The Girl Who Waited (For A Decent Episode): Doctor Who Review

** CONTAINS SPOILERS **

Third week of Doctor Who and you have no idea how happy I am to be typing that it’s third time lucky. After two fairly disappointing weeks “The Girl Who Waited”, written by Tom McRae, really renewed my faith in the series with a well-developed and deep plotline. It brought out some raw emotion and heartbreaking decisions, unhidden or obstructed by unfathomable alien technology and complex (and sometimes unnecessary) character backstories.

First off, Saturday (10^th September)’s episode took less than 5 minutes for the danger to begin. Too many Moffat episodes (most notably the half-series finale “Demons Run”) try to throw in too much at the beginning that can have me thinking, “Will you get to the point already?” No sooner have they landed on Apalapucia (say it three times fast), Amy is separated from the Doctor and Rory and landed in a separate, faster time stream. Very quickly the threat of time slipping away becomes obvious when Amy asks, “Where have you been?! I’ve been here a week!” It’s immediate, and it’s not painfully overcomplicated whilst still being interesting and making you think.

The ‘villains’ in this episode posing a second threat other than time, are the faceless white robots that work in the Apalapucia “kindness facility” helping to deal with a plague known as “Chen7” that affects races with two hearts (thus stranding the Doctor in the TARDIS for the remainder of the episode). The robots, however, are not villains at all and merely do not understand that their medicine will be fatal to humans such as Amy and Rory. This is a plot device I always find wonderfully ironic and always interesting, when the threat is great but no one actually means anyone any harm. Like the treat of time passing quickly in Amy’s time stream, it is merely bad circumstance and misunderstanding that lands the characters in danger. I think that this can sometimes be even more worrying than a conscious villain with bad intentions, as it isn’t something that can be reasoned with or appealed to.

"Do not be alarmed, this is a kindness..."

Another thing I thought was extremely well written in this episode was the characterisation of Future Amy, the Amy that has been through thirty-six solitary years in the time it took Rory and the Doctor to park the TARDIS in a different room. She was completely believable as the hardened, bitter future version of Amy Pond, who began to (understandably) hate the Doctor as she entered her fourth decade waiting to be saved. However it was the small human touches that made her character perfect for me. How her hand nervously brushed back her hair and she muttered “Thanks…” when Rory was shocked at hold old she was. The way she almost applied her old lipstick to look nice for her husband. How she had painted a smile on the faceless robot she had reprogrammed to keep her company. That after all this time alone and hating the Doctor, she still wanted to be taken away in the TARIDS and travel the stars. She was definitely a changed Amy… but still Amy nonetheless, and still in tune with the present version of herself wandering the halls of the “kindness facility” in a separate time stream. Brilliantly written, and brilliantly played.  

I also loved that this episode wasn’t quite as predictable as past ones have been. When is becomes apparent that both the present and future versions of Amy will be returning to the TARDIS, and after both Amys and Rory have battled past the robots and look as if they’re going to make it into the TARDIS… the Doctor slams the door in future Amy’s face. Rule number one: the Doctor lies, and future Amy cannot possibly travel on board the TARDIS with another version of herself. It almost seemed out of character of the Doctor to simply abandon someone like that, especially Amy, and to let the responsibility fall on someone else by making Rory decide whether or not to let her in. However it did give Amy the opportunity to show the best of herself, by taking the weight of the decision off of Rory’s shoulders and telling him not to open the door for her. In this way she wasn’t abandoned again; she took control, and gave herself up to the Apalapucian robots who killed her with kindness as she reminisced about “a boy she once met”. Although tragic it was a perfectly rounded ending, especially when the present Amy woke up in the TARIDS and her first words were, “Where is she?”

If I had to say one negative thing about this week’s episode (there’s always something…) I would have to point out that there was a severe absence of the Doctor… he was only really required to pilot the TARDIS. He even refuses to make the big decision in this episode, as after he shuts out the future Amy he ultimately leaves the choice about whether to let her on board again up to Rory, delivers his second impact-heavy line of the episode, “This isn’t fair! You’re trying to turn me into you!” (The other of course being “Then I don’t want to travel with you anymore!”, perhaps foreshadowing more of these feelings to emerge in later episodes?). However apart from that, this has definitely been my favorite episode out of the three so far!

Next week; “The God Complex”, and I think the trailer speaks for itself. Absolutely can't wait, and really hoping that it matches up with this episode’s level of quality and pace!