Amy's Choice

Amy: I have chosen. Of course... I've chosen. It's you stupid.
Rory: Oh, good. Thanks.

I love "What is reality" stories. Growing up, my favorite Star Trek: TNG story was Frame of Mind where Commander Riker is trying to figure out which version of events is the real one and whether he is losing his mind. This story operates on very similar lines.

Plot Summary

The Doctor lands in a quiet village to find a pregnant Amy and Rory living after their travels with the Doctor. Suddenly they fall asleep and find themselves back on the TARDIS with the controls disabled and the TARDIS falling towards a cold star. In trying to figure out what is happening a figure appears calling himself "The Dream Lord." He states that one set of events is real, the other a dream and they must choose with things in both worlds trying to kill them. In the village they are pursued by elderly people who have been possessed by aliens while the TARDIS world continues to fall into the star. Eventually, in the village, Rory is killed and Amy decides that the village is not real and kills herself and the Doctor in a van crash. They wake in the TARDIS (with Rory alive) and the Dream Lord congratulates them on winning. He returns the controls and disappears. The Doctor then overrides the controls and destroys the TARDIS. Both worlds were dreams and all three awake to find that they had inhaled psychic pollen and that the Dream Lord was the manifestation of the dark side of the Doctor's ego.

Analysis

Even if you are not as interested in "What is reality" stories, this is a very good episode. There is a nice tenderness between Rory and Amy, especially in the village scenes where they seem very comfortable with each other, exactly as you would expect a longer married couple to be. There is a real sadness felt when Rory dies just because it means saying goodbye to the promise that the village dream life held. This is also the first time that Rory dies so it had yet to become the joke that it later would in the series. It's one of the reasons that the coda letter to Brian Williams following The Angels Take Manhattan is so touching despite it being a near direct copy of Kathy Nightingale's letter from Blink.

Also excellent is the Dream Lord. When the Doctor was confronted by his dark side in The Trial of a Time Lord season, the Valeyard was very direct and just as prone to temper as the Doctor was. The Dream Lord on the other hand is like a pest, sniping insults and taunts at the Doctor, smug and self possessed. Yet, he is compelling and enjoyable to watch as a character. You want to see him get his comeuppance but at the same time you also want to see him strut in front of the Doctor more. It's just a very entertaining performance.

There is also a darkness in this episode this in enjoyable. The tone is obviously dire, but there is an extra level of dark that gives it a bit of a knife edge as well. It is probably the only episode I can recall where children are killed as the first manifestation of the aliens in the elderly is to kill the school class as they approach the Doctor, Amy and Rory. Granted, it's done off screen, but the aftermath is shown as there are a bunch of ash piles where the children had been seen before. The consequence of knowing that the only escape is to allow yourself to die in one reality brings a heavy weight as well. For some reason, that weight was felt more by me in the village scenes rather than the TARDIS for some reason. Maybe because it was an active foe invading what should have been a peaceful setting while we are used to danger in the TARDIS and it's passive nature there is less jarring.

I think my only nit to pick on this episode would be that it is not an episode to show a newbie. Not because of the Doctor, but because it required the development of the relationship between Amy and Rory a bit more. In fact, with The Eleventh Hour and The Vampires of Venice being the only Amy and Rory stories prior to this, the depth between them was probably not felt as well as it would be going back and watching it again after their full story is told. In fact, it gains an extra level of sadness when you know the River story line and it's impact on their lives. But that is a small quibble and one that goes away on rewatch.

This is an episode that I actively choose for rewatch. I think I could sit down at just about any time and enjoy this one without question.

Overall personal score: 5 out of 5