Review: Amy's Choice

I honestly don't know where to begin with this review.  Amy's Choice is by far the most confusing episode in what is a very confusing series, but it is also my favourite episode so far.




It presents us with two dreams:  One, which seems to be Rory's perfect life - he and Amy are happily married, there's a baby on the way, he's a doctor, he's got a (horrible) ponytail, the Doctor isn't around, everything's generally fine and dandy.  Amy also seems happy here, despite finding the place a bit dull (she apparently got pregnant to get out of watching the Amateur Dramatics society perform Oklahoma).

The other is basically just the TARDIS, life exploring the universe with the Doctor.

An entity calling himself the Dream Lord shows up, kills the TARDIS and offers them a riddle: One world is real, one is fake.  Decide which is which, and be extremely careful in choosing, because dying in a dream just means you'll wake up, but dying in reality means that, well, you're dead, stupid.  Oh, and in each world there is a mortal threat, and they only have a limited time in which to decide.

In Leadworth, the threat is a race called the Eknodine, a race who have been wiped out and wish to inflict the same on other planets, and for some reason have chosen the elderly as their hosts.  They are genuinely creepy in that they're eyes on stalks and come out of the old people's mouths, and can reduce you to dust with a single breath.  They immediately take out the children and then focus on the rest of the town.

In the TARDIS, they're being pulled into a cold star, causing the TARDIS and themselves to slowly freeze to death.

Plus they can't stay awake very long in either world.  It's all very confusing.  But great.

Watching the episode over again while being aware that the Dream Lord is the Doctor's dark side rendered corporeal was fascinating. If I were Amy or Rory (especially Rory), I'd be running as fast as I could from this mad, bowtie-wearing alien.
For starters, the Dream Lord is always making comparisons between Rory and the Doctor: Rory is "a bumbling country doctor who thinks that all he needs to be interesting is a ponytail", and the Doctor is a "handsome hero".  Rory is called a gooseberry. The Doctor is impressive in defending Amy, Rory is not.  However Rory gets away lightly when you consider what the Dream Lord says about the Doctor.

He starts by making fun of his clothes, his "tawdry quirks", taunts him about how he abandons people and doesn't have any real friends, willingly offers him to the Eknodine and can't look at him without a sneer on his face.  The Doctor even points out that he knows who the Dream Lord is because "Only one person in the universe hates me as much as you." All very interesting, if this is really the Doctor's dark side coming to life.

How the Dream Lord treats Amy is also fascinating.  He claims he's seen her dreams about the Doctor, and that they'd make him blush if he had blood cells.  He tells her she's "in there" with him, blatantly comes on to her (in a horribly pervy kimono-type thing) and taunts her about not knowing the Doctor's name, and makes fun of her for thinking that she's the only woman in the universe whom the Doctor trusts.

What the Dream Lord is trying to do is make Amy choose between the Doctor and Rory, and it's really not pretty.  Again, if this really is just a part of the Doctor, these are things he's thinking deep down: he actually does want Amy and he thinks Rory isn't good enough for her, and he also hates himself very deeply.

Another interesting thing is that the Dream Lord pointed out that the dream worlds were imagined by someone on the TARDIS.  He could have been referring to all three companions, or he could have been referring to one in particular.  If he's an aspect of the Doctor, we have to assume that it was his imagination that did it.  On one hand, a boring country life that he can tempt Amy away from with a daring victory over a threatening alien race.  On the other, an exciting life in the TARDIS, where he can heroically rescue them from a cold star.  I think it's also noteworthy that his villains are very old people who destroy the young, which seems to be how he views himself as the episode progresses.

It takes Rory's death to bring Amy to a decision: it is him she chooses, and it took his passing for her to realise that she loves him.  In a frankly distressing and disturbing scene, she chooses the TARDIS reality and kills herself and the Doctor in the hope of waking up and seeing Rory again.  For a family show, that's pretty dark!  It's also completely unexpected, given that up until that moment Amy clearly had feelings for the Doctor and just about tolerated Rory.  Her change of mind was believable though, and my heart went out to her.

Once they're back on the TARDIS and Rory is safe again, the Doctor realises that both worlds were dreams, and blows up the TARDIS.  Then he seems to pull an explanation for the whole thing right out of his ass.

Fascinating and all as it is, I honestly do not believe he was telling the truth about the psychic pollen and the Dream Lord being him.  He had the same air to him as when he was telling Amy why he wanted her to travel with him, and both times what he was saying just didn't ring true.  At the same time one could argue that, if the Dream Lord wasn't a part of him, why the hell would he want Amy and Rory to think he was capable of the things that had happened? I guess we'll have to wait and see...

Another interesting point: Patrick Hestor of http://www.atfmb.com/ told me on Twitter today that when the Doctor wakes up in Amy's house in the Eleventh hour, there's birdsong, birdsong quite similar to that in this episode... The plot thickens!

There's also another displaced race in this episode, even if they are dreamed up.  And another connection to mouths: Prisoner Zero couldn't work them properly, we got to see the inside of the Star Whale's, the Saturnynians gave away who they were through theirs, and I can't see a link with Weeping Angels.

I couldn't find any evidence of the crack in this episode; there seemed to be a smarmy picture of the Dream Lord instead.

I also really want to know what happened with Queen Elizabeth now.