I think everyone can agree that the latest Doctor Who episode 'The Girl Who Waited' was pretty darned good. In short, it was one of the most heartbreaking Eps yet, and finally gave Karen Gillian's and Arthur Darvill's characters (Amy and Rory respectively) the material they deserved.
The Episode started off with the Doctor, Amy and Rory landing on the planet of Apalapucia, which is suffering from a fatal alien plague called Chen 7 that kills off anyone with two hearts in a day (so that's the Doctor of the Episode out then). The native population has created 'kindness centres' where those infected by the plague are placed in one of several thousand accelerated time streams, allowing them to live out their lives while in communication with their loved ones through special glass lenses in waiting rooms. Amy (after pressing the wrong button) accidentally ends up in one of these accelerated time streams and by the time Rory finds her she has aged by 36 years. As you can imagine, 36 years is a looong time, and old Amy is quite pissed off with both Rory and the Doctor when they show up late. The problem now is whether they should save the 'Original' Amy or the 'Old' Amy, which seems like a simple dilemma but if they were to save the 'Original' Amy then 'Old' Amy will be wiped out of existence (effectively killing her). Rory has to now basically choose between his two wives, and that type of scenario doesn't end on a happy note...
This is Doctor Who on a complete high. We've had three solid Episodes in a row now, ranging from the wonderfully barmy 'Lets Kill Hitler' to the spooky gothic atmosphere of 'Night Terrors' and the heartfelt approach to this episode. Here the directing, cinematography, acting and scripting are all top notch, and I think it's one of the finer examples of Doctor Who at it's best. Special mention should go to Karen Gillian and Arthur Darvill for their outstanding acting ability in this Episode. I think one of the negative things about Steven Moffat's approach to Who now is how he seems to hide the characters behind all the intricate and complicated plotlines. He just never seems to give the characters a chance to breath, to chat or maybe even have a normal conversation with each other, it's all just been GO, GO, GO! right from the start you know? It's almost like he is so busy trying to construct his next big plot twist that he leaves the compelling characters behind, maybe referencing their feelings once or twice with a line of dialogue but not really going in deep you know? This Episode did the characters justice, finally cemented our believe in Amy's love for Rory (and vice-versa) while throwing in a few cool action scenes (that slow-mo scene near the end with the Apple/Hand-bots was pretty kick ass) and pristine (clearly made by Apple) interiors to stop the viewer from getting bored. It's like the previous show-runner RTD (famous for perfecting the art of the tear-jerker) came back for an Episode, and did his classic 'Rose/David Tennant' scenario that made us all fall in love with the characters. I suppose in a lot of ways for me it was like the only missing piece in the recent Who puzzle (lack of real human emotion and character reactions) has been found and snapped into place. God dammit I loved this Episode.
To quite my Mum after seeing 'The Girl Who Waited': 'This is one HECK of an Episode!'
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