Posted in: TV | Tagged: bbc, bbc america, bleeding cool, cable, doctor who, michael sheen, neil gaiman, russell t davies, steven moffat, streaming, Suranne Jones, television, the doctor's wife, tv
Neil Gaiman and Michael Sheen Join Doctor Who Weekend Rewatch
And lo, we head into the weekend with another global fan rewatch of Doctor Who. This time it's "The Doctor's Wife", the episode where The Doctor (Matt Smith) meets the physical embodiment of his TARDIS, played by Suranne Jones. It's a love story. Between a Time Lord and his TARDIS. Once again, Doctor Who Magazine writer Emily Cook set up the event to take place on Saturday, April 11th at 8 p.m. U.K. time. That's 3 p.m. US East Coast Time. And this time she's recruited Neil Gaiman, who wrote the episode, actor Michael Sheen and episode director Richard Clark. Michael Sheen voiced the baddie in the episode. He also went on to play the angel Aziraphale in the TV adaptation of Gaiman and the late Terry Pratchett's Good Omens, and currently plays the serial killer dad who's not-Hannibal Lecter on FOX's hit show Prodigal Son. You can start watching the episode via a streaming service or your DVD or Blu-Ray and follow the live-tweets here.
The Doctor's Wife Was The Story Fans Had Been Waiting For
For decades, longtime fans have felt the real love story of Doctor Who has been between the Doctor and his TARDIS. "The Doctor's Wife" finally brought that story to life, and Gaiman was the one who wrote it. The story represents in many ways the peak of then-showrunner Steven Moffat's era. His run was the most fan-servicey and meta in the show's history. All the best love stories are sad, and nobody understands this better than Gaiman. Just look through the love stories in his entire career.
Of course, he shares that theme with Moffat and Russell T. Davies. They all know the best love stories do not end with happily ever after but the lovers have to be driven apart and left in yearning. "The Doctor's Wife" is both very Doctor Who and very Gaiman, which hits all the right buttons for fans of both. Actually, that was redundant. Fans of Doctor Who are often fans of Gaiman as well. This episode is pretty much fan service overload. The livetweets should be interesting, with Gaiman in isolation in New Zealand, probably the safest country on Earth to sit out the pandemic.