• 10th September 2011 • Blog Post by Seb Patrick •
An ep that already seems to have divided people, but I thought it was BLOODY GREAT, so there. Tom MacRae therefore joins Gareth Roberts in the ranks of people who’ve written REALLY CRAP episodes but then managed to later do REALLY GOOD ones. So, well done him.
I’ll be honest: I’m not sure how many of you are reading this series (the Discussion threads have gone a bit quiet), and it’s partly our fault because we haven’t ended up keeping up with reviews (due to a shortage of writers with enough time to fully cover the eps) – although at some point, we will look to have reviews of the entire series caught up with, HONEST.
I’m still following the site! I don’t mind a bit of a delay on the reviews, but any idea when either of the first two will be ready to go up?
As for the episode, I thought it was excellent. Probably my favourite since The Doctor’s Wife.
There were some great moments for all the characters, Rory in particular (calling out the Doctor on his reckless approach to time travelling: “Look in a history book once in a while!”), and that conclusion was quite heartbreaking even though it was clear Old Amy wouldn’t be sticking around for the next episode. That lens was a memorable piece of scifiness, and I loved the contrast between the rooms’ minimal production design and the lush garden area (although those stairwells were less lovely).
Plus, Disneyland Clom! I like Clom references.
I was slightly unconvinced by the initial plot device to separate the characters: if you’re facing an alien doorway two billion light years from Earth and someone called out to you to press one of two cryptically-labelled buttons, wouldn’t you ask “which one”? Also a bit of a stretch was the idea that Amy would be able to build her own Sonic Probe, but I’ll buy it given that in between periods of robot-fleeing she had access to both cinema documentaries and advice from the Interface – and presumably a library in one of those other rooms, too.
Loved it. Apparently my dad proclaimed it his favourite episode ever after just ten minutes.
Arthur Darvill had a fantastic episode. Rory gets better and better – it’s so long since we had a decent male companion (Jack, Mickey and Adam don’t count. Especially Adam).
And I completely agree about the writing. A billion times better than Rise of the Cybermen. (Though I don’t agree about Gareth Roberts – I adored The Unicorn and The Wasp, one of my favourite episodes of series four.)
Interesting to see Rory mention twice, within the same episode that he’s not entirely enjoying traveling with the Doctor. Foreshadowing him leaving?
Anyway, I like this nice quiet corner of Doctor Who fandom. Looking forward to the reviews – no rush :-)
I think the question of “right” is essential to looking at the episode. I’m grateful that the episode didn’t make light of the consequences of the decision, but I do believe the Doctor went too far, which could potentially be fantastic for the narrative.
A few too many thoughts on last night’s Doctor Who: http://theoncominghope.blogspot.com/2011/09/doctor-who-on-forgotten-wives-and.html
Cracking episode. The end.
>(Though I don’t agree about Gareth Roberts – I adored The Unicorn and The Wasp, one of my favourite episodes of series four.)
Actually, I was more referring to Planet of the Dead, there…
Cracking episode. The end.
Correct!
I thought The Girl Who Waited was fantastic and Karen Gillan was very, very good. There I’ve said it.
Not entirely sure why there would be a strongly divided opinion here: strong character work and action-hero goodness, plus steampunk ‘through the looking glass’? Lovely.
Still, I did briefly expect to learn that Amy Pond is red/green colour blind in this episode.