New Doctor Who content and insights created for ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ watch-along

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The fifth watch-along arranged by Doctor Who Magazine writer Emily Cook has brought yet more new Doctor Who content for fans to enjoy.

On Saturday, April 11, fans around the world watched the Doctor Who Series 6 episode The Doctor’s Wife while enjoying tweets from writer Neil Gaiman, director Richard Clark and Martin Sheen, who voiced the malevolent entity in the episode known as House.

Suranne Jones, who delightfully played Idris, a human embodiment of the TARDIS, was unable to join but created this message for fans before the watch-along.

Neil Gaiman wrote a special scene for Arthur Darvill called Rory’s Story.

Rory’s Story takes place when Amy and Rory are living New York City in 1946, after World War 2 and right before they adopt their son, Anthony.

Rory remarks, “I’m mostly impressed by people. They can get through so much by being brave and optimistic and resilient,” an observation that can also describe how people are responding to another worldwide challenge, the COVID-19 pandemic.

The watch-along was organized by Cook to give fans a sense of community as they deal with the social isolation necessary to impede the spread of the virus.

The tweet-along was an opportunity for Neil Gaiman to give insights into the process of creating the script.

“The idea that the Corsair had regenerated as men and women was something that turned up in a draft and I expected Steven Moffat to strikethrough,” Neil Gaiman stated in a tweet referring to the first mention of a gender change regeneration in the programme.  “I was so glad he left it in, and look how it grew?”

Gaiman also revealed that showrunner Steven Moffat added the lines, “Biting is excellent. It’s like kissing, only there’s a winner.” and Amy’s line when the Doctor tells her Idris is the TARDIS as a woman, “Did you wish really hard?”

Gaiman also shared some scripts from scenes that were scrapped from The Doctor’s Wife.

One involves Rory in the TARDIS Zero Room, a room cut off from the known laws of physics, often used by Time Lords to meditate, train or rapidly heal.

The other was the original ending, when The Doctor’s Wife was meant to be a Series 5 Episode and Rory wasn’t present.

The next watch-along is for the Series 9 twelfth Doctor episode Heaven Sent Tuesday, April 14 (Peter Capaldi’s birthday), 8:00 p.m. BST, so far with writer Steven Moffat, director Rachel Talalay, the Veil actor Jami Reid-Quarrell and storyboard artist Mike Collins.