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\nFirst up, let\u2019s give credit where credit is due. Yes, Neil Gorton\u2019s subtle make-up job was a revelation, the robots were fun, the Tim Burton trees were great and Rory cries, but Karen Gillan owns this episode like no other companion ever has before.<\/p>\n
Her exquisite performance as the 57-year-old Amy is the heart and soul of this story \u2013 as writer Tom McRae says, Gillan could have performed with marker pen lines on her face, and you\u2019d still have believed it. Every gesture and look conveys betrayed trust and repressed hurt, a once irrepressible young woman now deeply withdrawn and protectively armoured, physically and emotionally. All this and pitching a very difficult age to play, perfectly. A mere seven years older than my own lovely wife, Amy hasn\u2019t become old by any means – just experienced, embittered and toughened by a hard and lonely life forced upon her by a series of stupid mistakes.
\nWatch again for older Amy\u2019s involuntary reaction to Rory\u2019s fez quip; its entirely convincing that she hasn\u2019t laughed in 36 years, or her surly suspicion when accepting the glasses from him. The weight and sense of wounded dignity to her performance utterly belie Gillan\u2019s true age. And yet, in both guises, she even manages to make the macarena scene work (in Russell T Davies\u2019 time, the song itself would no doubt have blasted over the top of this delicate sequence.)<\/p>\n
And speaking of curious hand movements, the handbots were also well executed. At last one of George Lucas\u2019s thankfully unused concepts \u2013 having Threepio see through his fingers – is realised. Amy\u2019s \u2018Wilson-esque\u2019 pet, an acquired handbot whom she\u2019s named Rory, is a lovely addition. The crude face she\u2019s drawn on him has a smiling mouth, but upturned brows which make him look sad and apologetic \u2013 which is perfectly apt.<\/p>\n
The scenario created here could never end painlessly, and the Doctor\u2019s choice of resolution is heart-rending. I find it impossible to imagine any other Doctor playing this scene, but perhaps they were just lucky enough never to have to face a dilemma like this one. It\u2019s a situation which provokes thought long afterwards \u2013 young Amy is our Amy, but her older self has just as much right to her life. Strong stuff – and quite right too.<\/p>\n
The Girl Who Waited<\/em> isn\u2019t an exciting episode, but will, I hope, form the perfect farewell to Rory and Amy\u2019s tenure on board the TARDIS. Perhaps not chronologically; but after a gift like this, there is surely nowhere else for these characters to go \u2013 and nothing else the Doctor can do to them. I think I can sense change in the air, and perhaps it\u2019s about time.<\/p>\n AH<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" First up, let\u2019s give credit where credit is due. Yes, Neil Gorton\u2019s subtle make-up job was a revelation, the robots were fun, the Tim Burton trees were great and Rory cries, but Karen Gillan owns this episode like no other … Continue reading