Review of The Girl Who Waited
Warning:  This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2011 BBC

With a few jarring-moment exceptions, I was able to enjoy this episode as it was intended – an emotional look into Amy’s character and into her relationship with Rory (again). It starts out very contrived, with Amy and Rory both breaking Rule Number Whatever: Don’t Wander Off and making some dumb moves (e.g., telling Amy to “push the button” instead of specifying, or not asking Rory in return, “which one, idiot?”). Then we get the somewhat ridiculous excuse to strand the Doctor in the TARDIS (“Germ 7” is loose, and only affects two-hearted species? That’s the best you’ve got?) so that they can shoot Doctor and Companion material separately a la “The Lodger” (they even go so far as to have a TARDIS-to-planet comm link in the same way).

Once the crew officially splits up, though (and why is Amy so sanguine about letting them fly off to “rescue” her, knowing the vagaries of the TARDIS?), everything steps up a notch. Along with the handbots becoming increasingly creepy and unintentionally (on their part) threatening, we get a few humorous moments as Amy gets oriented (like the available ride “authentically modeled on the famous Warp Speed Death Ride at Disneyland-Clom“), and the beautiful scenery of the Gardens to ease us into the main story.

From the moment Rory encounters Old Amy (or, to be kinder, Future Amy), I was pretty much sold. The episode from here on out rides almost entirely on the performances of Karen Gillan (Amy/Future Amy) and Arthur Darvill (Rory), and I, for one, thought they both did a brilliant job. It gave Gillan a chance to show off her acting chops, and really demonstrate through body language as well as dialogue that these were different people. There were moments unrelated to the acting that pulled me out of the story for a beat or two (where’d Future Amy find a katana? what bloody good does it do to smash (a cheap copy of) the Mona Lisa over a handbot’s head?), but there were far, far more that told me just how well these actors know their characters (or mastered an essentially new one). I loved Rory’s simple acceptance of defeat in that round after Future Amy did look him in the face and say she wouldn’t help; I loved current Amy’s little soliloquy about how “Rory’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever met”; I even loved Rory doing his best to make peace between the two Amys (Rose and Sarah Jane, anyone?).

In the end, though, it’s all a massive case of Rule #1. The Doctor makes up some beautiful techno-babble to get everyone to keep going, and makes what he feels is the right, difficult choice in the clutch. The first time I watched it, I felt a bit betrayed by the Doctor. It left a bad taste in my mouth, and I was a little angry, thinking it was out of character. The second time through, though, knowing immediately when to apply Rule #1, it didn’t come as such a shock, and I found it easier to accept as a different sort of morality (almost like the moment in The Unquiet Dead when Nine agrees that “recycling” corpses is a fine thing to do, much to Rose’s horror).

During this phase of the episode, we get the requisite tie-in to the rest of the series. It was doing just fine as a stand-alone, and then they had to throw in some Portentous Dialogue. I suppose you could take it at face value, but when the Doctor starts reciting that drivel about “sometimes knowing your own future’s what enables you to change it, especially if you’re bloody-minded, contradictory, and completely unpredictable,” no one but Rory really believes he’s talking about Amy. Yeah, yeah… Time Can Be Rewritten – we get it already.

Before it’s all over, though, it’s back to another meaty acting scene. Rory’s agony – and anger (not the first time he’s taken the Doctor to task!) – at being forced into a choice feels real, as do both his initial unwillingness to make that choice and Future Amy’s capitulation, giving him the strength he needs. Maybe it’s because I’m just a giiiiirl, but that sacrificial love – loving someone so much you’re willing to make the decision that’s more painful for you, but will make them happier – really rang true. Because when Future Amy tells her husband, “don’t let me in. … I won’t bow out bravely,” its as much an admission of her love as “I’m giving her the days” is. And that’s what makes the Woman Who Stopped Waiting one of the best characters of the series.