- Title: Doctor Who – The Girl Who Waited
- tv.com: link
Arriving on a planet in a state of quarantine Amy (Karen Gillan) becomes separated from Rory (Arthur Darvill) and The Doctor (Matt Smith). On attempting to rescue her they come across a future version of Amy who has been trapped in the quarantine zone for more than thirty years. The Amy they know is trapped in a divergent timeline, and this is her future.
Although it’s not a great episode in terms of execution (it ends before the hard choices made are able to be discussed and explored), the dilemna it presents works well as Rory is forced to choose between the Amy of the present and one who has spent years fighting for her life who just wants to escape the horror she’s lived in for 36 years. And she obviously hasn’t coped as well as her husband did waiting for her to emerge from the Pandorica.
I enjoyed the look of the episode as well. The facility filled with white rooms, illusion chambers, and transportation doors may be a little too like Star Trek: The Next Generation in spots, but the look is impressive nonetheless. The deadly robots wanting only to help also work well (even if they become less effective than Stormtroopers at a certain point).
The dilemma at the end reminds us of Rule #1 as Rory must make a difficult choice. Sadly the episode ends without Rory and Amy’s conversation about the fate of her future self thus undercutting the decision of Rory (and its ramifications). The episode spends far too long on the emotional goodbye of Rory and the future Amy, but the writers couldn’t find a minute to include the characters dealing with the choices that were made?
Gillan does well giving future Amy her own voice and mannerisms (even if the old age makeup doesn’t work as well as I’d like) and the robotic Rory is a nice touch. “The Girl Who Waited” isn’t a great episode, and it goes over ground already covered with these characters (in a new way), but it works quite well as a standalone tale and it’s a step up from last week.
I think the question of “right” is essential to looking at the episode. I’m grateful that the episode didn’t make light of the consequences of the decision, but I do believe the Doctor went too far, which could potentially be fantastic for the narrative.
A few too many thoughts on the latest Doctor Who.