There’s been a tradition of ‘Doctor Lite’ episodes since ‘Love and Monsters’ in series 2. Born of necessity (Billie Piper and David Tennant were tied up filming other episodes in the series), the tradition of ‘Doctor Lite’ has actually brought about some really good episodes, most notably ‘Blink’. ‘The Girl Who Waited’ followed in this tradition and combines sci-fi, romance and tragedy.
The Doctor takes Rory and Amy to the planet Apalapucia. When they arrive they discover that the planet is suffering from a fatal plague that affects beings with two hearts and can kill them within a day. "Kindness Centres", have been created where those infected by the plague are placed in accelerated time streams, allowing them to live out their lives whilst in communication with their loved ones through a glass lens in the waiting room. On their arrival, Amy is separated from the Doctor and Rory, and becomes stuck in an accelerated time stream. As the Doctor and Rory discover Amy's location, they are approached by one of the facility's ‘Handbots’. The Handbot explains about the plague, and mistakenly attempts to administer medicine that would kill them both. The Doctor uses the glass lens to warn Amy of this, and tells her to wait for him, promising to rescue her.
This is a weepy. I unashamedly cried like a child.
It’s Karen Gillian and Arthur Darvill’s finest episode. Actually its Gillian’s episode twice over because she plays young Amy and old, bitter Amy. They are two great performances, especially old Amy. Everyone’s going on about the prosthetics used to make her look old but I don’t think it was too bad and quite frankly if that’s all you’re paying attention to then you’ve totally missed the point.
Old Amy is so angry (and rightly so, I’d be pretty cross if my childhood hero left me to fend for myself in an alien world for 36 years) it’s a bit of a shock because the only emotion she’s conveyed thus far for the Doctor is wide eyed wonderment (except in ‘A Good Man goes to War’ when she asks the Doctor ‘What’s the point of you?’ which gave us the hintiest of hints that he may be falling out of favour with her). I had started to question Gillian’s acting ability because Matt Smith and Arthur Darvill have been so fantastic but in this she shows exactly what she can do.
Rory is a man torn with two different versions of his Wife. One is older but totally kicks ass (Amy turns futuristic samurai and it’s AWESOME!) and the other is the girl he married. The sad twist of fate is made so much worse knowing the hardship that future Amy has faced and regardless of age, she’s still the woman Rory loves (it was at this point that I cracked and wept rather noisily into my cup of tea). Darvill has been so wonderful, and continues to be one of my favourite companions ever.
It’s a wonderful episode, especially when you take into account that it’s kind of been done on the cheap. There’s a cheap and cheerful episode every series (to offset the cost of massive productions like ‘Curse of the Black Spot’ etc) but thankfully the ‘Who’ team are quite good at making the low budget look blockbuster. All filming locations for this episode were in Cardiff (I can’t remember what it’s called but it’s a big, lovely, public garden, someone from ‘Don’t Tell the Bride’ got married there) there were no guest stars (unless you count Imelda Staunton as the voice of the interface) and all the ‘Tim Burton-esque’ trees and stuff were CGI trickery.
Tom MacRae has previously written ‘Rise of the Cybermen’ and ‘The Age of Steel’ which heralded the return of the Cybermen and the introduction of the parallel universe. I liked these episodes; they haven’t stuck with me like others have, but they’re fine. This on the other hand has lasting appeal. It’s a mish mash of wonderful genres; the obvious sci-fi influence (it is Doctor Who after all), just the right amount of comedy and so much romance. The romantic element could have been suffocating but I didn’t find it saccharine at all. I loved MacRae’s script and I hope he continues to write for the show.
Its things like this that make me blissfully, blissfully happy, it worked so perfectly, a ‘Who’ fan really couldn’t have asked for more. It’s a superb 45 minutes of television that’s funny, action packed and so moving. Perfect storytelling with a killer emotional sucker punch. The only trouble is now I want to know why everything else isn’t as good as this. It’s up there with ‘Blink’ and ‘Midnight’ for me.
Just a little extra nugget of ‘Who-nievrse’ wonderfulness. I was looking back at some of the ‘Doctor Lite’ episodes and I don’t know if this was intentional but in ‘Turn Left’ the Italian family that Donna, Her Mum and Wilf share a house with are called the Colasanto’s which is the surname of Angelo from ‘Torchwood: Miracle Day’…
Now it’s time for some…
Reasons to be cheerful :-)
Reasons to be cheerful :-)
1. OMFG IT'S ACTUALLY HERE!!!! The Avengers Trailer is HERE!!!!! This is immense! I'm so excited about this :-)
2. Disney is re-releasing some of its stellar back catalogue in 3D! Now I’m not a big fan of 3D, I think at its best it’s pointless and at its worst it’s distracting, but if releasing them like this means a younger generation can see these wonderful films on the big screen then its ok by me. ‘The Lion King’ was released in the UK last week (it’s already made $80 million in the US) and next year Disney is planning to re-release the Oscar winning ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘Finding Nemo’. In 2013 there are plans afoot to re-release Pixar’s ‘Monster’s Inc’ before the release of ‘Monster University’ in June and 1989’s (an excellent year if I do say so myself…) ‘The Little Mermaid’. Needless to say, I’ll be first in line :-)
3. The Muppets say don’t talk during the film! I bloody love this! Btw… 121 days to go!
4. New pictures of the untitled Tarsem Singh film based on the story of ‘Snow White’ have been released. This is the pretty one with Lily ‘daughter of Phil’ Collins not the emo looking one with Kristen ‘face like a smacked arse’ Stewart. This one looks more like my kind of thing, bright colours, massive dresses and fairytale Princes (Armie Hammer, yum!). It looks spectacular; let’s just hope the story lives up to the aesthetic.
5. New trailer for ‘The Walking Dead’! I think Andrew Lincoln is helping me deal with my phobia of Zombies. Seriously! I used to be totally rubbish with any horror, but now, since watching ‘The Walking Dead’ I’m so much better, I can watch ‘Dead Set’ now without freaking out and not sleeping for days!
With all those reasons to be cheerful it’s no wonder I’m in such a good mood today!
Goodbye till next time :-)
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