Doctor Who S32E10, "The Girl Who Waited" [spoilers]

[NecronLord]

Objective Interim Spoiler Policy: All prior episodes of Doctor Who up to and including this one may be discussed without spoilers. Recent EU publications and upcoming episodes must be spoiler tagged and labeled. Previews (as released on BBC, website, etc) of the next episode are not spoilers, nor is speculation derived from them.

[Crazedwraith]

Well the concept wasn't bad. The execution was only so-so. Th start was very contrived and most of the episode was just overdone sappyness.

[Iroscato]

Quite simply sublime, IMO. It made up for the last two underwhelming episodes, and it was the first episode since Father's Day to genuinely give me a lump in my throat. 5/5.

[evilsoup]

The first third nearly made me change the channel, but the rest of the episode made me glad that I didn't. A large improvement over the last two episodes. I really liked the Doctor being a lying dickhead to future!Amy, but the best bit was the character stuff with Rory. The only improvement I could have made to the final scene is that I wouldn't have future!Amy just accepting stuff and forgiving Rory - she should have been shouting and screaming and clawing at the TARDIS door to get in, while Rory should have been sobbing, saying 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry...' over and over. But what was there worked too, even if it was a little sappy.

The reasons I can't give this a 5: the appalling, disjointed (to the point of incomprehensibility) first part; and the horrific abuse of slow-motion in that fight scene. Seriously, BBC, this isn't the 90s; slo-mo doesn't make your shitty fight choreography 'awesome', it just prolongs it.

[DarkSilver]

A excellent, powerful character driven piece for Amy and Rory.

The last 2/3 of the episode was excellently done, with enough emotional to even bring a tear to my eye. When Rory screamed out "You're turning me into you!" it echoed my own thoughts as seen throughout this season - slowly but surely, Rory is becoming more and more like the Doctor.

And we're seeing that Amy isn't entirely useless...apparently she's picking up some knowledge with all the time spent in the TARDIS and with the Doctor..I just wonder how this affects things between the Ponds and the TimeLord...

[Eternal_Freedom]

I thought it was excellent, mostly for the fact that for once it was Amy who has the fake death, not Rory. Very powerful stuff being said as well.

The "You're turning me into you!" was excellent I thought, and I especially liked that the Doctor gave Rory the choice, and just kept out of the way. Very nicely done. A definite 5 from me.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Probably the most emotional episode since Amy and Rory's wedding. I feel like the beginning HAD to be a bit over-the-top or the rest of it wouldn't have worked right.

[The Romulan Republic]

Well the concept wasn't bad. The execution was only so-so. Th start was very contrived and most of the episode was just overdone sappyness.

I agree that the episode was sometimes contrived and sometimes sappy.

This episode reminded me of Curse of the Black Spot, especially the unintentionally dangerous medical robots. Though the sequence where they're trying to escape from the robots and reach the TARIS reminded me a lot of Spoiler

Matt, Thom, and Moiraine's escape from the Tower of Ghenjei

in the last Wheel of Time book (which also reminds me of the Wheel of Time/Doctor Who crossover I've been working on).

It was good to see Rory call the Doctor out on his recklessness and irresponsibility. Though he seemed a bit too bumbling and inept most of the episode. You'd think someone with Roman military training who guarded the Pandorica for 2,000 years would be harder to sneak up on and better against the robots in general. This episode did have two wonderful scenes for Rory though. First, smashing a robot over the head with the Mona Lisa. And second, his saying how the Doctor was turning Rory into someone like him.

The scene with the two Amys communicating across time was good as well. For that matter, pretty much everything with the two Amys was pretty good. It dealt with an interesting issue with time travel: when you change the past, what happens to the people who live in the alternate timeline? They're erased. Essentially murdered. I agreed with the older Amy, to a point. And of course, they didn't take that thinking to its logical conclusion. Amy will now interact with thousands of people she never would have met. All their lives will be different, and all the lives of the people who know them, and so on. Its not just one life that was taken.

I feel the end missed an opportunity. I expected at the end they would do the cliche thing and kill off the older Amy to preserve the status quo, but I was disappointed that they didn't do something more original. I would have considered writing it so that she somehow escaped. For that matter, if the obstacle was having two Amys in the TARDIS at once, why not take the younger Amy, drop her off, and come back five seconds later for the older Amy?

Finally, Jesus Christ the Doctor is a manipulative, cold blooded son of a bitch. Its rare I feel such a strong desire to inflict physical violence on the supposed hero of a show.

[Drooling Iguana]

This was basically the anti-"The Doctor's Wife." TDW was an extremely well-written, well-executed episode that did what may be irreparable harm to the franchise, while "The Girl Who Waited" was a fairly flawed episode that seems to be taking the series in a direction it desperately needs to go, with the acknowledgement that travelling with the Doctor can damn dangerous and that he isn't as much of the perfect hero as he might seem.

[The Romulan Republic]

I don't think they need to acknowledge that more. The last two seasons have been basically beating the audience over the head with the idea that the Doctor is often a reckless, irresponsible asshole. To the point that its getting very hard for me to view the character with any sympathy.

[Anarchist Bunny]

An above average episode, but I think it really help solidify Amy and Rory as my favorite companions of the relaunch(though I am an odd man in that regard as I absolutely loathe Rose). Never got emotional, at least nowhere near as I did with the Doctor's Wife(but that relationship had 20 something plus years of history with me, where this had just the last season and a half).

[CaptainChewbacca]

They don't need to spell out he's reckless. He's the Destroyer, the Trickster God, and the Oncoming Storm. He's so dangerous the cybermen, daleks, and all the other evil forces in the universe tried to lock him up for eternity.

[FaxModem1]

Things I liked: Samurai Amy. For too long, she's been the least capable of the trio, and it was nice to see her being a badass, if a Future Badass who wants to kill the Doctor for making her wait.

Rory's comment: "You're turning me into you."

Samurai Amy talking to Rory and younger Amy. Never let it be said that Karen Gillian can't do a solid performance.

Things I disliked: Come on, Rory is a badass, he should have been better able to take out those robots a bit better than that.

Resetting things to the status quo. A much better ending would have been younger Amy stuck on that world and for the rest of the season, we have Samurai Amy. Of course, that would be a strain to the writers of the other episodes.


Still, minor things, 4/5. Definitely better than last week's average spectacle.

[xerex]

yet another episode where the writers keep forgetting that Rory spent 2000 years guarding the Pandorica.

so looking at the preview of the next episode........was the River Song/Silence plot line over with the Hitler episode ? cause it seems we'll have 3 episodes in a row not related to the supposed main plot.

[Crazedwraith]

When has Doctor Who followed one these plots through out its entire season? Say, never. Why are people surprised? We'll probably see River and the Silence week after next in the first part of the finale.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Rory's 'roman skills' are sort of like Xander's military training in Buffy. Generally useless, but they can pop up as a crutch for the writers whenever they want.

[FaxModem1]

Well, at least they're not going the full on Xander route, what with having the guy be rather plotless and unimportant after season 3, and eventually ending up being the team's carpenter, and when not that, their resident joke. Rory at least is more like the Doctor's apprentice, a role we're learning he doesn't want.

[Broomstick]

Finally, Jesus Christ the Doctor is a manipulative, cold blooded son of a bitch. Its rare I feel such a strong desire to inflict physical violence on the supposed hero of a show.

You mean someone who knows their own future, is bloody-minded, contradictory, and completely unpredictable? That Doctor?

The Doctor needs to change his future, too, if he wants to survive. As soon as I heard that line in regards to Amy I though it could also apply to the Doctor as well. So does Amy save the Doctor in the series finale, or does the Doctor save himself?

While the episode seems to have absolutely no connection to the season arc, I have a feeling that will apply in the end.

And aren't you glad that the Doctor is, for the most part, benign in motivation? Can you imagine what it would be like if he was full of malice and wanted to do more than just travel about?

[Atlan]

Finally, Jesus Christ the Doctor is a manipulative, cold blooded son of a bitch. Its rare I feel such a strong desire to inflict physical violence on the supposed hero of a show.

You mean someone who knows their own future, is bloody-minded, contradictory, and completely unpredictable? That Doctor?

The Doctor needs to change his future, too, if he wants to survive. As soon as I heard that line in regards to Amy I though it could also apply to the Doctor as well. So does Amy save the Doctor in the series finale, or does the Doctor save himself?

While the episode seems to have absolutely no connection to the season arc, I have a feeling that will apply in the end.

And aren't you glad that the Doctor is, for the most part, benign in motivation? Can you imagine what it would be like if he was full of malice and wanted to do more than just travel about?

Yeah, like The Master. We know where that goes.

Excellent episode.

[FaxModem1]

Finally, Jesus Christ the Doctor is a manipulative, cold blooded son of a bitch. Its rare I feel such a strong desire to inflict physical violence on the supposed hero of a show.

You mean someone who knows their own future, is bloody-minded, contradictory, and completely unpredictable? That Doctor?

The Doctor needs to change his future, too, if he wants to survive. As soon as I heard that line in regards to Amy I though it could also apply to the Doctor as well. So does Amy save the Doctor in the series finale, or does the Doctor save himself?

While the episode seems to have absolutely no connection to the season arc, I have a feeling that will apply in the end.

And aren't you glad that the Doctor is, for the most part, benign in motivation? Can you imagine what it would be like if he was full of malice and wanted to do more than just travel about?

Frankly, the Silence and the army that created River would be entirely justified in their thinking and would be wiped out in seconds.

[Broomstick]

And aren't you glad that the Doctor is, for the most part, benign in motivation? Can you imagine what it would be like if he was full of malice and wanted to do more than just travel about?

Yeah, like The Master. We know where that goes.

Yeah, except as far as results go the Master isn't nearly as effective as the Doctor. In my opinion.

[Bedlam]

I think the master is often ineffective just because he has to always has to lock swords with the doctor and proove he better than him. If he just stayed well away he wouldn't have a problem ruling his own empire or destroying planets or what ever he wants to do. Look at the sound of drums / last of the time lords, if he'd just offed the doctor when he first caught him it would have all been over but he had to spend a year tormenting him while the doctors plan went into effect.

[Lost Soal]

For that matter, if the obstacle was having two Amys in the TARDIS at once, why not take the younger Amy, drop her off, and come back five seconds later for the older Amy?

The moment the TARDIS dematerialised with younger Amy, the older one was erased. Plus they had made the other option impossible now, the bots knew Amy was there and had her surrounded. Drop off the younger and she dies, so the older is erased anyway.

[Ahriman238]

I generally liked, the Doctor's baldfaced lying was something of a 'what the hell' moment, but I knew they were going to kill Old Amy off somehow.

The TARDIS has a karaoke bar? Since when? None of the previous Doctors have struck me as being the karaoke type.

The music was generally good, but when Old Amy decides to flip casuality the bird it picks up in a way that was really annoying and distracting.

I like the idea of the Twin Streams place, of playing temporal tricks to let a terminally ill person lead a long and somewhat fulfilling life. Sucks not to have nay human contact, but realistically, they're quarantined, that part would happen anyway.
I'm a bit confused why Amy didn't tell the interface she was an alien, immune to the plague and only there by accident. I know the robots brushed off the explanation, but the planet apparently sees quite a few interstellar visitors, why were they not prepared for the eventuality of one making it past their quarantine and into their isolation facilities? They seem to have thought of most everything else.

Rory seems to have only two settings, unspeakably badass and comic relief. So for every badass thing he does (the last centurion, punching out Hitler, dictating terms to Cybermen, etc.) he does something clumsy or idiotic (walking into a wall, letting the robots get the drop on him twice.) I actually like that. I like that he can be badass, but doesn't see the need for machismo in every aspect of his life. It does, however, get annoying when the writers forget that he can fight if he has to.

Really, its no secret that the Doctor has been tkaing ordinary people and accidently bringing them into extraordinary danger for decades. Of course, in the Whoniverse I'm not sure they'd be any safer just staying at home.

Is it my imagination, or did the 'next time' scenes feature the return of the yeti to Dr. Who? Should be interesting to see the new series take on them, but if we're going to keep reviving classic Who villains, I demand to see Ice Warriors.

[The Romulan Republic]

Finally, Jesus Christ the Doctor is a manipulative, cold blooded son of a bitch. Its rare I feel such a strong desire to inflict physical violence on the supposed hero of a show.

You mean someone who knows their own future, is bloody-minded, contradictory, and completely unpredictable? That Doctor?

The Doctor needs to change his future, too, if he wants to survive. As soon as I heard that line in regards to Amy I though it could also apply to the Doctor as well. So does Amy save the Doctor in the series finale, or does the Doctor save himself?

While the episode seems to have absolutely no connection to the season arc, I have a feeling that will apply in the end.

And aren't you glad that the Doctor is, for the most part, benign in motivation? Can you imagine what it would be like if he was full of malice and wanted to do more than just travel about?

I don't deny the Doctor's motivations are (mostly) benign. But there's no point denying that he's reckless, manipulative, and ruthless. He's demonstrated it again and again.

They way I see it, the Doctor's always had a dark side, and since the Time War its become more and more pronounced. This will not end well.