Night and the Doctor.

The Doctor has a very bad night...

4 episodes: Bad Night, Good Night, First Night, Last Night. Approx. 14 minutes. Written by: Steven Moffat. Directed by: Richard Senior. Produced by: Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger, Beth Willis.


THE PLOT

As Amy and Rory sleep, the Doctor continues to have adventures. Whether getting up to madcap antics at a party involving ambassadors and princes changed into fish and flies, or simply going out with River Song on dates that are like as not to end in danger, his life continues even as his companions slumber. "We're such small parts of your life," Amy realizes when she walks into the midst of one of his nocturnal outings. But even the Doctor himself sees only patches of the full tapestry, particularly on a night involving multiple versions of River Song, two versions of himself, and a night that is both a first and a last...


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: In The Doctor's Wife, his companions asked if he had a room. The answer was implicit - He didn't need a room, he had a TARDIS. This short piece raises another question: Does the Doctor actually sleep?  The 11th Doctor doesn't seem to. He just keeps on with his life and his adventures. He counters Amy's fears about being just a tiny part of his existence by telling her that his companions are all that he truly remembers. But he keeps pushing forward with activity, perhaps afraid to stand still and let real emotion touch him.

Amy: Good Night gives her some charming material. She remembers two versions of her life - one from the universe with the Crack in Time, in which she had no parents or family, and one from the rebooted universe, in which she always has had parents. "My life doesn't make any sense," she complains.

River Song: On her first night in Stormcage, the Doctor rescues her with a date and lays down the rules which will be entrenched in her mind by the time they first meet. We see three different versions of River in this story. The youngest River is tentative, clearly concerned about a life in prison. The middle River is jealous at the thought that the Doctor has another woman on the TARDIS (not realizing that the other woman is her). The latest River is the most carefree and comfortable with the Doctor. All three are highly firtatious, and both the youngest and oldest River make the same remark about the possibilities posed by two Doctors at the same time. The interplay between Matt Smith and Alex Kingston is charming, and they have an evident screen chemistry that keeps the last two episodes humming smoothly.


THOUGHTS

First off: Yes, I'm aware there's a fifth episode - Up All Night - included on the Series Six dvd set. But it's fairly clear that this is just an unaired episode prequel to Closing Time, no more worthy of a separate review than any of the other episode prequels. It has no connection whatever with the other four Night and the Doctor scenes, so I feel quite justified in simply ignoring it for purposes of this review.

The Series Five dvd and blu ray sets were enhanced with a couple of comical scenes that acted as bridges between The Eleventh Hour and The Beast Below and between the weeping angel two-parter and Vampires of Venice. These were fun bonuses, bits of very fan-friendly comedy that enhanced the experience of the season. They were also inconsequential - the equivalent of deleted scenes - which is why I didn't bother to review them.

For the Series Six set, writer/executive producer Steven Moffat has taken this idea further, creating what is in effect a tiny bonus story.  Bad Night offers a madcap glimpse of an extra adventure, with an amusing payoff to Amy's swatting of a fly. Good Night features a charming emotional moment between the Doctor and Amy. Even at this point, it's obvious that moments in this second "episode" are paying off moments from the first.  Notably, Amy finally has the conversation with the Doctor in Good Night that he evaded in Bad Night.

The last two episodes are the most clearly linked, as the Doctor interrupts River Song's first night in Stormcage with a TARDIS trip. As with the first episode, the tone is almost entirely comical, with First Night ending with a lead-in to Last Night. Then the final episode delivers a surprise emotional kicker, allowing the serial to end on a poignant note.

All four episodes are thematically linked by the Doctor's own words to Amy in Good Night. When she talks about a strange woman (who ends up being herself) buying the child Amy an ice cream and telling her, "Cheer up. Have an ice cream," the Doctor replies with some rare, perfect advice:

"Amy, time and space is never ever going to make any kind of sense. A long time ago, you got the best possible advice on how to deal with that. So I suggest you go and give it."


A lovely little home video bonus, one whose ambition and accomplishment goes above and beyond what could reasonably be expected of a simple dvd extra.


Rating: 9/10.


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