DW 5x07 - Amy's Choice

[caz963]

I didn’t get to watch yesterday because I was out, so I’ve done my best to avoid reading too much about the episode.

I think that was the best episode of the new series so far – and Simon Nye needs to write more Doctor Who.



It’s no secret that while I can enjoy the silly and the daft and the monster/alien-of-the-week stuff in DW, the thing that really hooks me is the more character driven element. That was one of the things that Rusty brought to the show and that he did very, very well – the bits “in between”, if you will. Ten talking to Donna on the rooftop in The Runaway Bride, telling Martha about Gallifrey in Gridlock,telling Adelaide about her granddaughter in Waters of Mars - to name but a few.

And I’ve been missing it, big-time. I’m watching and enjoying S5, but it’s not been hitting the spot for me in the way it used to. So – thank you Simon Nye for bringing back my squee, even if it’s only for one episode.

What’s the betting the Daily Fail will be full of complaints from Help the Aged next week? *g*

I liked the way the episode was constructed and paced, with the sharp cuts between the two worlds, and as you’d expect from someone primarily known as a writer of comedy, there were some fabulous lines and comedic moments. “You’ve swallowed a planet”; the thing about the Doctor’s outfit being designed by a first-year fashion student (although to be honest, I can’t see a first-year fashion student being caught dead designing something incorporating a tweed jacket and bow tie!), the moment on the bench, that image of the Doctor cupping his hands underneath Amy as she pretends to go into labour; Amy's getting pregnant so she didn't have to watch the local Amateur Operatic Society doing Oklahoma!...

And whatever the reason, Moff and team have clearly adopted the view that Ten deflowered the Virgin Queen – we’ve had two references to it this season! Also – mention of his penchant for redheads (there’s only been one in nu-Who though) and the fact that Elizabeth the First er… wasn’t. Wasn’t his first what? Queen? Elizabeth? Or redhead? Oh, the possiblilities for fanwank are endless. I shall choose the latter because clearly Ten and Donna were going at like bunnies and the only reason he married Liz I was because she reminded him of Donna. *wink!*

And then there were the darker moments. About what happens when the Doctor leaves and/or discards his companions, his selfishness in his need for them. YES! And at the end, the Doctor himself acknowledges that after 907 years, he’s bound to have a lot of inner demons for someone like the ‘Dream Lord’ to prey on. I loved the “there’s only one person in the universe who hates me as much as you do” line – which was when I got a clue. Because yes, the Doctor is that person – there were times when the depth of self-loathing that Nine and Ten carried seemed like it would burn them up. Eleven is suppressing all that so far – and I still can’t work out if it’s deliberate or simply inexperience and/or poor direction, because even here, when you could see that the barbs the Dream Lord was throwing at the Doctor were affecting him, it didn’t seem like they affected him enough.

I also liked the scene between the Dream Lord and Amy - it points up one of the reasons I've found it so hard to like her - which is her very propietary attitude towards the Doctor. She thinks he's the girl to whom he tells everything. Why the hell does she think that? She knows he's "very, very old" and I presume realises she's not the only person he's travelled with - so how can she possibly think he's told her everything? Why does she think she's so special? And more to the point - WE HAVEN'T BEEN GIVEN ANY REASON TO THINK HE THINKS SHE WOULD 'DESERVE' THAT EITHER! I really hope that this is all deliberate and there will be some big reveal later, but this arrogance is one of the things I really dislike about Amy.

Thing is – does anyone else feel like that whole alien-pollen thing wasn’t the truth? It felt a bit too - I dunno - convenient? to me. I can’t help thinking of the Doctor clapping his hands and rubbing them together with glee when he sees that Amy has indeed made her choice. He didn’t say “sorted!” but it was hanging in the air. And what did he say at the end of Flesh and Stone? That he needed to get her sorted out. So for some reason, it’s important that Amy chooses Rory – OR, could it be not so much that she chooses Rory but that she chooses someone who isn’t the Doctor? And if that’s the case, while on one level, I can understand him wanting that for her because he’s lost so many who’ve loved him, but I imagine it’s important in terms of the bigger picture, too. So were the dream worlds somehow engineered by the Doctor to further his matchmaking designs? We know he can be a manipulative bastard - and he's admitted it - although I don't think we saw so much of that side of him during Rusty's tenure.

I'm still really liking Rory and hope he'll stay on board the TARDIS for the foreseeable future. He makes Amy bearable for me, but he's also a good character in his own right. He's not 'Rory the Idiot' - last week, we saw that he was able to sum up the Doctor and the effect he has on people with rather a lot of insight, and that he wasn't going to be easily overawed, despite the fact that he's up against the most amazing man in the universe(!) He's an ordinary guy showing that it's okay to be ordinary - and that an ordinary guy can be extraordinary nonetheless. He appears to be in the two-parter coming up; is he around for the rest of the series?

And we've passed the halfway point of S5.

Comments

[hooloovoo_42]

I still haven't finished last week's ep and I'm not sure I couldn't have done without this week's.

There were bits of it I found OK, like the Dream Lord being a manifestation of the Doctor's dark side. But I find Rory duller than a dull thing on a dull day. His ponytail was possibly the best thing about him.

I'm glad Amy made her choice, as it gets us away from yet another lovesick companion, but I'm still not finding either Amy or the Doctor anything other than placeholders. I'm not campaigning for Ten back, I'd just like the Doctor back, please.

[scarfman]

when you could see that the barbs the Dream Lord was throwing at the Doctor were affecting him, it didn’t seem like they affected him enough

But I liked that. I like to think he's recovering from the Time War, and recovering the person he was before then. Not that he'll ever become no-longer-affected-at-all, but it's natural that the barbs should stop sinking in so deeply.

[back2real.livejournal.com]

Nice review, I think I agree with you on most points, but particularly on the bits about how Amy has such an overblown view of her own importance. Is this due to an overactive fantasy life? Is it masking insecurities? She seemed pretty sure when she answered the Dream Lord that yes, she's the person the Doctor confides everything in. Absolutely insane! I mean, not even Donna, who he asserted was his best friend, not even she would presume to know everything about him! I'm becoming more and more frustrated with Amy. Too many things don't make sense and I can't buy into a theory that the sketchiness of her character is part of the larger story arc. As someone else, somewhere, pointed out: the episodes need to be able to stand alone. We can't become emotionally invested in her if we have to wait till the end of the season to understand what she's all about.

[huggyrei.livejournal.com]

I like to think she wasn't his first Liz (Liz Shaw anyone?).

I'm liking Rory as a companion. Reminds me a bit of Harry.

[smithkingsley.livejournal.com]

I think that was the best episode of the new series so far – and Simon Nye needs to write more Doctor Who.

Completely agree with you there. This was really great storytelling. Rory makes Amy tolerable for me too, and I hope he sticks around.

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

Why the hell does she think that? She knows he's "very, very old" and I presume realises she's not the only person he's travelled with - so how can she possibly think he's told her everything?

It only makes sense if, in some meeting we have not been shown, the Doctor told Amy "I am telling you everything."

There seems to be an unfinished conversation between the Doctor and Amy about trust: Trust me most when I am lying to you, he said to her at one point (last week, I think?). So presumably if he *did* tell her "everything," he was lying. But she seems to be basing her claim on more than the few adventures we've seen them do together.

[morgaine-nicely.livejournal.com]

i agree with you on some aspects of this (although ten and donna going at it um no lol they were more like brother/sister best friends to me) but i digress lol i was bored with this episode i dunno i've tried to get interested in the different things that have been happening but it's like you said the character driven element. I just CAN"T get into eleven. cant. (and what's with them saying the doctor loves redheads all of a sudden? lol the whole elizabeth thing is annoying-funny when ten said it just as a laugh with the car alarm on the tardis) but now..i dunno. it's like they throw things in here and there

[morgaine-nicely.livejournal.com]

and i just dont think she knows EVERYTHING even though she said that she does.

[luinel-anduril.livejournal.com]

You seem to have enjoyed this more than i did... But i completely agree that Eleven orchestrated the entire thing, that none of it was accidental, that he was meddling to the extreme. But maybe that's just because the episode doesn't really work otherwise. I hate the trite explanations that scream fail, and am sick of Eleven making the Doctor looking totally inept. I'd rather have more dark Doctor a la Waters in Mars, tyvm.

[othellia.livejournal.com]

I've just thought of something. Does Amy even know that the Doctor has more than one heart?