Amy's Choice

It's hard for me to believe that this is the 7th episode from Smith and Moffat. All of the characters are fleshed out and well articulated. The story is wonderful. Great premise, writing and directing. There is already a great chemistry with the Doctor and companions. But also the production too. So well oiled and effortless in it's storytelling.

The effects are a bit dated. Which is a little surprising for something as recent as 2010. But then BBC has never been known for realistic CGI. It's a little silly but not too distracting.

Overall this episode has a bit of a horror flick vibe. Like Nightmare on Elm Street in Space. But there is also a touch of something like the Prisoner or Outer Limits there.

Toby Jones is especially effective. He really is a phenomenal character actor. And his acidic performannce kicks the whole episode up a level.

Would love to see him reprise the role.

I prefer the format where just the doctor and his companion go through their adventures. It's cool with people coming from the companions life, but then leaving. I for one don't like that Amy's boyfriend is always there. I thought Rose's (I really miss Rose) and Mickey's relationship was done better.

Throughout the history of Doctor Who there have always been episodes or serials that veered from its sci-fi obsession with monsters and ancient high-tech civilizations over to the edge of fantasy -- often with the result that the young female companion would be dressed in a catsuit and the camera would shoot her from behind or the Doctor would meet Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Most recently, in Season Four of the revived series, we had the weird and wonderful melange of TURN LEFT.

Personally I have enjoyed these illustrations of Clarke's Third Law -- a sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic -- and the way they give the dedicated fan a change from the usual fare and, one hopes, some insight into the character of the Doctor and his companions as they react to situations which are not about a problem so much as about themselves.

That is what we have in AMY'S CHOICE. Oh, there is a problem to be solved: how do you tell the difference between reality and dream? But for fans of Dr. Who, it is about the Dream Lord, played by the inimitable Toby Jones as he teases and torments the Doctor, Amy and Rory about the reality of their relationships and forces them, and the audience, to understand their characters a bit better.

Simon Nye, in his first script for DOCTOR WHO, offers us those insights, throws in some amusing lines and contrasts versions of two typical Dr. Who adventures to make choices against: a quiet English village where monsters have popped up and a pseudo-science adventure worthy of an early 1930s pulp in which the TARDIS is about to crash into a sun which radiates cold.

Structurally and symbolically, this is brilliant. but structure and symbol, while always important to Doctor Who -- episodes in the 1970s tackled current issues such as the ecology and toleration in such terms -- so too is the surface execution of the story. There are enough funny lines to amuse the adults and thrills for the children. While the purpose and plot of this story may confuse the casual viewer who's looking for meat on the bones, for those of us who are willing to crack the bones open, there's plenty of succulent marrow.

An underatted story, Toby Jones as the Villain is really cool, he's got that charm but some mystery about him that works effortlessly as he's so funny and charismatic in the role, because he's showing his presence on-screen as a mysterious figuire, that also seems abit loud and likes his one-liners. He could've done abit more, but his character really works a treat.

And the dream sequences are really cool, because we get to see are characters bond in the future, and they have some progressive arcs in this story. Amy's choice was a clever idea and her dreams and her ideologies were fantastic to see.

Rory and the Doctor, she will always choose her boyfriend Rory. But the episode adds the stakes and raises them to 11 when they see a star that's frozen in time, it even had the Tardis getting colder and colder. And the story as it progressed through, showed how it was getting cooler because of the icey patches, and the characters even almost dying of hyperthermia. So yes, it's the funniest of the series, possibly the whole show, and even the stakes are high.

The village and the old towns folks seemed cool and appealing. And it was, but I wish it'd of done more to build the other characters, because they were also pretty cool to see, and I do like backstory. But regardless, this story was amazingly written, the dialogue is heavy on crisp and sharp witty jokes, and the story has characters with interesting motivations, a great concept, and genuinely just a really Entertaining Tardis venture.

The Dream Lord probably should return, I'd love to know more about his race and existence, like where his mysterious nature comes from. But I had a fun time, and the pacing and the effects are mostly fine on the whole, the effects are slightly outdated for 2010's standard, but that's really it, a great fun time. I'd give it a 9 out of 10 with ease.

There is a phrase (more like a string of adjs) I only use to describe a good Doctor Who episode, that is: cozy pleasant clever creepiness. No more no less. This style of sci-fi, to this day, only a good Doctor Who could deliver. Now the time is 2021, I am rewatching all the good NuWho episodes, and really hope the NuWho can get rid of its current season 4 CW Flash/Supergirl/Arrow style, and come back to this standard of story telling.