She Knows Who She Married

I have to admit that I didn't really gel with the Peter Capaldi's 12th Doctor after he was introduced on Doctor WhoThe longest running sci-fi franchise (at least in terms of sheer seasons), Doctor Who has seen cancelations, relaunches, and reboots, but the core of the series remains the same: a madman in a box traveling through time and space.. There was something off about him, a different energy that didn't strike my fancy. He was too grumpy, too reserved, too far removed from the manic energy of Eccelston's 9th, Tennant's 10th, and Smith's 11th Doctors. Plus, of the new Doctors in the run, Smith was my favorite and he was absolutely a tough act to follow. If I'm being fair, any actor would have had an upward climb ahead of them following Smith, but Capaldi was absolutely saddled with a Doctor who was purposefully different from what came before.

The bounds of the story dictated that on his new set of regenerations (as given to him by the Time Lords in "The Time of the Doctor"), Capaldi's Doctor went back to the start of the whole growth process, becoming "Old Man Doctor" a la William Hartnell's original incarnation. That's fine in theory, a nice back to basics approach, except the rest of the show retained its New Who manic energy and Capaldi stood out like a sore thumb. However, after watching the Series 10 holiday special, "The Husbands of River Song", I have to wonder if part of the problem was simply that Capaldi was paired with the wrong companion.

When Smith left the series, taking his incarnation with him, his companion, Jenna Coleman's Clara Oswald, stuck around. In theory this could have been done so that the new Doctor felt grounded with an anchor to the past. Certainly companions have stuck around when the Doctor regenerates, so that's not exactly a big deal, but Clara felt... tied to Smith somehow. In part she always felt like a purposeful replacement for Amy Pond, who had left the TARDIS half way into the Smith's last series. It almost felt like the creators had a whole set of ideas for Amy episodes and when they couldn't get actress Karen Gillan back they simply rewrote them for Clara. Fair or not, that was the vibe I always go for Clara. She was the filler companion without her own vibe. So when she came along for the 12th Doctor's run, it felt... off. The whole time.

However, there was another companion that could come along, from time to time, who had her own vibe independent of any one, specific Doctor: Alex Kingston's River Song. The time traveling daughter of Amy Pond, River was introduced all the way back in the 10th Doctor's episode, "Silence in the Library", even before Amy came onto the show. She had a long history, but more importantly she was a colorful character that could carry her own adventures. Without Clara, and with Capaldi's 12th Doctor in need of someone to adventure with, River fit the bill... and her story is, without a doubt, one of my favorites of the whole series.

The setup is simple: the Doctor (Capaldi) shows up on a planet and immediately has his Christmas plans (curmudgeonly as they may be) interrupted by a courier, Nardole (Matt Lucas), who asks if he's the surgeon. "I'm the Doctor," Twelve replies and Nardole immediately whisks him away to see "a patient". The patient in question is King Hydroflax (Greg Davies), an evil, conquering warlord who has committed numerous atrocities in his long life. However, having been shot in the head with a very sharp, and very valuable, diamond, the King's time on this mortal coil is limited. This despite being a head grafted onto a body to maintain some kind of immortality.

Of course, since the bullet in question is very rare and expensive, it only makes sense that River Song (Kingston) is there. She's the King's wife, as it happens (although as she explained it she was only married to the diamond). She wants the gem out, by any means necessary, and she's absolutely willing to let someone kill the King in the process to get it. But when the Doctor arrives and sees all this, River doesn't recognize him. She knows his twelve main incarnations (One through Eleven, plus the War Doctor) but "the Doctor has limits" and she doesn't realize he got a new st of regenerations. So she goes about her adventures, dragging the Doctor (who she doesn't recognize) along as her companion, and much hilarity ensues.

What I appreciate about this episode, above all else, is that it makes the 12th Doctor enjoyable to watch. By getting sucked into an adventure where he's not the lead but is just a "companion", the episode get to subvert expectations. It lets Capaldi have fun defying all the tropes of the series. He gets to be silly, and fun, and let his (proverbial) hair down. He gets to show a side of his character's personality that was sorely lacking. He's not like the previous three Doctors at all, but for once I could see why people might like him.

At the same time the episode really does get to let loose and be fun. The Doctor being the companion means he gets to watch one of his adventures unfold from the outside. He's a bystander in his own adventure, and it's an absolutely blast watching him bumble his way through as he waits for River to clue in about who he is. Plus, he gets to do his own "it's bigger on the inside" gag and, man, that's a real hoot, for sure. I like that the series found a way to pull this off as its a real treat.

But then it all works so well because Kingston's River is there as well. I know some in the fandom got tired of her, always showing up and changing the vibe of the series. She was a manic pixie dream girl for the Doctor, essentially, but do happen to like her as a character. She added spice to the adventures that no other companion could. And in this case, she's about the only person who could do a reverse-Doctor adventure and pull it off. Kingston is great here, delivering on all the silly, and earnest, notes to really sell the story, start to finish.

The episode also serves as something of an end for her story (although I wouldn't be surprised it they find a way to bring her back once or twice more, somehow). She was introduced in her last ever adventure, her traveling in one direction along the timeline as the Doctor bounced back and forth along it at various points. Here we come full circle, seeing what could, in effect, be the last time he character got to be with the Doctor she married, the one that knows her whole timeline. It's sweet, and sad, and it gives the character a fitting farewell that she deserved, having been around for longer than most other companions. It's a solid episode, and to let her go out with humor and fireworks feels fitting.

We'll go into the rest of Twelve's run and see if, now able to forge his own path entirely, he's better able to carry the series. But here, in this episode, I see the appeal of the character. He's not like the men that came directly before, but for once I think that's okay. Adventures like this give us the kind of story he needs to be a Doctor for the ages.