Madame Vastra: “The truth is singular”

Madame Vastra, Carla, Jenny Flint (Mrs. Vastra):

Clever writing, too (you can expect that from Steven Moffat). Carla upon seeing the Tardis for the first time: “It’s smaller on the outside!”:

I figured the new blue “sterile” TARDIS control room was reflecting the Doctor’s new “cold” personality. Let’s see if it warms up. I sort of miss when they couldn’t afford a control room much bigger than a living room.

I was a bit underwhelmed by the new TARDIS; it doesn’t have that whimsical junkyard aesthetic any more:

Alas…

But wait, there’s more! Carla really reanimated the Doctor; Matt Smith is in full Willie Wonka mode at the end:

Yep, we’re gonna like the Doctor’s new companion. If things continue this way, I’d expect to see romance on the epic scale of Rose and the Doctor.

While Tom’s right that “romantic tension”–romance–is new to Dr. Who, I thought that the story of Rose and the Doctor broke new ground for science fiction in general. The genre just isn’t known for romance, and that story and the performances were as good as anything in the mainstream.

The Ponds were a somewhat odd take on the idea of a companion, a married couple with vague hints, for a while, of a menage-a-trois. But they settled down and got boring, and in their last episode, the emotional high point was Rory planting a kiss on the Doctor. Russel T. Davies might no longer be with the show, but his spirit lingers on.

They also seem to take a similar wholesome approach to same sex relationships.

Before this new series started, I don’t recall any companion generating the slightest romantic response from the Doctor, or vice versa. As far as that part of his personality was concerned, he might as well have been twelve years old.

I plan to watch the Christmas special tonight. The trailers looked pretty good, anyway; and with your careful-not-to-spoil review (thanks), I expect to enjoy it.

That was a nice way to ditch the Ponds, in “Angels Take Manhattan”. Nice that the series never actually kills off discarded companions, and judging by Rose’s story, even walling them off in another universe or a loop in time doesn’t preclude them from making a future appearance, thanks to some clever scriptorial hand-waving. Maybe the Ponds will get their own spinoff series, the way Sarah Jane did.