What we learned from The Doctor's Wife (spoilers)

[23skidoo]

I'll let the reviews (and the debates) rage on in the main thread. But in the meantime, regardless whether you loved the episode or didn't, the fact remains the Doctor's Wife got a LOT of business accomplished and established many things. I don't think I caught every one - a sign of a good episode as I'm gonna have to watch it again!

Anyway, here are the salient facts I picked up. Obviously spoilers below - if you didn't see the warning in the thread title!

1. The main one of course is explicit confirmation of something first hinted at back in 1964's The Edge of Destruction (aka Inside the Spaceship) - that the TARDIS is not only alive but sentient.
2. And she's female.
2a. And it's implied TARDISes in general are female.
3. And she allowed the Doctor to steal her way back when because she had the same wanderlust the Doctor did.
3a. Was the TARDIS "in love" with the Doctor? Maybe. Certainly if she wasn't at the start, she was at the end. But it's left open enough for debate. And as for the Doctor, yeah he's gone. Ten had Madame de Pompadour, Eleven had his blue box!
4. This is one bit I need to watch again, but it sounds like Idris says the Doctor "stole" her 700 years ago. So that means he was in his 200s if the 907 or so age is the correct one.
5. Time Lords can change sexes. I'm sure a few people punched the air when we heard that one. I still don't want the Doctor to turn female, though I'll be honest Suranne Jones is now my choice if they ever do. And if he regenerates in the TARDIS again, that's actually feasible.
6. That the "unreliability" of the TARDIS is hogwash. That means the whole "6 pilots" thing was a misconception by the Doctor. It also means she doesn't actually need him.
7. We get to see the hallways of the TARDIS for the first time since I think the McCoy era (the movie showed a couple rooms but not the corridors between them). And we learn the 2005-2010 console room was actually kept, like the auxiliary control room we saw in the 70s. Maybe all the old console rooms are still in there.
8. It's implied that the TARDIS doesn't tend to pay too close attention to the companions, not even to know them by name, though she apparently thinks Rory is pretty.
9. The question as to whether the TARDIS's name is now officially "Sexy" is something I'll let higher intellects debate!
10. And a new era of fanfic is born as we learn of the sex-changing Time Lord The Corsair, who was a "naughty girl".
11. Not really something learned per se, but I think the resolution will satisfy both those who don't want to see another Rose-Doctor ship anytime soon, and those who want romance to remain a part of the show. I just hope (at the risk of inserting a tiny bit of review) that future writers don't forget what happened in this story - maybe a little less whacking with the mallet, for example.

Quite a lot of stuff crammed into 45 minutes. What have I missed?

(PS. There's been some unpleasantness in the review thread between people who loved the episode and people who didn't. Please save that discussion for there or PMs. Thanks!)

Alex

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Some of these aren't exactly new, Alex. They've been established in the comics and novels.

2 and 2a were established in Lawrence Miles' work, first in Alien Bodies, and then "Toy Story."

3. Again, Miles. Lolita, the Master's TARDIS, is still appalled that the Doctor's TARDIS chose the Doctor all those years ago.

7. Tony Lee and Al Davison's "Tessaract" (IDW's Doctor Who #7-8) finding the Davison console room.

8. Again, see Lawrence Miles' "Toy Story" for the TARDIS' perspective on the companions.

Not to take anything away from Gaiman, but he really just played with ideas that have long been batted around and used by others.

 

[David cgc]

6. That the "unreliability" of the TARDIS is hogwash. That means the whole "6 pilots" thing was a misconception by the Doctor. It also means she doesn't actually need him.

"Misconception" is an awfully strong term. Sure, Sexy can run herself, but by personality or by design, she doesn't (remember, she needed to steal the Doctor to run away as much as he needed to steal her). It's possible that, with six pilots, a TARDIS doesn't have nearly as much say in what she does (I'm reminded of the first episode of Battlestar Galactica that showed the Basestar Hybrids. When the crew tried to abandon another ship, the Hybrid just started screaming in protest, but one of the Cylons remarked that "She doesn't get a vote," and jumped the ship anyway. Six pilots means the TARDIS always goes where the Time Lord crew wants it too (never mind the other possibilities. A dedicated science or scanning analyst, for instance. Sexy is normally somewhat limited in her ability to communicate fine details).

Maybe all the old console rooms are still in there.

Sexy said she'd saved or made backups of all the console rooms when the Doctor thought he deleted or rebuilt them, totaling about thirty. The Doctor said he'd only gone through about a dozen, but she wasn't limited to only archiving things that had already happened.

 

[Sci]

1. The main one of course is explicit confirmation of something first hinted at back in 1964's The Edge of Destruction (aka Inside the Spaceship) - that the TARDIS is not only alive but sentient.

Most probably. Though I did find myself toying with the idea that the TARDIS is normally not sentient but gained sentience upon being placed in a humanoid brain.

2. And she's female.
2a. And it's implied TARDISes in general are female.

Or, rather, that the TARDIS chose to use a female gender role and its related pronouns as it was in a female body.

3a. Was the TARDIS "in love" with the Doctor? Maybe. Certainly if she wasn't at the start, she was at the end. But it's left open enough for debate. And as for the Doctor, yeah he's gone. Ten had Madame de Pompadour, Eleven had his blue box!

Well, yes and no. The sense I got was that their relationship changed upon her being placed in a female humanoid (or Timelordoid) body. Romantic feelings maybe couldn't exist between a TARDIS and a Time Lord, but could between a Time Lord and a TARDIS in a humanoid body. It could certainly have developed into romantic love very quickly, and I think it's safe to say both were mourning that lost opportunity when the TARDIS had to go back into, er, the TARDIS. But I'm not sure that it's fair to say they're "in love" per se, either. Feelings are complicated.

4. This is one bit I need to watch again, but it sounds like Idris says the Doctor "stole" her 700 years ago. So that means he was in his 200s if the 907 or so age is the correct one.

I habitually disregard any piece of information about chronologies that exceed a few hundred years. There are too many contradictory figures thrown out there. Besides, how could either one possibly know how long it's been in relative terms?

6. That the "unreliability" of the TARDIS is hogwash. That means the whole "6 pilots" thing was a misconception by the Doctor. It also means she doesn't actually need him.

Well, yes and no. The TARDIS obviously experiences things very, very differently than we linear beings do. It's entirely possible that it makes mistakes and goofs and misinterprets inputs just like the Doctor always assumed it did, in addition to deliberately disregarding some instructions. And I think the TARDIS probably can't always over-ride pilot commands -- otherwise I doubt it would have allowed the Master to hijack itself in "Utopia."

Maybe all the old console rooms are still in there.

That was explicitly established.

8. It's implied that the TARDIS doesn't tend to pay too close attention to the companions, not even to know them by name, though she apparently thinks Rory is pretty.

I don't think it's a matter of not paying attention to them. The TARDIS had a very difficult time learning how to translate its thoughts into words; it just doesn't think in linguistic or verbal terms. Not knowing which name goes to which companion doesn't mean it's paying no attention. It wasn't even sure of its own name at first!

9. The question as to whether the TARDIS's name is now officially "Sexy" is something I'll let higher intellects debate!

10. And a new era of fanfic is born as we learn of the sex-changing Time Lord The Corsair, who was a "naughty girl".

 

[starsuperion]

I wasn"t punching the air over the whole male time lord becomes female thing.. in fact I was disappointed..and that goes to the corsair as well..

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Not to take anything away from Gaiman, but he really just played with ideas that have long been batted around and used by others.

These ideas were not new, but they had never been used in the actual show.

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

"Time, Love and Tardis" - a short story back in DWM issue 189, establishes that the Tardis is in love with the Doctor (and maybe vice versa) and probably predates everything else discussed here.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I wasn"t punching the air over the whole male time lord becomes female thing.. in fact I was disappointed..and that goes to the corsair as well..

During voluntary regeneration, Romana tried out several different forms back in Destiny of the Daleks IIRC, so I've always assumed that changing gender must also be possible.

 

[Rarewolf]

Speaking of Romana, its also now more possible she survived. The Doctor knows there aren't any Timelords in the Universe, but doesn't rule out the possiblity they could exist elsewhere. Maybe she went back to E-Space/

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Speaking of Romana, its also now more possible she survived. The Doctor knows there aren't any Timelords in the Universe, but doesn't rule out the possibility they could exist elsewhere. Maybe she went back to E-Space/

If one is slavish to on-screen "canon", she never left e-space.

I've never had the chance to read or listen to any expanded adventures, so to me, she's still there.

 

[zarkon]

If that cube voice really was mcgann, then the doctor appears to be missing memories from his eighth incarnation.

 

[Rarewolf]

If one is slavish to on-screen "canon", she never left e-space.

I've never had the chance to read or listen to any expanded adventures, so to me, she's still there.

Very true. I think in RTD's basic bible notes (printed in the first NS Annual) he considered her President at the time of the Time War, but End Of Time's events didn't address the issue.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Speaking of Romana, its also now more possible she survived. The Doctor knows there aren't any Timelords in the Universe, but doesn't rule out the possiblity they could exist elsewhere. Maybe she went back to E-Space/

I'm thinking if they want to bring her back, that would be logical.

I really hope they get Lalla Ward to reprise the role.

 

[AdmiralGarak]

10. And a new era of fanfic is born as we learn of the sex-changing Time Lord The Corsair, who was a "naughty girl".

I think we just found Captain Jack's dream date.

 

[starsuperion]

Okay so this about what we learned from the Doctor's wife..

The Tardis:

It appears to me that the main part of the Tardis is the Matrix, which is a living mind of the ship.. it also is comprised of the Artron energy which powers the ship as well, and thus has a direct connection to the engines..

now the 3rd doctor removed the console from the tardis interior and collapsed the dimension within..

My theory is that the remains of the ship still existed in it's own artificially generated dimension, just the interior of the shell no longer housed the gateway to that dimensional bubble..

when he then opened back up the dimension, it was then possible to reattach the console back to the regrown interior..

this according to the Tardis handbook.

Now, with that said, it appears that a Tardis console is in fact a sort of time-space warp engine on it's own, able to convert rift/artron energy into a power source and dematerialise, or traverse space time in a limited capacity..as evidenced from the Inferno episode and the pseudo Tardis constructed in the remnant of the House asteroid..

It also appears the make-shift machine is able to sustain a force field bubble and simultaneously using the bubble to force space-time around the ship to buckle and move through at a fast speed.

the Tardis interior and the mention of archiving rooms, and the nature of how the ship can change is actually on a scale, i was not considering..

the Tardis interior is mostly the engines, and the console is directly connected to the source, but what is the ship like inside? it is a bubble of space similar to that one of the House asteroid, only this separate dimension is contained within the shell of a Tardis box... the interior can change into just about anything because the laws of physics in this dimensional pocket are governed by the Tardis itself.. the massive eye of harmony is the key to generating the tremendous forces necessary to make the interior larger on the inside and thus we have the ship..it can adjust and change based on it's mathematical programming, and change the reality around it.

think of the episode of TNG where doctor Crusher gets caught in an experimental warp bubble and inside create an entire universe based on her mind alone.. however, being a human mind, and the warp bubble's stability issues, this separate dimension began to collapse.. suppose however, you could maintain that separate reality indefinitely and through a living mind, sustain it, as Omega sustained his entire universe and world on a scale much larger then the Tardis..

then consider that the laws of physics required to govern the Tardis is directly based on the computer-(must be a living mind) controlling the energy and gravity necessary to generate the ship's scale..

this solves the problem i have been searching for as to the nature of the Tardis itself..

a useful example is that imagine a pocket of space warped into it's own bubble until the only opening left was a tether to normal space.. once cut off like that from actual space, the interior of the bubble can house any manner of rooms, and machinery, all built within.by simply moving the outer tether about the ship, or outside in normal space you could then move..

Hawking describes that a wormhole would be unstable due to the feedback of space and energy into the openings of these wormholes, thus making them unusable for space-time travel..

However the time lords solved that by making their massive artificial wormhole span the entire universe calling it the Time Vortex, this wormhole is cutoff from all of space, thus the only way to enter is through teleportation..hence the dematerialisation necessity..since the wormhole spans the length of the universe, and maybe beyond, one can access space-time from any point..thus traversing the massive distance of space and time from anywhere to anywhere..

here is an excellent site that explains the pocket dimension theory in massive detail
http://www.orbitalvector.com/Megastructures/Pocket Universes/POCKET UNIVERSES.htm

one thing that struck me as a clincher was the site references the land of the lost, and how the crew took a telescope and looked outward and saw their own backs from far away.. this reminded me of how in the Tardis you could go to the very end of the ship and then end up back where you started..because the end of the ship is literally the end of the pocket dimension, but because it is folded back on itself, and self contained you remain in the limits of it's reality..

this is all rather technical and such, but for those interested, it is a revelation that has taken me years to arrive at..As for what the ship looks like if you were to move outside the bubble, I can not say.. more then likely a mass of rooms, and engines, and such..all mashed together in a spherical design, which makes sense considering how the ship looked burning up in the season 5 finale, the Big Bang..

One other thing of note is that I believe beneath the Tardis houses the massive engines, and in those engines is a path way, like a bright light of energy flowing through the engines, this pathway of energy and light is the Time Vortex, which is tethered to the engines, directives and artron power runs up and into the Tardis console, and the Matrix..and then back down forcing the engines to move the ship and it's dimension through space or time via that tether..because of this, the Tardis itself exists in all time and space simultaneously..


confused?? the tardis is like a hamster ball.. the interior is the pocket dimension.. the exterior is the blue box, the hamster ball then has a train track running through it so as the ball spins it rolls on the track (vortex).. as the ball stops, it then interfaces with real space (a door appears), and thus exists the hamster(travelers)... while still maintaining a connection to it's tracks beneath the ball..silly analogy, but it makes sense..

atleast that is what I gathered from the show..

Please though, take the time to read the article I have set a link to in this post, it will make more sense, and honestly, it has made me see the tardis in a different light now.. it is way more complex and more advanced science then my previous assertions were..

 

[JoeZhang]

TL: DR.


Anyway, we also learnt that the third Doctor's tat was something that other timelords have on their arm - maybe a symbol of their house or their name?

 

[starsuperion]

also consider that before the type 40 and the copy of the eye of harmony a tardis wasn't bigger on the inside..example is professor chronotis ship in shada and the makeshift tardis in the doctor's wife..with the eye copy a tardis could generate its own dimensional pocket thus allowing it greater engines, speed, and scale.

it could also change its interior through matter manipulation via its engines and energy based on it's mathematical and structural data..as long as that data was in the computer abd the math correct it can manipulate the dimension and create rooms or delete them. creating rooms would be like growing something from DNA only in the case of the tardis structures it is based on molecular atomic structure

 

[Candlelight]

12. We now know what (parts of) a Tardis looks like without a cameleon shield up.

 

[Gepard]

Or, rather, we know what parts of a TARDIS look like divorced from their dimensionally transcendent shell.

 

[ClayinCA]

"Time, Love and Tardis" - a short story back in DWM issue 189, establishes that the Tardis is in love with the Doctor (and maybe vice versa) and probably predates everything else discussed here.

Thank you!! I remembered that story and wanted my wife to read it, but couldn't remember for the life of me which issue it was in.