Amy Pond is the longest - lasting physician Who fellow traveller since Rose Tyler , and late events have made her even more central than Rose to the Doctor ’s mythos . But she ’s been a bit of a cipher for a while now , without much in the way of character development or badass bit .
Meanwhile , Rory and Amy are the first married couple to journey in the TARDIS , but their kinship has n’t really been front and center , apart from Rory being determined to rescue Amy from a serial publication of damsel - in - distress situation .
So we really necessitate an episode like “ The Girl Who Waited , ” that focused on Amy and Rory . And give thanks goodness it was so magnificent . Spoilers ahead …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht6wBPidk4 g
At first blush , “ The Girl Who Waited ” is just another iteration of Amy being a damsel in distress , and Rory save her . Amy has gotten herself stuck in a quarantine adeptness for people with an obscure disease , where the denizen can exist out their entire lifespan in 24 hours , while their loved ones watch in regular , slowed - down time . ( And the medicine that the “ hand - bot ” dispense is deadly to humans . ) The only trouble is , Rory comes to deliver Amy too belatedly , and she ’s already been there for 36 years .
In a way , it ’s another version of what happened to Amy as a little missy , when the Doctor promised to follow back for her and returned 12 yr later . Except this time , the abandonment issues and feeling of isolation are amped up massively . And Amy has become self - sufficient , learning to hack the deadly hand robots and make the quarantine installation ’s A.I. her bitch . This is a very unlike variant of Amy , and one which challenges Karen Gillan ’s acting chop shot more than usual .
The whole matter , with the timey - wimey dilemma and fairytale jewel - box feel , is very much like the sort of story that Steven Moffat was writing , before he was showrunner and all his episodes were “ arc ” episode . ( Except for “ The Beast Below , ” I imagine . ) But it ’s also very remiscent of some of the just nineties Star Trek episodes , like Deep Space Nine ’s “ The Visitor ” and TNG ’s “ The Inner Light . ”
And yes , none of it entirely entertain up if you look at it too carefully . The quarantine facility where tens of one thousand of people are in their own secret time streams feels far - fetched , even for Doctor Who . Then there ’s the fact that the disease kills you within 24 hours — unless you slow down metre , in which case 24 hours becomes a lifetime but the virus still goes at normal swiftness . Oh , and this disease randomly does n’t dissemble humans , but does strike Time Lords . And so on . The whole thing is made of handwavium . But it still works .
At first I thought that one of the implausible thing in the episode was the fact that Old Amy does n’t want Rory to save Young Amy , because then Old Amy will quit to live . You sort of wonder , at first , whether Old Amy really thinks that decades of aloneness and misery are worth preserving . But after a while , that part of the episode really won me over , and became the most interesting thing about the story .
Old Amy has n’t just become an awesome cyberpunk , survivalist and Magnus - trend robot fighter . She ’s also become blistering and mean , and focused on outlive at all costs . On some level , the episode suggests that this is the only choice to being a damsel and letting Rory keep her — but then again , the decades alone in a sterile paradise probably toy a bigger character in her crazy dame - hood . And she ’s pretty much forgotten the person she used to be , and how much she used to care about Rory and the Doctor , until she ’s confronted with both Rory and her young self .
The heart of the episode is n’t the dilemma of whether to pull through Old Amy or Young Amy — we all know it ’s going to be Young Amy , in the final stage — but rather , Old Amy rediscover her love for Rory . And Rory ’s determination to grow one-time with Amy , to have those year with her . This narrative is really about Amy and Rory ’s love , and how it get the better of a time snare . In the end , Old Amy is last unforced to give her world not because she ’s turn back fighting for life , but because she ’s remembered how much she loves Rory and treasures their meter together .
I ’ve never been this convert , both about Amy as a three - dimensional someone with a life of her own , and about her love for Rory . Much more than last year ’s Amy / Rory episodes like “ Amy ’s Choice ” or “ The Big Bang , ” this felt really emotional and vivid and real . I got much in earnest go up , watching Rory fight for his marriage and then face consequences of his choice . More than Rory spending 2000 years guard Amy off camera , more than Rory confront the Cybermen to get to his married woman , this instalment leave me with no doubt that Amy and Rory are an epic pair .
And yet . It seems eldritch not to mention , at least in passing , the Slitheen in the way . For the 2d episode hunt , there ’s been no mention of the fact that Rory and Amy had a nestling , that Amy was coerce to give birth on an evil quad station , that the nestling was slip and raise by evil aliens who turned her into a sociopath , and that the Doctor rest and promised to get back their babe , which he distinctly could not do . The Doctor recite Amy and Rory they could n’t persist with the freshly regenerated River Song because they had “ too much precognition ” — an argument which did n’t end them from look for her before , and has never stopped River herself from hanging out with them when the stead were overrule . And Amy and Rory meekly accepted this and decided never to speak of it again . This is the sort of thing that does distort your feeling in these reference , a bit .
But even if this episode , in particular , did n’t mollify those business organization , it did at least give us an larger-than-life Rory - Doctor smackdown . Rory eventually seems to lose forbearance , once and for all , for the Doctor ’s lying , feckless , callous ways . After the Doctor essentially con Old Amy into thinking she can survive , and then manoeuver Rory into killing his own wife , Rory has a very gratifying spot of craze at the Time Lord , including the ultra - memorable short letter : “ You ’re trying to move around me into you . ” Which sums up so much about the Doctor ’s relationships with his companion , really .
As I advert inthe preview post yesterday , this is also a beautifully manoeuver episode , thanks to first - time director Nick Hurran . There are a destiny of amazing visuals in this episode , include a flock of bang-up television camera angle that serve to heighten Amy ’s closing off in the Two Streams facility . And the visual motif of the giant magnifying methamphetamine hydrochloride that can see other sentence streams is used to great effect , a number of time . It ’s enceinte that an instalment which sees all three of the show ’s stars giving standout carrying out also make some really effective focusing .
https://gizmodo.com/weve-seen-this-weekends-doctor-who-and-torchwood-episod-5838757
“ The Girl Who Waited ” is the sort of stand - alone episode that elevates the show as a whole , by recharge our belief in these characters and their world . It ’s a really strong story in which the clever plot equipment serve the story , rather than the other way around . And it ’s proof , once and for all , that a married couple in the TARDIS is a great idea that can give rise to a ton of brilliant level .
Next hebdomad : Scary Clowns and minotaurs !
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