Could you do it? That’s always the question I ask myself when there is a moment of morality and love in Doctor Who, could you do it? No. I’d never want that moment. I’d rather be the one stuck in that spot of bitterness and anger than spend the rest of my life pondering the question in retrospect. 

“The Girl Who Waited” is one of those small episodes of Doctor Who, the ones that a group of people hate for not being as flashy, but I love them all the same. I actually agree, it is not as ostentatious as others, and it is not as great, but it is doing something you could almost only do with sci-fi or possibly a bit of fantasy. It is not a great big adventure, and it doesn’t make every moment as big as possible, yet what it does show is that tiny things make for big changes in this universe. Something as simple as saying: “Have you seen my phone?” Then breaking off from a group to find it can be, more or less, life-altering.

I think the reason I actually like the episode so much is just how barebones it happens to be. There aren’t many special effects beyond some makeup, props are limited, the sets aren’t always flashy, and there isn’t a massive cast. Aside from the main three, there are maybe three other people, and two of them are voice-over anyway. The, to use a phrase, “heavy-lifting” comes from Gillan, Darvill, and Smith, all using basics of the script and well-aimed direction to their advantage.

–

So, what’s “The Girl Who Waited” all about then? The main three head to some planet, Amy forgets her phone in the T.A.R.D.I.S and goes back to get it, while Rory and the Doctor go through a door. Simple enough. Amy heads through the same door in the Twostreams facility when she’s found the phone, but it’s not the same room. It looks the same, there is a massive magnifying glass-type thing on a table in the middle too, but it’s not the same room. Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey ball of stuff, I see; As Amy is in the same room but at a different time (kind of), and the thing on the table lets you see into the other time.

I can hear my editor saying “Doctor Who makes my head hurt” already. The planet, Apalapucia, is currently going under a bit of a quarantine as there is a plague killing people. I’m not talking about our world, just the one in the episode. The One Day plague does what it says on the tin, you’ll get it and it will kill you in a day, but only if you have two hearts. With Amy in the second time stream, she’s going fast, which with the planet’s current pandemic ravishing it, these rooms are used so loved ones can watch their family member grow old in that last day.

To cut the long story short: Would you decide to save your wife/husband/child/parent/carer/loved one as you know them now, or as they have become after spending years growing bitterness towards you for leaving them? I’ll ask it again, could you do it? The question seems simple, you pick the one you know and love, but could you live with your conscience, knowing there is a version of them that hates you for it? They don’t hate you for what would be saving them, they resent you because you couldn’t accept them as they are now.

The line that gets me is: “I don’t care that you got old. I care that we didn’t grow old together.” Of course, it is not the best writing, and is a little clunky in the wrong hands, but it is the truth. All around us, there are people we never want to leave, we never want to see them die, we want to grow old and spend as much time together because we love and care about them. That’s what this entire episode is about, and the morality of having two Amelia Ponds and having to decide between them both for which one you save. Could you do it with the ones you love?

That’s assuming, somehow you can also save the other one, without killing one of them. The question here is, could you live with killing the version of your loved one that grew old alone? It is just such a hard question, as the point of the entire show is to be kind, don’t hurt or kill anyone, and do the right thing. Yet, the Doctor is the one that decides to leave the older Amy and passes it off as Rory’s decision, sticking to the countless rules he breaks with whimsy when he wants to. Or rather Moffat breaks with whimsy so Clara can look special, but we’ll get to that in the next few months.

I don’t hate the episode, at least as much as some seem to. I think it has flaws, but I’m ok with the lack of massive explosions and complete history re-writing that comes from Moffat often. If anything needed nitpicking it was probably just a bit of the writing not making the episode as, I guess, “believable” but it is Doctor Who so not all of it has to be to the nth degree. The variation in sets does break up what can often feel repetitive in the darker episodes yet to come. It also helps that this is a bit more psychological than the next few episodes dimming the lights and banging a few chairs. At the end of the day, as a fan watching you are meant to feel concerned for Amy and never want to be in Rory’s position, which it achieves.

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Doctor Who "The Girl Who Waited"

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• The moral questions.
• I like a ginge with a sword.
• "Eyes front, soldier."
• Clom.

Cons

• Sometimes clunky and ill-fitting writing.