The last ten minutes of this episode feature the doctor at his most cowardly and manipulative I love it. Smith plays him as simultaneously immensely cunning and almost pitifully pathetic, willing to sacrifice almost anything to cling on to his friend as he knows her and not face the consequences of his actions. Without this his sacrifice in the next episode, encouraging Amy to see the real him and thus losing his best friend, doesn’t have nearly the same resonance. Ironically, the Doctor consigning old Amy to her death shows how much he depends on her and needs her alive and, crucially, loving him
Manipulative absolutely. I've never seen the Doctor as cowardly and pathetic in this episode though. Is it clear whether he saves young Amy only for himself or does he do it because he knows Amy and Rory will be happier that way? I would say the latter. The scene where young Amy and Rory reunite is proof that the Doctor is making the correct decision. My opinion is that a correct decision in the face of a morally impossible situation is brave, not cowardly.
@@EnPee91 You could say he was more cowardly in their departure episode. When Rory is zapped back by the angel, the Doctor basically tells Amy to leave Rory and says things like how "we don't know where it would take you" while knowing full well that the same angel sends you to the same time and place.
@Shadoshade Yet I've asked myself many times over "What would I DO?" I were in the same situation.. Would I keep 1 (one) loved one & let another go? Is that more tolerable than having no one to love & keep? Honestly, as angry as I was at the Doctor, I pray I never find myself in his situation... I don't think my heart or mind could ever stand the loss. You've made a very valid point.
@@ShadoShade whenever I think about that scene, my blood boils. like, with the knowledge we have about Amy, we could all be sure that she won't give up on trying to reunite with Rory. the Doctor on the other hand, who has been living with them this whole time, acted like that, as if he hasn't seeing Amy at all
He also makes Rory choose not because he has more right to decide fate of his wife, but because Rory was blaming doctor for entire episode, so Doctor just snapped at him. Like "you want to know what it's like to be me? Fine. Let's see how you'll make the decision then". Especially chilling episode on rewatch, when you're already know Doctor had no intention of saving older Amy, yet he's giving false hope, cracking jokes and doesn't seem too distressed. First thing he says to friend who was abandoned for 30 years "by the way, is it a screwdriver?"
This episode is gorgeous. The acting from the golden trio is sublime. Just everything. for an episode that is essentially a three hander they navigate it perfectly. I just really bloody love this ep. and just the ending always has me bawling. I literally can't say more other than it's just golden
Good for Karen Gillan to push herself forward in wanting to still portray the older Amy; it really helped keep her story in the facility feel emotionally grounded and real. Besides, it's not like they could accidentally hire an unknown relative of Karen's to play Amy in another timeline of her life again, right? 😆
Something I really like about this episode, and the TARDIS trappings in "The Doctor's Wife" as well, as how claustrophobic everything is made to feel when the trio are inside the hospital. The white walls, the tight rooms, the lack of windows; it puts you on edge to see Amy be separated from the Doctor and Rory in this colorless, mostly barren environment, and that makes her older self's entrapment all the more frightening. Sort of like Doctor Who's take on the Backrooms concept now that I think about it.
Yeah I agree and they do this in other series 5 and 6 episodes as well. Like god complex does the claustrophobic feel well and also a good sense of uncomfortableness for the characters.
The simplest choices are always the ones that’s overlooked. When your faces with two seemingly harmless choices you don’t always think about asking which because you can always walk right back and press the other one, unlike when there’s loads of choices and it would be easier asking which one. When the choice seemed harmless like it did for Amy, you wouldn’t see the danger in making a mistake because you can always go back and press the other one
Thats the beauty of it though. No matter how safe the TARDIS might seem, at the end of the day you're jumping around to alien planets. NOTHING should be assumed to be safe. Paradoxically however, people who are overly cautious and dont take risks are also the least likely to be asked by the Doctor to accompany him/her.
Also,I like how Amy now feels how much Rory has had to wait for her.2000 years outside a box,a few more in The Doctor's Wife & in the aborted timeline in The Angels Take Manhattan.
Even then, she's only had a fraction of what he went through. Even if we only count the 2,000 years he remembers, and not the fake outs from the Doctor's Wife and the aborted time line of Angles take Manhattan. She doesn't even come close to 2,000 years
What I love about Doctor Who so much is that some episodes are comedic, action-packed romps through this wacky universe, fighting weird and wonderful monsters with the Doctor figuring everything out in a Sherlock-fashion whilst making amusing quips all the time, and some episodes are mind-bending existential weirdness straight out of the Twilight Zone
Ooh, I knew about the Series 4 episodes "Midnight" and "Turn Left" being filmed back-to-back, hence why each episode is first more Doctor-centric and then more Donna-centric, but I didn't know they'd done the same thing later on in Series 6 with "The Girl Who Waited" and "Closing Time," though it certainly makes sense! ✨
It seems like companions or some have a companion episode. I don't think Rose had one. Martha had a two parter with family of blood. Donna is turn left. Amy is the girl who waited. I don't know of any future companions had one though.
5:53 Well, if you are gettting technical, because of reasons like the way the pigment attaches to the folicle, redheads often don't go grey (actually white) until much older than the average person. So for the sake of the narrative, I get wanting some change in her hair to make her look older but honestly it is very reasonable for her hair to still be fully intact at this time. Also, my mother is 60, not even the side of the family that has red hair, and she still has fully pigmented hair so, yeah. that is all.
I think my only complaint about this episode is it would've been so much more powerful as a companion farewell. Have Rory swear off the Doctor because he simply could not forgive him for what he did. The fact they go on to have a normal relationship again after that ending just rubs me the wrong way.
Amy might have asked "which button" but they also know there are 2, so really, still on the doctor for not clarifying in the first place a very simple "red" or "green." When someone tells you something that seems very obvious it's kind of intimidating to ask for clarification because the other person is expecting you to understand in the first place. This is the doctor's ego all over the place, and plays well with his character
This is one of those stories that I want a Target novelisation off. Expanded and explored with more time to learn of older Amy's struggle and adventure through this world.
I’m thinking the whole “the button” misunderstanding reflected the characters of Amy and the Doctor actually. I think for the doctor, to press the green button (like with a green = go mentality) just makes sense, so he thinks of the green button as “the button”. For Amy, maybe she was more drawn to the red button because the red waterfall is a bit like her hair (think the attention she got from Vincent because of it), so for her, that’s “the button”
2:10 woah woah woah. Hold up. Let’s not pin the blame solely on Amy here. YES she could have asked “Which button?”. But Rory and the Doctor could also have easily said “press the (insert colour here) button” opposed to just “press the button”. They went in first and saw that there were clearly two distinct buttons to be chosen from. Blame falls on both parties here. The Doctor and Rory for omitting a primary/secondary colour from “press the button” despite having gone first and directly observed two distinctly coloured buttons, and Amy for not asking the obvious follow up question, “which one? There’s two numbskulls”
Agreed, they’re both at fault, but we know Harbo cannot resist Amy bashing. (And I can agree with some of the criticisms but sometimes it gets a bit egregious.)
This is easily my favourite Smith Episode (Just above A Town Called Mercy). The dialogue and drive behind the story is amazing and so beautiful in places.
Everything is perfect about this episode! Rory is stellar The Doctor shows a dark side Amy is amazing!!! And the story is just amazing and tragic and I love it Edit: I’m really glad you featured the Space and Time minisode. Gosh I love that minisode!
Admittedly, the concept of time moving differently in 2 different places, is a brilliant concept, but I feel like it’s been done WAY too much now. It was BRILLIANT in The Girl in The Fireplace. Then it got used again in this episode, then it got done in The Eaters of Light, AND it got done AGAIN in World Enough and Time. It probably got done in several other episodes as well tbh, but I can’t rlly remember every time it happened and I’m not a HUGE fan of the Steven Moffat Era, so there are quite a few parts of that era that I don’t rlly remember so there are probably several other instances in which it’s been used and it’s too much now. Less is more.
My problem with this story is that there was no follow up. Maybe Rory didn't tell Amy what happened but at least Rory should be mad at and not trusting the Doctor anymore. If Amy found out, that should be quite a blow out. But next sotry it's all back to. normal like it's a show from 60s/70s, reset and move on.
Honestly looking at The Girl Who Waited and The God Complex, TBF, they could've served as pseudo part 1 and part 2 character-dev wise leading to Wedding of River Song being the departure of the Ponds rather than having the Ponds be banished to the past in Angels Take Manhattan. The Girl Who Waited being what breaks Rory's faith in the Doctor The God Complex breaking Amy's faith. After the emotional rollercoaster that would be The Wedding of River Song, they likely would want to stop traveling with the Doctor. You could even substitute the first half of S7 with being a bit with the Doctor and River being together actually consistent on each other's timelines for once (aside the Doctor knowing she will die at the Library) And The Angels Take Manhattan could end in a dramatic bit with it maybe being their last adventure before The Singing Towers and therefore her death at the Library. The Doctor fighting to keep River alive against the Angels, but also not wanting to see her again on purpose so he could delay the endings he hates so much.
Regarding Amy figuring out how to make her own sonic - not only did she have 36 years to work it out, she had the assistance of an all-knowing facility AI that would tell her anything she wanted to know except how to leave or how to avoid the handbots. Looking up the means to put together a sonic would be pretty high on my survival list too
There are layers in what the Doctor is doing here that aren't obvious without freeze-framing your way through the episode. Once you realize what the tape machine in the Tardis is for, and the clock, and when you see what the Doctor is actually doing with the Time Lens buttons, I think the Doctor is manipulating the Ponds from the start of the episode. And that the point of the manipulation is to get Rory to reroute the cables - "blue into red and green into blue, leave the red hanging". The key question is why.
I just loved how this episode finally showed something realistic and true reflection of the relationship with this incarnation of the Doctor has with his companions. people think Amy and Rory were the closest thing to family which the Doctor had, but I always felt like he neglected both of them in different way. and up until this episode that fact was either glorified or glossed over, just like every dark action which Eleventh did in his entire tenure until now. I love how in this episode, such a negative traits of this incarnation, finally isn't glorified or glossed over and episode actually treated it the way it deserves and actually had both Amy and Rory calling him out. I was satisfied, which is why I'll look pass its problems and the fact that it could be a perfect departure for Amy and Rory. I would be happier if it was, but since this is the first episode that actually has an open eye towards Eleventh's behavior and especially the way he treats this young couple, but still it was the first time, even though I would prefer for this event to have huge impact on their relationship rather than they easily moving on from it.
My favorite assessment of Matt Smith as The Doctor was comparing him to Christopher Eccleston and how they both play him. Their concluding sentence was something to the tune of, "Nine is a teddy bear in a leather jacket, while Eleven is a cynical killer in a fez." And I think that was always the problem with Eleven. He was a manipulative, egotistical little shit who seemed to have deliberately left behind the lessons he learned as Ten.
This could have been avoided if they would have just all went together but the boys were impatient. It's not on Amy to ask which button. The doctor should have known to say the specific button. This is ALL the Doctor's fault.
It is on Amy to ask. When you see two buttons, and someone tells you to press _THE_ button, common sense and basic logic says that you should probably ask _which_ button instead of pressing a random button.
I mostly agree with your rankings, and even though I almost always rate them higher than u, I usually shrug it off as harbo being harbo... but there is now way in hell day of the moon is better than the girl who waited, as much as I love it...
It's a great episode. The 'silliness' of the plotline is the intrinsic 'silliness' of the notion of time travel. You can't have The Doctor without it and you can't explore who and what The Doctor is without occasionally addressing it. Much more the choices presented are brought down to very relatable human scale, are *exactly* the kind of traumatic and even cataclysmic choices that the doctor, following a rudderless bohemian lifestyle across time, would inevitably be faced with frequently. The inhuman, unfeeling 'hardness' that the doctor *MUST* be to deal with this is almost never really expressed in the show. Here it is rendered at a very human scale with how traumatic it is for feeling human beings on full display. Close the door.
I never quite understood older Amy. I would have absolutely no qualms about ending my own existence in the same situation. Sure I would be erasing myself, but what exactly is being lost and being gained. Thirty-six years of solitude, bitterness, and rage. In exchange my younger self gets to avoid the hell I've been wallowing in. My spouse gets their partner back and isn't forced into some bizarre relationship maintained through guilt and fear of abandonment. Why wouldn't I?
I don't think you would tbh. It's not as much about dying as it is the bitterness that one of the two of you, the exact same person, is going to experience their life and freedom and happiness ... but it's not going to be you
Amy waited for 40 years and hated rory and the doctor for it. Meanwhile rory literally watched the rise and fall of Rome for Amy. All I'm saying is Amy needs some perspective. I get being angry at being lost like that, but twisting what happened into an abandonment narrative seems p warped imo.
That was my biggest problem when I first saw this episode. Rory waited for thousands of years and didn't lose his love for her. And Amy lost it after a few decades.(granted she found it again, but still!) Made me believe Rory loved her A WHOLE LOT MORE than she loved him.
I think this is a bit of a false equivalence. It makes an enormous difference that Rory CHOSE to wait those 2000 years for Amy, and he didn't spend that time in isolation. From Amy's perspective in this episode, she was abandoned (she had no idea for those 36 years that it was all accidental, and even if she did she has a right to be upset by the Doctor's carelessness) and she spent all that time without a single other person to talk to. That's not to say that Rory waiting 2000 years wasn't a massive ordeal because of course it was, but I don't think it's fair to hold something he took it upon himself to do and that Amy never asked for against Amy in this episode when her situation is psychologically very different.
@@FuzzzyPurplePickle yeah thats a good point, and its not like Amy didn't ultimately make the choice to sacrifice for rory. The difference in choice def explains the difference in reaction between the 2, it just put a bad taste in my mouth back when I first watched it yk.
Rory chose to wait and wasn’t human either. Amy is someone with abandonment issues and it’s her greatest fear come true. She’s abandoned and isolated just waiting to die. At least Rory was waiting for a future. There was no future.
If you're given two buttons to press, a green one and a great big threatening red one which must never ever be pressed under any circumstances, why would you press the red one?
I don't know when to stop. So if I see a great, big, threatening button which should never ever ever be pressed, then I just want to do this. [presses button]
@@TeylaDex What colours were your grandmothers' hair? There's conflicting information about whether the colour has any effect on whether it turns grey.
Yes, it's the most heartbreaking episode ever. This one still haunts me. Although a fan of "Old" 'Who, Matt and the Ponds represents the height of Doctor Who for me.
There's a comment that her make up should have grey hair as she is about 58. I'll be 60 this fall and still have red hair. I've been waiting on my white streaks. Every redhead I've known had white hair with age.
It's not logical that Amy presses the red button. Humans are conditioned to think that red=bad/green=good, so human nature means she would go straight for green.
Also its below the green button, so it'd make more sense if when told "press THE button" to think its the one above. If they'd switched those two factors, I think it would have made a lot more sense.
Honestly the TARDIS being unable to stabilize the paradox never made sense to me considering that the Master uses it to stabilize a much bigger paradox in the Series 3 Finale.
That was because the Master rigged the TARDIS up into a paradox machine, essentially torturing the TARDIS which the Doctor would never be able to bring himself to do
I absolutely hate this episode. Older Amy should have been saved. That way, no Amy's (lol) would have died. Or both could have been saved, with older Amy still making her farewell speech to Rory before she leaves the trio to travel the universe, as she'd suggested earlier in the ep. There was just no reason for her death, and that decision feels too cold for the trio to shrug it off and resume thier normal friendship. The only positive is Gillian's amazing acting.
Well, the issue is that the first is damning young amy to 36 years of solitary confinement and the second is impossible, since if young amy never got trapped, how did old amy happen?
I don't think "future Amy" dies by the handbots. When the TARDIS departs, time is overwritten and it seems the whole reality of that timestream disappears.
As much as I like it, this episode it does bring up a question I've often wondered about, namely how exactly does the Doctor know about history? I love that Rory actually calls him out on this, but I do wish that he had an answer for it...
The Doctor basically goes to everywhere, at all points in time. He got unlucky, he landed in one bit of this planet's history rather than the holiday paradise he was expecting. Even if he'd been there before at that same time, he'd only have gone through one door, so he'd still be no wiser.
@@MichaelJohnson-kq7qg That's the usual answer when I ask fans that: "He time travels, duh, he's BEEN to all those times!" But, no, if you think about it, he can't know everything just from that. How'd the 10th know about Q. Elizabeth when he'd explicitly never met her before? I think he learns about history the same way WE do, by reading about it! There's a hint of this in Waters of Mars, where we see the Doctor's memory changing in response to events, in the form of a news article on a screen. He hadn't been to that space landing, and had never met those people, but he seemed to have *read* about them at some point! Given the speed at which we've seen him read, it's plausible he's learned massive amounts of general human history from reading up on them, and fine tunes his knowledge with actual experience by going to those times, eventually...but I don't think he can know what he does simply through time travel.
Apropos of nothing, this is just my head canon, so I'm just throwing it out there, but I like to think the Doctor isn't only interested in the "Humanian Era" but also visits the Silurian civilization on the reg, as well as the far future New Earth, and knows their histories quite well, too (although he missed that quarantine event as well!); For all we know, he first encountered New Earth humanity, quite liked them, spent centuries amongst them before exhausting their history, then decided to check out what their forebears were like, which is where the original series starts! And if I ever become showrunner, like Moffat, I'll make my fan theory canon, LOL
@@HandofOmega I'm not saying he knows everything - quite the opposite - I'm saying that even if he has been everywhere at every time, he still wouldn't really know much about not of the places he ended up, most of the time. Most worlds, if he knows anything about them, he probably only knows the big detail(s). Earth is an exception, because he has a special interest and spends a lot of time learning about it and visiting it. Some parts of it, repeatedly.
This is a really good episode, don’t get me wrong, but I will admit that I was a little peeved at Amy. Rory waited 2000 years, by himself, protecting the Pandorica, also with only the Doctor’s word that it will all turn out for the better, and he came out of that essentially the same. Whereas Amy becomes this angry, bitter, self-righteous warrior after 36. Not to say she is wrong to be so, but I was always a little off put by the comparison.
That's because there is no comparison. Rory knew for a fact he would see Amy again, he had something to look forward to and have a reason to keep going. He also chose to wait. Amy didn't choose. She felt abandoned. She had no hope, she didn't know she would ever see another person again. Her anger towards rhe doctor and Rory is completely valid
@@mrdr0161 when Rory and the doctor entered their room, the door closed behind them. Then Rory pressed a button which allowed him to leave and then he popped his head into the other room. How come amy can’t leave her room if Rory can? This is what I mean
Well... I agree with your reviews and comments more often than not, except in this case. This episode had a great premise but the execution wasn't the best for me. My main issue is that I didn't like Old Amy, I couldn't connect with her as a character. Even though she was right about being mad at the Doctor and hating him, her delivery didn't make me feel it. Her voice was flat. Her demeanour was always idk rushed, flat. The only time Old Amy showed true emotions (apart from when she hugs Rory) was that last moment by the TARDIS door, there I could felt her pain... but it was too late in the episode to empathise with her character. I enjoyed Night Terrors better.
Imelda Staunton is here just to what? Be a voice? Edit: They could have gotten Leila Hoffman again or the actress who played the siren. That way they won't have to waste an actress and so what if they brought back someone in the series whose wouldn't be recognised by the audience.
I like this episode, but if I was a companion it this story, I'd be lashing out back at Rory for constantly blaming the Doctor for things he can't control. Sure I like Rory growing a backbone, but at this point it is getting excessive.
I'm ngl as someone who hated the Pond's, and despised Amy the most, this episode managed to make me feel sorry both of them so I gotta admit it was better than I expected.
I think it’s a great episode, but my main issue is the MASSIVE paradox which I can’t get my head round. Old!Amy says that she remembers being her younger self and asking to save her and Old!Amy says no, so 1. She knows that the doctor and Rory tried to save her but Old!Amy refused to help, so why is she so mad?? Also 2. What changes here to make Old!Amy change her mind? According to her, she remembers being Young!Amy and being refused to be saved, so that obviously happened in that timeline, so what has changed in this timeline to make her change her mind? It just doesn’t make any sense. It’s a big paradox
Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey! The problem with writing time travel is that you have to be incredibly careful about how you implement it and what it's rules are to stop it from becoming a mess.
For me, it's the same with Kazran in the Christmas Carol, when the Doctor started changing his past his memories also changed. In this case, I understood it as Old Amy remembering her younger self now that they are interacting.
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The last ten minutes of this episode feature the doctor at his most cowardly and manipulative I love it. Smith plays him as simultaneously immensely cunning and almost pitifully pathetic, willing to sacrifice almost anything to cling on to his friend as he knows her and not face the consequences of his actions. Without this his sacrifice in the next episode, encouraging Amy to see the real him and thus losing his best friend, doesn’t have nearly the same resonance. Ironically, the Doctor consigning old Amy to her death shows how much he depends on her and needs her alive and, crucially, loving him
Manipulative absolutely. I've never seen the Doctor as cowardly and pathetic in this episode though. Is it clear whether he saves young Amy only for himself or does he do it because he knows Amy and Rory will be happier that way? I would say the latter. The scene where young Amy and Rory reunite is proof that the Doctor is making the correct decision.
My opinion is that a correct decision in the face of a morally impossible situation is brave, not cowardly.
@@EnPee91 You could say he was more cowardly in their departure episode. When Rory is zapped back by the angel, the Doctor basically tells Amy to leave Rory and says things like how "we don't know where it would take you" while knowing full well that the same angel sends you to the same time and place.
@Shadoshade
Yet I've asked myself many times over "What would I DO?" I were in the same situation.. Would I keep 1 (one) loved one & let another go? Is that more tolerable than having no one to love & keep? Honestly, as angry as I was at the Doctor, I pray I never find myself in his situation... I don't think my heart or mind could ever stand the loss.
You've made a very valid point.
@@ShadoShade whenever I think about that scene, my blood boils. like, with the knowledge we have about Amy, we could all be sure that she won't give up on trying to reunite with Rory. the Doctor on the other hand, who has been living with them this whole time, acted like that, as if he hasn't seeing Amy at all
Most of the time the doctor's manipulation is a little more subtle. This time he literally slams the door in her face.
He also makes Rory choose not because he has more right to decide fate of his wife, but because Rory was blaming doctor for entire episode, so Doctor just snapped at him. Like "you want to know what it's like to be me? Fine. Let's see how you'll make the decision then". Especially chilling episode on rewatch, when you're already know Doctor had no intention of saving older Amy, yet he's giving false hope, cracking jokes and doesn't seem too distressed. First thing he says to friend who was abandoned for 30 years "by the way, is it a screwdriver?"
This episode is gorgeous. The acting from the golden trio is sublime. Just everything. for an episode that is essentially a three hander they navigate it perfectly. I just really bloody love this ep. and just the ending always has me bawling. I literally can't say more other than it's just golden
Yes
Yes x 2
Good for Karen Gillan to push herself forward in wanting to still portray the older Amy; it really helped keep her story in the facility feel emotionally grounded and real. Besides, it's not like they could accidentally hire an unknown relative of Karen's to play Amy in another timeline of her life again, right? 😆
Something I really like about this episode, and the TARDIS trappings in "The Doctor's Wife" as well, as how claustrophobic everything is made to feel when the trio are inside the hospital. The white walls, the tight rooms, the lack of windows; it puts you on edge to see Amy be separated from the Doctor and Rory in this colorless, mostly barren environment, and that makes her older self's entrapment all the more frightening. Sort of like Doctor Who's take on the Backrooms concept now that I think about it.
Yeah I agree and they do this in other series 5 and 6 episodes as well. Like god complex does the claustrophobic feel well and also a good sense of uncomfortableness for the characters.
The simplest choices are always the ones that’s overlooked. When your faces with two seemingly harmless choices you don’t always think about asking which because you can always walk right back and press the other one, unlike when there’s loads of choices and it would be easier asking which one. When the choice seemed harmless like it did for Amy, you wouldn’t see the danger in making a mistake because you can always go back and press the other one
yeah it’s literally just a button on a door, why would you ask when you can just figure it out
My question is about what insane logic she used to decide to start with the red button on the bottom
Thats the beauty of it though. No matter how safe the TARDIS might seem, at the end of the day you're jumping around to alien planets. NOTHING should be assumed to be safe.
Paradoxically however, people who are overly cautious and dont take risks are also the least likely to be asked by the Doctor to accompany him/her.
Also,I like how Amy now feels how much Rory has had to wait for her.2000 years outside a box,a few more in The Doctor's Wife & in the aborted timeline in The Angels Take Manhattan.
Even then, she's only had a fraction of what he went through. Even if we only count the 2,000 years he remembers, and not the fake outs from the Doctor's Wife and the aborted time line of Angles take Manhattan. She doesn't even come close to 2,000 years
What I love about Doctor Who so much is that some episodes are comedic, action-packed romps through this wacky universe, fighting weird and wonderful monsters with the Doctor figuring everything out in a Sherlock-fashion whilst making amusing quips all the time, and some episodes are mind-bending existential weirdness straight out of the Twilight Zone
Ooh, I knew about the Series 4 episodes "Midnight" and "Turn Left" being filmed back-to-back, hence why each episode is first more Doctor-centric and then more Donna-centric, but I didn't know they'd done the same thing later on in Series 6 with "The Girl Who Waited" and "Closing Time," though it certainly makes sense! ✨
Something similar is done in Series 5 with The Lodger being companion-lite, as Amy isn't in the episode much.
It seems like companions or some have a companion episode. I don't think Rose had one. Martha had a two parter with family of blood. Donna is turn left. Amy is the girl who waited. I don't know of any future companions had one though.
5:53 Well, if you are gettting technical, because of reasons like the way the pigment attaches to the folicle, redheads often don't go grey (actually white) until much older than the average person. So for the sake of the narrative, I get wanting some change in her hair to make her look older but honestly it is very reasonable for her hair to still be fully intact at this time. Also, my mother is 60, not even the side of the family that has red hair, and she still has fully pigmented hair so, yeah. that is all.
Yup. My mother in law is an actual redhead. 70 years, 2 times cancer, not a grey hair yet.
I think my only complaint about this episode is it would've been so much more powerful as a companion farewell. Have Rory swear off the Doctor because he simply could not forgive him for what he did. The fact they go on to have a normal relationship again after that ending just rubs me the wrong way.
yeah, this event really could have a huge impact on their relationship, but it was ignored
Amy might have asked "which button" but they also know there are 2, so really, still on the doctor for not clarifying in the first place a very simple "red" or "green." When someone tells you something that seems very obvious it's kind of intimidating to ask for clarification because the other person is expecting you to understand in the first place. This is the doctor's ego all over the place, and plays well with his character
It's really impressive, you know that the older Amy has to go, but the climax still feels like it has incredible stakes and tension
My favourite from series 6 easily. A seriously beautiful story, giving us Amy andRory’s finest hour in his entire run
*their entire run
^^Yes
This is one of those stories that I want a Target novelisation off. Expanded and explored with more time to learn of older Amy's struggle and adventure through this world.
I can't get over how utterly beautiful this episode is directed. Aside from Heaven Sent this might be my favourite looking episode of the entire show.
I’m thinking the whole “the button” misunderstanding reflected the characters of Amy and the Doctor actually. I think for the doctor, to press the green button (like with a green = go mentality) just makes sense, so he thinks of the green button as “the button”. For Amy, maybe she was more drawn to the red button because the red waterfall is a bit like her hair (think the attention she got from Vincent because of it), so for her, that’s “the button”
2:10 woah woah woah. Hold up. Let’s not pin the blame solely on Amy here. YES she could have asked “Which button?”. But Rory and the Doctor could also have easily said “press the (insert colour here) button” opposed to just “press the button”. They went in first and saw that there were clearly two distinct buttons to be chosen from. Blame falls on both parties here. The Doctor and Rory for omitting a primary/secondary colour from “press the button” despite having gone first and directly observed two distinctly coloured buttons, and Amy for not asking the obvious follow up question, “which one? There’s two numbskulls”
It's the Doctor's fault.
Agreed, they’re both at fault, but we know Harbo cannot resist Amy bashing. (And I can agree with some of the criticisms but sometimes it gets a bit egregious.)
Blade the bad writing
This is easily my favourite Smith Episode (Just above A Town Called Mercy). The dialogue and drive behind the story is amazing and so beautiful in places.
Also, even without asking, why did she press the bottom button? Surely when told to press "the button" one would instinctively reach for the top one?
Everything is perfect about this episode!
Rory is stellar
The Doctor shows a dark side
Amy is amazing!!!
And the story is just amazing and tragic and I love it
Edit: I’m really glad you featured the Space and Time minisode. Gosh I love that minisode!
The final gauntlet being Rory and young Amy working in unison and older Amy fighting alone was a great touch
Admittedly, the concept of time moving differently in 2 different places, is a brilliant concept, but I feel like it’s been done WAY too much now. It was BRILLIANT in The Girl in The Fireplace. Then it got used again in this episode, then it got done in The Eaters of Light, AND it got done AGAIN in World Enough and Time. It probably got done in several other episodes as well tbh, but I can’t rlly remember every time it happened and I’m not a HUGE fan of the Steven Moffat Era, so there are quite a few parts of that era that I don’t rlly remember so there are probably several other instances in which it’s been used and it’s too much now. Less is more.
Eaters of Light shouldn't even count cause it was a pretty shite episode
My problem with this story is that there was no follow up. Maybe Rory didn't tell Amy what happened but at least Rory should be mad at and not trusting the Doctor anymore. If Amy found out, that should be quite a blow out. But next sotry it's all back to. normal like it's a show from 60s/70s, reset and move on.
Honestly looking at The Girl Who Waited and The God Complex, TBF, they could've served as pseudo part 1 and part 2 character-dev wise leading to Wedding of River Song being the departure of the Ponds rather than having the Ponds be banished to the past in Angels Take Manhattan.
The Girl Who Waited being what breaks Rory's faith in the Doctor
The God Complex breaking Amy's faith.
After the emotional rollercoaster that would be The Wedding of River Song, they likely would want to stop traveling with the Doctor.
You could even substitute the first half of S7 with being a bit with the Doctor and River being together actually consistent on each other's timelines for once (aside the Doctor knowing she will die at the Library)
And The Angels Take Manhattan could end in a dramatic bit with it maybe being their last adventure before The Singing Towers and therefore her death at the Library. The Doctor fighting to keep River alive against the Angels, but also not wanting to see her again on purpose so he could delay the endings he hates so much.
Regarding Amy figuring out how to make her own sonic - not only did she have 36 years to work it out, she had the assistance of an all-knowing facility AI that would tell her anything she wanted to know except how to leave or how to avoid the handbots. Looking up the means to put together a sonic would be pretty high on my survival list too
This episode makes me cry Everytime I watch it. Just hits home
There are layers in what the Doctor is doing here that aren't obvious without freeze-framing your way through the episode.
Once you realize what the tape machine in the Tardis is for, and the clock, and when you see what the Doctor is actually doing with the Time Lens buttons, I think the Doctor is manipulating the Ponds from the start of the episode. And that the point of the manipulation is to get Rory to reroute the cables - "blue into red and green into blue, leave the red hanging".
The key question is why.
I just loved how this episode finally showed something realistic and true reflection of the relationship with this incarnation of the Doctor has with his companions. people think Amy and Rory were the closest thing to family which the Doctor had, but I always felt like he neglected both of them in different way. and up until this episode that fact was either glorified or glossed over, just like every dark action which Eleventh did in his entire tenure until now.
I love how in this episode, such a negative traits of this incarnation, finally isn't glorified or glossed over and episode actually treated it the way it deserves and actually had both Amy and Rory calling him out. I was satisfied, which is why I'll look pass its problems and the fact that it could be a perfect departure for Amy and Rory. I would be happier if it was, but since this is the first episode that actually has an open eye towards Eleventh's behavior and especially the way he treats this young couple, but still it was the first time, even though I would prefer for this event to have huge impact on their relationship rather than they easily moving on from it.
My favorite assessment of Matt Smith as The Doctor was comparing him to Christopher Eccleston and how they both play him. Their concluding sentence was something to the tune of, "Nine is a teddy bear in a leather jacket, while Eleven is a cynical killer in a fez." And I think that was always the problem with Eleven. He was a manipulative, egotistical little shit who seemed to have deliberately left behind the lessons he learned as Ten.
This could have been avoided if they would have just all went together but the boys were impatient. It's not on Amy to ask which button. The doctor should have known to say the specific button.
This is ALL the Doctor's fault.
It is on Amy to ask.
When you see two buttons, and someone tells you to press _THE_ button, common sense and basic logic says that you should probably ask _which_ button instead of pressing a random button.
I mostly agree with your rankings, and even though I almost always rate them higher than u, I usually shrug it off as harbo being harbo... but there is now way in hell day of the moon is better than the girl who waited, as much as I love it...
It's a great episode. The 'silliness' of the plotline is the intrinsic 'silliness' of the notion of time travel. You can't have The Doctor without it and you can't explore who and what The Doctor is without occasionally addressing it.
Much more the choices presented are brought down to very relatable human scale, are *exactly* the kind of traumatic and even cataclysmic choices that the doctor, following a rudderless bohemian lifestyle across time, would inevitably be faced with frequently. The inhuman, unfeeling 'hardness' that the doctor *MUST* be to deal with this is almost never really expressed in the show. Here it is rendered at a very human scale with how traumatic it is for feeling human beings on full display. Close the door.
I fell in love with older Amy
This episode should be talked more about. Great episode
I never quite understood older Amy. I would have absolutely no qualms about ending my own existence in the same situation. Sure I would be erasing myself, but what exactly is being lost and being gained. Thirty-six years of solitude, bitterness, and rage. In exchange my younger self gets to avoid the hell I've been wallowing in. My spouse gets their partner back and isn't forced into some bizarre relationship maintained through guilt and fear of abandonment. Why wouldn't I?
Well it would have been a rather boring episode then
Because the human had a instinct of survirving.
I don't think you would tbh. It's not as much about dying as it is the bitterness that one of the two of you, the exact same person, is going to experience their life and freedom and happiness ... but it's not going to be you
She literally dies.
Dude, she literally dies a life full of bitter regret.
Amy waited for 40 years and hated rory and the doctor for it. Meanwhile rory literally watched the rise and fall of Rome for Amy. All I'm saying is Amy needs some perspective. I get being angry at being lost like that, but twisting what happened into an abandonment narrative seems p warped imo.
That was my biggest problem when I first saw this episode.
Rory waited for thousands of years and didn't lose his love for her. And Amy lost it after a few decades.(granted she found it again, but still!)
Made me believe Rory loved her A WHOLE LOT MORE than she loved him.
I think this is a bit of a false equivalence. It makes an enormous difference that Rory CHOSE to wait those 2000 years for Amy, and he didn't spend that time in isolation. From Amy's perspective in this episode, she was abandoned (she had no idea for those 36 years that it was all accidental, and even if she did she has a right to be upset by the Doctor's carelessness) and she spent all that time without a single other person to talk to. That's not to say that Rory waiting 2000 years wasn't a massive ordeal because of course it was, but I don't think it's fair to hold something he took it upon himself to do and that Amy never asked for against Amy in this episode when her situation is psychologically very different.
@@FuzzzyPurplePickle yeah thats a good point, and its not like Amy didn't ultimately make the choice to sacrifice for rory. The difference in choice def explains the difference in reaction between the 2, it just put a bad taste in my mouth back when I first watched it yk.
I hated how this turned Amy into “the girl who waited”, felt like such a disrespect to Rory and how long he waited
Rory chose to wait and wasn’t human either. Amy is someone with abandonment issues and it’s her greatest fear come true. She’s abandoned and isolated just waiting to die. At least Rory was waiting for a future. There was no future.
If you're given two buttons to press, a green one and a great big threatening red one which must never ever be pressed under any circumstances, why would you press the red one?
… she’s got red hair?
I don't know when to stop. So if I see a great, big, threatening button which should never ever ever be pressed, then I just want to do this.
[presses button]
5:50
Redheads don't go grey the normal way so it can be excused a little. Her hair ahould be less vibrant though.
Some people in their 50s still don't have grey hair, so it's believable.
my gran died in her 70s and she never had a single grey hair in her lifetime
@@kateglew580y 92 year old grandma slowly gets grey temples. My great grandma died age 99 with like... 3 grey hairs.
@@kateglew580 What colour was her hair? Don't some hair colours change more slowly than others, or is it about the hair itself rather than the colour?
@@tomnorton4277 I'm not sure about your second question, but to answer your first one, she had strawberry blonde hair
@@TeylaDex What colours were your grandmothers' hair? There's conflicting information about whether the colour has any effect on whether it turns grey.
Yes, it's the most heartbreaking episode ever. This one still haunts me.
Although a fan of "Old" 'Who, Matt and the Ponds represents the height of Doctor Who for me.
I have a hard time watching this episode. I usually pass when it comes on because it is too heartbreaking. It should be called Rory's Choice.
So this is where Rick & Morty got the Space Beth idea ;)
This is my favourite episode ever. I think I've watched it at least 15 times and it always got me in tears. 💙💙
There's a comment that her make up should have grey hair as she is about 58. I'll be 60 this fall and still have red hair. I've been waiting on my white streaks. Every redhead I've known had white hair with age.
Any, Rory and The Doctor are the best episodes in my opinion. I’ve seen this series Ark many times and certain episodes still make me cry.
The "sad they didnt get to grow old together" is such a good line
True love
Heaven Sent and The Water’s of Mars are the most heartbreaking, for my money
It's not logical that Amy presses the red button.
Humans are conditioned to think that red=bad/green=good, so human nature means she would go straight for green.
YES THANK YOU! I always was confused as to why Amy went for the 'danger color' button
Also its below the green button, so it'd make more sense if when told "press THE button" to think its the one above. If they'd switched those two factors, I think it would have made a lot more sense.
@@KeySnow press the green button, would have been better than press THE button. Same as "cut the wire" for a bomb. Bad communication for both
Sorry, Nothing will EVER beat Angels take Manhatten. I literally CANNOT watch it without weeping!
Glad to hear someone else liked it! I got into Doctor Who social media way after that series aired and was surprised to learn how disliked it is.
This is the only episode of dr who i will always cry when watching
what I love about Series 6 is the abundance of one-off episodes that have no direct connection other than the Main Trio.
Random fact - the ‘fat suit’ used for old Amy was made by someone who was later a personal trainer at the gym I used to go to.
Karen killed it in this episode!
6:41 It just occured to me how much these things look like the EMMI drones from Metroid Dread.
Why is future amy's suit covered in cheap bike lights?
frankly it didnt deserve the praise it got from the start
I just turned into old Sam when you said this had been ELEVEN YEARS!?
This is one of very few that I've watched 3 times.
I felt more heartbroken with world enough and time honestly, but yeah, this episode is just beautiful.
Honestly the TARDIS being unable to stabilize the paradox never made sense to me considering that the Master uses it to stabilize a much bigger paradox in the Series 3 Finale.
That was because the Master rigged the TARDIS up into a paradox machine, essentially torturing the TARDIS which the Doctor would never be able to bring himself to do
I absolutely hate this episode. Older Amy should have been saved. That way, no Amy's (lol) would have died. Or both could have been saved, with older Amy still making her farewell speech to Rory before she leaves the trio to travel the universe, as she'd suggested earlier in the ep. There was just no reason for her death, and that decision feels too cold for the trio to shrug it off and resume thier normal friendship. The only positive is Gillian's amazing acting.
Well, the issue is that the first is damning young amy to 36 years of solitary confinement and the second is impossible, since if young amy never got trapped, how did old amy happen?
Just one of those stories that just gets better every single time you watch it...
This episode is up there with any of the classics. Beautiful episode.
Just realised the god complex review is coming up, can’t wait
Harbo = Doctor Who MoistCr1tikal (dry humor, no facecam, witty vocabulary, and a monotone voice that never changes)
I'll take that comparison
The Handbots creep me out. This is kindness. That's what they say.
Since Amy remembers what happened in the S6 finale even though it wasn’t her, does she remember being old Amy?
As much as I generally dislike Amy, this episode was gut wrenching, even if a bit messy at times. Karen Gillan is a wonderful actress.
I don't think "future Amy" dies by the handbots. When the TARDIS departs, time is overwritten and it seems the whole reality of that timestream disappears.
This episode perfectly links to God Complex and is a great example of episodes informing the next without it being a straight up 2 parter
Thank you Harbo for these videos!!!! Lovely watching this at dinner
As much as I like it, this episode it does bring up a question I've often wondered about, namely how exactly does the Doctor know about history?
I love that Rory actually calls him out on this, but I do wish that he had an answer for it...
The Doctor basically goes to everywhere, at all points in time. He got unlucky, he landed in one bit of this planet's history rather than the holiday paradise he was expecting. Even if he'd been there before at that same time, he'd only have gone through one door, so he'd still be no wiser.
@@MichaelJohnson-kq7qg That's the usual answer when I ask fans that: "He time travels, duh, he's BEEN to all those times!" But, no, if you think about it, he can't know everything just from that. How'd the 10th know about Q. Elizabeth when he'd explicitly never met her before?
I think he learns about history the same way WE do, by reading about it! There's a hint of this in Waters of Mars, where we see the Doctor's memory changing in response to events, in the form of a news article on a screen. He hadn't been to that space landing, and had never met those people, but he seemed to have *read* about them at some point!
Given the speed at which we've seen him read, it's plausible he's learned massive amounts of general human history from reading up on them, and fine tunes his knowledge with actual experience by going to those times, eventually...but I don't think he can know what he does simply through time travel.
Apropos of nothing, this is just my head canon, so I'm just throwing it out there, but I like to think the Doctor isn't only interested in the "Humanian Era" but also visits the Silurian civilization on the reg, as well as the far future New Earth, and knows their histories quite well, too (although he missed that quarantine event as well!); For all we know, he first encountered New Earth humanity, quite liked them, spent centuries amongst them before exhausting their history, then decided to check out what their forebears were like, which is where the original series starts! And if I ever become showrunner, like Moffat, I'll make my fan theory canon, LOL
@@HandofOmega I'm not saying he knows everything - quite the opposite - I'm saying that even if he has been everywhere at every time, he still wouldn't really know much about not of the places he ended up, most of the time. Most worlds, if he knows anything about them, he probably only knows the big detail(s). Earth is an exception, because he has a special interest and spends a lot of time learning about it and visiting it. Some parts of it, repeatedly.
This is a really good episode, don’t get me wrong, but I will admit that I was a little peeved at Amy. Rory waited 2000 years, by himself, protecting the Pandorica, also with only the Doctor’s word that it will all turn out for the better, and he came out of that essentially the same. Whereas Amy becomes this angry, bitter, self-righteous warrior after 36. Not to say she is wrong to be so, but I was always a little off put by the comparison.
That's because there is no comparison. Rory knew for a fact he would see Amy again, he had something to look forward to and have a reason to keep going. He also chose to wait. Amy didn't choose. She felt abandoned. She had no hope, she didn't know she would ever see another person again. Her anger towards rhe doctor and Rory is completely valid
I don’t get how amy couldnt leave her room at the start. Rory could leave so couldn’t Amy do so too???
Didn't he only pop his head in? And the door didn't close after him
@@mrdr0161 when Rory and the doctor entered their room, the door closed behind them. Then Rory pressed a button which allowed him to leave and then he popped his head into the other room. How come amy can’t leave her room if Rory can?
This is what I mean
Wait a minute! This was low budget?! It looks like it was made in Hollywood
What's the mini episode where Amy flirts with Amy called?
Two mini episodes called Space and Time.
Well... I agree with your reviews and comments more often than not, except in this case. This episode had a great premise but the execution wasn't the best for me. My main issue is that I didn't like Old Amy, I couldn't connect with her as a character. Even though she was right about being mad at the Doctor and hating him, her delivery didn't make me feel it. Her voice was flat. Her demeanour was always idk rushed, flat. The only time Old Amy showed true emotions (apart from when she hugs Rory) was that last moment by the TARDIS door, there I could felt her pain... but it was too late in the episode to empathise with her character.
I enjoyed Night Terrors better.
what do you call the mini-sode you referenced
Ironically this episode was worse than night terrors for me 😂
Watching a video about a quarantined planet while having covid is kinda funny to me
Imelda Staunton is here just to what? Be a voice? Edit: They could have gotten Leila Hoffman again or the actress who played the siren. That way they won't have to waste an actress and so what if they brought back someone in the series whose wouldn't be recognised by the audience.
Still enjoy the girl in the fireplace. And the girl who waited different and this episode should have been called Rory’s wife’s
I never really cared for this episode. I don’t even know why, it’s a well made story, I just find it a bit dumb, not particularly to my tastes
actually the most heartbreaking one was . The angels take manhatten
ELEVEN YEARS!?!?!
The overbearing lense flair lends itself much better to a stark white environment and sparking robots than a hospital
yeah
I love this episode, the ending is so brutal
I like this episode, but if I was a companion it this story, I'd be lashing out back at Rory for constantly blaming the Doctor for things he can't control. Sure I like Rory growing a backbone, but at this point it is getting excessive.
If the god complex review has something like ‘series 6’s most overrated episode’ in the title I am giving up on existence
It's not overrated, it's easily the best episode of s6 imo
I don’t care I love this episode. Definitely a favourite.
Back when it was still good…
I'm ngl as someone who hated the Pond's, and despised Amy the most, this episode managed to make me feel sorry both of them so I gotta admit it was better than I expected.
This episode is why i hate "a christmas carol"
Dude, great video, lower the noise on your audio cos you are coming in thick and heavy.
Man you speed through, i cant keep up lol
I think it’s a great episode, but my main issue is the MASSIVE paradox which I can’t get my head round.
Old!Amy says that she remembers being her younger self and asking to save her and Old!Amy says no, so 1. She knows that the doctor and Rory tried to save her but Old!Amy refused to help, so why is she so mad?? Also 2. What changes here to make Old!Amy change her mind? According to her, she remembers being Young!Amy and being refused to be saved, so that obviously happened in that timeline, so what has changed in this timeline to make her change her mind? It just doesn’t make any sense. It’s a big paradox
Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey! The problem with writing time travel is that you have to be incredibly careful about how you implement it and what it's rules are to stop it from becoming a mess.
For me, it's the same with Kazran in the Christmas Carol, when the Doctor started changing his past his memories also changed. In this case, I understood it as Old Amy remembering her younger self now that they are interacting.
No. It’s not