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| The junkyard at the end of the universe. |
1 episode. Approx. 46 minutes. Written by: Neil Gaiman. Directed by: Richard Clark. Produced by: Sanne Wohlenberg.
THE PLOT
A Time Lord distress call leads the Doctor into a "bubble universe," where he hopes to find survivors of the Time War. "You want to be forgiven," Amy observes. "Don't we all?" he replies. But instead of Time Lords, he discovers a junkyard of disconnected odds and ends from different times and places, all on a sentient asteroid known as "House" (Michael Sheen). House has four inhabitants: The friendly yet bizarre Auntie and Uncle (Elizabeth Berrington and Adrian Schiller; Nephew (Paul Kasey), who is a voiceless Ood; and the mad and potentially violent Idris (Suranne Jones).
The Doctor explores with House's blessing, sending Amy and Rory back to the TARDIS to keep them out of his way. He follows Time Lord voices to a door, on the other side of which he finds... more distress boxes, created by Time Lords lured to this universe by House. The asteroid feeds on TARDIS energy, which it is able to do only by transplanting the sentient soul of the TARDIS into a human body. The Doctor's TARDIS is now Idris - and House now inhabits the physical TARDIS, hunting the Doctor's companions for sport.
The Doctor must team up with his newly-human time machine to save his friends, his time ship, and possibly the universe itself. And he has a deadline of only 18 minutes to do it!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: I think this is the most nakedly emotional episode Matt Smith's Doctor has had. At the prospect of reuniting with some fellow renegade Time Lords, his hopes are raised high - leading to despair when House's true agenda is revealed. That is followed by pure joy, when he realizes that Idris is actually the consciousness of his TARDIS inside a human body... followed again by grief when the human Idris dies, cutting him off from this rich dialogue with his sentient vessel. Smith doesn't quite capture the Doctor's anger when he realizes he's been duped. With that one exception, however, he manages the many emotional shifts demanded by the script. More impressively, he does this without sacrificing the Doctor's essential nature as an alien. A superb performance, from an actor who has already climbed very near the top of my "favorite Doctors" list.
Amy: Recognizes the Doctor's fallibility. Not in a harsh or critical way, but with genuine concern. She knows the Doctor, and knows that he's getting too emotionally invested in his hopes of finding other Time Lords. We also see another side to her observational skills: an ability to visualize concepts in order to unlock the door to the old TARDIS console room. Rory might lose some of his jealousy if he could see that for "delight" she pictures her wedding day.
Rory: If Amy is the more observant of the two, then Rory is the more pragmatic. When House demands to know why it shouldn't just kill them and have done with it, Rory realizes almost instantly what the entity needs: amusement. He uses that need to keep himself and Amy alive, albeit running in fear, giving the Doctor a chance to save them. Rory's 2,000 year wait for Amy is also touched on, with the aged Rory created by House showing a homicidal bitterness when he is separated from Amy for that length of time again.
THOUGHTS
"Are all people like this? ...So much bigger on the inside!"
Neil Gaiman is one of the most successful voices in modern fantasy literature. From his classic (and I feel fully justfied in using that word) Sandman graphic novels to such imaginative works as Neverwhere, American Gods, and The Graveyard Book, Gaiman has proved himself a master at melding the surreal with the mundane, the fantastical with the ordinary.
Of course, Gaiman can have his off days, and his screen work has been significantly less consistent than his literary work. But his mad, eccentric voice comes through with wonderful clarity in his foray into the universe of Doctor Who. With brilliantly visual direction by Richard Clark and an all-around excellent production, this emerges as the best Who story thus far in Series Six - possibly the best so far of the entire Steven Moffat era!
The production design is stunning. I love the "junkyard at the end of the universe," as Rory describes it. It's like watching the characters wander around the inside of a Salvador Dali painting. Bits of odd junk are all over the place. Amy looks inside a washer standing in the middle of nowhere. There's a lamp, odds and ends, and the wreckage of a giant spaceship in the background. The corridors look like they're made out of bits that don't quite fit together. Just about every shot gives you something interesting to look at.
But here I am describing the backdrop. As visually arresting as all of this is, the real triumph is in the script and the acting. The regulars are at their very best here, and guest star Suranne Jones matches their level as she embodies the TARDIS. Her early "madness" can be explained as the TARDIS adjusting to linear perceptions when it's used to existing in all of Time and Space. She marvels at sensations: kissing, biting, touching, seeing (her laughter at the Doctor's chin). All of this is new to her, and all of it is overwhelming. As she adjusts, she calms and is able to act as a partner to the Doctor. And we get wonderful nuggets, particularly this explanation of why the TARDIS so often goes off course:
"You didn't always take me where I wanted to go."
"No, but I took you where you needed to go!"
Simple, but perfect. The Doctor's many random adventures, particularly in the early years when he couldn't control the machine at all? They weren't random at all. The ship found trouble spots in Time and Space. With both ship and Doctor thirsting for exploration and adventure, they went to the places where they were most needed. Outside of maybe a small handful of stories in the entire series, it's a tidy explanation - and one that takes up all of about five seconds' screen time.
A near perfectly-judged episode. It's idiosyncratic, but not so much as to distance viewers from enjoying it. It's unique, but it absolutely feels like Doctor Who at every turn. It's character-centric, but not at the expense of being a fast-paced and atmospheric adventure story. I said of The Curse of the Black Spot that it was not a story I would likely ever re-watch. In contrast, this is a story that I will revisit often.
Rating: 10/10.
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Greetings! I come to you from THE FUTURE! (2015, and no, we don't have hoverboards yet.) I just had to tell you my review of your review is 10/10! I especially like the paragraph after, "No, but I took you where you *needed* to go." Well done! Also, bet ALL YOUR MONEY that the New England Patriots will win Superbowl xlix!
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