Doctor Who The Girl Who Waited Review (Spoilers)

Doctor Who
The Girl Who Waited
By Tom MacRae

"This is a kindness. Don't be alarmed."


Another Saturday and another episode of Dr Who and for episode 10 of series 6 we have The Girl Who Waited by Tom MacRae.  Tom MacRae is the guy who brought back the Cybermen in the wonderful story Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel that featured David Tennants Doctor.  This story looks to be pretty interesting from the trailers as there appears

to be two Amy's.   What a fantastic episode.  We've had two weeks of stories that have been outside of the seasonal arc and let me tell you it's kind of refreshing to watch a stand alone episode from time to time.  The Girl Who Waited was a good story in the sense that the Doctor was helpless to do anything.  Being stuck on the TARDIS so he doesn't catch the disease that could kill him in a day.  So it's up to Rory to save the day.  As he discovers an Amy that is 36 years older than he knew her an emotional tug of war starts as he tries to convince Old Amy to help save Young Amy.   This story is titled after Amy but in true fact this is a Rory story.  Here we see Rory take center stage for once instead of being regulated to the background or used for comic relief.  Instead we see a heroic Rory hell bent on saving his wife, both in fact, while being mad at the Doctor for this screw up.  The Girl Who Waited is a love story that has a sci-fi angle to it.  But it is a love story that has a sad ending as you get the feeling that only one of the Amy's could survive.  But the twist is the Doctor kind of makes that decision for Rory as in one of the shocking moments to happen this season the Doctor closes the TARDIS door on old Amy in essence locking her out and condemning her to death or in this case to never have existed.  On of the saddest moments ever was Rory and old Amy saying goodbye to one another from ones side of the TARDIS door.  You had to really feel for Rory who had to make the decision to keep her out and to keep young Amy.  Truly a great and sad moment in Dr Who. 

On a happier not The Girl Who Waited had some of the best looking robots and scenery that has been featured so far this season.  Alot of the episodes had dark and dingy settings but The Girl Who Waited had the brightest sets. I liked the white sterile look of the space station or planet or whatever it is.  The garden that Amy goes to had some of the better CGI trees and I thought looked pretty cool.   I liked how this episode concentrated on telling a good story and left the action to a minimum.  I enjoyed watching a story unfold where you need to think and concentrate to what was going on.  The action that was in The Girl Who Waited was just enough to change up the pace a bit and also to add to the tension that was all ready building.  I liked The Girl Who Waited alot and have to consider one of the best stories of Doctor Who in the Matt Smith era.  So Tom MacRae has delivered the goods again and lets hope that he writes another Doctor Who story in the future.

Grade A