Rate "Amy's Choice"

So what did you think of episode 7, the mid-point of Series 5? Open for business after transmission.

Really enjoyed that, despite science-fiction rearing it's cornish-pasty-forehead and threatening to dull everything down at the end.

Knee-jerk reaction - somewhere between McCoy and McGann out of ten.

I liked it - Toby Jones was great and a nice little story. I don't even want to look at GB, because I know it's going to be full of 'OMG it's the Valeyard' threads...

OMG - it's the Valeyard!

Gave it a three at the mo. Might upgrade to four on a second viewing. (It's me age, gov - can't make me mind up!)

Note to self: if you're ever struggling to figure out the difference between reality and a dream, start by not trusting the old people.

I found that very enjoyable. A nice Rory/Amy story that ends well for the man who dreads trying to occupy the Doctor's shadow, and a good villain in the form of Dobby the House Elf. Seriously, the story was completely compelling, and Matt Smith continues to show me he knows what he's doing as the Doctor. I voted 4.

Patrick wrote:Note to self: if you're ever struggling to figure out the difference between reality and a dream, start by not trusting the old people.

And then blow up the TARDIS, exactly...

Good episode.

Thought that was a lovely episode myself: funny, tension packed, heartbreaking and seemingly conforming to my (admittedly rather limited) understanding of Freudian theory and dream interpretation.

All this and teaching eight year olds to be scared of pensioners, and the wonderfully iconic image of a monster with a zimmer frame.

Brilliant, 5/5.

Toby Jones was execellent, but I found msyelf questioning so much of what was presented. Ended up giving it 3.

First impressions - really liked this one

gave it a 4

Didn't find it particularly good. Seemed a bit all over the place. There was some brilliant mystery set up with the Dream Lord and it was all thrown away in about 2 lines. Not the most exciting episode ever but it's not Planet of Evil or Dragonfire so it deserves a 2/5.

EDIT: Or Fear her.

Yeah, excellent Toby Jones - I gave it a 5, but then woke up and gave it a 3. The Dream Lord = The Doctor was a bit of a cop out.

Should have stuck with the 5, Rich.

If you ask me, the Dream Lord being the Doctor is no cop out: instead it makes the rest of the episode that much darker. The subtext of the entire episode is that the Doctor's id wants Amy for himself, and Rory gone, no matter what, be it reduced to ash or frozen to death.

Thing is, Dreamlord being the Doctor isn't even original. And look what happened the last time the bad guy turned out to be the Doctor...

Edit: Looking over on GB most people are theorizing that he was the Valeyard.

Since when has being original been important in Doctor Who? It's always thrived on feeding on other ideas, going back to 1963 when they ransacked the works of HG Wells to come up with their first two stories.

And, quite frankly, I couldn't give a flying fcuk t-shirt for the Valeyard. In my opinion, Amy's Choice ransacked the entire 14 episodes of Trial of a Time Lord, got rid of all the crap (and by god there was a lot of crap to get rid of) and reduced it to a running of time of 45 minutes. And made sure it both did it well and that it made sense.

Johnstone McGuckian wrote:Edit: Looking over on GB most people are theorizing that he was the Valeyard.

Which is exactly what Nick predicted would happen over at GB.

Lee got it in one: the Valeyard existed for the purpose of obtaining all the Doctor's remaining regenerations so as to live beyond the brief moment he was manifested. The Dream Lord was a manifestation of a dark impulse of the Doctor to secretly rid himself of Rory and win Amy. A bit smaller in scale than the ambitions of the Valeyard, but also very much darker.

Is it just me, or does anyone else want to do some exploring inside the TARDIS, and find this pool?

Absolutely first class.. I was spell bound by the whole thing.. This series just gets better and better.. 10/10..

Patrick wrote:Is it just me, or does anyone else want to do some exploring inside the TARDIS, and find this pool?

I definitely want an entire episode set inside the TARDIS.

4/5 - best bit of writing, outside the first episode, this season.

Bugger the Valeyard. People just don't pay attention, do they? Didn't we see the Doctor's self-loathing when 10 exiled 10.5? Yes, yes we did.

The Valeyard is exactly all the things the Doctor isn't. He's the average scheming, backstabbing, sneery Timelord. As we all know, the Doctor isn't like that. The important part of this story, where the character of the Doctor is concerned, is that it lists all the things he does to distance himself from his own people. Whom we last saw only a few months ago and who were manifestly worse than the Daleks.

The only real problem with this episode was the psychic pollen nonsense. Just leave it entirely unexplained - there's this feller, he did some stuff, then stuff happened, then he vanished. Badda bing. Done.

Although, I must confess, I did spend some of the episode thinking 'Please, don't let it be the Black Guardian'...

i thought it was good but not great-like the rest of this season. i'm still waiting for something amazing to happen.

Filth to buy a round?

If that happens you know you're in the dream!

The Co=Ordinator wrote:

Patrick wrote:Is it just me, or does anyone else want to do some exploring inside the TARDIS, and find this pool?

I definitely want an entire episode set inside the TARDIS.

Yep, I'd like to see that as well.

I was bored. I really tried to like it - its Doctor Who, so I ought to like it but in the end it didn't progress the story any further. Honestly felt like padding. The very arch Dream Lord stuff could have been straight out of any season of Who prior to 2005. Way too much exposition and not enough story or character development. The Doctor as Peter Pan and Amy making a choice isn't new, or interesting as I really just don't care about her as a character. She's bloody irritating, and it has everything to do with the writing - I think Karen Gillan is a good actress.

But I am glad that other people enjoyed it - can't please everyone all of the time, so I'm sure something will come along this season that I really like.