Story #208 - Amy's Choice (2010)

Harry -
This is a fascinating story, one that reaches deep into Doctor Who's past for source material and invites contemporary viewers to choose which of two options they prefer.

It begins in a village setting, with the Doctor and his friends becoming embroiled in an alien invasion story like something out of the Pertwee era.

It splits into a second narrative, with the Doctor and his friends becoming increasingly suspicious of what they are experiencing, trapped in a TARDIS gone haywire like the early Hartnell era story "The Edge of Destruction".

As our friends bounce back and forth between realities, an enigmatic character appears to goad and taunt them, bringing a whole other element of mystery to the whole thing. This is definitely not your standard base under siege story... or is it?

Sarah -

I couldn’t remember anything about "Amy’s Choice" before this rewatch, so it all felt almost brand-new. I can’t imagine why I didn’t remember it, because I’m a sucker for both alternative-reality and base-under-siege stories -- not to mention it’s a cracking story.

I love Toby Jones as the Dream Lord. Well, to be fair I pretty much love Toby Jones in everything. His menacing contempt for the Doctor was perfect. It was great to watch this story fresh and get to learn the Dream Lord is the manifestation of the darker parts of the Doctor all over again.

Harry -

Big yes to Toby Jones! How many things have we seen him in, and each time he gives a standout performance by crafting a character who goes against everyone else's grain with a smile.

The first time I watched "Amy's Choice", I remember my mind racing at the possibilities. Was the Dream Lord a classic baddie in new form, like the Master or the Valeyard? Could it be the Meddling Monk, or maybe even the Celestial Toymaker?

Sarah -

I love that we have a standard list of classic era characters we want to turn up whenever there’s a mysterious character. They’re bound to turn up eventually.

Harry -
Or at least get a shout out.

Eventually, the Dream Lord was revealed to be a distillation of the Doctor's innermost jerky, condescending darkness, perhaps the worst of them all.

Sarah -
The multiple Doctor story we were never expecting!

Harry -
But long before the resolution, there is the choice. Even before the choice, there is the mystery. I loved how the tension in this story started escalating as soon as the TARDIS team began flipping back and forth between two time periods. Which was real, the initial post-dreaming scene aboard the TARDIS, or the cosy life of Upper Leadworth, complete with pregnant Amy and long-haired Rory?

Sarah -
Can we talk about Rory’s hair or is it best to let it be?

Harry -
Probably best to let it be. Who knows when it might turn up again.

Anyway, it was all a case of psychic pollen getting into the TARDIS works and temporarily infecting everyone aboard. Whew! Got to change those filters regularly. Anyway, Amy made the right choice. Didn't she?

Sarah -
She most certainly did! Let's move on to the next adventure -- I've been looking forward to the story and I do love a two-parter.

Best Quote:

DOCTOR: Oh, way-hey! You've swallowed a planet.
AMY: I'm pregnant.
DOCTOR: You're huge.
AMY: Yeah, I'm pregnant.
DOCTOR: Look at you. When worlds collide.
AMY: Doctor, I'm pregnant.
DOCTOR: Oh, look at you both. Five years later and you haven't changed a bit, apart from age and size.
AMY: Oh, it's good to see you, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Are you pregnant?

Favorite Moment: Amy and Rory reunited with the Doctor

Lasting Image: The Dream Lord in the TARDIS

6/10

Harry -
Best Quote:
AMY: Shall I run and get the manual?
DOCTOR: I threw it in a supernova.
AMY: You threw the manual in a supernova? Why?
DOCTOR: Because I disagreed with it.

Favourite Moment: The "You've swallowed a planet" exchange.

Lasting Image: our three friends napping on the bench. Love a good nap.

6/10

Our marathon continues with Story # 209: The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood...

Story #207 - The Vampires of Venice (2010)

Harry -

Sarah, do you remember all the ballyhooing whenever John Nathan-Turner convinced the BBC to let him shoot a Doctor Who story overseas? Overseas!

After they shot some of "Arc of Infinity" in Amsterdam, JNT set his sights further. He made a pitch for New Orleans, but that got shot down, so he pitched Venice, and that got shot down. Finally he convinced the powers that be to let him shoot "The Two Doctors" in Seville, and the result was a colourful romp set in Spain.

Sarah -

Lanzarote, here we come!

Harry -

Nowadays, great blocks of Doctor Who are filmed even further out and it's just part of the business. David Tennant shot in Italy. Matt Smith in Utah. Jodie Whittaker has gone as far as South Africa. It wasn't until sometime after it first aired that I learned that 'The Vampires of Venice" was shot in Croatia, in a picturesque town on the Adriatic coast. Trogir certainly has the look and feel of Venice.

La Serenissima is where the Doctor has taken Amy and Rory as a make-up/wedding present, having ruined Rory's stag do with a mega-awkward entrance that had me roaring.

Sarah -

That scene is hysterical. Matt Smith’s comedic timing is spot-on. In an attempt to save Rory and Amy’s relationship on the verge of their wedding, The Doctor brings both of them on their own adventure in 1580 Venice. What could go possibly wrong? Well, quite a bit, as one might expect.

Rory’s first trip with the Doctor is a memorable one. I love that Rory, still in his stag party shirt, doesn’t react to the TARDIS the way the Doctor expects. The look of disappointment on his face is classic.

Harry -

Unlike most guests, Rory is decidedly unimpressed with the Doctor's antics, but he's happy to join Amy for the trip.

Sarah -

We discover Venice is under quarantine, which we all relate to these days, where Rosanna Calvierri and her son run a school for young women. I liked the Hammer Horror vibe -- “Pale, creepy girls who don't like sunlight and can't be seen” -- of the school scenes.

Harry -

Ah, Rosanna Calvierri, played by the wonderful Helen McCrory who just recently passed away, so sad to hear. The school for young women is a front for some very Hammer Horror business. The girls are cut off from the outside world, while Senora Calvierri's son Francesco is caught by Amy and Rory in the act of attacking a woman in a very vampiric way. If the title of the story wasn't a giveaway, these early scenes definitely were. The TARDIS team conclude that they have discovered a vampire hive in the centre of Venice and they've got to put a stop to it.

Only, all of that was a red herring of the alien kind. Just when the Doctor thinks he's got things sorted, they begin to unravel. Amy agrees to infiltrate the school so she can investigate up close, only to be unmasked and captured. Rory then rounds on the Doctor as very few companions ever have, accusing him of goading people into risking their lives to impress him. And it turns out the vampire thing was completely wrong. The "vampires" are fugitives from the planet Saturnyne, desperate to save their race by converting humans into hybrids so that their line can continue to propagate. Whew!

Sarah - 

I love that the vampires aren't actually vampires. 

Harry - 

What started as a lighthearted romp gets pretty heavy. There's a lot to unpack here. Rory made a valid point, but ultimately it was Amy's decision to enter the villain's lair. Was it in order to help the people of Venice, or was it to impress the Doctor?

Sarah - 

I would vote for impressing the Doctor. Rory is spot-on in describing what the Doctor does to his companions. 

My favorite scene is when Calvierri and the Doctor face off. She’s definitely got his number:

Calvierri: Where are you from?

Doctor: Gallifrey.

Calvierri: You should be in a museum. Or in a mausoleum.

We also get our first mention of the Silence and more information on the crack from Calvierri: “There were cracks. Some were tiny. Some were as big as the sky. Through some we saw worlds and people, and through others we saw Silence and the end of all things. We fled to an ocean like ours, and the crack snapped shut behind us. Saturnyne was lost.”

While the Doctor understands why she is doing what she is doing, he can’t let her get away with it.

Harry - 

Was the Doctor too hung up on his vampires theory that he completely overlooked the aliens? And when it came time to thwart the Saturnyns' plot, did he not willingly commit an act of genocide, or at least contribute to the annihilation of their race? Whew!

Sarah - 

One wonders if things could have gone differently if Calvierri had remembered who Isabella was. That seems to be the moment when the Doctor decided he can carry the weight of another dead race.

Harry - 

Before we wrap up, I did want to comment on how beautiful this story looked. Trogir-as-Venice was very convincing, presented with some brilliant camera work and interesting angles.

This story was much darker than I remembered, but it was compelling both on the surface and for all the nagging character conflicts beneath.

Sarah - 

I really enjoyed this rewatch. It’s an effective story that moves along quickly. 

Best Line:

Rory! That's a relief. I thought I'd burst out of the wrong cake, again. That reminds me, there's a girl standing outside in a bikini. Could someone let her in and give her a jumper? Lucy? Lovely girl. Diabetic. Now then, Rory. We need to talk about your fiance. She tried to kiss me. Tell you what, though. You're a lucky man. She's a great kisser. Funny how you can say something in your head and it sounds fine.

Favorite Moment: Calvierri and the Doctor face off

Lasting Image: Guido in Rory’s stag party shirt

7/10

Harry -

Best Line:

RORY: What happened, between you and Amy? You said she kissed you.

DOCTOR: Now? You want to do this now?

RORY: I have a right to know. I'm getting married in four hundred and thirty years.

DOCTOR: She was frightened. I was frightened. But we survived, you know, and the relief of it, and so she kissed me.

RORY: And you kissed her back.

DOCTOR: No. I kissed her mouth.

Favourite Moment: Rory's stag party.

Lasting Image: Calvierri exposed as a Saturnyn.

8/10

Our marathon continues with Story #208: Amy's Choice...

Story #206 - The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone (2010)

Sarah -

I love it when a story turns out to be as good as I remembered!

Harry -

I love it even more when the story turns out better than I remembered!

My overarching memory of the Weeping Angels as a Who monster is that they blew everyone away when they were first introduced in "Blink", then brought diminishing returns to each subsequent appearance. An unfortunate case of overuse. By the time they showed up on the Class season finale I practically yawned.

However, the Angels were fantastic here, in many ways. While they were mysterious and terrifying in "Blink", here we see the Angels upping their villainy by being diabolical, murderous and arrogant. Watching the first Angel attempt to take possession of Amy was scary as hell. The way they violently picked off the military clerics one by one, then used cleric Bob's voicebox to taunt and frighten the Doctor and friends had me seething at them. I don't often seethe at a Who villain. Moffat got me again.

Sarah -

I think the Angels are way scarier in this story than they were in "Blink". In that story, the Doctor describes the Angels as “the only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely.” There’s nothing nice about the deaths this time around. They’re utterly terrifying and horribly cruel.

Harry -

For sure, back then the Doctor didn't seem to realize how monstrous the Angels could be. Either that or they have made an attitude adjustment for the worse. In my notes I kept writing the word "morbid" whenever the Angels used cleric Bob's voice to taunt the Doctor. That really got under my skin.

Sarah -

I didn’t realize before now that this was the first story filmed in series five. It’s even more impressive how Matt Smith hit the ground running in this story. And Karen Gillan, OMG, could she be any more spectacular?

And then we have the return of River. I remember how surprised I was when she returned after we saw her die. But more than surprised, I was delighted to have her back.

Harry -

What a return! River got her own mini-episode to kick off this story and it was spectacular. Her laser pistol matched her Louboutins perfectly.

Sarah -

Coordinating your accessories is essential!

Harry -

She was still very much a mysterious character in these days, and continued to tease the Doctor. I loved when he got schooled on the TARDIS parking brake.

Sarah -

I love that moment. Wait until he finds out about the drinks cabinet!

Harry -

Amy looked on in bemusement, wondering aloud if River was the Doctor's wife.

Sarah -

SPOILERS, Mom! Oh, wait, spoilers, Sarah! I expect I’ll find myself watching the timeline from River’s perspective this time around. It will be a whole new story.

Harry -

It is wild when you realize how many spoilers River is holding back. I'd have exploded!

The pregnant pause that followed Amy's question felt long enough to make this a three-part story, but after the fun and games River donned the clerics' military garb and everyone got to work. The task of tracking the solo Weeping Angel that was aboard the crashed ship that everyone followed was straightforward at first. It was when Moffat began to throw twists at everyone that the story really took off.

Right away, Amy was terrorized by the first Angel that used its own image held in her eyes to break loose. Wild stuff. Then the business with killing off the clerics. Finally the terror builds to the frightening realization that all the statues on this planet are "hibernating" Angels.

Sarah -

The realization that the native Aplans had two heads and the statues only have one is chilling. The humans are in the middle of a nest of Angels when the Doctor realizes that the prisoner Angel intentionally crashed the Byzantium to restore the other angels with the ship’s radiation.

I was seriously ready to hide behind the sofa at this point.

Harry -

As if that weren't enough, in part two Moffat dials up some more terror by letting us the viewers see the Angels moving. In Blink, Moffat had established a bond between his characters and the audience that so long as any of us looked at an Angel it would not move. To see them turning and reaching out broke that bond and brought with it a feeling of helplessness that I can't really compare with any other viewing experience.

Sarah -

I love, and dread, those moments in horror stories when you suddenly discover that you don’t know as much as you thought. The rules have been tossed out the window and I found myself completely confused and terrified.

Harry -

A slow-moving chase scene ensues as the Angels close in on the Doctor and friends. It was agonizing to watch Amy struggle through the increasingly weird settings of the ship, eyes pressed shut, as one-by-one the people around her began to disappear. When it seems that Amy's done for and the Doctor is unable to save her, the Angels suddenly turn and run. The far greater menace of the "crack in time" put the Angels to flight.

In the nick of time, it's River who saves Amy by teleporting her to safety.

Song 1

Doctor 0

Sarah - 

In retrospect, it’s emotionally overwhelming to see River rescue Amy -- and no one else knows about their relationship. That really blew me away this time around. Karen Gillan’s performance is amazing in this episode. The clerics being picked off one by one is terrifying, but the dust coming out of her eyes is the most frightening thing in this story. 

Harry - 

I really loved the chaos at the end, with the Doctor barely keeping it together, the Angels plummeting into the crack, and River and Amy safely reunited. What a hell of a story!

Sarah - 

It’s so, so good!

Harry - 

So this crack in time is having a huge impact on the season arc. It is capable of erasing people and events from existence, and the Doctor remains baffled. I'm keen to learn more, let's get off this planet and see where our friends are headed next.

Oh, it's back to Amy's place, and it's a very important date…

Sarah - 

“Oh, did I forget to mention that I’m getting married in the morning?” The first time I watched, I started yelling at my television when Amy way trying to get it on with the Doctor. This time, I knew not to panic.

Harry - 

Best Line:

DOCTOR: Lovely species, the Aplans. We should visit them some time.

AMY: I thought they were all dead?

DOCTOR: So is Virginia Woolf. I'm on her bowling team.

Favourite Moment: River's mini-episode at the opening.

Lasting Image: The Angels moving before our eyes.

7/10

Sarah - 

Best Line: 

DOCTOR: Parked us? We haven't landed.

RIVER: Of course we've landed. I just landed her.

DOCTOR: But, it didn't make the noise.

RIVER: What noise?

DOCTOR: You know, the (wheezing).

RIVER: It's not supposed to make that noise. You leave the brakes on.

Favorite Moment: River’s entrance to the TARDIS.

Lasting Image: Amy rubbing dust out of her eye. 

8/10

Our marathon continues with Story #207: The Vampires of Venice...