Having had that little grumble, I must admit that, although the attachment of Gaiman's name to this episode did raise expectations very high indeed, and there isn't anyway in which it could be said that The Doctor's Wife disappoints. The arrival of a Time Lord thought cube - last seen in 1969's The War Games - wins the hearts of die-hard fan very early on in any case but throughout the episode we have a series of nostalgia-inducing moments for fans old and new alike: other Time Lords, the TARDIS corridors, the old console room, an Ood, and an elephants' graveyard of roundels and time rotors.
But the cosiness of this is tempered by grimy and sinister elements. Uncle and Aunty are wonderful creations, dishevelled and run down, but carrying on because there's nothing else to do. I love their cobbled-together bodies and costumes, their shiftiness, their dishonest hospitality. It's a shame when they shuffle off, even if it does provide a great joke. Then there's the nasty games House plays with Amy and Rory. House is a great villain, a powerful disembodied voice that consumes the powerful but normally voiceless TARDISes, and the tricks he plays on Amy in particular demonstrate a real gift for malevolence.
It's worth spending a moment considering what's really happening here because there's an obvious (but I don't think unintended) link to future episodes, especially The Girl Who Waited. Rory's reaction to being abandoned by Amy is so ugly, so vitriolic, that it must be impossible that it is really him, or that this is actually how he would behave. After all, he's done his fair share of waiting for Amy without any bitterness, not just while she was inside the Pandorica, but seemingly his entire life. It's Amy, the little girl left behind by the Doctor, who has the issues with abandonment - most recently in Day of the Moon where she admonishes the unseen Rory for not coming to rescue her, and very clearly demonstrated by the contents of her nightmare room in The God Complex. She imagines Rory's worst possible reaction (or maybe House cleverly suggests it to her), because this is how she fears she would react herself. We'll see later that this isn't quite true (she's a better person than she thinks she is), but it still offers a very telling insight.
The core of this episode is though the conversation between the Doctor and the TARDIS. It's beautifully observed and deliciously realised. Smith is extraordinary (as always), Jones is very good indeed as the Type 40 incarnate, and their chat is full of delightful and illuminating insights, not the least of which is the TARDIS's discovery that humans are "bigger on the inside." In some ways she's a mirror for the Doctor - another posho who ran away on a jaunt - but the real relationship is the partnership suggested by the episode's title. The wonderful bickering aside ("Pull to Open!"), I worry that this is too one-sided to make a successful or healthy marriage: this is, remember, the first time she has got a word in edgeways in nine-hundred years. But maybe she doesn't mind, maybe she is completely happy to be the silent conveyance? If, like him, all she wanted to do was explore the Universe, maybe the life she has is more than enough - she's the one that decides where they go next after all. More than anything, the idea that they have stolen each other is truly beautiful one, and during this fiftieth anniversary year it is well worth remembering that the TARDIS has been the only constant thing in the Doctor's live for as long as we have shared his adventures.
AMY: Look at you pair. It's always you and her, isn't it, long after the rest of us have gone. A boy and his box, off to see the universe.
THE DOCTOR: Well, you say that as if it's a bad thing. But honestly, it's the best thing there is.
NEXT TIME...
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