Leaping without looking is practically the calling card of the Doctor but this time the price paid may be staggering even by his standards- and it may not be him that the bill is addressed to.
What They Say:
Episode 10- The Girl Who Waited
Amy is trapped in a quarantine facility for victims of an alien plague — a plague that will kill the Doctor in a day. The Doctor can use the TARDIS to smash through time and break in, but then Rory is on his own. Can he rescue Amy before she is killed by kindness?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Doctor decides to go a bit pedestrian in his wonderings as he takes Amy and Rory to the second most popular tourist planet in the universe (everyone goes to number one and its rubbish). As the Doctor and companions exit the TARDIS rather than breathtaking scenery they find they are in a white room with a single set of buttons-one using a green anchor symbol and the other a red waterfall. While Amy goes back to get her camera phone from the TARDIS the Doctor and Rory enter a room using the green anchor button. Inside they find a sparse, white room with a table, chairs and what looks like a large magnifying glass in the center of it. Meanwhile Amy leaves the TARDIS having got her phone and since the doors were closed she pushes a button to open them- but she pushes the red waterfall one.
The three discover that the two rooms exist in separate time streams and the one Amy is in is running significantly faster as moments for the Doctor and Rory equal a week for Amy. Even worse, Rory discovers that pushing the red waterfall button and entering that room doesn’t lead to Amy. When a mechanical being arrives the terrible truth is revealed- the planet is under quarantine as a plague that kills in a day has broken out (luckily for Amy and Rory it only effects races with two hearts, which isn’t so lucky for the Doctor as it limits what he can do to help). It turns out that the facility is the epitome of the phrase “kindness kills” as the room allows those on the green side to watch those on the red side live out their entire life span in the one day of life they have left to them due to a compressed time field that is in place.
Things aren’t easy for Amy while the Doctor searches for a way to get the TARDIS into her time stream. She has to dodge the facilities robots that try to “cure” her of the foreign (to them) bacteria she has as the differences in anatomy between humans and the planets native beings is so vast that this act of kindness will be the death of her. While Amy struggles to try to survive until the Doctor arrives as he promised dodging robots may not be her biggest issue. After all, for as clever as he is, the Doctor still needs time to work out a solution and Amy is stuck in a place where a week can pass in the blink of an eye. Will even the last Time Lord be able to fulfill his promise to save her or this time will it become apparent that there are there events beyond even his skills? Will these events cause his companions learn the true weight of what it means to travel with him and the pain that hides inside Rule Number One?
The episode plays into a dark place when it comes to the Doctor as his capricious ways often lead to incredible danger. This episode focuses on that and the consequences of his carefree ways that this time will likely haunt a companion for years, if not the rest of their life. The episode works as it slowly builds to its climax and it shows the dangers of being with the Doctor as well as some of the parts of his personality he tries so hard to hide when his mistakes take one an immense weight. The episode works fantastically as it also slips in some hidden keys to the larger season story, demonstrates to an extent how the Conspiracy of Silence could have come to their conclusion on the dangerousness of the Doctor while also throwing in a lighthearted tribute to a previous Doctor. It is in this careful layering of threads throughout the episode that really causes it to shine, though those watching closely may also point out that it isn’t without some flaws in execution or story logic which are rather minor, but annoying.
The Girl Who Waits is a powerful piece that provides the opportunity and challenge to Karen Gillian (Amy Pond) as her character carries out the title and waits for rescue. While for a normal episode this might be a few minutes to almost an hour of time the time stream gives her the chance to see what can happen over a longer period of time and explore what happens when trust and hope eventually wear out and then twist into far more negative emotions.
In Summary:
The Girl Who Waited is a powerful story that gives its actors a lot to handle in terms of its scope while also providing a very concise portrait of the Doctor, flaws and all. Perhaps where the episode shines best is in its subtlety as it allows events to build to a crescendo but doesn’t beat the viewer over the head at any point allowing them to digest events and getting taken in by the deliberate pacing which in turn helps underscore the whole psychological underpinnings and increases the weight the conclusion drops on the viewer.
Grade: A
