The Episode That Puts the Doctor’s Recklessness on Trial - Doctor Who

[@kemmdog4444]

Who can forget the random Time Lord who appeared in Genesis of the Daleks. The actor also appeared in Preemptive Strike (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

[@PullToOpen]

Nice! Who was he in TNG? The old guy who befriends/adopts Ro?

[@kemmdog4444]

@@PullToOpen Macias,yes.

[@looseleafellie]

I have such mixed feelings about this episode. The concept is fantastic - the timey wimey plots that tug at the heartstrings are always my favorites! I also love seeing the Doctor’s dark side on display. However, I dislike that the episode focuses the central choice around Rory - not Amy, the person most directly affected by the events of the episode. I found your discussion of the Bechdel Test interesting, because while I think its usefulness is highly dependent on the specific piece of media (indeed, Alison Bechdel herself intended it as kind of a joke), it does expose the aspect of this episode that frustrates me the most. In their discussions of who deserves to leave more, the two versions of Amy pretty much only talk about how much they love Rory and how this will affect him, rather than all the other aspects of Amy’s life that she might want to fight for - traveling with the Doctor, seeing her daughter again, her family and friends and hopes and dreams and desires. I also bristle at the episode’s unchallenged assumption that it’s Rory’s choice, rather than, well, Amy’s choice. Sure, the two versions of Amy disagree about what to do, but that’s not a reason to delegate everything to Rory. Overall, I would have loved to see a version of The Girl Who Waited centered around the girl herself, rather than her husband. I wanted an extended argument between the two of them, with young Amy really making her case for why she should stay rather than just going “What about Rory?” We could have gotten a really interesting character study of Amy out of this, and instead we got the Rory Show and some awkward jokes about him having two wives. Don’t get me wrong, I love Rory, but Amy deserved to have the episode about her actually be about her. That said, the episode’s merits might just about squeak it into Dalek territory for me.

[@PullToOpen]

Hi Ellie! Fantastic comment, and you're right - we don't hear nearly enough from Amy herself in a story that's supposed to be all about her. Big chunks of the episode are about dealing with Older Amy's trauma, which are good, though they also set up a perception that the audience should question her agency since she's not thinking straight. That said, you could argue that Older Amy does make some kind of choice in her final moments, telling Rory not to let her in because she'll fight for her life, kicking and screaming (he even appears to unlock the door at one point). Then there's the manufactured urgency of the TARDIS not liking the paradox. It all adds up to the audience having sympathy for "Rory's Choice," even if the path there was rather questionable.

[@looseleafellie]

@@PullToOpen I do like that the final decision was Older Amy's, though I think there wasn't really any other way to write it -- not without exposing the issue with the choice not being hers from the beginning. That would have been a bridge too far for most audience members, I think. You also bring up a great point about how the episode implies that Older Amy isn't objective enough to make a choice about her own life. I think that theme could have been confronted and flipped on its head in a really interesting way if the episode was more centered on Amy.

[@kemmdog4444]

This was the easiest one ever.