The Girl Who Waited

[Pooka]

I quite liked this episode. I mean, I've quite liked all the episodes, but this one stood out a bit for me. And it's not just the romantic in me saying that... although it also kind of is.

I liked this because:
- it was genuine sci-fi, which is always good to see in Doctor Who (as it often isn't)
- it had some very good ideas in it - stuff I don't recall seeing before
- the setting was genuinely spooky, in a non-scary, but creepy, way
- it was genuinely presented quite well
- the title was clever

It was, at points, a bit overdone. The Doctor, as usual, was his crazy self and Rory was good as ever, both showing a darker side to their emotions at times... but I thought Old Amy was at points a touch overplayed, and the dramatic swooning of Young Amy towards the end was really far too emphasised (slow-mo? C'mon!).

But then again, Karen got to get her teeth into Old Amy, and was clearly enjoying herself doing so - and it was good (if unnecessary) to hear more of the Amy/Rory backstory.

The whole resolution thing was a bit skewed, but it kind of worked itself out in the end. And I am very thankful that we've gone back to doing individual stories as opposed to a massive and confusing story arc. Whowas always better like this.

So yes. Slightly confusing and some bits were too overdone and not really thought through properly, and it echoes of Amy's Choice at points, which was an excellent episode and by comparison far better than this, but I still think it's one of the stronger point of this series, and a nice idea for a story too.

And well placed Imelda Staunton. It's not right to tell lies.

[Drassil]

While I've never had the urge to tweet photos of shaved kittens with swastika tattoos, I fear it may still be a safer pastime than telling the internet you didn't like a Doctor Who episode. Nevertheless, here goes. I approached The Girl Who Waited optimistically, but overall I didn't like it.

That's not to say I didn't appreciate any of it. Aspects of which I thought highly include the performances, the return of the darker, phobic Doctor (doing to Old Amy what he did to Captain Jack in Utopia), the CGI topiary and, like other KM fans, magnifying glasses on tables. I can't decide, though, whether "Disneyland Klom" is clever or silly. Perhaps references to Love & Monsters aren't the best idea.

Onto the difficulties I had with the episode. For the first time as a sci-fi viewer, I was unable to get to grips with temporal technobabble (i.e. the timestreams concept), in spite of rewatching the relevant parts. And I wasn't convinced by Old Amy's ability to change a predestined event just by knowing she was experiencing one. I was reminded of a couple of episodes of Star Trek involving a present character meeting her future self, specifically Time's Orphan (Deep Space Nine) and the ruinous Endgame (Voyager). While both are arguably inferior to The Girl Who Waited, the episode would have had more of an impact if it had felt more original. There were also questions early on that undermined the plot for me. Would the Doctor and Rory really not have waited while Amy nipped back for her mobile phone? When Rory told Amy to push the button, why didn't she ask which one? And if the Doctor knows he is to die on Earth, did he really need to be so worried about catching a plague on Apalapucia? Finally, if the Daleks are being given a rest, I would rather like the words "wibbly" and "wobbly" to join them.

Ultimately, this was one of my least favourite episodes of Doctor Who. Please don't attack me for that. Each to their own.

[Kieran]

Certainly this was my favourite of the season, alongside The Doctor's Wife.

Tension and build up; the story had plenty of both. All done on what seems to be a pretty small budget (i think the opening two parter ate the majority of the season money pot )

A story I like revisiting frequently.