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6.5X010 The Girl Who Waited (Grading/Discussion) (SPOILERS!)

Grade "The Girl Who Waited"

  • Bowties are cool

    Votes: 88 65.2%
  • Fish fingers and custard

    Votes: 36 26.7%
  • Average

    Votes: 6 4.4%
  • Time's gone Wobbly

    Votes: 4 3.0%
  • Do not be alarmed this is a kindness

    Votes: 1 0.7%

  • Total voters
    135
  • Poll closed .
I'm going to say Above Average for this one, and as for best of the season, I honestly don't know what the best of the season was. I did really like A Good Man Goes to War and the first two parter was very good, and I also liked Doctor's wife, even though I feel like I have the same reaction to that episode as I did with this episode, at least in comparison to others here. Might need to think about this one some more, and maybe even watch it again later on in the week.

The Doctor's Wife didn't do as much for me as it did for a lot of others. I suppose YMMV when it comes to just how effective these kind of episodes are.
 
The constant use of mindless, identical (or nearly) robots/aliens with repeated catchphrases is starting to annoy me a bit. All three episodes so far this half of the season have featured that particular trope.

On the upside, I think this was easily the most successful of them. Overbearing robot nurses make a lot more sense to me than inappropriately cheerful killer antibody flying jellyfish robots.
 
The constant use of mindless, identical (or nearly) robots/aliens with repeated catchphrases is starting to annoy me a bit. All three episodes so far this half of the season have featured that particular trope.

How dare you question the McDoctorWho factory! They've been doing this formula for a long time, doing something different would make audiences confused and angry.
 
So.

Old Amy survives.

Founds the Church of the Silence

And the question is either

"Why am I waiting?"

or

"What was I waiting for?"

or

"What was worth all this waiting?"

Who else would have a marvellous reason to be at war with the Doctor at the moment?

As long as time is compressed nothing "medical" the robots did to her could have killed her, it just means that she can't leave compressed time freely anymore... And if she can take compressed time with her, well that hardly matters anymore does it?

She hated the Doctor before this "adventure", if she survived goodness knows what she thinks of him now?
 
So.

Old Amy survives.

Founds the Church of the Silence

And the question is either

"Why am I waiting?"

or

"What was I waiting for?"

or

"What was worth all this waiting?"

Who else would have a marvellous reason to be at war with the Doctor at the moment?

Old Amy's biology could have changed after the 'kindness' of the robots. They inject the medicines, see that Amy starts dying, realise their mistake and try to save her. Somehow transforming her into Madame Kovarian. When 'young' Amy went into labour she was in a white environment similar to the kindness facility. Kovarians is not only killing the Doctor, but also taking away the child that she never had to punish Rory for leaving her.

It would be great if old Amy was the bad guy of the season. And the other hand the last episode would probably a rehash of the Buffy final of season 6. But instead of Xander stopping Willow it would be Rory stopping old Amy. Steven Moffat likes his happy endings. To have a bad guy reformed in the final would be in line with his "Just this once, everybody lives!"
 
^^ For once, I can actually vaguely understand what Guy Gardener is saying. Its a miracle!

On a separate note, the name of this resort planet, Apalachea(???), sounds quite similar to the name of the two-headed species, the Aplans, in The Time of Angels.

And it so happens that the disease only affect species with two hearts. I wonder if its all just a coincidence?
 
Rory?

I imagined it would be River with a sabre swashbuckling against old Amy and her Katana on uneven ground ala Princess Bride.
 
Good episode, made me think of Tuvix. A little unsettling and didn't leave me with a romantic taste in my mouth. Rory saved his wife and didn't save his wife.
 
A snap reaction.

I always thought that RTD's Doctor Who work showed that he went to bed with Lawrence Miles' novels under his pillows, in much the same way that Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek work showed he went to bed with Robert Heinlein's books under his pillows.

I think this week proved conclusively that Steven Moffat goes to bed with Star Trek: Voyager DVDs under his pillows.

Yes, Moffat didn't write this, but he did commission it, so I think it's fair to lay the blame for the episode at Moffat's door.

Maybe it's because I've watched "Timeless" five times in the last month, but I didn't find anything special to "The Girl Who Waited." Yes, the performances from Darvill and Gillan especially were astonishing, and I cannot fault those. But the story was nothing Brannon Braga hasn't done a dozen times already.

Just because it's done with British accents doesn't make it new and different and compelling.

I thought it was more similar to a mix of DS9 eps, actually - Children Of Time, Time's Orphan, and The Visitor...
 
I also loved when Rory asks if two Amys was possible and the Doctor responds with something like "I don't know, it's your marriage.".
that does remind me a little too much of "Time & Space" with two Amys and two everybodys, something not mentioned in this episode.

Yeah, that's one of my reservations too - the TARDIS had no worries about them...

I did sort of wonder whether, really, the Doctor was just worried about having two mothers-in-law if he marries River...
 
Now with two Amy's who both want to stay with the Doctor it wouldn't be so easy.

Except Old Amy specifically said she wanted to be dropped off somewhere and go her own way.

I like Guy Gardener's idea that she somehow survived and becomes the Big Bad of the season - living alone for 36 years, she'd be used to Silence, and has a bunch of "time engines" knocking around...
 
I also loved when Rory asks if two Amys was possible and the Doctor responds with something like "I don't know, it's your marriage.".
that does remind me a little too much of "Time & Space" with two Amys and two everybodys, something not mentioned in this episode.

Yeah, that's one of my reservations too - the TARDIS had no worries about them...

I did sort of wonder whether, really, the Doctor was just worried about having two mothers-in-law if he marries River...

It was a different situation then though, wasn't it? There was an internal paradox already going on, this was creating a paradox.
 
Oh, that'd have to be one of Tancredi's copies because the real Mona Lisa is a monster thingy.
I have no idea what you're talking about there.

Finally the series seems to be back on track, the last couple of eps have done zero for me, as I said last week, not good, not bad, not in between.. But this ep was good, and amzingly carried by Gillan and Darvill, I didn't think much of either of when they first turned up. And it as a Doctor lite ep, he could have shot all his scenes in less than a day.

When he was standing at the door waiting for old Amy, I remembered Rule One. Surprised no one's mentioned that yet.

No, it was pretty good and rewatchable. Good job by all inviolved
 
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"Bowties are cool"

That was so freaking awesome

It wasn't really Doctor light at all

Felt like a really good classic Doctor Who episode

Karen Gillan is smokin hot

I loved the wibbly wobbly time stuff in this ep, it worked together well

Loved it, A+
 
One of the better episodes this season, but that's not really saying much. And after the previous two episodes, anything would look like art in comparison.

It is nice to see the darker side of the Doctor's personality. I always like that, yes he's a fun-loving pacifist who tries to do be a good guy, but he's not afraid to do what needs to be done, even if it's someting horrible.

Karen Gillan did a great job playing a bitter and jaded older Amy. The fight scene near the end was awesome to watch. And there's something strangely comical about the pet robot older Amy had.

This was also a good episode for Rory, the scene where he gets pissed and angry over being in the wrong time stream and showing the Doctor's reaction to the outburst was good moment.
 
I also loved when Rory asks if two Amys was possible and the Doctor responds with something like "I don't know, it's your marriage.".
that does remind me a little too much of "Time & Space" with two Amys and two everybodys, something not mentioned in this episode.

Yeah, that's one of my reservations too - the TARDIS had no worries about them...

I did sort of wonder whether, really, the Doctor was just worried about having two mothers-in-law if he marries River...


The TARDIS had no worries about two of each of them because there were two TARDISes.
 
that does remind me a little too much of "Time & Space" with two Amys and two everybodys, something not mentioned in this episode.

Yeah, that's one of my reservations too - the TARDIS had no worries about them...

I did sort of wonder whether, really, the Doctor was just worried about having two mothers-in-law if he marries River...


The TARDIS had no worries about two of each of them because there were two TARDISes.
to be fair the TARDIS had just materisled within itself, so at that point it was already in a paradox loop. Also the two Amys were only seconds apart unlike in this episode that was 36 years, which I guess makes it more of a paradox.
 
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