NuWho Rewatch: The Girl who Waited
Sep. 13th, 2015 07:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecatI like The Girl Who Waited. It is, I think, the Doctor-lite episode of this season and revolves around Amy's accidental entrapment for thirty years in some kind of wierd time-locked quarantine facility and the resulting dilemma over whether to rescue the older or the younger Amy (or both). It has come in for a fair bit of criticism, both for its framing of Amy as a girl who passively waits, and for the Doctor's obvious preference for younger, rather than older Amy.
I think, to an extent, both are valid criticisms since they are very much the surface presentation of the episode, but they ignore the fact that the title is a deliberate tag back to Amy's childhood waiting for the Doctor. The older Amy here has been forced to wait against her will, with no possibility directing her energies elsewhere, has become pretty awesome in the process, is no longer a girl, and has emerged stripped of her starry-eyed hero-worship of the Doctor. I strongly suspect the contrast between her two waits is deliberate and is, in fact, supposed to pre-figure the idea that she can not always be the girl who waits but must eventually become an independent woman.
Similarly the Doctor's preference for younger Amy is criticised directly by Rory and I think we are supposed to be repulsed by it. As I mentioned when reviewing Night Terrors these three episodes, together with the first half of next season are about redefining Amy and Rory's relationship with the Doctor as they grow older and this episode is deliberately presenting us with a what-if where Amy is completely disillusioned. The Doctor is actually attempting to cling onto the girl who waits in preference to the woman who sees him more clearly (though arguably both Amy's have a distorted view of him) and this is a development that then gets reversed in The God Complex, the next story where the Doctor has to deliberately push Amy away. We aren't supposed to approve of his behaviour here.
Mind you, it would have been nice if older Amy had escaped. I like the idea of a grumpy, formidable, older Amy having her own adventures travelling the universe.
The initial set-up is also several levels of ridiculous but I think the rest of the story the episode is telling is sufficiently interesting and well-done to make-up for the fact that the dilemma is extremely contrived.
As I say, I like this episode. Like many Doctor/Companion-lite episodes it tries to do something a little different with more of a focus on character than on action and I think it succeeds pretty well. If it fails, it is perhaps, that the irony of the title and its criticism of the Doctor are not made clear enough.
I think, to an extent, both are valid criticisms since they are very much the surface presentation of the episode, but they ignore the fact that the title is a deliberate tag back to Amy's childhood waiting for the Doctor. The older Amy here has been forced to wait against her will, with no possibility directing her energies elsewhere, has become pretty awesome in the process, is no longer a girl, and has emerged stripped of her starry-eyed hero-worship of the Doctor. I strongly suspect the contrast between her two waits is deliberate and is, in fact, supposed to pre-figure the idea that she can not always be the girl who waits but must eventually become an independent woman.
Similarly the Doctor's preference for younger Amy is criticised directly by Rory and I think we are supposed to be repulsed by it. As I mentioned when reviewing Night Terrors these three episodes, together with the first half of next season are about redefining Amy and Rory's relationship with the Doctor as they grow older and this episode is deliberately presenting us with a what-if where Amy is completely disillusioned. The Doctor is actually attempting to cling onto the girl who waits in preference to the woman who sees him more clearly (though arguably both Amy's have a distorted view of him) and this is a development that then gets reversed in The God Complex, the next story where the Doctor has to deliberately push Amy away. We aren't supposed to approve of his behaviour here.
Mind you, it would have been nice if older Amy had escaped. I like the idea of a grumpy, formidable, older Amy having her own adventures travelling the universe.
The initial set-up is also several levels of ridiculous but I think the rest of the story the episode is telling is sufficiently interesting and well-done to make-up for the fact that the dilemma is extremely contrived.
As I say, I like this episode. Like many Doctor/Companion-lite episodes it tries to do something a little different with more of a focus on character than on action and I think it succeeds pretty well. If it fails, it is perhaps, that the irony of the title and its criticism of the Doctor are not made clear enough.