Doctor Who - The Girl Who Waited - late review

I tweeted my appreciation of this episode immediately after watching it but note that I never got around to posting a review. This was an episode that I loved; some wonderful acting and some nice sci-fi musings but best of all very little crash-bang wallop and no River Song. The episode was quirky, funny and sad; often at the same time. Parallel time streams created a neat paradox and there was no timey-wimey solution.  Yes there were some unexplained irritations such as how did the accelerated Amy Pond build a sonic screwdriver and why were the robots quite so stupid? The look of the garden was a delight, very Alice in Wonderland, the robots had a touch of i-Robot crossed with the HHGTTG film version of Marvin the Paranoid Android and the white, clean and clinical future was a touch predictable but I still lapped it all up.

Karen Gillan's acting as two Amy Ponds was a delight, even if the older Amy Pond had more than a touch of the Sarah Jane's about her.  Arthur/Rory put in another great performance, I disliked him when he first appeared but am growing to appreciate what he has brought to the programme dynamic. The end scene at the Tardis door as Rory had to choose between Amy and Amy was a powerful and poignant scene and whilst the choice was predictable, the emotions it engendered in this household were real enough.

This was by far my favourite episode in this series and up there with Blink and The Doctors Wife for being great Doctor Who episodes.