This week, Amy takes center stage in a hugely emotional episode.

Review: Doctor Who – Series 6 – Episode 10: The Girl Who Waited

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS, INCLUDING A FULL PLOT SUMMARY. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE EPISODE YET, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

As always, my comments will be in bold.

The Doctor (Matt Smith) takes Rory (Arthur Darville) and Amy (Karen Gillan) to the planet Apalapucia, try saying that five times fast, supposedly a top holiday destination, but they arrive in a clinically white room, its only exit a door with two buttons. where does the Doctor get his travel guides? As Amy steps back into the TARDIS to collect her phone, WHO is she planning to call?, the Doctor and Rory pass through the door using one of the buttons to find a white room with a giant ‘magnifying glass’. Amy follows but uses the other button. Of course she does. She finds a similar room, but no sign of the others.

The Doctor realizes that Amy hasn’t joined them. Because, he is a genius after all. He discovers that she has ended up in a second, faster time stream, but he is able to talk with her through the glass scope. Which is an awesome effect. A week has already passed for her. The Doctor and Rory soon find a faceless, white robot, who explains they are in the “kindness facility”, helping to deal with a plague, Chen-7, that affects only races with two hearts. Well, this will be the “Doctor-lite” episode for this series I guess. This includes the native Apalapucians and Time Lords. And, the Doctor is quite afraid of it, so this must be some plague. The robot, and others like it, do not recognize the two as alien life forms, and tries to inject them with ‘medicine’ that would kill them.  KINDNESS FACILITY? I love how the robots precede the injection with the phrase “This is a kindness.” NOT IF IT KILLS YOU! The Doctor warns Amy, and tells her to wait. He will rescue her. Rory and he race back to the TARDIS with the glass scope, using it to lock onto Amy’s time stream to effect her rescue. This is a hilarious visual, as it is a giant magnifying glass. The Doctor, forced to stay in the TARDIS for fear of the Chen-7 virus, gives Rory his sonic screwdriver,, the glass scope, and a set of glasses that allows the Doctor to see, hear, and communicate with him, guiding him to find Amy.

Rory explores more of the facility, but soon is set on by more robots. He is saved by a much older Amy, a fugitive who has hidden from the complex’s sensors for close to four decades. Her look can best described as “Tupperware Samurai” The Doctor has locked onto her time stream at the wrong point. He tries to get Rory to convince the older Amy to help locate the younger one but the older Amy is bitter, having waited for rescue as the Doctor instructed growing ever more resentful in the time being. She’s pretty ticked off. But, I probably would be too. She has been alone for exactly thirty-six years, three months and four days, save for the complex’s computer interface, and a disarmed robot she calls Rory. Should he be put off of flattered? Despite Rory and the Doctor’s assurances that rescuing Amy in the past will prevent the older Amy from suffering, she refuses to help, knowing that saving the younger version of herself would mean she never existed. Wibbly, Wobbly…Does your head hurt yet? Rory angrily blames the Doctor, saying that he should take more care when traveling to avoid situations such as these, to which The Doctor sternly states that that is not the way he does things, causing Rory to storm off, angrily throwing his glasses onto the facility floor.  Rory gets angry, though he willingly signed on, just like Amy. Hearing a faint transmission emminating from the broken glasses, The Doctor detects signals from the younger Amy nearby, and Rory finds her through the glass scope, weeping. Rory sets the scope to allow the older Amy to speak to her younger self, but the older Amy repeats that she has experienced this before. More dimension bending….mind hurting again….make it stop! Hearing her future self warn about the time streams convinced her to wait for rescue, Rory manages to convince the older Amy to change her mind.  This is probably the ONLY time Rory will get Amy to change her mind. Realizing that time can be altered if you are aware of the future timeline, as Amy is, the older Amy decides to help, but demands that the Doctor take her too. The Doctor says this is a difficult but not impossible action and agrees.  Rule one: The Doctor lies. As Rory reroutes a control panel that maintains the facility’s time streams, the Doctor helps the two Amys synchronize their thoughts, letting the two exist at the same time.

With these changes, the Doctor’s glasses fail. Well, of course they do. Rory and both Amys must race through groups of the robots to get to the TARDIS and safety. As they near its location, the older Amy falls back to protect the other two. Younger Amy runs into a robot and is sedated. As older Amy covers him, Rory takes younger Amy into the TARDIS. Just before older Amy manages to reach the TARDIS doors, The Doctor slams the door behind him.

The Doctor tells Rory that it is impossible for both Amys to exist in the same time stream. Rory must choose which Amy he wants.  This is the biggest choice of his life, to be sure. The older Amy and he bid a tearful farewell from behind the shut TARDIS door as older Amy tells Rory that she is giving the younger Amy her days with Rory as a gift, and that he should move on without her. The older Amy then asks the interface to show her a holographic projection of Earth, her home, as she reflects on the time she fell in love with Rory, and is finally taken by the robots. This scene is extraordinarily emotional. Later, the Doctor and Rory have resolved their issues with each other and Rory asks if the Doctor knew all along that two Amy’s would never work, The Doctor simply states that he promised to save Amy and he has.  See Rule one. Rory, now grateful for the Doctor’s actions, walks over to Amy. She wakes and asks for her older self. Neither the Doctor nor Rory can answer her. This is such a poignant ending.

The Verdict: Although all of the actors turn in stellar performances, this episode belongs to Karen Gillan. Karen turns in one of, if not the most amazing performance as Amy. The range of emotion that she was called upon to show is astounding. Her portrayal of the older Amy, and her bitterness is just stunning. She comes off as the complete opposite of the Amy we know and love. Older Amy has had all of the fun and joy sucked out of her by the hopeless nature of passing time. She has grown old alone and feels betrayed, forgotten and angry. For Karen to be able to switch back and forth between the older, bitter Amy and the Amy we’re all familiar with is truly an extraordinary feat of acting.  This is an award-winning performance from Miss Gillan, and it really overshadows everything else in the episode, including the fine performance turned in by Arthur Darville, who is also able to display a range of emotions in his portrayal of Rory. And, although Matt’s involvement is minimal, the Doctor still has some important and emotional scenes. In fact, the silence of the Doctor and Rory at the end of the episode speaks volumes. The emotions will, i’m sure, just continue to build as the road to the finale continues. The ride is almost over, but the scenery is exquisite.