Amy's Choice
review

Holistic Review: One of the most format-bending stories we've seen since the start of the revival, yet it's a perfect fit for Doctor Who, and the storyline is given a great lift by its insightful character analyses and the inclusion of a fantastic villain.

What we have here is clearly the high-concept episode of the season, in which we're presented with a quirky and potentially game-changing storyline told with unusual stylish flair and emotional involvement. Actually, this sort of story is kind of rare in Doctor Who, aside from examples like The Celestial Toymaker, The Mind Robber and arguably something like Earthshock. The most obvious comparison and the nearest analogy to Amy's Choice is "Normal Again" from Buffy, a series which specialized in this sort of "departure from the norm" episode ("Halloween", "The Wish", "Hush", "Superstar", "The Body", "Conversations with Dead People", "Storyteller"... need I go on?). In both stories, the lead(s) find themselves flitting between worlds and having to choose which is the real world and which is the delusion, the main difference being that the Buffy episode has a much more ambiguous ending. I definitely prefer the Doctor Who ending, which at least leaves us in no doubt as to which world is real, although sadly it does cast some doubt on the existence of the Dream Lord, who is one of the coolest villains we've had in a while. (I'm not entirely convinced by the Doctor's claims that it was really him all along, via psychic pollen — would his subconscious really be that cruel? and why would he hate himself more than anyone else in the universe? — so I'm glad that the final shot implies that the Dream Lord really does exist.)

Toby Jones is just fantastic as the Dream Lord, totally confident and in control enough to taunt the Doctor and his companions mercilessly. I love the fact that he and the Doctor apparently have a long history which he's only hinting at here, and that he can apparently monitor people's dreams, and uses this information to unnerve them. His knowledge about Amy and the Doctor is extremely tantalizing and we don't really get many answers as to why he knows so much about them, but he does a great job of stirring up trouble in the TARDIS. His motivation for doing this seems to be nothing more than his own amusement, which is sadistic and, I often find, one of the best motivations for villains, because it makes them frighteningly unpredictable and dangerous. Initially I thought (or should I say hoped?) that he had to be the Toymaker, given the way he seemed to regard this puzzle as one big game for the TARDIS crew to solve, his ability to manipulate dream-reality to some degree, and the fact that he gave up and retreated merely because the TARDIS crew beat him at his own game. But the Toymaker wouldn't be the first person who comes to mind as someone who really hates the Doctor, and it doesn't explain the Dream Lord's specific ability to control dreams (a talent that we haven't seen the Toymaker display, although he can access memories). Gray's theory, which I find yet more plausible, is that the Dream Lord is actually the Valeyard. While I'd be shocked to see the production team going back to that particular well, the truth is that technically the Valeyard is still a loose end (unless you regard Craig Hinton's posthumously self-published charity novel Time's Champion as canon), and it would explain his hatred of the Doctor, his ability to bend non-reality to his will (given his position as Keeper of the Matrix), his tendency to vanish and reappear, his appearance in the Doctor's reflection, perhaps his mocking mirror of the Doctor's dress sense, and it would mean that the Doctor wasn't lying when he claimed that the Dream Lord was "me." I'm trying to think of who else the Dream Lord reminds me of, and the best I can come up with is someone like Ethan Rayne or the Trickster. His only real weak point is his litany of painfully unfunny jokes as the Doctor struggles to stay awake in the butcher's shop, but aside from that scene, he's enthralling and very cool. Does anyone else think that maybe we haven't seen the last of him yet this season? I certainly hope not, anyway.

As a story, Amy's Choice is actually fairly light on plot. You could even argue that the whole episode is pointless, since the TARDIS crew were never really in any danger; had they chosen to kill themselves in the TARDIS dream, the episode probably still would have turned out the same way, unless they were so content to live their lives in Upper Leadworth that they stayed asleep and wasted away in the real world. But that's not really the point, because Amy's Choice is meant to be a character piece, with the Dream Lord forcing them to admit and confront their true feelings, and on that level it succeeds. Of the Doctor, we get further confirmation of his butterfly personality. He finds Rory and Amy's idyllic country life to be a "nightmare", he can fight body-possessing monsters but is helpless with the more harrowing details of everyday life, and he seems angry about facing the truth that once his companions leave the TARDIS, he doesn't make any particular effort to keep in touch; not even, as far as we know, with his own granddaughter. Apparently this is because the Doctor prefers to surround himself with young people (which I find far more believable and palatable than "pretty young women who want to kiss him"), which also ties in to what he told Rose in School Reunion about finding it difficult to watch his loved ones age and die. And his immediate instinct, on finding himself trapped in a village of murderous pensioners, is to run around trying to save as many people as he can on his way to find Amy and Rory, which is heartwarming and lovable.

I sometimes wonder if I've got a double-standard with Rory. I'm so fond of him, but do I really know that much more about him than Amy? Or is it just because I relate to him and he doesn't annoy me? Either way, I suppose it's an okay justification for my preference, and in this episode we do get to learn a little more about him. He's a man of simple pleasures, and easily pleased, with no particular ambition other than to have a nice job in a quiet little village with a wife and children. In that respect, he's rather atypical as a companion, most of whom seem to live for the thrill of new adventures. With Rory, you get the feeling that he'd be perfectly happy either way, sitting at home watching television or gallivanting off to far-flung planets, but he'd check first to see if you had any preference. I really like that, and it seems like he'll adapt perfectly well to being back on Earth whenever he leaves the Doctor's company (may it not be anytime soon). We also see his sweet, caring side in the scenes where he deals with his elderly patients, and demonstrates a willingness to cut off his admittedly lame-looking ponytail if it makes Amy happy. But he's not all easygoing and non-confrontational, as he continues to tease the Doctor (about not having any actual medical qualifications, and being a gooseberry). And we learn that he's very insecure. Which reminds me, enough with the cracks about Rory's looks, he's cute! Poor Arthur Darvill.

And then there's Amy, the emotional center of this episode, as Miss You-Know-Nothing-About-Me finally gets an episode dedicated to dredging up personality quirks and emotional issues. Unfortunately, for Amy, this is mostly limited to the central question of "does she really love the Doctor or is she willing to settle down with Rory?", so it's much of the same stuff that we've been getting for the past couple of weeks. But, in amongst all the love-triangle issues, we do get some nuggets of information about Amy as a person. There's confirmation that she's in no hurry to jump into an adult life (which means, as a knock-on result, weddings and babies and settling down in boring villages are right out for the near future), and we learn that, like Rose and Donna before her, she can't imagine ever leaving her thrilling life in the TARDIS, especially to settle down in the quiet countryside. (Amy and Rory are like Henry and Lisa Douglas from Green Acres, apparently. When will Amy start making hotscakes and harassing stick-lookers, I wonder?) Her response to Rory's insistence that everyone has to grow up eventually ("Hm. Says who?") is very telling about her character, and again gives me a tiny peek into her thought processes that helps me understand her a little bit better. I also like that Amy's actually clueless for a moment about why the Doctor and Rory would think they're competing, and then acts all exasperated at them when she realizes what they mean. It's almost as if she thinks they're ridiculous for fighting over her, which is nice, since every other episode has kind of given me the opposite impression. And, like Rose before her, Amy has yet to realize that she's not the Doctor's first companion; given that the Dream Lord doesn't pursue the matter at all, I wonder if the issue is going to come back to bite the Doctor and Amy later in the season. How do you suppose Amy will react when she finds out how many there have been before her?

Turning to the actors, Matt Smith continues to embody the Doctor so well; he's a little bit unpredictable, a little bit ungainly, and a little bit insensitive, but also very warm and caring. I love the moment after Leadworth-Rory has died, when he wants to comfort Amy but isn't sure if he ought to. Among his many great lines this week: the comedic timing of "You haven't changed a bit, apart from age and... size...", "I'm getting on a bit, you see. Don't let the cool gear fool you.", and "Cause the universe is really quite small and there's bound to be someone nearby."

Arthur Darvill also gets several opportunities to steal the show. There's a very well-timed moment when Rory and the Doctor, asleep with their heads together, wake up and leap apart simultaneously. My favorite of his deliveries: "Oh, good, thanks.", "Instead I get duff central heating and a... weird kitcheny wind-up device.", the giggle-worthy "Well, you do have a history of — ...being very lovely.", and the priceless look on his face when Amy admits (too late) that she was starting to like Rory's ponytail.

Karen Gillan is again likeable as Amy, who's slowly starting to improve as she becomes less wacky/unpredictable/incomprehensible and as her attachment to Rory deepens. I think Rory is a very good influence on Amy; I like the way that the two of them bounce off one another much more than when it's just Amy and the Doctor together. Rory seems to give this TARDIS team some much-needed balance. At any rate, Gillan is very convincing this week as a pregnant and slightly bored Amy, particularly after she loses Rory and, apparently, her will to live. (Though it is a bit strange that she's willing to be so selfish when she's about to give birth to Rory's child any day now. Crashing the van isn't just suicide, it's murder.) It's really nice to see her finally realize the depth of her feeling for him. Among Gillan's best deliveries: the hilarious line "This is my life now, and it just turned you white as a sheet, so don't you call it dull again. Ever. Okay?", the utterly unexpected "If we're gonna die, let's die looking like a Peruvian folk band.", and "I didn't."

Aside from Toby Jones, the only guest star who gets much to do this week is the striking Audrey Ardington, who is fantastically creepy as Mrs Poggit. Her look turns from sweet to evil in seconds, and she's just fantastic.

Our monsters are the Eknodine, which are realized via convincing special effects, and provide memorably creepy images of menacing elderly pensioners stalking an oddly-desolate village. I'm not entirely clear on why they seem to be so keen on turning the villagers to dust; their green mist seems to be more of a defense mechanism than, say, a feeding mechanism, so why use it on people who mean them no harm? But they're an effective adversary, even if their appearance does immediately remind me of this photo.

Murray Gold's score this week is pleasantly atmospheric. On the whole, it's understated but fits the episode really well, and there are a few particularly good moments: the first transition from the Leadworth-dream to the TARDIS-dream, the moment when the cold star comes into view, when the Doctor scans the possessed elderly folks, when Amy and Rory wake up in the TARDIS-dream and hold hands, when Amy and Rory kiss, and at the very end of the episode. All in all, really nice! Bravo Murray! I'm beginning to think that he deals much better with episodes that have a clear focus and a definite tone than the more meandering, bouncy, unsubtle RTD episodes. When a story is deeper and more multilayered, he seems to rein himself in. I much prefer this.

As effects go, I've already mentioned the Eknodine eye-in-mouth effect; it looks even better when the eyestalks extend, particularly the fringey dangling tentacles. I was also impressed with the cold star, the TARDIS exterior getting covered with ice, Rory (and others) dissolving into dust, and the frost-covered TARDIS interior.

Catherine Morshead makes a very positive début: the panning shot at the end of the teaser, the picturesque filming around the ruined church, the sweet shot of the Doctor holding Amy's hand as she makes her decision to crash the van, and the final shot of the Doctor leading into a slam cut to black. There's also a great cut from Rory's line "You know the Doctor! He's Mr Cool!" to a shot of Smith lurching unsteadily around a village street, which I'm sure is also partly thanks to Nye's script.

The basic script is very clever; it's a simple story told effectively, with an intriguing mystery in the form of the Dream Lord and his reality conundrum, and a lot of opportunities for character analysis. Initially I thought that the solution would be obvious, given that we're in the middle of the season and Rory and Amy are obviously going to be staying on. However, as it turns out, the village reality is utterly plausible, given that it's set five years after Amy and Rory have parted ways with the Doctor, so this could conceivably have been a flash-forward episode. Therefore, we as viewers are privy to no more knowledge than the TARDIS crew, which gets us equally engaged in puzzling out which one is real. The only real shame is that there's not a ton of detective work involved, aside from the implausible cold star; Amy never actually figures out that the Leadworth reality isn't genuine, she just reacts instinctively to Rory's death. But that doesn't take away from the episode's effect, because the point is that Amy has to choose between her two men, and that's exactly what she does when she watches Rory die. Given that essentially the entire focus of the story is Amy's relationship with her "boys" and which man she'll choose, I feel sure that I ought to be exasperated with it, but I think I'm handling this season's love triangle a little bit better because it's out in the open and being tackled head-on and thoroughly. In that sense, it is a slightly different take on the now-common "companion has a crush on the Doctor" scenario. I also quite like the scene in which the Doctor is able to complete the Eknodines' sentences, because he's heard their sob story so many times before. Splitting up the TARDIS partway through is an intriguing twist, since Rory has to figure out how to save a dozing Amy from the Eknodines while Amy is forced to have an enthralling conversation with the Dream Lord which I wish could have been longer! Simon Nye impresses.

Minor points:

A satisfying departure from the norm. I love these fun "twist" episodes, and the Dream Lord is such a great villain with such an appealing motivation that I really hope the Doctor was lying about his identity, because I'm really looking forward to his return.

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