An Hour of Who a Day: 05/02/15

May 2: "Amy's Choice"

This is a story that they've sort of been building to for a while now -- although half of the buildup has been off-screen -- but now, as the title makes clear, it's time for Amy to make a decision: the Doctor, who plucked her up the day before her wedding to show her the universe; or Rory, the man she intends to marry, the man who she's known for years and thus presumably has a pretty good reason for wanting to spend the rest of her life with?

It's really a quite clever script from Simon Nye, with its constantly shifting settings linked by a simple proposition: one of these settings is a dream and one is reality, and all they have to do is work out which. It would be a clever idea even without the presence of Toby Jones's Dream Lord to spur things along. But because Jones is there to needle our heroes with some sharp barbs and wonderful caustic wit as he appears and disappears like the Cheshire Cat, this becomes something special. "If you had any more tawdry quirks you could open up a Tawdry Quirk Shop," he tells the Doctor. "The madcap vehicle, the cockamamie hair, the clothes designed by a first-year fashion student. I'm surprised you haven't got a little purple space dog just to ram home what an intergalactic wag you are."

One of the great things about "Amy's Choice" is about how they take a sleepy village and drop a zombie movie into it. But, in a wonderful, gloriously mad twist, the zombies are all elderly pensioners, who're stumbling around like zombies not because they have aliens in their bodies, but because they're old, and so they just can't move very fast anymore. Scenes like a group of them converging on Rory and Amy's cottage are simultaneously hilarious and more than a bit unnerving. Making the Doctor, Amy, and Rory fall asleep at inopportune moments simply adds to the tension that this part of the plot provides.

Ultimately, however, this episode comes down to the choice Amy has to make. She's presented with two different possible realities: one that appears to be the Doctor's ideal reality, aboard the TARDIS traveling the universe; and one that's Rory's ideal reality, happily married and living in a quiet English village (at least until the Eknodines show up). But Amy doesn't play by the rules -- she chooses the Doctor's reality, but because of Rory, not the Doctor. It's not that she doesn't want to be settled with Rory, it's that she can't bear the thought of living without him, after he undergoes what will prove to be his first death during the series. And so she's made her choice: Rory over the Doctor.

The twist at the end, that both realities were actually dreams ("Star burning cold? Do me a favour"), is a satisfying resolution, and it's also a good move to make the Dream Lord the darker aspects of the Doctor -- something the Doctor seemed to have already worked out ("Drop it. Drop all of it. I know who you are," the Doctor tells the Dream Lord. "No idea how you can be here, but there's only one person in the universe who hates me as much as you do"). It provides some fascinating insights into the Doctor's character without explaining too much or seeming too dark; instead it's subtle, and it's better that way.

There are so many good elements going into "Amy's Choice" (the two dreams plot, the zombie pensioners, Toby Jones) that it's hard not to adore the final result. This is a well-balanced script aided by excellent performances and some fine direction. It's a shame that Simon Nye hasn't to date written for the series again, as this is a excellent episode in a series that's shaping up to be truly excellent. "Amy's Choice" is charming and weird and great fun.