A Drop of a Pond

Just saw "The Girl Who Waited", the Amy-centric episode of "Doctor Who".

Spoilers below. You know how this works.

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And... you were warned.

It's a non-story arc episode. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory land on a world. They get separated and find out there's something on the planet that's lethal to the Doctor. To make matters all the more fun, Amy is separated by both a different time stream and being in a physically-different place.

Good times.

I won't do a full recap. It pays to see the episode in its entirety. It's very much Amy-centric and Karen Gilan gets an opportunity to shine as she plays herself across some wonky time-travel craziness.

You do get a bit of a sense of what an utter badass and genius Amy is capable of being. It's a little far-fetched, but it's "Doctor Who", so one must make allowances. They certainly explain a little of how River Song is such an unbelievable Mary Sue. I mean, if her mom is this freakin' preternaturally-capable and her dad is a badass in his own right, it stands to reason that River would inherit genes of the purest unstoppable.

One hopes they live long enough to have more children so they can go about conquering the Universe.

The episode sort of screws Amy over in multiple ways. It does a fine job really putting the polish on the whole Amy-Rory dynamic and how their relationship really works. Arthur Darvill had several fine moments as Rory. I have to hand it to Darvill, he's quickly made Rory my favorite male Companion.

I'm fast becoming tired of the threats-that-are-so-bad-that-the-Doctor-can't-regenerate meme that Moffatt-era "Doctor Who" writers feel a need to bandy about. Seriously. It's like every other stop the Doctor is having is a specific, fine-tuned threat to his existence based on his Time Lord physiology. I mean, c'mon... first River Song has access to a poison that works against Time Lords and then in this episode, there's an illness that Time Lords are vulnerable to but humans aren't?

Good lord.

The Doctor is quite a bit of a dick in this episode as well. I get where he's coming from, but another tired meme is "the Doctor lies". That fast becomes tired when he lies in every damn episode.

I enjoyed "The Girl Who Waited" far, FAR more than "Let's Kill Hitler" and "Night Terrors". For all that, I have a hard time understanding why Amy and Rory choose to continue to associate, much less travel with, the Doctor. With all things considered, it's astounding they haven't just packed up and left.

Maybe that will be the season finale. Who knows?