Fun and Gaiman

The Doctor's Wife was probably the most hotly anticipated story of the series so far thanks to the teaser of a title and the fact it was penned by big name writer Neil Gaiman.

I have to say that, not being a big sci-fi and fantasy fan outside of Doctor Who he was not someone who I'd heard of, but Neil's episode delivered a thrilling 45 minutes that was the highlight of the series so far.

The wonderfully voiced House, fantastically imagined Tardis junkyard, spooky Tardis corridor scenes and excellent star turn from Suranne Jones (I feared she could only do 'gobby northerner' but I was wrong) added some highly memorable moments to a vivid and fun script from the guest writer.

This story could well have been just a little too ridiculous for its own good, coming from the bizarre premise that the Tardis matrix gets downloaded into a human, who then teams up with the Doctor. Daft as that turned out to be, the episode stayed just the right side of farcical for this reviewer to stick with it.

I worried too that this may stray a little too far down the sci-fi route for the more casual viewer but post-05 Who has proved that it can dabble in the realms of soap opera, action adventure, murder mystery and emotional drama while still keeping its own identity - a variety that is part of the charm of the programme.

I have to say that after a whirlwind 45-minute first watch it took me a second look to definitely decide where i sat on the above two points and realise just how much i'd enjoyed it.

The other thing that the second viewing proved was just how good Matt Smith's performance was as the Doctor. Check out his awkward posture as he realises his fellow travellers have just seen him cry at the demise of Idris for an example of a performance that had real depth and quality. The 'this new lad is no David Tennant' naysayers are, for me, off the mark.

Essentially the tale played on how he loves his Tardis like it's his other half - like a stereotypical bloke and his beloved motor. In that sense this was Top Gear, but actually good. The lines about the Tardis actually stealing the Doctor were a neat little twist that made Smith and Jones' two-handers fun to watch.

I'm still a little disappointed that, of the archived control rooms we couldn't be transported back into the Pertwee era (a sad fanboy pipedream that wouldn't have worked, I know), however I'm sure the sight of the Tennant/Eccleston Tardis ended months of way-off-the-mark internet speculation after it was briefly glimpsed in the series trailer.

Provided you could get past the silliness/sci-fi concept this was thoroughly good fun in a series that is so far getting steadily better as it goes along. What we need now is a thrilling two-parter.....over to you Matthew Graham.

8.5/10