Doctor Who: The Girl Who Waited Review (5/5)

At its heart, The Girl Who Waited is a magnificent revelation of what modern Doctor Who has been ever since the show returned in 2005- a character-orientated drama which more than ever focuses on the lives of humans, swept up in a mysterious alien's adventures across time and space. Previous 'Doctor-lite' efforts have been mixed, ranging from the rancid Love & Monsters to the terrifying Blink, but you barely notice Matt Smith's confinement to the TARDIS set this week, thanks to the brilliant work of Karen Gillian as Amy Pond in both her current and elde timestream. Writer Tom McRae poses a question to us here that we rarely ask during Steven Moffat's fiddling romps of timey-wimey goodness- if the Doctor goes back and changes the timeline of someone he meets, what happens to the potential future version that person would have become had he not interfered? This basis of a storyline works absolutely superbly, to the point that the viewer is compelled throughout to discover how Amy, elder Amy and Rory can reach the TARDIS, and inevitably why the latter incarnation of Mrs Pond stays behind instead of departing with her husband and counterpart. When we do discover the latter, it's a genuinely heartbreaking moment, one perfectly performed by Karen and Arthur that for those who easily shed tears will have quickly forced the tissues out for fear of a colossal flood consuming their household. Brilliantly realised, too, by director Nick Hurran is the distinctly alien world of Apalapucia, which despite unmistakably Welsh sets (was the corridor Amy ran down the same one used in A Good Man Goes To War? If not, the resemblence was uncanny...) really helped to showcase the brilliant production values this season of Doctor Who has to offer. I cannot fault The Girl Who Waited- it's a wonderful character piece that balances emotional dilemmas, philosophical questions steeped in sci-fi and beautiful action perfectly, and features Karen Gillan's best performance of her time on the show so far, along with brilliant despair from Arthur Darvill's Rory and strangely disturbing forcefulness from Smith's Doctor in the final moments. Leaving us with the haunting question "Where is she?" as the younger Amy awakes expecting to see her older self and Rory at her side, only to find only her husband is there, is a very effective move rather than shoehorning in a reference to the main season arc (Curse of the Black Spot, The Rebel Flesh, I'm looking at), rounding off a story which is so much better than McRae's past Cybermen two-parter effort and will be remembered as one of the best episodes of the season/