton Rory was rebooted along with the universe – The Big Bang
- Shot by Canton (fake) – Day of the Moon
- Drowned – The Curse of the Black Spot
- Died alone of old age, stuck in the TARDIS – The Doctor’s Wife
- Running count – 7
- He dead… again.
- Who is Amy?
- The TARDIS called her the Orangey one
- Who is The Doctor?
- Come here you scrumptious little beauty
- He was in a bind, a bit of a pickle, sort of distressed. Aw, you can’t just SAY you don’t know.
- Imagine a soap bubble with a little bubble on the edge of it. But it’s nothing like that.
- Eleven keeps doing this.
- You wanna be forgiven. Don’t we all?
- He’ll be fine, he’s a timelord. It’s just what they’re called. Doesn’t mean he knows what he’s doing.
- I genuinely don’t know what to do. Oh, that’s a new feeling.
- Fear me, I’ve killed hundreds of timelords. Fear ME, I killed all of them.
- Being alive, best thing there is! Being alive right now, that’s all that matters.
- Who is the TARDIS?
- You stole me, WILL steal me, ARE stealing me. Tenses ARE hard!
- I like biting, it’s like kissing but there’s a winner!
- The scene in the cage when she’s saying random stuff and then asking herself why
- The first line was a line backwards
- The other two were lines that are spoken later in the episode.
- You’re a bitey mad lady. The TARDIS is uppy-downy stuff in a big blue box.
- Are all people like this? So much bigger on the inside?
- Apparently they’ve been together 700 years
- You didn’t always take me where I wanted to go. No, but I always took you where you NEEDED to go!
- You run around and talk and bring home strays
- She wanted to see the universe, so she stole a Timelord and ran away.
- Oh my beautiful idiot, you have what you’ve always had
- Who is the little girl?
Classic Who Connection
- When the Third Doctor was exiled to Earth, he was constantly experimenting with his TARDIS to try to get it to work again without the help of the Time Lords. At one point he removed the console unit from the outer shell and proved that it could travel through time-space but it needs external power to be able to move.
- The Doctor has jettisoned rooms from the TARDIS in the past in order to move faster. The Fourth and Fifth Doctors did this. Presumably, the TARDIS can regrow rooms as needed?
- The hypercube was a normal way for Time Lords to send messages to each other and goes all the way back to the Second Doctor in the serial The War Games.
- The telepathic circuits of the TARDIS were also used to mess with the minds of Ian, Barbara and Susan in the First Doctor serial The Edge of Destruction but that was actually the TARDIS itself trying to warn them of a faulty system in the TARDIS that was sending them to their death.
- We have a new or fuller explanation of why the TARDIS doesn’t always go where they intend for it to go. Until now it was just a faulty directional circuit, but no Idris (or the TARDIS) explains that it doesn’t always take them where they want to go but it does take them to where they need to go.
Overall impressions
- Overall rating out of 10 –
- Jared – 9.5 TARDIS souls
- Austin – 10 Ood danglies
- Corbin – 9 Colored Ood eyes
- Tripp – 10 desiccated Rories
- Creep Level – out of 500
- Jared – 250
- Austin – 300
- Corbin – 315
- Tripp – 350
Theories
- What will happen with Eleven dying?
- Corbin thinks this will be the end of series 6 and they will avert Eleven’s death.
- Tripp thinks that this is the way Eleven actually dies at the end of series 7.
- Who is the impossible astronaut?
- Corbin thinks it’s the little girl.
- Tripp thinks it’s a past version of Eleven.
- Who is the little girl?
- She’s a timelord
- Corbin thinks she’s Amy’s daughter. Her regeneration and strength are a result of the Schroedinger’s baby thing, whatever that is.
- Tripp
- Who is River?
- Corbin thinks she’s married to the Doctor. She’s in Stormcage for killing someone, even though not the Doctor.
- Tripp thinks it’s obvious that she’s married to the Doctor, and she’s in Stormcage because she killed the Doctor.
The Game Plan
- Next week we’ll be doing our Timey Wimey on A Christmas Carol.
- Remember we’re watching the 1999 live-action version starring Sir Patrick flippin Stewart!
- Find A Christmas Carol on Amazon with our affiliate link.
Closing
Noobs and the Whovian is a production of Master Closet Studios, where it’s always smaller on the inside. Your Senior Producer is Austin Reason. Our Audio Engineer is Tripp Reason. Corbin Reason is our Production Editor. Special thanks to tardis.wikia.com for the trivia, Jared for the Classic Who Connection. Shout outs to Victor and Jared for their Patreon support.
You can find us at facebook.com/noobsandthewhovian and email us at [email protected]. Consider supporting us at https://www.patreon.com/noobsandthewhovian. Please subscribe and leave a rating wherever you found us, and share us with a friend not because we’re a great show but because we watch one.
