Doctor Who (2005) 6-04: The Doctor's Wife

Episode:

774

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Serial:

216

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Writer:

Neil Gaiman

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Director:

Richard Clark

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Air Date:

14-May-2011

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's the second part of a surprise Neil Gaiman double bill! The surprise is that it got interrupted halfway through by a different episode of Doctor Who. Anyway, I already wrote about his episode of Babylon 5 last time and now I'm writing about the first of his two Doctor Who stories: The Doctor's Wife.

I'm a little early posting this one, as it originally aired on 14th May 2011. If I'd just waited a bit I could've put it up on its eleventh anniversary, which would've been kind of fitting for an Eleventh Doctor episode. I've already covered one Eleventh Doctor story, series 5's The Eleventh Hour, but that was a few years ago now and I'm jumping quite a bit ahead to series 6, episode 4. Fortunately I think I can remember most of what happened in between. Well, some of it.

This episode aired almost exactly three years after series 4, episode 6, The Doctor's Daughter, so the series didn't wait long before once again tormenting fans with the hope that they might finally get to meet some of the Doctor's family. The title 'The Doctor's Wife' is much much older than that though, as it was originally attached to the Fifth Doctor serial The Caves of Androzani back in 1984. It was never going to be used, they were just trying to pin down who was possibly leaking information.

Okay I'll be writing text under screencaps of the entire episode so there will be SPOILERS here. In fact I may spoil elements of earlier stories as well, though I won't talk about anything that comes afterwards. Well okay I will, but only very vaguely. For the most part I'm treating this like it's the 14th May 2011 and I haven't even seen the NEXT TIME trailer. I'm sure it looks exciting though.

Doctor Who (2005) - Easter 2022: Legend of the Sea Devils

Episode:

870

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Writer:

Ella Road and Chris Chibnall

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Director:

Haolu Wang

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Air Date:

17-Apr-2022

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching a Doctor Who episode... though maybe not the one you're expecting. I know I said that I'd be writing about the episode The Doctor's Wife from the Eleventh Doctor era, but that's because I forgot that Legend of the Sea Devils starring the Thirteenth Doctor was going to be on TV. Don't worry, you'll still be getting that other episode soon, you're just getting a bonus episode first.

Also I usually give my reviews a proper second draft to fix all the inaccuracies, rephrase sentences that make no sense, and catch at least half the typos, but this time I'm in too much of a rush. I want to get this published as soon as possible, so I'm mostly giving you my first thoughts, right off the top of my head.

Here's my first first thought: wow, it's weird seeing these opening titles for the second to last time. Presumably. It really doesn't feel like we've had them long, at least not to me. Legend of the Sea Devils is the second of the three specials we're getting this year in place of a full season, and it's the penultimate episode of the Chris Chibnall-era. Only one more story to go after this, and that's it for Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker.

The episode was also written by Ella Road and it was directed by Haolu Wang, who are both new to Doctor Who. In fact they're both pretty new in general, as this is the first script Road has gotten on TV and up to this point Wang had only ever directed shorts. You've got to start somewhere I guess!

Alright I'm going to go through the episode basically scene by scene and try to write something halfway interesting underneath each screencap as I recap the story and share my thoughts. There will be SPOILERS, though I won't give away anything from the 'next time' trailer at the end, even though I accidentally watched it.

Babylon 5 5-08: Day of the Dead

Episode:

96

|

Writer:

Neil Gaiman

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Director:

Doug Lefler

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Air Date:

11-Mar-1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching the 57th episode of Babylon 5 in a row to be scripted by creator J. Michael Straczynski, whose tyranny over the series was absolute. No, hang on, this is actually a Neil Gaiman episode?

Gaiman had never written for Babylon 5 before, as he was busy writing Neverwhere and Sandman and stuff, but he did actually have a connection to the series as he has an alien race named after him (the Gaim). This was director Doug Lefler's only Babylon 5 episode as well. The guy had directed a few other episodes of other shows but these days he's mostly a storyboard artist, working on movies like Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Godzilla vs. Kong and Deadpool 2.

Day of the Dead was filmed between episodes 10 and 11, but the plan was to air it a couple of episodes later (after The Ragged Edge). Then the episodes got reordered in order to have a build-up of dramatic stories leading up to a break, so it was actually aired a couple of episodes earlier. The Lurker's Guide Master List I'm following places it back in its intended position and the list's been working out for me so far, so I'm going along with it.

That means to me this run of episodes looks like this:

11 - Phoenix Rising
12 - The Ragged Edge
08 - Day of the Dead
13 - The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father
14 - Meditations on the Abyss

I think this is actually the last time that episodes are going to get shuffled around like this. From now on I can just watch them in the order they aired in.

Alright, I'm going to jump right into giving you my recap commentary, going through the episode scene by scene and writing words underneath screencaps. These words may contain huge SPOILERS for earlier episodes as well, but this review is first time viewer friendly so I won't spoil anything that comes after. Except I'm watching this after episodes 9, 10, 11, and 12 so I guess they'll be getting a little bit spoiled.

Babylon 5 5-12: The Ragged Edge

Episode:

100

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

John Copeland

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Air Date:

08-Apr-1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the 100th episode of Babylon 5! It wasn't the 100th episode to be filmed though, that was Phoenix Rising. It wasn't originally supposed to be the 100th to air either, but Day of the Dead got pulled forward and aired first. Which is a shame really, as if this had aired a week earlier like it was meant to, it would've been its 24th anniversary today.

I'm following the Lurker's Guide Master List which skips Day of the Dead until it's chronologically appropriate, so The Ragged Edge is the 11th episode I'm writing about this season. That means I've finally reached the halfway point of season five! I'm 90% through the entire series now, or at least I will be once I've gotten this episode out of the way.

It was directed by producer John Copeland and there aren't many episodes I can say that about. He did the fantastic Endgame from season 4, he did the last ever B5 episode filmed (Objects at Rest), he did this, and that's it. I don't want to get my hopes up too much but it seems like the guy only directed when he felt that he had a reason to so maybe I should be at least a little bit hyped.

Alright I'll be screencapping and recapping the whole episode for the purposes of writing my reactions, observations, opinions... basically I'm going to be overthinking everything. There will be SPOILERS, but this will be first time viewer friendly so as long as you've watched this far you'll be fine.