"The Doctor’s Car…uh…Wife" by RitchandFamous →
Oh great. The Doctor’s “sexy” sports car came to life and is an attractive woman. Awesome. Not masturbatory at all.
Ever since we discovered that the TARDIS was alive in the 1964 story, Edge of Destruction, the Doctor has happily referred to his time machine as a “She”, as any traditional ship captain would. This has always bothered me, as it seems so dated in such a (usually) progressive show. Not overtly misogynistic, just very basic in its idea of the feminine as property. (The gendering made weirder when we see the Doctor “strokes bits of the TARDIS”, and, uh…occasionally gives “her” a thump if “she’s” not working properly.)
When I first tuned into Neil Gaiman’s 2011 episode “The Doctor’s Wife”, I had no idea what the concept was (I do so hate spoilers). I hoped that the people in the promotional images were Time Lords, hiding in some lost pocket of space, and that we’d perhaps meet Susan Foreman‘s Grandmother! However, it became clear within the first few minutes, that this wasn’t the case, and quickly I realized that the Doctor’s wife was, in fact, the human embodiment of the TARDIS!
