DOCTOR WHO: "The only water in the forest..."

6.05 "The Doctor's Wife"

* I'm several episodes behind in my series 6 DOCTOR watching, so if you're up-to-date, this'll be old news. Thanks to the DVR, it's still new to me! Please don't spoil anything in any comments/replies. =)

If you haven't seen this episode stop reading now. I just need to get some remarks Out of me about it and they're gonna be spoilery.

I LOVE this episode. Neil Gaiman does WEIRD SCIENCE with DOCTOR WHO!

"Did you wish REALLY hard?" =)

But it's Neil Gaiman, so of course it's really a whole lot more. It's so very Gaiman. Getting the TARDIS's perspective on their wacky misadventures is such sweet happy candy, so matter-of-fact. Yes, it's all very fanboy fantasy-tastic, but it's not just, like, HEAVY METAL, it's HEAVY METAL with heart, and soul, even.

A very Gaiman WHO. However, I'm guessing that there were two story elements that he was required to incorporate, to contribute to the ongoing arc of the season: The title, and Idris/TARDIS's last words. These are probably Captain Obvious to a lot of fans, but like I said, I've just gotta get this Out.

The title: "The Doctor's Wife." If you've only ever seen this episode of DW, you'd have been led to believe that it's a fanciful description of the TARDIS herself, and a good description of their longtime relationship and especially their shorttime relating. However, if you've been paying attention for the past few seasons, you know the title refers to someone specific, right? No one else but River Song.

TARDIS's final words: "The only water in the forest is the river." Might not be the exact words but that's the how I recall it. These words don't seem to connect to anything else in this episode, but of course, the TARDIS being the TARDIS, they may refer to a scenario yet to arise (or one in the past). Gaiman did a fine and fun job of educating viewers within this story on the TARDIS's wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey capabilities, some of them apparently unknown to the good Doctor himself (archiving things that haven't been built yet =). And, if you've been paying attention, you know that "the forest" is what the library planet was called, the planet that the Doctor helped evacuate before leaving it to the Vashta Nerada. Also, the planet that is home to the computer that hosts the virtual world into which the Doctor downloaded River Song's fading consciousness. Also also, a planet that this Doctor, Amy, and Rory have never visited. Anyone else foresee a return to the Library?

"The only water in the forest is the river."

But y'know, this all seems a bit too easy from a fanboy's point of view, donchathink? I'm really hoping that there's a twist or a trap at the end of this.

Oh, something I really appreciated being brought up in this episode again: Rory's subjective age. Hasn't he lived longer than the Doctor now? He apparently somehow compartmentalizes that time in his mind, but how did he spend it all? If we set some facial recognition software loose on a historical archive and fed it Rory's appearance, would he show up in the background (or center) of m/any major historical events? Would he be around to help/have helped the Doctor in other eras on Earth? Maybe his memory is compartmentalized by design, and with help from a previous/future encounter with a/the Doctor, eh?

A human (when/how did he return to fully human from living plastic Roman?) who's lived a couple of millennia is gonna have learned a few things and developed some skills, no?

Perhaps I just have to advance to the next episode on the DVR to find the answer.

Keep on keepin on~