The Doctor's Wife

216 – "The Doctor's Wife"

Doctor Who episode

The Doctor (Matt Smith) and Idris (Suranne Jones, left) pilot the makeshift TARDIS. This set was based on a Blue Peter contest-winning design produced by Susannah Leah, a 12-year-old viewer.

Cast

Doctor

Matt Smith (Eleventh Doctor)

Companions

Others

Suranne Jones – Idris/The Tardis
Michael Sheen – Voice of House
Paul Kasey – Nephew
Adrian Schiller – Uncle
Elizabeth Berrington – Auntie

Production

Directed by

Richard Clark

Written by

Neil Gaiman

Produced by

Sanne Wohlenberg

Executive producer(s)

Incidental music composer

Murray Gold

Production code

2.3

Series

Series 6

Length

45 minutes

Originally broadcast

14 May 2011

Chronology

← Preceded by	Followed by →
"The Curse of the Black Spot"	"The Rebel Flesh"

"The Doctor's Wife" is the fourth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was broadcast on 14 May 2011 in the United Kingdom, and later the same day in the United States. It was written by Neil Gaiman and directed by Richard Clark.

In the episode, alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) and his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) receive a distress call from a living Time Lord, though all other members of the Doctor's race were thought to be extinct. However, they discover that the call was bait to lure the Doctor to an asteroid outside the universe, where previously the energy of Time Lords' TARDISes has been consumed by an entity called the House (voiced by Michael Sheen). The matrix of the Doctor's TARDIS is removed and placed in the body of a woman named Idris (Suranne Jones), who proceeds to help them escape.

"The Doctor's Wife" was originally intended to be produced as part of the previous series, but was pushed back due to budget constraints. Gaiman revised the script many times, having to add and remove characters and events as production saw fit. The episode was filmed in the autumn of 2010 and featured a makeshift TARDIS control room which was the design from a winner of a contest on the children's programme Blue Peter. The episode was seen by 7.97 million viewers in the UK and was met with positive reviews from critics. The episode won the 2011 Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation and the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.

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