The Girl Who Waited

Finally some off earth sci-fi!

Lots of ideas to cram into such a small time slot. Nice to see the micro-cast, and immediacy of story.

I found I didn't really enjoy this episode in the moment. I know though that it will be memorable. It lingers like good sci-fi should. There's a lot of concepts to explore here - perhaps too many.

I remarked recently that I've never been that big a fan of the companions (thinking there's plenty of room for improvement, even hoping for a female Doctor, and a great wise male companion, or an alien!). I also stated that I liked Pond and Oswald.

Re-watching the 6th series of nuWho, and especially this episode I discovered that I didn't actually have that much love for Amy. I may even prefer Rory, even over Amy's pout.

It reminded me of a Star Trek TNG story: 'Second Chances'. In which Riker ends up with a body double after a transporter anomaly. The second Riker is stranded, and when he is reacquainted with the crew, he's still holding a torch for Troi, but the original Riker has moved on. Which is a bit of an emotional roller-coaster for all involved. Riker is jealous of his dopple-ganger that re-kindles his love with Troi.

It does make you wonder how much you'd change under different circumstances, and perhaps if we try an project our futures we might position ourselves better.

Many time-streams/parallel universes make for endless possibilities, and I'm surprised we haven't seen a little more in the same ilk with Who.

This episode is probably more clever than I give it credit, in that I personally was a little repulsed by the older Amy, who happened to eek out her existence in her lonely surrounds, through no particular fault of her own. Bar her pressing a big red button (red buttons are a no no!).

Will you still love me when you're old? Yes, but I'd rather we grow old together. At its heart this is a love story (even if Rory and Amy are a little unconvincing). The Doctor undeniably made the right call here.

Samurai Amy and her sonic screwdriver were unnecessary additions. More like this please.

"The Girl Who waited" is one of my favorite episodes involving the eleventh doctor. The writing in this one is a perfect example of why so many people love this show. This was a rather self-contained episode that is very Amy-centric. It does not really appear to contribute to the ongoing story line, but it doesn't need to as it is quite brilliant and provides some insight into one of the main characters.

Karen Gillan made an excellent and compelling performance, and it was a joy to see a different side to her character.

This is one of the few episodes I actually went back and watched a second time. Some parts were a bit slow on the second go around, but the end more than makes up for it.

I find a lot of positives with this very solid quality episode: It is quite ambitious in showing some depth and thoughtful themes about Amy and Rory and their relationship as well as Amy's relationship with the Doctor. It mostly manages to achieve a good level of interest with dramatic and traumatic events for Amy. There is some decent humour on a few occasions too as well as a cute robot 'Rory'. It is also not getting involved in the convoluted Melody/River story arc and is instead basically a self contained story which is a positive for me.

I don't think it is a really top level episode but it is a good episode.

One negative for my taste is that the situation they find themselves in feels a bit unconvincing to me: The Doctor takes them to a leisure resort only to blunder into a quarantine situation and lets them get separated in a way I found a bit jarringly careless.

This leisure resort the Doctor rates so highly is a rubbish organisation. No warnings are given to prevent people getting trapped in quarantine. People in quarantine are left to wander around back rooms which look like empty factory units. Dangerous robots maraud about with no way of people controlling them. The setting looks a little unimpressive and unconvincing as well.

This isn't a major criticism though, it is just a minor grumble.

The impact of Amy's possible death is dramatic and is a positive for sure (albeit lessened a bit for me by constant fake deaths throughout series 5 and 6 which left me feeling cynical about her apparent mortal danger).

Writer Tom MacRae has done a good job overall on making an engaging and involving episode. The main positives are that the storyline is interesting, the dialogue is decent, the acting is very strong, there is a thoughtful study of how it feels for Amy to be left alone and separated for 36 years as well as to finally have to choose between changing the course of her life or endangering everyone by risking a paradox.

My Rating: 8/10.

Series six of Doctor Who is perhaps one of my favourites and after the whole River Song business halfway through and the disappointment of 'Night Terrors', this simple stand alone episode of Doctor Who is definitely worth watching. It really shows how much Amy and Rory care about each other and the lengths that they are prepared to go to in order to save each other. The Doctor although absent from most of the physical stuff is certainly well used and it's also good to see how he watches on and is emotional to see how he has to lie and make bad choices that will allow good things to happen. For me, this is the most emotional episode of Series six and will always be one of the best episode in its history.

Though I am still wondering how Amy mastered Gallifreyan technology and made her own sonic probe.

"Gillan also wore a padding which affected her movement and she spent hours in makeup" yet no-one considered she might have different hair? Hacked off for practicality which would have been in keeping with the character? Gone grey? No exactly the same hair, it's silly distraction in what was otherwise a pretty decent episode.