S06E10 - The Girl Who Waited

With the title of ‘The Girl Who Waited’ it was first expected that this episode could cover that of Amy’s life between her seven year old self and the time she met with the Doctor at nineteen (à la Eleventh Hour), yet despite the obvious difference between the expected and the seen, the episode itself proved, to me, to be one of the best within series six so far. It proved not only how brilliant a reasonably simple script can become – are you paying attention Moffat? – this episode also brought forth the exceptional brilliance of both Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill to the forefront once more; their talents, raw emotion and of course the ability to bring script to screen with ease.

Moving into the episode itself, and to proof that a holiday with and for the Doctor is impossible, the episode itself felt – to begin with at least – a rather hard beginning, with the pre-credits scene ending reasonably abruptly and rather underwhelmingly, although with suspicions towards the episode’s main concept with Amy having all of a sudden waited a week, with Rory exasperatedly trying to get to Amy despite the obvious notion that, as it had just been stated, she’d been waiting a week. Thinking towards that though, it’s an interesting concept, from what I could gather, that through the rather elaborate magnifying glass presenting in the ‘waiting room’ one could witness a loved one live through their remaining live via the differencing time ratio presented within containment center – and what a concatenation center that was!

With Delores Umbridge as the Interface, and robots that could kill you out of pure kindness – anyone with a fear of needles watching must have that that fear escalated – not to mention the horror of a life left in isolation, what was obviously, originally, intended to be a kind hospital-like place suddenly has the very ominous feeling surrounding it – even if there are climbable mountains, magnificent endless gardens and even a cinema complex that would make Empire Cinemas cry in a shame. Personally the isolation of it all would drive me insane, and it’s no surprise that when Rory meets up with a fifty-eight (twenty two plus thirty six people) year old Amy that the older Amy has succumbed to some of the madness and horrors of the place, passing her time by outrunning the endless supply of Handbots and, dare I say it, becoming almost Doctor-like.

And must I compliment now what a fantastic makeup team Doctor Who has, not to mention chorographers! With the makeup team giving Karen the look of an almost-sisty year old and the vocal and movement coaching to pull of the complete Older Amy attire, the whole team should be praised – Karen of course more-so, considering she pulled it all off with perfection. In fact I had a very cheeky belief that Karen really enjoyed playing Older Amy, finding the challenge something exciting to experience and of course expanding her own performance repertoire for her future career when she eventually leave she show she very obviously enjoys being part of.

Keeping on the topic of Older Amy though, WHAT a magnificent scene that was between Older and Young! A very clever part of the script and so tastefully done; Older Amy not wanting to rid the thirty-six years she had experienced as the Doctor and Rory try to rescue the Young Amy, but Young Amy convincing, literally, herself to change mind, reminding her Older self of all the things she’s forgotten and thusly lost, mainly about Rory and a rock band, subtly demanding her Older self to reconsider, to get out there young and not live out her life the way she had – all just beautifully constructed. Also, might I add upon this topic that Xena Warrior Princess needs to step aside,  or at least watch her step as Amy Rory-or Princess is on the scene now (get it? ;) ) looking rather disturbingly like Eve Miles in some scenes… so let’s not try to go there shall we…? Heh.

Moving swiftly on now, another rather interesting thought on a title for this episode could have easily been ‘Rory’s Choice’ – a play on a last series episode – for the fact that it’s he who must decide the fate of his wife; take Older Amy or find Younger Amy then of course it’s let Older Amy into the TARDIs and loose Young Amy forever. In fact ‘Rory’s Choice’ would and could have easily fitted the episode as much as ‘The Girl Who Waited’, but neither would have changed the brilliance of the episode and the proof that what could be considered ‘normal’ script writers (that is to say those who don’t specifically write Sci-fi/Who) can do just a fantastic job with what they’re given and my praise goes lovingly towards them, or more specifically to Tom MacRae (who also wrote the Cybermen two-parter of series two).

Let us not forget Rory in the topics of two Amy’s (although with one being just enough, two is a handful even for a review); his desperate craving to keep the Younger Amy but his growing affection towards his Older wife throughout the course of the episode subtly changing his decisions, even leading him to, for a moment at least, want her to stay with him, knowing his wife no matter what age. But it has to be touched upon the classic but emotional thought of ‘growing old together’ for the couple, having travelled with the Doctor for some time now, even Rory’s perception of that theory could be a little cloudy – but please don’t get me wrong as that scene with Rory wanting to have grown old with Amy did still touch me. With all that in mind though, Rory’s own perception of his wife must have changed a little from the events, having glimpsed what she could be like, what she will look like, he has seen into her future (not the one she’s claimed now of course) and can definitely say he knows Amy more than anyone else could ever.

Let us not forget the Doctor amid all this too; unable to find Amy herself due to the one-day plague only affecting species of two-hearts, all he can do is sit back and watch Rory’s progression (through some rather sexy glasses), adventure and emotional journey into the heart of Older Amy’s new-found life. Of course it isn’t AS hard for the Doctor locking Older Amy out of the TARDIS, so to ensure the one he likes (seriously!) stays and the paradox created doesn’t rewrite things that cannot be undone. It shows what sort of a character the Doctor can be, especially with Rory’s line of “You’re turning me into you!” when the Doctor announces that Rory has to choose which Amy he wants to keep – a decision that Older Amy eventually, luckily, decides upon for him.

Now I’m sure there’s probably plenty of little things I could have mentioned – one definitely being Amy and Rory’s lax attitude towards their only daughter being turned into a weapon out there somewhere, and of course the clever Handbots of the episode – but to be honest with you, you can decide on what your thoughts are on those; personally I have covered all I needed and then some, which inevitably leads to this!

• The Doctor = 9/10 – Mainly because there was less of him; Matt Smith is a fabulous actor, back in his long swede coat, but the episode was concentrated for Amy and Rory, and rightly so. No matter though as the scenes he was in, he was simply fantastic, and who wants to hear him say Apalapucia again?
• Amy = 20/10 – An impossibility on this blog but considering Young Amy was a 10 and Older Amy was a 10 it seems right. Karen just loves Amy too much to play her anything but wrong and that shows perfectly on screen. She is just wonderful.
• Rory = 10/10 – I don’t think Arthur will ever get a low score ever again; every episode he just gets better and better. The scene that proves Arthur at his best in this episode, of course, was the final scene, yelling at the Doctor then talking to Older Amy through the TARDIS door while in tears – a brilliant scene for both actor actually.

Episodic Rating: 10 out of 10. It was simply superb with excellent timing, a brilliant script, fantastic acting and of course a much simpler script (for Doctor Who that is) in comparison to some seen over the last two years of the programme. Unless the next three episodes prove otherwise, this has to be the best of the series so far, or maybe second best, no leading hand-in-hand with ‘Good Man Goes to War’. Of course my only jibe at the show more than the episode is the lax attitude, as mentioned, of Amy and Rory towards their daughter – yes they know she’s going to be River Song, yes they ‘grew up with her’ as Mels (a shudder of resentment flows through me at this) but they’ve never managed to parent her properly, but maybe those thoughts are just mine…