Amy's Choice

Amy's Choice is completely different to anything that appears this season or in fact, anything that has appeared before. Simon Nye, a fantastic comic writer makes his only writing credit for the show and what an episode it is dealing with dreams, darker sides and the relationships between the Doctor, Amy and Rory. Join me as we take on the Dream Lord and discover what is real and what is fake. This is Amy's Choice.

Our story begins five years after Amy and Rory have stopped travelling with the Doctor. Amy is pregnant and living in Upper Leadworth with Rory who is now a Doctor. They hear the sound of the approaching TARDIS and run outside to greet the Doctor. They joke about Amy's size saying "you swallowed a planet" and "Your huge!", after which they take a stroll down the main strip of the town. They hear the sounds of birds chirping and awaken in the TARDIS. The Doctor initially thinks that the Leadworth scene was just a dream which they all shared. Rory states that he really enjoyed the supposed dream as you could hear the birds chirping just as they reawake in the Leadworth scene. The Doctor summarises that you shouldn't trust what you see and that this is gonna be tricky.

After the title sequence, we are quickly introduced to the villain for the episode; the Dream Lord. Toby Jones plays this enigmatic and creepy villain to a tee spouting delightful one-liners and creating an air of suspense and intrigue around who he actually is. It's here in the TARDIS that the Dream Lord divulges the particular conundrum that our heroes find themselves in. One world is real, the other fake and our heroes have to decide which is which. So it's time to sleep or are we waking up as they awake in Leadworth.

It's here in the Old Folks home that we reach my favourite exchange in all of Doctor Who. The Dream Lord describes the rules of this challenge that "if you die in the dream, you wake up in reality ask me what happens if you die in reality". Rory replies with "what happens?" "YOU die stupid, thats why its called reality". I don't know why I love this exchange but the way Toby delivers his lines really makes you laugh at the absurdness of it all. He tells them that they have to figure it out which is which and says to the Doctor "One reality was never enough for you Doctor, take two and call me in the morning" before disappearing.

From this point in the episode after everything is established, it's up to our protagonists to figure out which world is real and which is fake. Throughout the remainder of the episode, it's our heroes banter that keeps the episode engaging and entertaining especially their interactions with the Dream Lord. Once the Doctor figures out who the Dream Lord is, we are kept in further suspense with only one clue that "there is no one in the universe who hates me more" from the Doctor. 

Our heroes are to decide between two scenarios one in which the TARDIS is disabled and floating towards a star that is burning cold with only 30 mins till impact, while the other is in Leadworth with killer old people possessed by the aliens known as Ecknodine. The episode continues periodically switching between the two scenarios until the Dream Lord separates Amy from the Doctor and Rory to discuss her feelings. This is where the Doctor-Amy-Rory relationship is further developed with the Dream Lord questioning Amy's feelings for the Doctor which she rebuts outright. She eventually rejoins the Doctor and Rory in Leadworth just in time for Rory to be killed by the Ecknodine. It's through this action that Amy finally makes her choice that the Leadworth scenario is a dream and both her and the Doctor enter a van which Amy drives directly into the house. They awaken in the TARDIS with Dream Lord admitting defeat and leaving the occupants of the TARDIS be. The Doctor precedes to blow up the TARDIS because he knows who the Dream Lord really is.

They reawaken in the TARDIS with the Doctor roaming around the central console column. Amy asks how did he know that the cold star was a dream and who the Dream Lord was. He says that "the Dream Lord was me because no one in the universe hates me more". The Dream Lord represented the Doctor's darker side amplified by psychic pollen which had fused itself to the column and the Doctor quickly disposes of it. With the threat eliminated and the entire episode set within the TARDIS, both the Doctor and Rory want to set off for an adventure but it's Amy Choice to decide where they go but not before the Doctor's reflection morphs into the Dream Lord on the TARDIS console.

Amy's Choice is an episode I can't find fault with, I love the writing and direction as well as the interplay between our main characters and the Dream Lord. This episode is easily my favourite episode this series tied with a future instalment from a new writer from the show. I just wish that Simon Nye would return to write another script for Doctor Who as is debut effort was a joy from start to finish and thats why Amy's Choice receives a 10 out of 10 for being one of the most out-there and entertaining episodes of Doctor Who in a long time.

NEXT TIME: REWIND - THE EDGE OF DESTRUCTION