On last night’s Curb Your Enthusiasm finale, the question was posed to Jeff by his wife Suzy as to whether or not he would take a bullet for her. Through a series of amusing and somewhat unfortunate events (as usually happens on Curb), Jeff ended up taking that bullet for his wife in a rather unusual way, thus resulting in hilarity but also a nice little nod to Jeff’s unusual devotion to his wife.
Saturday’s episode of Doctor Who makes this look like even more of a farce than it already is.
Now that that segue is out of the way, check after the cut for some thoughts on the episode. I suppose a few spoilers are discussed.
Well, this was a big bottle of sunshine and lollipops, now wasn’t it?
I derided last week’s episode for being a one-off episode that added nothing to the plot nor being all that entertaining. That’s the trouble with Doctor Who episodes in general. Unless it connects directly to the ongoing plot of the season ever since Moffat changed the format of the show, it’s sometimes hard to keep us (or just me) entertained in a show that was always one-off episodees. It takes something really special now, something really creative to keep us glued to the TV set for an hour. I don’t want to say we’re getting a bit picky, but when you have dynamite madman episodes written by Moffat interspersed with a bunch of episodes about pirates or vampires in Venice, sometimes you want more.
That’s where “The Girl Who Waited” comes in. Amy Pond, the eponymous girl who is just always waiting for the Raggedy Man to come save her, is finally pushed to her limit when, after a spot of time travel wonkiness on a not-so-paradise planet, she is left three/four decades on her own fighting for her life. Except that she’s not, because time is just a thought for the Doctor, and the “real” Amy – the one who isn’t 60 years old and bitter and a warrior princess – can be saved. This is completely within the Doctor’s power to do so, but the only problem is he’s not the one who is going to make any of the decisions here. No, that’s Rory the Roman’s problem.
If you are familiar with writer Tom MacRae’s Who history, then well done. If not, then you might be interested to know that MacRae is best known for writing the two-parter feaeturing the return of the Cybermen on the show back in season 2 when Davies helmed the program. Since then he hasn’t been around much on the show, but given the success of those episodes it should not come as a huge surprise that this episode is really quite good. You wouldn’t think it, but it’s actually quite easy to do an episode of Doctor Who that is good outside of whatever epic journey Moffat has planned; all you have to do is take the things that make Doctor Who worthwhile and play them up – the personal relationships, the various character arcs, time travel, the Doctor’s morality. MacRae uses all of these things in the episode, giving us very coy but important callbacks to episodes past which play up a lot of the themes and ideas being spread about in Moffat’s run of the show. As far as one-off episodes go, this one may take the cake from all the others this season.
Then again, part of that has to do with the relationship dynamic between Amy and Rory, which is an easy way to latch onto a distinct emotional connection the viewer has to the show. There has never been a case of the Doctor having two married companions travel with him before, let alone two companions who have easily become the most affable of the bunch. By not pairing the Doctor with a woman hopelessly in love with him and instead adding a new dynamic, Moffat essentially added a new plot device to the show to be used when convenient in the character of Rory. It’s been said before, but Rory started out in the same boring jealous place that every boyfriend is placed on Doctor Who before they’re given the chance to become someone else (see: Rose’s Mickey). However, Rory has quickly worked his way from “Ugh, that guy, again?” to the best character ever, so dreams do come true. (Unless, however, you are Rory, in which case this episode is a literal nightmare.) So it really is quite easy to make a quick emotionally resonant episode on Who now – make something awful happen to Rory at Amy’s expense, and watch the fans weep (or vice versa, really).
It’s never that simple though, is it? We’ve seen Amy kidnapped and turned into dolls before. You need something a bit more complex than that. That’s why Rory is given the two Amy dilemma, one that was previously played up for sexy laughs) that is now used to push Rory even further down the Doctor’s rabbit hole. It is said, after all, that the Doctor turns people into weapons, as we saw in “A Good Man Goes To War,” and now, because the Doctor won’t make the decision, it’s ultimately up to Rory as to which Amy he saves. It’s Rory who has to pull the trigger, Rory who has to be the Doctor, and that’s just heartbreaking. There have been many episodes that basically defined Amy and Rory’s relationship with one another as well as with the Doctor, but it’s safe to say that “The Girl Who Waited” might just be the most telling of how far these characters have come since “The Eleventh Hour.” Oh, Rory.
Suffice it to say, “The Girl Who Waited” is a pleasent upswing of quality since last week’s less than desirable dollhouse romp with another fantastic performance by series underdog Arthur Darvill. Humorously enough, I’m reminded in this episode by the never-ending debate in the world of comics about things that “matter.” Some people believe that comics that “matter” (in terms of a shared universe) should be bought over comics that are genuinely just good. That’s why things like last week’s episode feel like a slight, because not only does the episode not matter, but it also wasn’t very entertaining, especially in the wake of an episode that does “matter” and was great. However, it’s things like “The Girl Who Waited” that proves no, it doesn’t have to matter — it’s more than fine, and often times more important, to just be genuinely good.
