Amy’s Choice
Story 208, Episode 763, Series 5 Episode 7
Doctor: The Eleventh Doctor
Companions: Amy Pond, Rory Williams
Amy is forced to choose between her fiancé and her fairytale boyfriend in a darkly fairytale story.
The Review
We’ve only just met Rory really, and already we are at the point where Amy has to choose him or the Doctor. This story is listed by many as one of the best, it’s not near there for me but I appreciate how unique it is. The ‘Dream Lord’ played by Toby Jones has trapped the Doctor and company in two worlds, one a dream, one real. In one the TARDIS is drifting told a super cold star, in the other Amy is pregnant and lives in boring rural bliss with Rory. The TARDIS scene being ‘normal’ doesn’t quite mesh with ‘upper’ Leadworth being a representation of Rory’s perfect life, a doctor, living in a small town with his gorgeous pregnant life. The Doctor’s world just being a freezing TARDIS doesn’t quite measure up metaphorically, but odes on the danger scale. The Dream Lord is a dark version of the Doctor, and Toby Jones does great as essentially the opposite of Matt Smith.
The future Leadworth provides most of the drama, including a suitably weird villain in a race of aliens living in old people. Seeing old people shambling around being deadly was pretty amusingly weird. It all hinges when Rory cuts off his ponytail, but then gets disintegrated. Amy decides she isn’t willing to live in a world with Rory, so her and the Doctor kill themselves. Of course, turns out both of the worlds were dreams, which the Doctor realizes as his inner self is behind it all. The Dream Lord being the Doctor’s dark consciousness doesn’t get as much play as it should, but it is about Amy. I just wish that future stories would’ve built off it more. All in all, a solid but unremarkable story for me.
Amy’s Choice is a great idea, but doesn’t quite stick the landing mainly because we just don’t know much about Amy and Rory’s relationship at this point.
8.15/10 Amy choosing Rory is genuinely heartwarming, so points for that. And Toby Jones’ performance of course.
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